If we get oldfashioned really cold weather, it may not be enough.

When we moved into this old country farmhouse, our back porch included a few similar atructures left for us by the previous tenants. The farmer up the road (our landlord) had a large feral population on his place up the road, and the overflow usually headed here.

What you have constructed should work quite well as long as it is out of the worst of the wind; the key in cold weather is not the amount of shelter, but more the amount of calories the cat has available to burn. Cats have very fast metabolisms, so as long as you keep the food supply ample he should do fine. If you give him a hear source, you may reduce his natural ability to grow a thick coat and keep warm, and get into an increasingly-active cat-keeping strategy you didn;t mean to sing up for. On the other hand, if you WANT to do more, and you have a place he can access that is safe for electronics, a 100-watt bulb in a clamp-lamp creates a huge amount of heat; as long as he's not trapped under the bulb he can choose how much time he wants to spend under it. I raised chicks under such lamps many times, in wooden shipping crates with a chicken-wire lid. I just sat the lamp on the lid and watched the chicks to see if the bulb was too hot. (They'll move away from too much heat and maintain normal activity under the right amount of heat.)

If the shelter you made is not warm enough, he'll seek other shelter. The problem comes in when the shelter they choose is under a car hood~~ radiator belt injuries (spinal twists) are common.


A more difficult issue to address will be the winter water supply; cats tend to drink far less than is good for their health, so they are usually on the edge of dehydration under the best of circumstances. You can find safe, electrified water heaters at your local farm store. A chicken waterer set on a heated base (out of the weather) worked well for us, but not all cats are willing to use the narrow water channel these offer; you may perfer to set a large metal reservoir over the heated base. The amount of heat is minimal-- just enough to keep the water from freezing.

Cute pix! With that much long hair, it can't be that long ago in his ancestry that his family was indoor cats. He may tame easily.

~Susan