Feline Furniture Feral Cat House - Green

I`ve noticed that improvements have been made as of the end of last year and I would be really interested to know what they were. I ordered one of these houses the end of the year before last. When it arrived it had cracked slightly on one side during shipping. It was still usable but I wanted one that was not damaged. I called the company and spoke to the owner himself who was a wonderful man. He shipped me out another immediately and told me to use or donate the other. I was truly impressed with his customer service. I have several ferals and have these two shelters and three of the hard plastic dog igloos. The body of the shelter is waterproof and with alot of hay seems to keep them relatively warm and dry. I wish the bottom half was deeper so they could really snuggle down in there. The opening at both ends allows them to feel less vulnerable if they want to make a quick escape. The flaps could perhaps be made out of a heavier material because after awhile the magnets fell off of these and they just flap in the wind offering no protection from the wind or cold. The little paper awnings should also be made from a more substantial material because mine became torn and useless in no time. The fact that they`re so low to the ground concerns me when there`s even a few inches of snow.All of that said one of my ferals loved it until he was forced out by the larger one who also loved it (Even though I have a total of 5 shelters I have one very large feral who claims all of them as his own) and now a possum has moved in. Neither of these last two problems have anything to do with the quality of the product. They`re best used on a porch or breezeway where they arn`t really directly in the elements. As I said I would love to know exactly what the improvements were. Though I`ve lost his number the owner was such a great guy I`m sure he would be open to suggestions for improvement. I would say the sale price is more in alignment with it`s worth. UPDATE: 2/7/13 As soon as Scott, the owner of this company, saw my review he sent me an email outlining the improvements and asking me to call him to discuss. I haven`t done so yet but I plan to. I want to reiterate again you just CAN`T beat this company for customer service and that`s a HUGE consideration when buying any product. They absolutely will stand behind their product!

We have a little tame stray kitten that started appearing on our balcony a couple months ago. We are on a ground-floor apartment, so the balcony is only about two or three feet above the ground. Because of severe cat allergies, we couldn't take the kitten indoors, but we did start feeding her. Because we are in a northern state, we became concerned about the kitten being able to keep warm and out of the snow. We started researching various cat shelters and almost bought a different one, except we saw in reviews that the competitive product often broke under the slightest strain, such as a cat jumping on it. After reading many more reviews, we decided to order the Feline Furniture Feral Cat House.It was purrfect. We ordered it hoping to receive it by Christmas. The shipping was supposed to be 7-10 days. It came much more quickly. It was fully assembled in the box. I put in two pinches of the catnip that came with the house (and still have a good reserve of the catnip) and put it out on our balcony as our kitten looked on. I put up the heavy felt flaps using the magnets and let her investigate it. I don't think she would go in if it had only one entrance. She climbed on top and generally investigated it. I had installed the awnings, and she stepped out onto both of those and had them start to bend under her weight. Because we have the house on a covered balcony, I decided to just reverse the awnings until she got used to the house. It wasn't long before she was inside.One caveat: open the box outside. I had thought the wheat straw was optional, and thought the house would be empty, so I pulled it out of the box, picked it up and looked inside. Most of the straw stayed inside, however, I did have to pick some out of the carpet.We've now had the house out there for about a week, and our kitten seems to really enjoy it. She'll lay inside and we'll dangle cat toys in front of the entrance to the house. She'll reach out and grab the toy or pounce from within the house. She'll zoom through the house while playing; she'll hide behind it or beside it; she'll sometimes even go over the top. When she's inside, she seems to be warm and comfortable and will stay inside for hours.We had an incident tonight (23 DEC). As my wife went out to feed Miss O'Malley, she saw another cat out on the sidewalk nearby. She said this other cat was huge. A few minutes later, she looked outside and said, "That other cat is eating O'Malley's food!" I ran out and chased the other cat away, and it was huge, at least ten times the size of Miss O'Malley. It must have been part Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat. I started looking around for Miss O'Malley to see if the other cat had chased her off the balcony or hurt her in any way. She had made a strategic retreat from the monster into her Feral Cat House where she was protected, safe, and cozy, if a little annoyed by the other cat.One other thing to mention is the response from the company. I sent a few pictures in of Miss O'Malley to Feline Furniture, along with some thoughts on the product. The response was very quick, even at what is a busy season of the year for most retail and manufacturing concerns. I have to imagine that their business goes up with people thinking about the onset of winter, yet the response was almost immediate. This is a company to do business with.

This feral cat house was placed on our covered back porch on a cement slab with straw in it. After three months, the wood had rotted and pieces were falling off. It stayed perpetually damp inside. Even though we had several feral cats nearby, the bedding inside stayed undisturbed for the three years that we had it out there. By the end, the wood was black, and the cat house had fallen apart. It was a total waste of money and effort, and benefited no one except spiders.Do not recommend.