Meow Ministry

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Birthday to Carol Ann!

12/10/2025

Great job making these shelters!

❄️🐈 DIY WINTER CAT SHELTER: A Cheap & Easy Way to Save Lives! 🏠❄️

Cold weather is here, and community cats need a warm place to sleep. You can build a high-quality shelter for almost $0 using recycled materials! Here is the step-by-step guide to building the shelter shown in the photo.

🛠️ THE MATERIALS

Styrofoam Shipping Cooler: (Thick walled is best!)

Where to get them: Ask local pet stores or fresh seafood markets if they have discarded shipping coolers. Checking their disposal areas or "dumpster diving" are great ways to find them for free!

Insulation: STRAW (Not hay! Hay absorbs moisture and freezes; straw repels moisture).

Covering: Black EPDM pond liner (Best for heat absorption/durability) OR Heavy-duty Black Contractor Bags (Great budget option!).

Base: 2x4 scrap wood or bricks.

Weights: Landscaping pavers or heavy bricks.

Duct Tape.

📝 INSTRUCTIONS

1. PREP THE BASE Place your wooden boards or bricks on the ground. Make sure they are flat and level. This elevates the shelter off the frozen ground, which is crucial for keeping the interior warm.

2. PREPARE THE COOLER

Cut a 6-inch entrance hole on one of the long sides (towards the corner, not the center, to reduce drafts).

Fill the bottom loosely with straw for bedding.

Put the lid on tight and seal the entire seam where the lid meets the box with duct tape to keep wind out.

Use duct tape to reinforce the edges of the entrance hole so the styrofoam doesn't crumble or scratch the cat.

3. WRAP & COVER

Cover the top and 3 sides (leaving the front open) with your black plastic or EPDM liner.

Why black plastic? It helps waterproof the box and absorbs heat from the sun during the day! ☀️

Budget Tip: If you can't afford pond liner, thick black contractor trash bags work great.

4. WEIGHT IT DOWN

Place a heavy landscaping paver directly on top of the shelter. This holds the plastic in place and keeps the shelter from blowing away.

Extend the plastic flaps to the ground on the sides and weight them down with extra bricks/pavers.

5. LOCATION Place the shelter in a spot protected from the wind if possible.

***A plastic cat flap can be cut, and all sides covered with plastic in extreme environments.

♻️ SHARE THIS POST to help others keep kitties warm this winter!

10/20/2025

The happy endings are worth it!

We really want to thank each and everyone of you! You all have been fantastic at supporting us to help the kitties in our program. This week has been tough. Just when we thought we could breathe! Another kitty for surgery and a young healthy boy went in for a check up to prepare for adoption and he was found to be diabetic. Another one of our seniors is showing rapid decline but stable.

Without the support these cats wouldn't be able to have the medical care they need. Instead they most likely would not have survived on the streets where many were left or would have ended up to fend for themselves.

The trauma they experience is real. The after effects of starvation, illness and stress lingers. Its never ending.

We truly appreciate each of you more than you can imagine. Sadly the need is daily for every rescue. Whether dog, cat, farm animals etc.

Please keep supporting the animals. Rescuers are all exhausted from working to keep the animals safe, fed and warm. Exhausted from stressing about how to make it work, and worrying if we do enough.

We are all struggling!

09/22/2025

Here is a post from Janine the Bean. Meow Ministry collects food and monetary donations for Janine the Bean, Ferals and Kittens and Cats Oh My (Carol Ann) and Helping Hands for forgotten Felines (Carol P.).
If you have food, call the church for hours to drop off. Checks can be written to Messian Lutheran, c/o Meow Ministry. Click on the About heading for address, phone, etc. Thank you!

This is what it takes to feed the Beachwood cats every day. Please help with food.

09/13/2025

The Meow Ministry is returning to Messiah Church on Sunday at 10:00, so stop in and say hi!