by Michael
(London, UK)
I think that an outdoor heated kitty pad is an excellent product but it all depends on the individual cat who you think should use it. We know how cats are individuals and how they will use something if they want to and not if we want them to – perfectly correct, I say.
A good number of people are kind enough and decent enough to help feral cats as opposed to getting fun out of killing them. I wrote an article about how to keep feral cats warm in winter. Here are two pages that deal with these two contrasting subjects:
I happen to know a very nice person who is a regular and valued contributor to PoC, Dorothy Wandruff, who cares for an orange (alternatively called red or yellow) feral female tabby cat that she has named “Yellow Cat”. See by the way a post about the red tabby cat if you would like to know more about cats of this color and pattern.
Dorothy has bought an outdoor heated kitty pad for Yellow Cat, which she is delighted to use, making herself very comfortable, thank you very much, just outside Dorothy’s back door or door leading to the back garden (“yard” in the USA). This is what Dorothy says about Yellow Cat and her outdoor heated kitty pad:
“This is a terrible video (see below) shot through double paned glass…but you get the picture. Yellow cat has become very much MY cat, except that I still can’t get near her. She’s fine up close and personal as long as the door is shut. I finally found this sleeping solution for her, though it isn’t ideal as it doesn’t help when it rains. I often wonder, why should I put my personal values on her? When it has been raining, she shows up quite dry, ready to eat. Sometime she and her friend Shadow show up soaking wet but don’t seem to mind. So I feel like I’m lucky she choses to lay here, by my door, where I can watch her. She’s warm comfy on the outdoor heated cat bed I bought on Amazon…..It’s not under cover, but then she wouldn’t use it if it were. She MUST be able to see all around her. It’s her way of life.”
You can see how sensitive Dorothy is to Yellows Cat’s preferences and not foisting her (human) views on a cat, who as we know have their own style of living that fits in quite nicely to ours when they are domesticated.
Here is the video Dorothy refers to:
And this is the product on Amazon.com for the North American market place:
When I rescued my elderly lady cat some 18 years ago it was a freezing cold night in London, UK. I put down a covered kettle full of boiled water in a porch area for her to warm up next to and some food. If I had heard of this outdoor heated pad that would have been so much better.
