Cool cat hangout

Fall of 2008 was approaching.  There were eight regulars: Blue, Minnie, Vick, Tommy, the two Darryls,  Possum Lily and Mama hanging around.  Since I had propped open the screened porch, they began taking over both porches.  But most of them seemed to favor the big screened porch. 

The porches provided some shelter from the elements, but only the little porch actually had a shelter, the big dog house.  Since there were warring factions amongst the cats, more shelters were needed.  With a limited budget and no carpentry skills, I had to get creative.  So I got a bunch of big boxes and duct taped vinyl table cloths around them to weatherproof them.  Then the boxes were insulated with squares of mattress topper foam sewn into blankets.  The lids were duct taped shut and a doorway was hacked in the front of each box. 

Although the first box houses weren't particularly pretty, they were an instant hit.  The cats loved them.  Sometimes two or three feline friends would share a box.  Eventually, I made doors out of old towels to keep the boxes warmer and the cats navigated those door coverings like professionals. When it started to get really cold, I covered the screens with sheets of plastic to keep the wind and snow out.  Bathroom facilities weren't required since the door was propped open a foot.  The cats could come and go as they pleased.  Fortunately, they did leave to go.

I never figured out a way to keep water unthawed so I changed it often, provided food, and the whole group survived the winter.  The unfriendly cats wouldn't run when I entered their porch, but they stayed unfriendly.  The hard core hostiles were Pretty Darryl, Mama, and Possum Lily.  They would tolerate my presence and allow me to feed them but never changed their attitudes.  Since Mama was hostile and kittens tend to mimic their mother, the behavior of the "self-tamers", Tommy, Darryl, Minnie and Vick was intriguing.  I hadn't exactly gone out of my way to befriend them, but they seemed to like human companionship.  I had worked really hard to befriend Blue, yet her behavior fell somewhere between the two groups.    

 Cat-hater Minnie and I had really bonded.  She began following me into the house at night and we would hang out until she wanted to leave.  The hour she wanted to leave got later and later each night.  One day I set up a litter box, hoped that she would use it, and let her stay in all night.  Minnie knew what to do with the litter box and was soon staying in every night.  After about a week, I made a surprising discovery.  Every night, after I went to bed, she would come upstairs and slip into my room.  Then she would open the door to a wooden wardrobe, go into it and sleep there.  This was extremely brave of her since she wouldn't allow any of the other humans in the house to get near her.