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Nov 06, 2024

Camera Inside Heated Cat Shelter Catches The Moment Strays Finally Relax - The Dodo

Melody Karle and her husband live in Montana, where temperatures regularly reach minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. To escape the cold, they simply go inside and turn up the thermostat — but the stray cats

Melody Karle and her husband live in Montana, where temperatures regularly reach minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. To escape the cold, they simply go inside and turn up the thermostat — but the stray cats in their neighborhood don’t have that luxury.

When the couple moved into their Montana home a few years ago, they decided to help their local cats stay warm. Using a picnic table, an old fence and a chicken heat lamp, they created a shelter the cats could visit whenever they wanted.

Karle used food to lure the cats over to the shelter, but they didn’t need much convincing. Before long, cats were regularly visiting their new cozy hangout and even spending the night.

“I don’t know what they did before we got here,” Karle told The Dodo.

Since the shelter was in such high demand, the couple decided to build a new one. This time, they used plastic deck boxes for a sturdier structure, then filled it with straw and put heating pads and cameras inside. The cats liked their new spot even better.

Over time, the couple got to know all of the shelter’s “regulars.” They named all of them and learned about their unique personalities.

One such regular, a senior cat named Old Tom Morris, or OTM, visited Karle’s backyard every day for an entire year. He’d eat the food she’d left out and sleep in the shelter but would barely let her touch or pet him.

One day, Karle noticed that OTM had a severe bite wound on his shoulder. She managed to coax him into a kennel and get him to the vet, where they shaved his shoulder and treated his wound.

After everything OTM had been through, Karle didn’t want to just put him back outside, especially since his missing fur would make him even colder. So she decided to see how he would do staying inside.

Karle was shocked by how quickly OTM embraced the indoor cat lifestyle.

“Two days in, it was very clear that he was totally chill,” Karle said. “He was like, ‘I live here now … It’s warm and you’re feeding me and I’m not going to leave.’”

OTM has been part of Karle’s family for two years now — and the family is still growing. Karle and her husband recently took in two more backyard cats named Winston and Patrick.

“It wasn’t our plan to adopt any of them,” Karle said. “We had cats already and we also didn’t think they were friendly to start with.”

But OTM, Winston and Patrick stole their hearts.

Even as Karle and her husband have adopted three of their former backyard cats, they’re more committed than ever to caring for the kitties who remain outside. They still have regulars who visit the shelter every day, and have helped several of them get adopted by other families. They’ve also worked with local vets and rescues to get all of the cats fixed.

Karle encourages anyone who lives in an area where it gets cold to consider building a backyard shelter. While it may seem intimidating, she emphasized that she and her husband are not professional builders, just people who tried their best. And you don’t have to do it alone: Local animal rescues may be able to help by providing low-cost resources and materials.

“Even if it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing,” Karle said. “Whatever people can do is good enough.”

And if you do build one, who knows, you might even get a new cat — or three — out of it.