I haven’t tried it myself but I’ve heard of people keeping outdoor animals warm in the winter using a cheap styrofoam cooler / ice chest like this one . Tape the lid on the cooler, flip it upside down, and cut a doorway big enough for the kitty to go inside. A warm blanket or some towels inside would make it even better. You might want to put something semi-heavy inside to keep it from blowing away if wind is a problem.
Kudos for looking out for the kitty!
My dear, departed cat Fluffernutter spent 18 winters living primarily outside in Wisconsin. Cats are tougher than you’d think! As long as they have food and a place to stay out of the wind, they do surprisingly well.
All you really need for a great cat house is an outer frame, some insulation, and comfortable bedding. (A heat source is optional, but helps.) The outer frame can be a cardboard box or something you nail together out of wood scraps. Remember to raise it up an inch or so if the floor of your carport tends to get wet. Newspaper will keep heat in pretty well, and that pink foam insulation board stuff is great for this since you can cut it to size and it won’t hold moisture. Bedding-wise, kitty will likely be quite happy burrowing into an old towel or two.
The most important thing to keep in mind, IMO, is that the most reliable thing for keeping a cat warm is cat. As long as the insulation is good and the space is small enough, Tyson should be able to warm his house up to a comfortable temperature all on his own.
Oh, and while I am a tremendous advocate of spending lots of money on pets - we bought an air conditioner last summer because our ferrets were too hot - you should be able to make a great cathouse without spending a cent, just from stuff lying around the house or put out by the neighbors on recycling day. All you have to do is put a little bit of work into it.
My cat sleeps in a shoebox. He’s been sleeping in it so long that the boxiness of the box is no more - it’s round. Maybe outside kitties are different, but my indoor cat whines if we try to take his box away.
I would have thought that having a place that smelled like them would make it seem safer and homier, no?
If you don’t mind spending a few dollars there’s a product called “Snuggle Safe”, it runs about 20 dollars. It’s a disk that I think you may warm in the microwave but it then holds it’s heat for 12 hours. The only problem I have heard of with this is that if it’s covered with towels that then get wet it could actually cause steam burns, however that would only be a problem for a debiliated (or anesthetized) animal that may not be able to move off the disk if it gets too hot. Make sure it’s covered well and it should be okay.
That’s the other thing, whatever warming method you use, you have to make sure that the cat can move off of it or away from it if it gets too hot. So a heating pad should not cover the entire box or a warming light should only be over half the box.
You could also make your own warmies by filling old socks with rice and warming them in the microwave. The warmth won’t last as long though.
That’s interesting. If I’d never owned cats, I would have thought the same thing, but I’ve owned a few and been around quite a few more, and all of them lose interest in any box that has seen more than a few days of use by the cat. Either your cat is an exception, or the ten or so cats I’ve lived with are exceptions and maybe that number is still to small to be a reliable statistical sample.
Now dogs on the other hand… the older, smellier, and more full of dead things the better…