Cat update for week ending November 2

Some interesting developments in this week’s Caturday summary.  

Once again, it was tough narrowing down the 162 photos to just 27 in this post. I’ve omitted a lot of pics similar to ones seen many times before, but here’s an entertaining example, of a cat in the cat house, another in the feeder, and a third stretching on the tree:

Three cats

Porcini in the middle of the mostly empty fountain:

Porcini on the fountain

A couple of cats on the bench by the field:

Cats on bench

The twins by the small pond:

Cats by small pond

Cats by the bench again:

Cats by bench

Pumpkin inside the cat house, and two others by the feeder:

Three cats

Since Pumpkin has been hogging the cat house most nights, I felt bad for our ferals, with the temperatures below freezing overnight. So I decided to put the old shelter back in the garden below our deck. Similar to the cat house, it includes a heating pad to keep it toasty:

Old shelter

Here’s a closer view; I also moved the Mobile cam from the pond to watch this shelter; you can see it in the bottom-left corner:

Old shelter

While I spent all that time and money building the cat house, with room for all of the cats, they are ferals; the great outdoors is their home. And especially with Pumpkin moving in, having a second heated shelter available is a good thing.

This old shelter is a “multi-kitty A-frame”, which I think of as the cat cabin, to distinguish it from the cat house — a smaller second home for them.  Check out my old post from when I first got it, or for more of the history, see the summary of the cat house project.

It didn’t take them long to investicat it. Here’s a cat approaching the back of the cabin:

Cat approaching back of shelter

Pommie inside the cabin shelter, Porcini outside:

Two cats

Another two:

Two cats

Two cats snuggling in the cabin:

Two cats in the shelter

Two cats in the cabin, one outside:

Two cats in the shelter, one outside

Screenshot of cat cams, showing two cats in the cabin, and Pumpkin in the house:

Screenshot of cat cams

As mentioned on the Dejus blog, since it’s below freezing at night, I added heated water dishes for the cats and other animals, to provide non-frozen water. The dish only comes on when the temperature is in the freezing range, and only warms it enough to keep it liquid:

Heated water dish

Spud on the front steps:

Spud on front steps

Porcini in the cat cabin:

Porcini in cabin

Two snuggled in the cabin:

Two snuggled in cabin

Pumpkin investigating the cabin with Pommie inside:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

He was not welcome:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

And quickly departed:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

Pumpkin and Paladout had an encounter in the feeder; Pumpkin just wanted to eat, but Paladout didn’t want to share. So it went the same as usual: Pumpkin eventually gave up and went into the house, Paladout was able to finish and leave, then Pumpkin came back to eat:

Pumpkin and Paladout in feeder

An alien invader! No, just Pumpkin; he’s practically family at this point:

Alien!

Fuzzy paws:

Fuzzy paws

Porcini having a good stretch on the way out of the cabin:

Porcini stretching

One of the twins drinking from the heated bowl, when Pumpkin arrived; he waited for the twin to depart. They’re slowly getting used to each other:

Twin and Pumpkin

Finally, Pansy eating from the food dispenser in the front of shop. She lives in the back, and rarely visits the front, but has figured out that she can get more food there:

Pansy in front of shop