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Thank you for your comments
Jcatbird
and
tarasgirl06
. The construction continued today but thankfully they didn't seem to go over by the tree pile. At least that's one more day and night the kitties will have their home. I hope that will still be the case for many days/nights to come...it's certainly hard to say when they'll decide to remove it. Unless I knew for sure what day they are going to clear it out, I don't want really want to go out there and disturb anything...any branch gathered would require a chainsaw to be honest and that would be just as frightening as the construction equipment. It's not really feasible either way.
I wish the kitties would all just congregate in my shed. It's not looking like they are comfortable in there. It may be too close to "civilization" for them to stay for long anyway but I think another problem is one particular male cat that actually does use the shed and storage bin shelters inside pretty much every night. There were a couple of days I thought some were getting along better (other than Milly, who always avoids being around that male cat and never seemed to want to be in the shed anyway). The one night when 3 shelters were occupied at once for a while was encouraging...but even that was very tenuous and did not continue. I am hoping that male cat will be one of the first I trap and maybe that will help. Is that a reasonable thought? Maybe they just don't like to be inside an enclosed structure even with the warm beds available. I seriously don't understand cat behavior or relationships at all no matter how much I try to observe and figure it out. Tonight I observed that male cat chase another cat off my property. I've seen it happen before too but for a while he started acting much less aggressive/territorial. Maybe since the weather has been a little better for a while the hormones are raging again? I had hoped that sort of thing would be at a minimum until closer to spring. I mean, it's still winter and really cold out there! I just want them to all get along and for peace to prevail.
I am thinking the tarp idea is worth trying. They won't use anything like that if it's close to my house but maybe at the edge of my back yard. Before my shed was built (which is in the back corner) and I just had the floor joists in place, there was a massive wind and rain storm that lasted more than 2 full days. It was forecasted and we had plenty of warnings. I was really worried but the only thing I could think of do was place a tarp over some large cardboard boxes on top of the floor joists. I did my best to secure the tarp with a some cinder blocks around the edges. In the middle, I also had an old wooden shelf unit that I added an entry and exit to. I turned it over and put a blanket and a little bed inside. The storm was fierce and it rained like crazy...so I was glad to see the kitties (Lippy, Milly and their mom...funny thing is, I named her Stormy) actually did go in there at times. I at least felt my effort was not in vain and it helped them a little. Later I added some IKEA end tables on each side (much sturdier than cardboard boxes) with 2x4s across the top to drape the tarp over. They had entry/exit on both ends and I even made an "emergency exit" on one side. That stayed in place until I had the shed roof up and I added a couple of the storage bin shelters inside the shed. They would go in that tarp tent occasionally but always seemed to prefer to be out in the fields regardless of the weather. For a while, they had a particular spot deep in the tall weeds only maybe 20 feet from the edge of my back yard where they were nesting/sleeping. They seemed to like that better than anything I provided but when it started getting really cold, I stopped seeing them out there.
I wish the kitties would all just congregate in my shed. It's not looking like they are comfortable in there. It may be too close to "civilization" for them to stay for long anyway but I think another problem is one particular male cat that actually does use the shed and storage bin shelters inside pretty much every night. There were a couple of days I thought some were getting along better (other than Milly, who always avoids being around that male cat and never seemed to want to be in the shed anyway). The one night when 3 shelters were occupied at once for a while was encouraging...but even that was very tenuous and did not continue. I am hoping that male cat will be one of the first I trap and maybe that will help. Is that a reasonable thought? Maybe they just don't like to be inside an enclosed structure even with the warm beds available. I seriously don't understand cat behavior or relationships at all no matter how much I try to observe and figure it out. Tonight I observed that male cat chase another cat off my property. I've seen it happen before too but for a while he started acting much less aggressive/territorial. Maybe since the weather has been a little better for a while the hormones are raging again? I had hoped that sort of thing would be at a minimum until closer to spring. I mean, it's still winter and really cold out there! I just want them to all get along and for peace to prevail.
I am thinking the tarp idea is worth trying. They won't use anything like that if it's close to my house but maybe at the edge of my back yard. Before my shed was built (which is in the back corner) and I just had the floor joists in place, there was a massive wind and rain storm that lasted more than 2 full days. It was forecasted and we had plenty of warnings. I was really worried but the only thing I could think of do was place a tarp over some large cardboard boxes on top of the floor joists. I did my best to secure the tarp with a some cinder blocks around the edges. In the middle, I also had an old wooden shelf unit that I added an entry and exit to. I turned it over and put a blanket and a little bed inside. The storm was fierce and it rained like crazy...so I was glad to see the kitties (Lippy, Milly and their mom...funny thing is, I named her Stormy) actually did go in there at times. I at least felt my effort was not in vain and it helped them a little. Later I added some IKEA end tables on each side (much sturdier than cardboard boxes) with 2x4s across the top to drape the tarp over. They had entry/exit on both ends and I even made an "emergency exit" on one side. That stayed in place until I had the shed roof up and I added a couple of the storage bin shelters inside the shed. They would go in that tarp tent occasionally but always seemed to prefer to be out in the fields regardless of the weather. For a while, they had a particular spot deep in the tall weeds only maybe 20 feet from the edge of my back yard where they were nesting/sleeping. They seemed to like that better than anything I provided but when it started getting really cold, I stopped seeing them out there.