Cats surviving winter

[kev1949]

OK for my four, but what about owners who leave their cats out in all weathers? I have two cats coming round all the time crying for food. I know one of them is an abandoned cat, as its owners moved away. Leaving it behind! And another that turned up some months ago from who knows where? They turn up in all weathers, soaked through with all this rain we have been having recently. Come in for a feed, but go ballistic trying to get out if I try to close the door. And with the weather forecast snow & ice, what chance they will survive?

[bobbys girl]

We have a couple of cats that call like that. I think both are strays. One just takes food, the other sometimes stays the night (under the table in the kitchen). Our cats don't mind him but don't like the first one.

I have taken a board out of the shed wall where they can get in and have cardboard boxes and towels in there.

Could you do something similar? It is nice that you care for them.

[Mrs Kane]

A neighbour of ours has been asking for big cardboard boxes and he cuts holes in them, lines them several times in cling film and then puts food and old torn clothing in the boxes for strays for the cold weather in the community parks and in bushes.

It's not been that cold or rainy over here so I don't think there's been a great need for it but the boxes seem to hold up quite well!

[MarkB]

We have one here that is a problem. There is always food in our garden and it has been coming here to eat for around 2 years. About 18 months ago, the (now retired) receptionist at the vets next door said she thought she knew who it belonged to. She spoke to the woman, who didn't seem overly concerned and said that her cat rarely came home since she got a dog. I really feel for the cat during the winter. We would happily take her on, but she isn't tame enough. She still gives me a silent hiss every time I feed her and goes ballistic if I try to pick her up. She used to feed right outside the house until we adopted another stray (Domino) just over a year ago, but he chases her off.

Until this time last year, we had another pair of torties sisters that had been hanging around for years. Over time they were around more and more, so I spoke to the person I was told was their owner. He said that they used to be his cats but he had assumed they had gone to live elsewhere!- they apparently belonged to his daughter, who had since left home. He said that he was moving soon after. I asked what he was going to do about the cats. He said he would take them with him, but both of them ran away when he went near them (funny that, as they loved me picking them up and wold sleep on my lap in the garden. I had a Mr Snugs dog kennel sep up in the garden with a heat-reflective bed. We left it that when he moved, he would come and see me and I would get the cats for him. The next thing I knew, one of the cats disappeared. I went round the house again and he had moved. I spoke to Cats Protection, who put the other one on their waiting list. I kept her in my attic bedroom over the winter and waited nearly 3 months for a space! - we would have taken her on, but she had a history of fighting with one of mine (Kylie) Anyway, she was rehomed last March. As much as we loved her, we thought it was pointless forcing her to stay here when she was being beaten up and chased all the time. I think the sisters must have survived at least 3 or 4 winters outside when we had assumed that they were owned, by a far from perfect owner.