The cage room where new cats and feral cats are confined. To the left you can see the door to the vestibule. The facility is heated, and usually is about 68 degrees F at standing height, which is why the cages are elevated to take advantage of the fact that heat rises. Elevated cages also make it easy to tame cats and clean cages, by bringing them up to human level.
The runs (on the right) off the vestibule.
The cabinets (previously college book lockers) for supplies:
The cat room for long term resident cats:
Plushy says: "Thanks for the bed! And the toys. They are mine, all mine."
Taking us at our word, people brought turkey baby food, which we use to tame kittens, who just can't seem to resist this stuff.
There is a small radiator heater in the cat room, which I keep under a tall cage to prevent it from being tipped. The cats love to sleep on top of the cage in the warmth. Here are Fluffy and Kid sleeping off yesterday's excitment.
17 comments:
How many cats do you currently have?
We have eighteen. Three of those have been adopted and are being altered etc. before going home. Two others have tentative homes. We have three additional cats in foster homes, so that would be 21 total.
wow that's a lot of setup and maintenance. lovely place though. lucky cats :)
Do your cats stay in the barn or is there a cat door for them to move in and out?
The cat facility is for adult ferals who are recovering from spay/neuter (and are going back to their landowners), and tame cats and feral kittens who will be placed in homes, so none of them go in and out of the barn. The tamed cats are adopted into indoor-only homes.
Wow. I applaud your dedication. Good work.
I guess it helps if your COTC post is actually linked! Sorry, I missed the obvious! Hosting was a loooong process, very fun, but with a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between pages, sites, trackbacks and my interface.
I think it's right now. ;^)
BJ
Nice place! In the longterm cat room, is that a heat lamp hanging over the cat beds there?
You do an awesome job. As a fellow cat lover, I just wanted to you know that you are appreciated!
Yup! It's a heat lamp. There is heat throughout the entire facility. But when the wind blows it can get chilly toward the floor (therefore the elevated beds, etc.) I added the heat lamps one bitter cold winter, and the cats loved it so much I keep one up all the time except when it is really hot out. Sometimes I fall asleep in there with them myself under that lamp.
So neat! Thank you for posting these photos. It's great to be able to see what the place looks like.
Cornell email is down and this was the only way I thought to get this to you. Go to http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/mississippi_floodwaters_in_iow.html and scroll through the pix to see the man rescuing his kitties from the floodwaters in Iowa!
Alice
Wildrun....I think you are just wonderful for helping those precious critters!
If I die and return as a cat, this is where i'm going
Wildrun, I am a huge cat lover and I applaud what you are doing for these beautiful and very lucky cats. Keep up the good work! Lots of cuddles and hugs to all the cats and kittens.
hello wildrun, i am new to your blog. i commend you on the facility. i too care for some ferals here in kuwait, but must leave them outside since i live in an apartment in the city. i do have one feral male (topaz) in the house. he goes out daily... he insists on it, i comply so he is not utterly frustrated despite some of the dangers outside. i am quite distressed this evening. i just spent two weeks in the states only to return to find that the building's "haras" or what is known here as a guard, (actually a lazy bum of a man) has somehow killed or disposed of some of the cats i care for. tonight - just a few days after my return, one of my favorite males, desperado, who is the first to show up for food nightly, is now missing. i fear the worst. only one feral remains downstairs, river, a nine-month old female whose sister, sky, was actually kid-(cat) nabbed two months ago (so the guard claims). it is common for cat haters here in kuwait to lay down poison - wrapped inside meat. the cats obviously die a horrible death. there are no animal rights here in kuwait, no laws on the books to protect animals. just thought i would post this to allow others in the civilized world to know what goes on in this country. i am up late and very sad. topaz
Hello, wasn't sure where to put this, so hopefully you're getting this. I live in Van Etten, about 2 weeks ago a cat showed up in the neighborhood. He's been fixed, he seems very healthy, although slightly under weight. We've been feeding him and giving him water, we even put out one of our cat beds. He seems to be putting on weight. It's been posted that the cat is here and no one has claimed it. He's very friendly, desperately wants in the house, gets along very well with our dogs when they're outside. We think he's been dumped. Is he a cat you would be interested in or could you suggest somewhere we could take him? We would probably would bring him in if it wasn't for the fact that we have 2 dogs and 4 cats already. Thanks for any help you could give me!
Take the poor thing in....you will never regret it. One more won't make much difference to you, except to enrich your life, but will mean the whole world to the cat.
Kim
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