Cat Shelter Building Workshop, Toronto Street Cats, Toronto, ON

I was at a cat shelter building workshop today organized by Toronto Street Cats.  The workshops are held every two weeks throughout the fall and winter season in the garage of the Toronto Humane Society ... today was the third one of the season (I was at the first one at the beginning of November).  I went to most of the workshops last year ... it's so nice helping the kitties in Toronto keep warm and dry during the cold winter.

Our mission: improve the lives of Toronto’s homeless cats by offering spay/neuter services, free for feral cats, and building overwintering shelters. We are also working to increase public awareness about Toronto’s homeless cat population and the importance of spay/neuter and trap/neuter/return (TNR). 

We are part of the Toronto Feral Cat Coalition, working together to implement strategic TNR programs to sterilize Toronto’s feral cats, decrease shelter intake and reduce euthanasia rates.

In eight years of building shelters, Toronto Street Cats has made over 6,000 ... in the 2018/19 season, 700 shelters were made!  In addition, to selling the shelters (they are available to caretakers and colonies for $15 and refurbished ones are $5), they also hold free feral spay/neuter clinics and welcome donations.

Today there were 48 volunteers and we made 134 new shelters and refurbished seven previously used ones.

Kevin, a team lead, and Kali, a coordinator, checked volunteers in

Here were the bins which would soon be made into the cat shelters.

Big sheets of insulation were cut for inside the bins.

Thom cut the tubing which would be taped to the the entrance holes into the bins.

My pal, Darlene, is also a volunteer.   She and I worked side-by-side and yakked.

I taped the insulation pieces inside the bins.

Before

After

I also taped the entrance tubing in some.

Before

After

After

Darlene and Shelly in action!

Then the bins were taken over to the next step ...

The bins were filled with straw and instructions and lids were put on top.

Ready to go and be sold!

Carol, one of the coordinators, was cleaning out returned shelters so they could be refurbished and resold.