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 fifth one of the season ... there's only two left.

I went to most of the workshops over the last two years ... 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.

Today there were 36 volunteers and 90 new shelters were completed, 13 new shelters were 2/3 completed and 10 previously used shelters were completed.  Seriously good homemade mac 'n cheese (including a vegan option) was made fresh that morning by David Jang, husband of coordinator, Kali, for the volunteers for lunch.

Shelters made to date:  6,687

Shelters sold to date: 6,520

Kali, a coordinator, and Kevin, a team lead, checked the volunteers in and sold shelters.

Almost 400 new bins had arrived and Carol, another coordinator, did a tally.

Because the bins were a different size from the last batch, new templates for the inside insulation had to be made.

Stephan

The bins were set out, ready for the insulation.

Big sheets of insulation were cut for inside the bins.

In the past, the instructions were hot-glued to the lid.  Today we Gorilla-taped them on.  That's what I started doing.

Before

After

Then I switched over and taped the insulation pieces inside the bins.

Before

After

Thom drilled holes for the entrances.

Tubing is taped to the the entrance holes into the bins.

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

Kali and Carol thanked everyone for coming and gave us an update.

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.

A refurbished shelter is only $5!