My Garage Keeps Outdoor Cats Warm in Winter

 Feral cats and outdoor cats need protection from the winter weather.  One way to keep the cats warm in winter is provide them with a section in your garage for shelter. 


As a colony caregiver to 10 feral cats, I provide the cats with igloo cat houses and insulated kitty tubes that are overstuffed with straw.  I set the cat houses in my garage shelter  

Straw Cat bed in Heated Garage Shelter

 
Tonight's weather forecast is calling for two feet of show and I need to set up the garage shelter so feral cats will be warm.  I will provide extra straw bedding for the cats and heat the garage during the night hours when the temperature drops to the single digits with a wind chill of -5.  

To heat the garage overnight we are setting up the kerosene heater in the center of the room.  The cat igloos are off to the side a good 7 feet away from the heater. 

The feral and stray cats have been coming into the garage through the kitty door that I installed and are accustomed to the heater as I use it often during the winter when I am doing hobbies.   The cats will sneak in and hide while I work in the back of the garage.

What I like about this kerosene heater is that it heats up a 1000sqr foot room and it is easy to ignite the 1.9 gallon fuel which provides heat for 10 hours.  Whenever we light this heater either my husband and I will spend the night in the garage,  We will work on crafts or I will tend to my greenhouse garden but we never leave this heater unattended.


Tonight the cats in the garage will be warm and cozy. I will ignite the heater at 11 pm and it will heat the garage until 5 am. My husband is working in the garage during that time frame to make sure that the cats are safe.  Then the sun will come out and the rays will heat the southern side of the garage. 

Feral Cat sleeping in straw bed inside garage shelter

During the day we will use an electric garage heater. The heater is mounted to the wall and it provides heat to the back section of the garage. The heater has a built-in thermostat and will turn off when it reaches that temperature.  

This garage heater will take the chill out of a space of 500 feet. I can work comfortably in the garage as long as I have a polar fleece jacket on and the cats are comfortable in their beds of straw.

Garage Ceiling-Mount 5000 Watt Electric Heater

Note from Author:

My husband and I are feral cat colony caregivers, we feed, trap, and get the cats medical care.  Some cats are socialized and adopted into forever homes and the other wild feral cats live in a colony.  We watch over the cats and we protect them from harm.  We work together to save the feral, stray, and abandoned cats in our community.