Last January I walked out to the garage at 6 AM and found the water bowl frozen solid — a disc of ice with a dog tag frozen into it. My dog stood there staring at it like I had betrayed him. I spent the next twenty minutes running hot water over the bowl and … Read more
The first freeze hits my neighborhood in about four weeks, and the colony of three feral cats behind my garage knows it before the weather app does. Last November I paid $150 for a “heated outdoor shelter” from a boutique pet catalog. This year I ran the numbers on five outdoor cat houses and learned … Read more
My dog refused the doghouse all last winter. I built it right — raised floor, insulated walls, a flap door to cut the wind. He would stick his nose inside, sniff, and then curl up on the frozen ground three feet away like the doghouse had offended him. I tried straw bedding. I tried a … Read more