many hands make light work......

What a wonderful day we had building some winter shelters for the feral cats. Many hands, large and small, joined together to build warm homes for the cats - a refuge from the wintry climes on the shores of Lake Erie. The shelters are placed in inconspicuous areas within the existing colony, filled with straw and await the furry bodies. The warmth radiated from the cats themselves is contained within the small space and provides a comfortable place for them to get the shelter they need.

We started the previous day by gathering all the necessary building materials according to plans that we obtained from Neighborhood Cats. Of course a few items were overlooked and we had to make a couple of extra trips, but for the most part we were pretty organized. The morning of our shelter building event, all the various components were pre-cut so as to make a mini assembly line when putting them all together.

The work went fairly quickly. Each team member had a specific task and before long we were working away, cutting, applying contact paper to the interior walls and finally siliconing all the parts together.

Erin did a wonderful job on quality control, ensuring that all the parts fit 'just so' during the entire process. Adding the roof was the final step in the assembly phase.



The shelters were then whisked away to a warm place to allow the silicone to cure. The last step in the process will be to paint them in colours that will help them blend into their surroundings. Plenty of straw for those cold, wintry nights and voila, home sweet home.

Thanks to Brendan the entire process was captured in pictures and on video, so stay tuned for a couple of video clips!