yearly maintenance

Can you believe it's been over a year now since I built the kitty village for Oliver? I'm having a hard time believing it's been a whole revolution around the sun, but indeed it has.

I took advantage of the sunny Saturday and did some maintenance on the village. I've learned a few things since I built these various structures so I figured I might update them based on my new knowledge.

Too many times have I seen Oliver cornering Brown Kitty in the Dining Hall. Just the other day I looked out and saw Oliver on the roof of the Dining Hall while Brown Kitty was trapped inside. I was successfully able to distract Oliver away so Brown Kitty could escape. My solution was to remove the plexi-glass window from the back of the Dining Hall, so now cats can come and go from the front and the back!

With a front and rear entrance, Brown Kitty will no longer be trapped

One thing I've learned over this past year is that outdoor kitty houses ideally should have two entrances to prevent a cat from being trapped inside by a predator, or in my case by Oliver. I was resistant to add a second entrance because it would let more cold air in, but after seeing how Oliver corners Brown Kitty in places, I thought it might be a worthwhile tradeoff. So, I added a back exit to both houses.

Oliver's House with new rear entrance

I also added a fleece curtain on all entrances of both houses. Hopefully the curtain cuts down on the cold drafts. We'll see how well they work.

Oliver's Guest House

I still need to relocate Oliver's Guest House back into the side yard. The experiment of having it near the garage was a fail. No one used it. I'm thinking I'll move it back to where it was first located.

Quality control is important

Post-snoopervising union mandated break

I also did some work on the new feeder. I gave it a coat of primer and two coats of paint. It'll be a lot easier to clean now.

Oliver's family approves of the new paint job

Oliver walking in the lilac tree branch