we have been adopted

This little black kitty turned up at our house.  I suppose someone dropped her off nearby and left her to fend for herself.

We weren't exactly wanting a cat but I couldn't just let her starve...so I began setting food out for her.
At first she was shy and skittish but within a couple of weeks we could pet her and in a short time she began to trust us.

We have mostly been a family without pets...well...just horses and parakeets. Then, we had an outdoor cat a few years ago that the Sasquatch had to give up when he lived in an apartment.

I still had this house that I built for the previous cat.  For him, I had kept it by the back door and had a heating pad inside on "warm" for the coldest part of winter.  He loved it and used it every night.

I set it up the same way for this new cat since we planned for her to be an outdoor cat too, but she wouldn't use it.  One day I was trying to get her in there and was reaching in to fluff up the pillow.

I stuck my hand right in cat poo!

Some cat had used it as a litter box.  Maybe a big yellow male cat that has been hanging around the edges of the yard trying to get friendly with our little cat.

But after that, I knew she would never sleep in there.

Meanwhile we started having some colder nights and rainy nights. I wasn't sure where she was sleeping, so I decided to try a different shelter idea for her.

I looked on Amazon for cat houses...sheesh!... anywhere from $58 to $149.  Hmmm...nope.

Instead I found this idea online to make a cat house from a cheap plastic cooler... and we had 3 of them in the basement.  

I drew a door shape on the side, then drilled some holes close together so I could slip in the blade of my reciprocating saw.

Not perfect but easy enough.

I covered the raw edges with duct tape.

Fortunately, I had not yet placed the old heating pad in the house that got pooped in.  It fit perfectly in this new one.

I had an old feather pillow to cut in half...first sewing two rows of stitching down the center to hold all the fluff inside.

All set up and she is curious!

I placed it underneath the table on our screen porch...where I keep her food and water bowls.  

I added a couple of cat treats inside to tempt her in there. 

Unfortunately she was... Not Impressed.

No...she won't sleep here either.  We'll give it some time to see if she changes her mind.