Tiny Homes for Feral Cats: Le Chat-eau de Hey Friend Foundation

This month our favorite carpenter, Cody Patrick Gaudlip, is starting his own construction company specializing in tiny homes!!! We’re so excited for him. Cody is a true animal lover and has a special gift for seeing the beauty all around him.

This past winter, as temperatures started to drop, we began to strategize about how to up our game for keeping our feral family safe from the elements. Our cats have a predator proof barn-like structure (Le Chat-eau) but adding electricity would be a safety hazard. We knew we could do better for them and not surprisingly, Cody came up with what we all now call “a kitty cat stroke of genius”. He was more than excited to take his knowledge of tiny homes for people and apply it to building dwellings for our feral cat colony!

Cody went to work, using some reclaimed wood and/or scraps from previous projects. He insulated the apartments with expanded polystyrene foam board insulation wrapped in galvanized hardware cloth sandwiched between the plywood structure and white FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) shower wall liner for an insulated, rodent-proof, and easily cleaned enclosure.

The cats took to their new tiny homes immediately. Of course, being a feral colony, they are skittish, but we knew they were enjoying their new digs, made evident by the hairballs they left behind. We now see them in their new homes all the time. We designed the enclosures to keep them safe and warm during cold winter nights but on the sunny days of late, we still have full occupancy.

The result of this project brings our cat friends so much joy and on those nights where the wind swirls outside, we sleep a little more soundly because we know they are too.