Weather woes

[carriemac]

This weekend and early next week, we're supposed to have record low temperatures in Southwest Ohio. As in the high temperature for the day will be in the negative degrees. It's really hard not to be a dick and make an I-wish-for-global-warming joke right now.

Aside from my personal health issues being aggravated by the cold, I'm terrified for the stray and feral cats I take care of. There are about twenty regulars who come by my house each week. I have feral cat shelters set up and try to keep fresh water and food out for them. But a low of -16? Windshield factors of -40? A high of -1? How will they survive that?

The ones who are tame enough, I'm going to have to figure out a way to get them inside. I have two big crates we use for crate training the dogs I foster, but that's not nearly enough.

I don't even know, and I've only got two days to figure it out.

Comments

[mesonyx]

Northeast Ohio is going to have the same temperature drops next week. Not looking forward to it.

As for the cats - you've got shelters already set up so I don't know what more there is you can do. You can keep food inside the shelters but I wouldn't worry about providing water if there's snow. You don't want to get the shelter soggy. If you have access to a garage or a barn you can try to tempt them into there, but large places like that won't retain heat as well as smaller shelters will.

I wouldn't worry about them too much, to be honest. Realistically you might lose some, but animals are resilient, and if they've been feral all/most of their lives, then they've probably had to last through some tough winters already.

[carriemac]

I try to keep fresh water out now, since last year we lost two strays (that I know of) to antifreeze poisoning. :(

This weather is bonkers--the coldest temps in Cincinnati since 1995!