2021 Hoggies & earlybirds on my garden trailcam!

WendyBartter said:

Intrigued as to how this will work PA?..

Be careful of what you wish for. A 'small' hijack of your thread coming up .... it is a Hoggie thread after all.  :-)

So we have a big outdoor cat box. Just a shelter where the cats sit out of the rain and plan world domination.

The box was built out of old scrap wood about ten years ago, but is now in a state of disrepair.

For a few years now there have been piles of leaves being dragged under the old box, we strongly suspect the work of a Hoggie.

The first time we noticed the leaves under the left side of the box Mrs A cleared them, but they were all back again a few days later so we didn't touch them again.

Anyway, the Cat box needs replaced as you can clearly see, so I thought, “if the Hoggies are using it, maybe I could actually incorporate a Hoggie box into the new Cat box”. There’s obviously no guarantee that it’ll get used, but if it’s there, it’s always an option.

I had a wee think about how I could do this, and although it was mainly a ‘plan as you go’ build, I had a basic idea of how this might come together. So here we go, a Cat / Hoggie box in the making.

I used the rough footprint size of the old box to start with, with an entrance to the main Hoggie chamber.

A slightly raised platform was added, just to keep the interior dry and snug.

The walls start to go in. I built the walls really thick to add insulation in the winter months.

Also an additional ventilation hole was inserted.

I didn't want there to be easy access for any potential predators, so an additional tunnel entrance was put in as well.

I actually widened this entrance a bit when I'd finished the build (see 2nd to last photo), I felt it was just a wee bit too narrow. It was initially only 10cm wide, which I have now changed to 13cm.

(We do get some fat Hoggies going about …. No offence to fat Hoggies.!! )

A removable lid was added for purposes of spring cleaning.

Now on to the Cat box bit. The walls begin to go up. It's made of treated fence slats, so I just overlapped them to keep the water out. This also means that I won't need to paint it.!! :-)

 It can just grow old and weathered like the rest of us.

The supervisor arrived to check on the progress.

"Hurry up with it will you.!!"

"Seriously..... Hurry up with it, don't make me have to ask again".!!

I put on an overhang for the roof to help keep everything dry and snug.

The roof starts to go on. I've made a flat bit at the front for general roof sitting.

You can't reasonably expect to plan chaos and world domination from a fully sloping roof.

A sweated felt roof covering goes on. The blow torch melts the tar on the back of the felt so it sticks to the wood.

It'll last for many years. :-)

Finished at last. It took me a couple of days all in.

In place for the Cats to inspect tomorrow.

After all the moaning, they're in the house sleeping now.!!

Leaves from under the old box are put into the new box.

A final view of the entrance tunnel. Note that the width is now 13mm instead of the initial 10mm.

Looking good. I'm off for a lie down now.!! :-)