OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Shelters create outdoor housing for community cats, ensuring their safety and warmth during the colder months. The Nebraska Humane society community cat program is leading the effort.
- These shelters are typically made from 18-gallon plastic totes with Styrofoam insulation, straw, and a small entry hole.
- Community cats are strays that are vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and then either adopted or returned to the community.
- Video shows cats using the shelters.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's not just a cooler, but a shelter and it'll go in a safe place where outdoor cats find warmth for the winter.
In February, 3 News Now reporter Jill Lamkins reported on the Nebraska Humane Society's community cat program. Now, as winter approaches, our neighbors are getting ready to help these outdoor cats survive the winter.
All you need is an 18-gallon plastic tote with Styrofoam insulation, six inches of straw, and a six-inch hole for the cats to go through.
"Very easy and inexpensive," said Ben Clark.
Clark is a community cat caretaker who says they do this because not every cat is meant for the indoors.
"They don't do well in captivity. They have a tendency to either stop eating, stop drinking, stop using the litter box," he said.
"You have to keep in mind that cats naturally have lived outdoors for a long time, a very, very long time, and they're very resilient."
Community cats are cats that have been brought into the humane society as strays. They are vaccinated and spayed or neutered by shelter veterinarians.
Then, depending on their personality, they will get adopted or sent back to their neighborhood.
"I used to get a lot of mice in my garage. Ever since I started feeding, I have had no mice at all," said Monica Vazquez.
Vazquez is the shelter's community cat coordinator and also a caretaker. She says educating people on how to support these animals can help them thrive.
"So they still, you know, deserve some love and care," said Vazquez.
Shelters can be simple like the one's built out of Styrofoam or fancy and extra-cozy like these house-like shelters from another community cat caretaker in Omaha.
But no matter what style, Clark says the goal is to keep the cats safe and warm when they need it.
"Often it's better to set up your shelters so that it's organized to draw them towards those shelters versus them trying to seek places in undesirable areas."
If you have some community cats in your neighborhood and want to help keep them safe this winter, NHS is hosting a shelter-building workshop this Sunday from 10:00 am to noon.
