Got me some farm cats to manage the ground squirrels out here, and they’re doing a great job. But I want to make a safer, more comfortable spot fit then to relax and nothing is really screaming out to me on pinterest or google.
Right now we put them up overnight in a very large dog crate that’s been made up for them (we used it to potty train our great dane Frank, rip). Light weatherproofing, blankets, indoor potty.
We mostly get packs of stray dogs and the occasional coyote (4legs, mostly, the 2 legged kind typically stay in the mountains until they get more north, and probably wouldn’t bother the cats anyway). We have mountain lions out here, but I haven’t seen any close (yet).
Also get some heavy rain during part of the year, winter gets chilly but not cold. Summer gets stupid hot but there are plenty of shaded places.
I think I’d like to build something on stilts to deter the canine variety, and i think with a small enough door most other predators would be discouraged as well. Any ideas?
Forgot to post the follow up here, and I’ve got another question for another thread, but I hate having open threads like this.
Ended up with this thing, made out of some plywood left from the house build, some corrugated roofing from the chicken coop build, and some 4x4 left from the tortoise pen build. There is a little hole in the floor next to the leg with carpet on it. They can climb and jump in and out. It’s awesome. They hate it, and sleep under the car.
No joke. But really to appease myself. If they get wet in the rain, cold at night, or snatched up by a desert predator or stray dog, at least my conscience is clear.
We just have a small cat door going into the garage. The outdoor cat jumps up onto the top shelf of one of shelves and lays on some old saddle bags I tossed up there years ago.
She pokes her head up when I walk out the door and looks at me. Then she’ll jump down if she wants to be pet before I go back inside.
I saw a $20 cat door at home depot last night. It’s on my radar now, because they do like the garage. Just can’t have them out there knocking stuff over. They already chewed a bunch of holes in a silicone mold so I’m kinda angry about that. And I’m not down with a litterbox.
I can understand that concern. We had issues with a neighbor’s cat doing something similar. I left the dog in the garage over night one night and haven’t seen the other cat since. Not that the dog ate it. I think it doesn’t want to risk coming into the garage and seeing the dog again.
Hahaha that’s a awesome little house for sure and thanks for the laughs.
You should get a web cam and setup some play challenges for the cats
Or some weatherproof Astro turf so they can climb on the sides and scratch maybe ?
Sounds like you got quite the little animal house there.
Setup some kind of tech that turns the cam on when the cat is on the pad attempting said challenge.
