The kitties have a new dog house for shelter. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner!

The cats were banished to the back porch earlier this year after we got fed up with them peeing on the carpet in our office, occasionally spraying our living room furniture, and clawing holes in said carpet and furniture. The peeing had gotten out of control. We got to the point of laying plastic garbage bags in front of the litter boxes and we’d come home to puddles of urine on them. It was filthy.

The carpet still smells and I’m sure the only way we’ll ever get rid of the odor is to tear it out. We’ve probably spent $150 on various enzymatic cleaners with moderate success.

We love the cats, but couldn’t handle the mess, so out they went. We asked around if anyone wanted cat or 5, but had no takers and our local shelter has a 70-90% kill rate, so it wasn’t an option.

Our back porch is only screened, and Florida summers are full of violent thunderstorms. We placed several cat carriers out for shelter, but rain would blow in the openings. The poor things would get wet and scared. This weekend it hit me – why not buy a dog house?

The cats love it. They can lie on the roof and doze, and when the weather is bad most of them snuggle up together inside. Perfect!

We would eventually like to enclose the porch…if only the home improvement fairy would wave her wand! Maybe she’d replace the funky carpet, too.