Deb, it's under the porch. DH has it set up and i trust his knowledge with construction. If I ever write an article about this i will include the specific details.

Claybird that is great on the sheets of insulation. I might do that later.

Anyone have any idea on making cheap homemade pet food?

I found a good article on what their requirements are:

http
://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2243+2244&aid=701

The most important thing I heard is that you can feed a dog cat food but you cannot feed a cat dog food.

There is a special requirement for cats called Taurine...

http
://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine#In_animal_nutrition

That's great info, Burt! Thanks for sharing.

I was able to get a free bag of catfood this week by asking for assistance at my local animal control shelter. That was very nice of them.

Anyone ever do that?

Claybird.....when I was a young girl a stray cat followed me home from school. It stayed in my yard but my parents wouldn't allow the cat into the house so I had to make provisions for it outside. It was winter and cold enough to require a shelter for the animal.

I turned over a large clean, new aluminum trash can onto it's side and aimed the opening towards the outside wall of my house, leaving just a couple of inches for the cat to squeeze through to get into the can. Across the top edge of the open side of the can I put a towel or blanket. I put blankets inside for her too. Then I braced both sides of the can with a piece of chopped firewood to prevent the can from rolling in the wind. Of course having the side of the house almost up against the opening of the can was quite a wind buffer too.

That cat used the aluminum garbage can for shelter every day until my parents finally let me bring the cat into the garage to spend nights. It was simple and it worked.

Cassie, that is a great story. The garbage can idea is so simple and creative! I'm glad your parents finally relented about letting you bring her into the garage. What did you set up for her there?

In the garage the cat slept on a stack of my dad's car tires. It was a stack of 4 tires with some blankets piled on top for warmth.

That sounds cozy! Tires work as insulators, so with the blankets that is nice.

My cheap-date cats love crumpled paper balls and misc string as toys. Gotta love em.

Jill,

We are looking to add a pet dog into our family so I've started using my couponing skills to stock up on cheap/free dog food/supplies so that we will have a stock ready for the new addition.

Also, I"m going to start doing the same for any free cat food that I can get. I can donate those items to a local shelter. We all need help!