Hello everyone. I have a couple of questions for you who are more experienced in taking care of feral cats. I havent posted before and I cannot remember if I have replied to any posts since I am more of a lurker trying to learn than anyone who can offer advice, but I do really enjoy reading the posts.
I live in Southern California and recently we have been having some especially cold weather. It even snowed where I live yesterday morning. This is not usual for my area and I was wondering if the feral cats I care for would be prepared for this.
I built them one shelter last month as a test that can house 1 or 2 cats (not larger since my ferals are mostly males who dont really "hang out" with each other and I am not sure if they are friends that would be willing to go into a enclosed space together) but I dont think they have been using it. I am prepared to build several more, I was just waiting to see if they would be used since they are in my front yard (I dont want the nosey neighbors asking questions and creating problems since they dont really like my family from a past unrelated incident) and they take a couple of hours each to build.
So here are my questions: Do you all think that I should put more of these shelters out, even though the cats might not use them and they dont sleep at my house (they never have except for a pregnant girl last summer and the original momma cat who started me with this)? Do you think they have somewhere warm to be?
I just want my unofficial babies to have every comfort I can give them.
P.S. This is unrelated, but cats keep showing up. I havent ever seen a pregnant female that I didnt manage to catch and get spayed, and the ferals who show up out of the blue can be as old as 3 years so where do they keep coming from? Has anyone else ever experienced this?
P.S.S. Sorry if I am kind of rambling, I have the flu and my thoughts have forgotten how to walk a straight line
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I live in Southern California and recently we have been having some especially cold weather. It even snowed where I live yesterday morning. This is not usual for my area and I was wondering if the feral cats I care for would be prepared for this.
I built them one shelter last month as a test that can house 1 or 2 cats (not larger since my ferals are mostly males who dont really "hang out" with each other and I am not sure if they are friends that would be willing to go into a enclosed space together) but I dont think they have been using it. I am prepared to build several more, I was just waiting to see if they would be used since they are in my front yard (I dont want the nosey neighbors asking questions and creating problems since they dont really like my family from a past unrelated incident) and they take a couple of hours each to build.
So here are my questions: Do you all think that I should put more of these shelters out, even though the cats might not use them and they dont sleep at my house (they never have except for a pregnant girl last summer and the original momma cat who started me with this)? Do you think they have somewhere warm to be?
I just want my unofficial babies to have every comfort I can give them.
P.S. This is unrelated, but cats keep showing up. I havent ever seen a pregnant female that I didnt manage to catch and get spayed, and the ferals who show up out of the blue can be as old as 3 years so where do they keep coming from? Has anyone else ever experienced this?
P.S.S. Sorry if I am kind of rambling, I have the flu and my thoughts have forgotten how to walk a straight line