Functions to Keep Separate

Even in winter, cats like to keep these basic functions totally separate: quiet, secure, dry and warm places to sleep, places to eat, places to go to the toilet. Therefore, it is best to have shelters where they can wait to get fed and even feed from, but it is necessary to keep them separate from where they sleep. Many cats are not going to feel secure sleeping too close to food, since food attracts other cats and other animals. In winter they won't typically stray too far from where they get fed, but trying to force them to sleep right where they eat is not a good idea at all.

Here is where Ragi and Caramel took a lot of their meals in December and January, when the weather was foul. I have since rebuilt this shelter area to include 4 boxes for them to sleep, rest and await food. And I have moved the feeding area to a different place. I have also made the extra roofs and wind blocks better at blocking out the driving rains and blowing snows. Ragi likes this shelter a lot because, if panicked, she can quickly run for cover under a temporary classroom trailer parked nearby. She and Caramel, her son, will share a box in order to stay warm when it gets below freezing.