Stray cat need some advice!

[EmAbTo48]

We woke up to a "new" cat in our house about a week ago. It had followed our indoor/outdoor cat into the wood shoot of our house and came in! I had seen the cat for about 3 days out by our sheds in the day time assuming it was sleeping there but I wasn't feeding it or anything. Luckily this one didn't go after any of our ducks or chickens or otherwise it would have been killed.

The cat is beautiful long haired tortise shell. Its fairly friendly but of course not potty trained. I am not sure where it came from since we get a cat like this almost every year at this time. I have talked hubby into keeping it as our "outside" shed cat to kill mice that have been eating and getting into everything lately. (our cat is not doing his job) Our male is neutered and I am not sure if the cat is female or male.

I need help how do you keep a outside cat warm in freezing temperatures. We live in northern WI!!!!! It gets very cold here! I feel bad right now as it sits outside the door for awhile every night wanting to come in but thats not going to happen.

I am going to get it vet checked and fixed. I was going to put a XL dog crate in our smaller shed ( we have a smaller shed and our big pole shed) load it with blankets and under the blankets hay. Then have a large bowl of food and give it soft food every few days to keep it fat, and use a heated dog bowl.

Anything else I could do for it?

 

[donrae]

If it's a tortiseshell, it's female.

I don't know about keeping warm, I always have multiple cats and they just heap on each other. I've seen straw bale "dens" for animals that are pretty cozy, you might look into that.

When we get too many mice, I cut back on the cat's feed. Their job is to keep the mice population down. If they don't do their job, they dont' eat as much. I do still feed them some, but it gives them incentive to go kill something to eat rather than lay on the porch all day. And before anyone gets all huffy about that, I have NO skinny cats...........all sleek and glossy here.

 

[Fly 2006]

I would be inclined to give it a good thick straw bed, easier to keep clean and gives good warmth, you may find despite offering it this lovely comfy bed it will still seek out it's own spot! Donrae, I see nothing wrong with your methods, infact if I was a cat I think I would want to live with you, Sounds like they have a great life! Some cats can be fed the normal two meals a day and still hunt, I have a friend who spoils her cats but they still bring mice into the house just that they rarely eat them they have just killed for the fun

But as you say some will just lounge around all day with their full bellies