Anybody live in the Cape Cod area?

[builder]

I just heard about everyone not haveing power and moving into shelters. I was worried about the animals. Can house cats survive freezing temperatures without a chance to really put on a winter coat?

My furnace was out for 3 days and although it did not get down to freezing inside the house, my short hair cats were cold. It was the very first time I ever saw them go under a blanket.

[spirite]

That's a good question. They probably can if they can find some kind of shelter. My stray apparently went through a whole winter without a home, but he's pretty resourceful. Now it doesn't get frigid in southwestern Virginia, but it does get into the 20s, and the year in question, they got more snow here than we did in upstate NY. My downstairs neighbor at the time told me he (the stray) got stuck during one storm and they had to dig him out. He'd taken shelter in the area underneath the porch of the house across the street and of course got blocked in by the snow and was meowing. So I'm assuming it was below freezing, and he made it. I'm sure he was miserable, but he did survive.

[builder]

I know cats can live in really cold temperatures, but they adjust by growing more fir. I just don’t know that a house cat living in a heated house would be ready for a sudden exposure to freezing weather. The news was interviewing people hanging out in the restaurant try to keep warm and one mentioned that it was 19˚F inside the house. No one has mentioned the animals and around here when the temps get below freezing, they always announce bring the pets inside or make sure they have proper shelter.
I was reading about Zoo animals in the winter and they said the big cats had no problem with the cold, but they did mention that they had to increase their food in the winter months.

[spirite]

OMG 19 degrees inside the house?! Brrrr! I didn't think you were talking about temps below freezing *inside*!

I think they'd be ok - maybe not comfortable, but ok - as long as they had somewhere to snuggle up to conserve body heat. And I would definitely leave tons of food out. The stray that I feed, who has a nice house, with a heated pad and bed inside it, eats much more in the winter - he probably gains nearly 2 lbs. In the warmer months, he slinks through the slats in the railing to get on the deck, but in the winter, he has to jump on top of the railing and then back down because he doesn't fit. LOL.

[builder]

Originally Posted by spirite

OMG 19 degrees inside the house?! Brrrr! I didn't think you were talking about temps below freezing *inside*!

I was a little surprised by that myself because when our furnace was out last week. It was 30°F outside and 54°F inside, but we were cooking and using hot water. The electric lights and TV also put off a little heat.

I remember when I was a kid going into a abandon building in the middle of the winter to play hooky from school and it was so cold that it reminded me of a scene out of Doctor Zhivago in a frozen mansion. Needless to say I decided to go to school where it was warm.