Outdoor Cat Shelter with Escape Door

Very Sturdy, looks Great. East to put together..

We got this for a kitty who was abandoned when her owner moved away. It's sturdy, easy to put together, been waterproof and it's a good size for her. We put straw and warming pads in it during the winter and cooling pads in the warm months. This has been the kitty's home for about 18 months or so now and she does use it regularly.

Is it cheap materials, yes. Were there a couple pieces that were cracked, yes. Does it save me from having to design/build a cat house, also yes. This cat house is good, almost great. Could be excellent with better quality materials. I wouldn't depend on this house alone to keep your cat warm. It is thin cheap wood. It would probably do best under a covered porch, not out in the open. I wouldnt trust it to hold up in the weather. Plan to buy insulation and attach to walls if you want your cats to be warm. Overall, its a good purchase. Customer service was fast and they gave me a discount for cracked pieces that I had to fix. It looks really cute with a fresh coat of paint and some Christmas decorations. I will update photos when I add the insulation.

My house was in very good condition when it arrived, with a minor crack that was easily glued. The paint was very good, and the manufacturer responded immediately to my questions about how to fix and offered replacement parts if i wanted. They were very open to suggestions and corrections. Previous review about short screw to attach roof was corrected, my house came with long roof screws. I chose to insulate roof with foam panel from Home Depot, easy to cut with kitchen knife. We assembled with wood glue and are caulking openings and weather proofing and sealing exterior. We are keeping this house under porch eave until they improve design to make it able to withstand rain from entering the top porch entrance, per my comments to manufacturer as follows: I would like to compliment whoever designed this clever house. However, here are some practical suggestions, which are not a criticism of this fine design, but rather, based upon a lot of experience with outdoor cat housing in snow and rain. This house must be under a porch roof to really be rain proof, but it would be good to make it so it can truly be outside. I think that the idea to make it accessible for cleaning by removing the floors instead of the roof was a good idea, but it doesn't work for this reason: rainwater will hit the top outside porch shelf, and slide into the top floor, getting the pet bedding wet no matter what you do. It will help if you put a low barrier, like a 1 or 2" threshold at the doorway. The cat can still cross it to get in. Because the top floor slides out, there are gaps that strong wind can leak thru. So no matter what, i still think it would be best to go with a sealed upper floor, and make house accessible thru the roof. If a hinge is not practical because the wood could split, maybe you could design the roof as a one piece structure that sits on top with a deep cap, and a ring of weatherstripping or a seal that fits into the house like a cork. You could secure it with a hand tightened wingnut for easy removal. Then just make the floor so you can lift it out to access sealed bottom floor. Also, i prefer to have the cut out opening for the top floor placed next to the window side of house, because any cat bed would need to be pushed up against wall opposite window so cat can look out. Since you located the floor entrance hole opposite the window, That puts the hole where a cat bed need to be, and leaves it unsupported and would cover the hole up. The way it is designed now, the hole must be left open for access, which means the cat has to back up against the window to sleep, and it's harder to keep an eye out for predators. I thought i could just flip the floor panel over to reverse its direction, but because there is the little notch and braces, it doesn't work, unless i do a little construction work. However, i do see the logic your designer employed, because the current design separates the outdoor opening away from the upstairs access hole, providing protection from direct wind or predator coming upstairs. My idea would result in any wind coming in the lower door would more easily get upstairs if you used my idea to move the hole closer to the window side. So an alternative would be to leave the design as is, and move the window itself over to the opposite solid wall. This would be great, but would require the house to be placed with the one solid back wall against your house for bracing, and lessen the ability to back the cat house along its side against a structure. I would be fine with that, as cat house would then stick out long ways instead of sideways, but some people might prefer it as it is for a shallower profile. And finally, it would be good to put a small hole in corner of floor board for access for an outdoor heater plug. Most of us want this to be waterproofed and insulated for outdoor use. You can see how I bought insulation panels to improve roof interior insulation cut to size. This thick panel also solves the problem of the long gap along interior ceiling-roof line, which allows wind to come through. It would be good to insulate the entire house. I would actually be willing to pay more if this work was already offered in a deluxe model. Thank you for a fine product, and being so open to suggestions for improvement, and actually acting upon them.

Size is great for my 2 cats and it was easy to assemble but it had chips in the wood and one side of the house has missing paint.

This home was pretty easy to put together. It didn’t take very long maybe an hour. There is a pine smell that didn’t seem to bother my cat. I’m sure this will decrease with time spent outdoors. I didn’t need to use the step or platform for the entrance, the cat prefers to enter without it. The entrance is pretty small as you can see in the photo, which made entering with the platform really awkward for him. My cat has a smaller fabric house that he was using before so I put it inside there to help him adjust to the house. He doesn’t seem to care about the exit in the back so not having it accessible wasn’t a problem for us. This keeps my cat dry in the rain and gives him a nice place to sleep in the shade. I have a heating pad in there too but haven’t needed to use it yet. It could probably use some insulation for winter because it doesn’t have any, but for now it won’t need to be modified. I am very pleased that there are adjustable feet on this box as I have an uneven patio! Also it’s actually really beautiful in person. Would recommend this house for your cat. Update: we had a big storm lots of rain, you know the sideways kind, there’s a small amount of water coming in from the front entrance. The rest of the house remained dry inside! The wind was blowing so hard and I was pleased to know my cats home wouldn’t blow away like his old one did. Still happy with purchase. His other fabric house was useless in comparison.

I've had this cat shelter for about a year now and it's amazing, it's sturdy even in severe weather conditions. Both my cats love it! Fits 2 medium sized cats.