Crookers The Cat: A Year in the Box

While the dog theme is deeply engraved here at CogDogBlog we are inclusive to… cats. This is a story of Crookshanks the Cat, who showed up on our acreage and crawled into our hearts. And… survived a year outside in the -30ºC Saskatchewan winter.

But First, The Oscar Story and His Condo

First of all, we live on a 16 acre rural property 20 km outside of Moose Jaw. It was maybe 3 years ago, or more, we started spotting a grey and white cat wandering around. As it is we do, we decided he needed a handle, my father-in-law chose “Oscar” as a name. Oscar spent much time around our open barn, we figured he had a hiding spot underneath the barn to sleep and shelter, but it had to be damned cold. For an outside cat, he sure seemed rather tidy clean.

We keep a motion triggered trail camera outside (Campark model H80) to monitor wildlife, especially our resident foxes, and Oscar became a regular feature.

Into December. Cori and I were concerned about how Oscar would survive in the coming cold. I took on a project over the holiday break, to build an insulated wood “condo” that would sit inside our large storage shed (opposite the barn), where we could also have a heater inside to keep it less warm. The “design” we cam up with was “something 5 feet by 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall”. I got some lumber supplies and spent 2 days in the garage more or less making it up as I went.

I had an old piece of glass I thought would be good to see inside, and would figure out wxactly how to build the interior door for us to access from the inside.

We thought Oscar (and maybe any other future cats) would enjoy some perches.

It all went together, including a roof, and so it was ready to move over to the storage shed… except I had mis-calculated how damn heavy it was! I thought I’d be able to tip it onto my truck, but the thing was too damn heavy.

Fortunately I have Cori, who has good ideas, as well as Matilda, our farm tractor. We got it in the bucket, and managed to get it inside and settle on a raised floor on.a block platform.

There was more to do, adding insulation and plastic on the exterior, building and hanging the access door, and making a tunnel to connect the cat entrance and a hole cut in the exterior of the shed.

Then it was almost ready, with some extension cords and a light and heat lamp hung from the ceiling.

And the front entrance was just a wood flap. A new trail camera mounted so we could check on the activity, and sprinkle some food to draw Oscar in.

We moved the camera inside so we could check on Oscar’s winter comfort. He did very well! This photo is already into April, so he had gotten through the worst weather.

I did realize a design problem, that front facing door to the outside with just a wood flap on a hinge was a direct shot for icy cold air to blow right in.

That’s Not a Cat in the House

Sometime around September, maybe, our trail cameras picked up another cat who had landed here, a scrawny black one we named Poppy. Now Poppy roamed widely, we saw here in trees and all over the property. There were very few photos of her inside Oscar’s house, once where it looked like there was a scuffle.

But then, a less desirable character showed up!

Yikes! A coyote in the Condo! This is not good.

As a remedy to the cold wind from last winter, we decided to move an old doghouse left on the property against the exterior, and then opened a side entrance for the cat.

With some help of YouTube videos we learned a method to keep the coyotes out- build inside that entrance way a series of 90 degree turns that a cat could navigate but a coyote not. It took several iterations but it worked! Our photos showed Oscar in the house but not the coyotes.

But…

Something happened, because we stopped seeing Oscar completely, and we sadly concluded that the coyotes had tracked him down outside. These were sad times for us.

Enter Crookshanks

While we wondered about Oscar, we saw on the outdoor camera near the barn regular sitings of the black cat Poppy, but in October last year, a new one who showed up bright white on the night camera.

Ah, but in daylight it turned out to be a beautiful orange tabby that got the name “Crookshanks” (from the Harry Potter fans in the house) but ended up getting called all kinds of variations “Crookers” “Caption Crookster” “The Crooklemiester” etc.

Crookshanks took well to the condo life.

We took to regular feeding of Crookshanks, it was a daily routine to go out to the shed, open the door, and place a can of wet food inside (Felix the dog became enamored with licking the can).

At first Crookshanks retreated to the tunnel when we entered her place. But over time, she got more used to us, one time going nose to nose with the dog, and eventually allowing us to scratch and hold her.

She never seemed to wander too far, we never saw her roaming the property like Poppy cat.

This was a fine arrangement for all of us- she was comfortable out there, had gotten through the deep cold. We were not planning on any kind of move in the house.

Until.

The Coyote Return

We came back in September or October from a weekend away, and Cori noticed Crookshanks standing on the roof of the doghouse entrance to her condo and yowling. And then right after, we saw a young coyote pacing not too far away.

We could not stand losing another cat to the coyote! We quickly scrambled to set up a spot in the basement. We went out to her condo with food like usual, Cori scooped her up and was able to bring her over to the house. Our plan was to slowly get her, and the two indoor cats accustomed to each other. Plus, to make Crookers a house cat, we had to first get her checked out by our vet, who was kind to get us in quickly.

It was funny when we came to pick up Crookshanks at the vet. The receptionist greeted us with a smile and said, “Congratulations! It’s a Boy!” An thus we have gender confused the cat, but the heck with pronouns. The good news was “he” was fixed, and was in good health, a guess of maybe five years old.

Crookers in The House

Cori assured me cats instinctively knew about the litterbox, which I might have doubted given Crookers had gone whereever he/she needed out there. But it was true! We set Crookers up in the basement with food, water, toys, all the good stuff.

Oh was that cat every hungry for attention! It wanted to be in your lap always and made all kinds of happy yowls for joy.

It was then a matter of periodically opening the basement door for the two inside cats, Maggie and Ollie to get to know Crookers. We wanted to do this slowly, under supervision, until we knew that all the cats (as well as Felix) were getting along, and no one would be sprating.

The door to our basement originally had a cat door, but I had closed it before as we so no need for the house cats to go down there. I built a rack for the door where we could slide in a solid board to keep closed, a screen mesh door so critters on each side could each see, or just open for free passage.

The Adjustment

Crookers was curious but cautious coming up and was very cozy with the humans, would just crave sitting with us on the couch.

Alas, but not so well with Maggie and Ollie, both females. With confirmation of Crookers being technically a male cat, and much bigger, we started seeing worrisome behavior. He would chase the 2 female cars and trap them in corners. He did not attack but he seemed to be aggressively dominating them, maybe to monopolize human attention (?guessing at Cat Psychology). Ollie got scared a few times and peed.

Alas, we were realizing that maybe the inside the house stability was in danger. We started pondering if we should find Crookers a home where he could be the boss or sole cat. We put the word out to people we thought might want to take Crookers in/

A New Home

Cori’s daughter in Saskatoon located friends, a young couple who just moved into a new home, and were keen to have a cat. With heavy hearts we drove north, with all the favorite things he had in the basement, to have Crookers and them meet. It was instant happiness for all, Crookers had an entire house to roam, and full attention. The young couple instantly bonded.

It felt right.

And it was, since then we have gotten a regular streams of a very happy cat and just as happy humans around him. Videos of him yowling in joy, sitting in a chair at the table, just being loved.

It’s November and …

We are both happy that Crookers has a beautiful home, not in a box in the cold, not with coyotes at the door. And we can wonder if we should have given it more time or tried something different. There are no answers. We have the entire story and memory of Crookers the Cat in the Box.

Yet.

Our hearts remain heavy. For all this cat and we went through. Every winter day, we would trudge out to feed Crookers, but also to give and get a little affection. Damn if a cat does not end up being so much more. And the cat is sure loved. That is the best thing, right? Right?

Just on Friday, Cori messaged me after driving into school with a message about it being November– “I saw a grey cat sitting on the dumpster bin.” And sure enough, mid morning I saw a gray and white cat, almost the colors of Oscar, saunter by the French door windows, and walking down the deck stairs before I could grab the phone.

Is it time for another outdoor cat? Just in case, we prep the cat door we had rigged in the garage for Poppy the black cat (who just vanished in September and is a story of her own) to get shelter. We put a little bit of food out, plugged in the electric warming pad in the shelter I build below the deck where Poppy wintered.

Yeah, there is more to us around here than dogs, you see?

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Featured Image: Crookers the cat relaxing in the outside “condo” December 15, 2024. The inside temperature was quite nice 15ºC because of maybe less cold outside temps our how effective the condo was at staying warm!