Animal lovers can assist feral and stray cats during the winter months when a warm shelter, food and water resources are difficult if not impossible to find, said Halfway Home Pet Rescue of Caribou.
Many female cats do give birth in the wintertime as well as spring, so if the mother cat is burdened with a need to supply milk, the cat and all her kittens will die from cold, starvation or dehydration, or become victims to predators like fox, coyotes or fishers.
Halfway Home urges people to consider building the following shelter as an easy and inexpensive way to offer help to these animals and a great project for youth groups, clubs, shelters and community groups. This project is a great bonding time for parents and children.
The largest expense is the plastic storage tote, but a used tote or other wooden boxes will work fine.
Other materials include a bale of straw, which will do about eight shelters, heavy-duty weatherproof tape and a hair dryer.
Using the hair dryer, warm the tote to make it easier to cut with a box cutter. Cut a hole about 6 inches square or round. Distribute straw inside the tote. For a warmer shelter, you can get inexpensive styrofoam sheets to create a liner under the straw if available and secure with tape, and add the straw as the main insulator.
Next, with heavy plastic make a window flap. The tape holds it in pace with a short split down the middle. Line the rough opening of the tote with tape to prevent the raw edges from scratching the cat.
Toss in some catnip scent to encourage the first use. Place the warm shelter in a place that the winter wind will not toss it around, or in a corner of your garage, shed or inside some bushes. Add a heavy brick on top to keep it in place.
If you know of a colony of cats, or even one stray, leave it there and occasionally leave a small bag of dry cat food inside the tote.
