Feral cat shelter

#1

We have a few offcuts of 12mm plywood at home, and my girlfriend suggested turning it into a simple rain shelter for a young feral cat – who we have dubbed Harriet – that has started hanging around in our tiny garden a lot recently

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Any tips? Do we have a product at the space I could use to waterproof the plywood? And will there be any kind @woodtechs at the space this late afternoon/evening or any time tomorrow who could help me with the table saw, and cutting a 6" hole?

Any construction guidance would also be appreciated as I have zero woodworking experience outside the wood shop induction, and this will sort of be my first project of this kind. I was just planning to glue and nail it together, really…?

Design criteria is: Durable, basic shelter from weather, traps some heat when stuffed with straw.

Cheers!

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#2

Ideal weather proofing of ply would be to stick it in a vacuum with resin or possibly yacht varnish. However the current chamber wont fit anything that large. So a heavy coat on all sides will have to do.
It’d be worthwhile keeping an eye out for a bit of shed roof material to tack onto the top. Screws or brads would do the job, probably not worthwhile dovetailing it…

I’m happy to lend a hand and show you what you need to know, I’ll be at the space in an hour or so.

There is definitely a small amount of yacht varnish - I’d probably buy a pot on your way in to be sure to have enough.

P.s. you could fit a cat flap to maximize heat, we could buy or make this using another piece of lightweight wood and a fabric hinge.

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#3

Brilliant! Cheers Jonty. See you at the space in a couple hours.

#4

Huge huge thanks to @Jonty_Bottomley for advice and tips every step of the way! I’m sure Harriet the cat will be very comfortable :cat2:

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#5

Looking good!

Osmo oil is an excellent exterior timber treatment: it won’t ever flake or peel, and allows the timber to breathe as long as you don’t go OTT…you really want the end grain to be saturated though

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#6

Looks great. I have a spare feral cat that could move in to it to…

While on my cat lady act, do you know of she is neutered? If not Celia Hammond Animal Trust will often neuter feral cats to help reduce the numbers of stray kittens in london

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#7

I have no idea, but I doubt it – she’s pretty afraid of people. She’s happy to sleep on our garden sofa in the sun, hide under our bush when it rains, and eat the cat treats we leave out – she’s even fine staring at us through the window – but the split second the handle on the garden door turns, she’s under/over the fence and gone.

I’ll look into Celia Hammond Animal Trust – I’m sure if they can catch her, they can help her.

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