Needless to say, we are not about to resolve the cold weather scenario by bringing 5 cats into our two human and two dog household. With the Border Collie in residence we already have an organic shedding machine capable of creating virtual snow drifts of hair (dust puppies) every day. Seriously, if you leave something on the floor without picking it up and sweeping beneath it for longer than a week an amazing raft of hair (shed-lock) secretes itself beneath the object causing involuntary flinching when said object is moved. Add five more hair contributing creatures and we have the makings of a horror flick (it lives under the chair!).
So no, I do not wish to live in a fur lined home - and again, I have no desire to increase the poop in the dryer potential...
What to do though? The oldest cat is now 15 and prone to respiratory issues. Previously I have used a crate like container and a spot lamp positioned on top so that the heat from the bulb would warm the enclosure. This worked great the first incarnation when I used a covered cat litter box (now defunct with no cats living inside and thoroughly sanitized) with a hole punched in the top where there used to be a vent (let me digress just a moment here while I struggle with the idea that a closed cat litter box needs a top vent. A closed litter box is a great idea, much like the lid of a toilet being placed in the down position when a plumbing situation would preclude flushing a used toilet. This enclosed box that reduces the 'me seeing the nasty used litter' to near zero and the 'me smelling the nasty fresh kitty poo' to something tolerable - this perfectly fine arrangement needs... a vent? I mean, come on, were the makers of this kitty toilet somehow under the impression that they needed to prevent the build up of dangerous kitty gasses? Was the fact that the front of the enclosure being totally open not enough to vent the terrible, dangerous, kitty gas? Were there a number of cat litter box explosions rocking the country that somehow I was unaware of? Because really, exploding enclosed cat litter boxes would definitely be something the news media would be all over. I would have heard. So, let me be clear here - enclosed cat litter boxes do not need a top vent.)
Indeed that enclosed cat litter box not only worked great to reduce the cat litter box explosions in my life, but also worked great after a retrofit as a kitty warming box. I had two boxes and at the time I had two cats and they worked great all winter long with snuggly warm kitties encased in towel covered and towel lined boxes. Perfect.
But then of course, I had to go and think about it. At the time I was using 75 watt bulbs to give off a very strong heat. Then I ran out of 75 watt bulbs one evening (the bulbs lasted a reasonable time, but cats being who they are liked to lounge on top of the crate and would occasionally knock them off and break a bulb) so I used a 60 watt bulb instead. I noticed this reduced the 'brightness'. That got me to thinking - just how healthy was it for my kitties to be constantly subjected to bright light? Was it throwing off their kitty circadian rhythm? Did it disrupt their kitty REM sleep? Does a creature that sleeps 20 out of every 24 hours even have a circadian rhythm or is it more of a flat line?
So I purchased an expensive red heat bulb designed for heat loving reptiles. That solved the bright light problem and seemed to create a wonderful heat. The cats loved it. But what they loved more than being in the crate was resting awkwardly on top of the crate, half of which was taken up by the hood of the lamp, leaving only a small space that a very determined cat could squinch itself into. They would climb into the crate only when it got truly cold at night. This top of the crate perching led to that expensive light lasting only one week due to repeated cat toppling.
So I discovered that black light bulbs were less expensive, put out less light that I could see (mind you it did spark me to a fruitless internet search on what light range was perceptible to cats - uhh, better than us?...) and was very warm. The cats seemed to do fine with this change and continued to perch atop the crate.
Thus ended that cold season and I put the crates away with just a brief foray into researching heating pads for cats. After all they seemed to like the heat coming up from below ("Hello," my cats said - "care to notice how we awkwardly perch here? Think that means anything, hmmmm?"). I gave up this search after finding that, 1. Yes, they did make special heating pads for animals, and 2. Special meant expensive. And so I put it out of my mind thinking I would resolve it the next season.
Fast forward to the influx of way too many cats and cold, very cold, winter weather on the doorstep. I needed enough warm space for 8 cats, two in the backyard and 6 in the front. At that time we had not enclosed the front porch space. For this scenario I created another light box by cutting holes in the top and side of a small storage container and scrounging a couple of human heating pads to go into a couple of other storage containers turned on their side. The whole complex was swathed with bath towels inside and out. Three new kitty warming containers for the six kitties worked just fine (here I must point out how utterly frustrating it is to have almost all your bath towels being used for the cats and the ultimate designation of certain towels being forever more labeled as 'cat towels').
But were they comfortable enough? Thus my husband and I rebuilt and enclosed the front porch by the next winter. They have a raised wooden floor and slowly but surely we have been finishing out the walls for greater insulation and installing a separate wall socket so we don't have to run power cords under our front door anymore.
This brings us to today and the beginning of the 2012/2013 cold weather season. It has not gotten really cold yet and does not look like it will be very cold for maybe a couple of more weeks as well. Me being me, I got to wondering just how comfortable my cats are again and so I have been building and scheming once more.
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| Kitty Condo #1 |
I present for you Kitty Condo #1. This enclosure uses a medium size metal dog crate insulated with 4 square pillows inside (top, back and sides) along with a thick exercise mat between cat and pillows.
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| The pillows will be a total loss after this, no doubt, but delaying the need to replace the cat fouled pillow with an easier to clean barrier that also provides insulation was the brainstorm of my dear husband. |
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| Here is the view of the top. I secured the pillows and mat with loops of string interwoven with the metal bars of the dog crate. |
I must confess that the current arrangement went through several incarnations, one of which was having one of the plastic storage crates inside the dog crate and surrounded by pillows - but that looked 'cramped' I decided after spending an hour putting the whole thing together (I don't want my wittle, bittie, kittie to be cramped!) so I dismantled it and started over.
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| It is heated by a large human heating pad (on low for now) which is covered by a pillow case. |
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| A layer of bath towel also covers the heating pad to make sure the heat is never overly intense and to cut down on the need to change the pillow case as frequently as well as absorb any 'cat puke' situations. The towel also provides additional snuggly warmth and changing towels is one of the quickest ways to satisfy the kitty's need for fresh bedding. |
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| The exterior of the condo is covered by two thinner yoga mats, front to back and side to side arrangement. |
The outside is also covered by two bath towels. This kitty condo allows for an interior cat space of about 16 inches high, 14 inches wide and 18 inches long. The top of the condo is the kitty feeding area.
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| Mr. Dory the 15 year old seems to love, love, love it and who wouldn't. |
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| He can stretch out, stand up, and do kitty gymnastics if he wants inside his warm dark condo. |
The whole arrangement is sitting on top of a table next to my bedroom window, well outside of Border Collie nose range and well within my monitoring area. His towels are changed once a week and his wet and dry food bowls are within easy reach but not stinking up his crate when he is done eating. If he weren't such a loner he would probably be inviting his teenage friends over to chill in his new crib. We are holding off on installing the flat screen TV, cable internet, surround sound audio and mood lighting for now.
One down and now on to the front door cat comfort challenge... stay tuned.
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