Cats

Feral cats back in their routine

I thought I’d follow up on the feral cats, after their TNR adventure a week or so ago.

They’ve settled back into their usual routine, sleeping in the heated shelter most of the time, turning up for meals at the feeding station, and patroling around the exterior of the house. We’ve seen them on the back deck (drinking from the dog’s water dish), and playing on the front deck. They’ve approached the doors, too.

While they were more skittish around me for the first day or two after getting home, they’ve gotten over that, and gone back to their usual level of skittishness, where I can get within 6 – 10 feet of them.

Here are an assortment of photos.

Drinking from the dog’s water dish (they do have their own water dispenser, but this one is closer to the shelter, for now):

Peeking at me while I get bird seed:

Hard to see, but three pairs of eyes peeking from under the deck:

So casual:

Mid-lick!

Actually three cats in this photo; head and tail of two different cats in the shelter:

This shelter is rated for up to 4 cats, and we have 5. It was fine when the kittens were smaller, but now that they’re getting closer to fully grown, it’s a bit overcrowded. So I am currently in the planning stages of building a new shelter for them; a custom wooden structure that will be quite a bit bigger. It will also include a feeding station, so I can replace the monstrous hack job I have out front with a nicer one next to their shelter.

Oh yeah, speaking of that hack job, I did modify it a bit since I posted about it, to put the dish under cover… but that just made it even uglier:

Stay tuned for posts about this fun new project!

Spud and Poppy

Here are Spud and Poppy, two of the feral cats we house and feed (plus a couple more eating), along with the back of the soon-to-be-replaced feeding station:

Building a cat shelter: plans

As mentioned at the end of a recent blog post about the feral cats, the current shelter for the outdoor cats is a little too small, now that they’re getting bigger. Also, the current feeding station is a bit untidy (aka an ugly hack job).

I considered building a new feeding station that would look nicer. I also considered buying a second heated shelter like the current one. But I finally decided that a better solution would be to build one structure that would serve both needs: a wooden shelter plenty big enough for the cats, and an attached feeding station.

Doing research into existing examples, I thought about many different designs. Jenn had the idea of an old west theme, like a “cat house saloon”, which seemed fun. So I wrote up detailed notes on the design, and yesterday spent pretty much all day drawing some plans. I used The Iconfactory’s excellent Linea Sketch app for iOS, on my 12.9″ iPad Pro, drawing with the Apple Pencil.

Here’s what I came up with. Of course, I’ll probably continue to refine the design as I build it, but I’m pretty happy with this.

The overall size of the structure is 6′ wide (4′ for the shelter, 2′ for the feeding station), 3′ deep, and sloping from 3.5′ high in the front down to 2.5′ in the back.

The walls, floor, and roof of the shelter portion will be insulated, made of two layers of plywood sandwiching some foam. There will also be a couple of heating pads inside.

This is the front elevation, i.e. looking at the front wall. The basic outline is inspired by western buildings, with the roof façades. The left side is the shelter, and the right side is the feeding station; they will be styled as separate buildings, though joined. There are windows at the top, awnings, and doors at the bottom. Most of the shelter wall will open as a maintenance door:

Here’s the right elevation, showing the side view and inside the feeding station. You can see the sloping roof, awning, and a deck out front. Inside is divided into two levels: a cupboard at the top, where the food dispenser sits on a pull-out drawer (to make it easier to fill), with a large tube leading to a tray in the feeding area below, where the cats go in to eat:

Another elevation, this time through the middle of the shelter. Here you can see the cat doors at the front and back (important to have two entrances, so they can escape any threats). You can also see the maintenance door taking most of the front wall, and a vent at the back. The horizontal line across the middle is a sleeping platform:

Finally, the plan (top-down) view. Again, the shelter is on the left, and the feeding station on the right. In the shelter, you can see the two platforms (the darker rectangles), with an open space in the middle. The square in the feeding area is the tray where the food drops. You can also see the deck out front, that is covered by an awning (not shown in this view):

I’m pretty happy with this design. Like the chicken coop, it is perhaps over-designed, but hey, that’s my way. I have tried to keep it fairly simple, and appropriately scaled. I’m also trying to keep it fairly lightweight, since I will be building it in the workshop before moving it into place. I plan to build it in a few pieces to help with that; separate floor, walls, and roof, which will be screwed together when installing. Hopefully that works out.

I already have some of the materials needed, but I’ll go to Home Depot tomorrow for the rest, and will start building in the coming week.

Should be a fun project; I’m looking forward to starting! Of course, I will post about it on this blog. Stay tuned!

What do you think? Any ideas for improvements? Let me know in the comments!

Building a cat shelter: floor

Today I started construction on the outdoor cat shelter.

I went to Home Depot on Sunday to purchase a bunch of materials, but decided to get the larger items delivered, as there was too much for one load. Home Depot has a relatively inexpensive delivery fee, and next-day delivery, so it was totally worth it. I also took the opportunity to get additional materials for other projects, e.g. t-posts for the apple trees, extra treated 2x6s to make a second beehive stand, and extras of other stuff I commonly use, just because:

Then this morning I started work on the floor, building it in the workshop. The floor joists use treated 2×6 boards. Looking at the following photo, the shelter will be on the back-left, the feeding station on the back-right, and the deck in the front:

I added foam insulation under the floor of the shelter:

Here you can see the underside:

And added the shelter & feeder floor, using 1/2″ plywood:

Some supports for the deck:

And the deck boards, using 1x2s:

A closer view:

Tomorrow I’ll start on the walls!

Building a cat shelter: tweaked plans

I’ve drawn a new detail view for the front windows and awning, to help plan their construction:

I’ve also tweaked the existing plans for the cat shelter a little bit, based on changes while building. Nothing too significant, but I thought I’d publish the changes for completeness.

There are only a couple of subtle differences in the front elevation: the deck is higher than previously pictured, and the feeder opening is taller:

You can see those changes in this elevation, too:

Here you can see the higher deck, and its supports:

I originally planned to have the deck lower than the floor, to allow clearance for the maintenance door swing. But I also wanted to extend the side rim joists from the back of the shelter to the front of the deck, to make it more sturdy. I considered having the side joists higher than the deck level, but felt that’d look untidy. I’m happy with how it turned out. I’ll just have the maintenance door a bit higher to offset that change.

Building a cat shelter: walls

Continuing from building the floor, over the last few days I’ve been building the walls of the cat shelter.

Like the floor, the walls are insulated. Here’s the inside of the center wall, between the shelter and feeder parts, before adding the second plywood layer:

Here I’m laying out the components of the back wall: a couple of vents, and a cat door:

The framing and insulation in place. The horizontal board through the middle will help support the platforms:

Three walls assembled:

A slightly different angle, after adding doorstops for the big maintenance door (pretty much the entire front of the shelter). You can also see supports for the platforms, halfway up the walls:

Laying out the maintenance door:

The inside of the maintenance door, with holes for two windows at the top and a cat door at the bottom, and insulation elsewhere. The door has more substantial framing than the walls, to make sure it’s sturdy, and support the awning:

Here’s the door in place. You may notice that I changed the design a bit from my plans; I decided that vertically-oriented windows would work better:

Finally (for now), I built the awning for the shelter side:

Next up, the walls and door for the feeder side. But the pace will slow down; I took a week off to get this started, but will need to get back to paying work next week.

Feral cats enjoying the sunshine

It’s been sunny for the past couple of days, after many days of clouds, and the feral cats have been enjoying soaking up the rays.

Kisses:

Enjoying rolling on the relatively warm asphalt driveway:

Hunting bugs in the grass:

Snow!

It unexpectedly snowed overnight. Apparently areas above an elevation of 1,000 feet around the Portland region received some snow… and we’re at 1,100 feet.

Only about an inch, and it’s raining now, so it’ll probably be gone later today. But still fun to enjoy it while it lasts.

The feral cats are cozy in their heated shelter:

But the weight of the snow tore down the end of the chicken run roof netting:

So I went out with a staple gun and ladder to fix it:

Snow on the brown gazebo and trees:

Snow on the white gazebo:

The pond deck arbor:

The beehives:

Notice the clearer patch in the center of the roof, from the heat of the bees clustered inside:

Building a cat shelter: walls & platforms

I’ve done a bit more on the new cat house. I previously worked on the walls of the shelter part, and this weekend continued that with the walls of the feeder section, plus the feeder awning and platforms for both sides.

Here’s the back of the feeder front wall, under construction:

In place:

Again, with a bracket for the shelf:

Building the feeder side door:

The side door in place:

Building the feeder awning:

The awning installed (and the shelter door removed):

Making the shelter platform, before cutting out the center part; the cutouts in the corners are for wires from the heating pads:

And the feeder shelf:

The underside of the shelter platform, after cutting out the center and adding edging and bracing:

And in place:

Finally, trying the positioning of the food dispenser, looking through the front window. It’ll sit on a drawer, making it easier to fill, and dispense into a tube that leads to the food dish below:

Stay tuned for more; next weekend I plan to build the roof!