My Cat’s Foul Weather House. Adequate winter shelter in your own back yard, for a cat or a dog.

Late January 2026. What this house was made for.

This is the “dog” house that our outdoor cat stays in during bad weather. She’s a stray, she showed up 3–4 years ago and she follows me all around as I work and wander around my garden. I built this dog house over twenty years ago. I’ve maintained it through the years and it’s a solid house. The top lifts off.

I placed a sheet of 1-inch foam insulation on the inside bottom, wall to wall, and set in a cardboard box smaller than the house interior, but room enough for a cat or two to bed down. I packed the interior all around the box, including the top, with straw. The box entrance is set back about eight inches inside the house door, with straw all around. The cardboard box is stuffed with straw, also.

The cat has burrowed a snug hole into the straw inside the box and stays warm and dry with straw insulation completely surrounding her, and the foam insulation is a warm bottom barrier, as the house itself is elevated off the ground. The roof overhangs about 10–11 inches front and rear, and the interior never gets wet even during blowing rain and frozen precipitation.

Layers are Key. Use foam insulation. Use lots of straw. Don’t use fabrics. Use a cardboard box as an interior chamber, also stuffed with straw. Keep it all off the cold wet ground. Weather is deadly, it’s a mean ol’ world. If you can’t keep them inside with you, set ’em up right and keep ’em warm outside. You can do more for them than you think you can. You can handle it. Just do it, it’s fun.