We had never put the cars in the garage - it was just full of bikes and boxes, but so we were happy to set it up for the stray cats. We didn't want to put in a cat door until we knew they would come in. So we propped open the garage door with a picnic cooler. We have the back seat from our old van in the garage and we put towels on it to keep it from getting too muddy. In front of the car seat, we put a space heater. We'd peek into the garage at night and see cats sleeping on the car seat, so we knew they wanted to get warm.

With the garage door propped open, a lot of heat was being lost. As a quick solution, we bought insulation rolls with plastic covering - the kind that goes around water heaters. With heavy-duty packing tape, we "hung" the insulation from the bottom of the garage door so it would fill the gap under the door. We left an opening, of course, and covered the insulation edges with plastic bags so the cats wouldn't get insulation on their fur when they come into the garage. The insulation helped retain the heat a lot. Although it was never all that warm in the garage, it was a lot better than outside, and it was dry. When we'd peek in, we'd see a line of little cats cuddled up together on the cat seat with the space heater directed at them. I can tell you that it made me incredibly happy to see them out of the cold on those winter nights. When some terrible snowstorms came, our little stray cats were warm and dry.

We have a number of regular cats who sleep in the garage and some who just come for the food there. All of the regulars have names, of course. We feed them wet food in bowls and dry food in a feeder, as well as fresh water. Of course, they eat up the wet food first. Often when we go into the garage to put out the food, there are a number of our regulars there waiting patiently. We move slowly and don't try to touch them. The cats all do their business outside; we have never seen any cat poop in the garage and it smells just fine. Cats are tidy little animals. Periodically, we wash the towels on the car seat to keep their sleeping area clean.

Now that it's warmer, the cats spend most of their days outside. We often don't even see them when we peek in before going to bed. We know they've been there, however, because the food is gone when we check in the morning. We are going to do trap-neuter-return with some humane traps borrowed from Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary of Sussex County, Delaware. We had to wait for the warmer weather to neuter the girls because they need that fur on their tummies to stay warm. In Delaware, the state provides low cost spay/neuter, so it's a good idea to check and see if your state does that. Also, most places have active groups that help with spay/neuter of stray cats.

We've decided to convert the garage into three rooms: a game room, a storage room and a cat room. There will be a cat door in the garage that goes into a little room with a window in the wall for ventilation and so the cats can see outside. We are building a few wide shelves on the wall because some cats seem to like to sit up high. We'll have an electric fan to cool the room in summer and baseboard heat for the winter. Some people might think we are crazy to do this. I laugh when I hear comments about “cat ladies” because it was my husband that started our little cat colony. We get so much pleasure out of seeing these stray cats get a little comfort in life. We are going to put a square of glass in the new game room with a curtain so we can peek into the cat room.

Feral cats are real outcasts in our society. They suffer from hunger and exposure. They are hit by cars, attacked by dogs, and abused by mean-spirited people. Many people don't know that vast majority of animals killed at so-called “shelters” are cats. We hope that more people will consider making a space for feral cats in the garage or shed, feed them and do trap-neuter-return to minimize unwanted kittens. It'll make you feel great because you will really be doing some good in the world.