Grumpy

There's a neighborhood cat that has kind of adopted us. I think he lives across the alley from us, but he seems to like the attention and kindness we give him - as well as a handful of goodies now and then. He spends a lot of time at our place.

"Grumpy".

With the cold weather we get, we thought it would be a good idea to give him the opportunity to use better shelter than wherever he has been hanging out. I made him a heated shelter out of a Rubbermaid-like storage box. I used styrofoam to insulate the top and sides on the inside. On the bottom inside, I secured a 6' heating cable - only 7 watts per foot, 42 watts total. I covered it with a double thickness of old bath towel for bedding. I've seen him go in it before, and this morning I saw fresh tracks coming from it in the snow. (We had 4" - 6" today, depending on where I checked it.)

Grumpy's Winter shelter.

Notice the tracks coming from the opening. He took a couple of steps into the snow, and then backed up and took a clear path - as much as he could. I found this after he met me on the front porch and I back-tracked him. I don't know if he uses it all the time, but I know he does use it and he knows it's there for him when he wants to.

-Dale