Taking Care of Cats

With the first hard freeze coming to Austin, I decided that I needed to take care of my adopted garden-mates, Callie and Eb.

Callie and Eb are a couple of feral cats that decided to make my back porch a permanent station in their daily rounds. In fact, I think Callie knows my truck now because I've seen her run from a neighbors yard when I pull into the driveway.

Anyways, I caught Callie this summer for the Austin Human Society's Trap/Neuter/Return program. (A story for another post!) And despite the nipped ear, she was back at my door within a couple hours and daily since then.

She loves to follow me as I go back into the house, but as soon as I turn around she runs away again. I really wish I could let her in the house, but she freaked out when I had her in the garage after the procedure. I've read that feral cats get really stressed when trapped in human surroundings. So I had to find another option.

Turns out, building winter shelter cats is a pretty common thing to do. (Hah! Crazy Cat Lady, indeed.) Since Austin winters aren't too bad, I built a simple one out of a Rubbermaid tub based on this idea. I couldn't find sheets of styrofoam so I used styrofoam plates. Then I went down to Callahan's General Store (same one Ann likes to stop by at when she comes to visit) and bought some honest-to-goodness hay. For good measure, I sprinkled some catnip in there, too.

Well, she checked it out immediately and walked right in. About 2 seconds later she jumped right out. I guess she still remembers the last time I trapped her in a box near my back porch.

I did my best. Do I feel guilty? Just a little...