Chicago Artists Commissioned to Make Outdoor Cat Houses

TATIC, the Terraformer Advancement of Interspecific Communication, opened its doors to the public over the weekend to view outdoor cat houses made by Chicago artists.

We talked to one of the artists and asked what led to this project, and if he sees cats outside. He said there are a few cats in the area that have already visited the garden, and one of the cats goes into his apartment. We talked about TNR, trap-neuter-return, and he said Throop St Ferals was there earlier and has offered their help. Throop St Ferals happens to do TNR in Bridgeport within blocks from TATIC so this is perfect.

It was interesting to me that TATIC made the connection of the cats needing shelters first. Most people start feeding the cats, then want to fix them when the population increases, and then move on to building shelters for them. I can appreciate this roundabout way of trying to learn how to help the cats because I never fed cats initially in my yard either. I rented my first humane trap to try to get a sick cat that would not let me near her otherwise and never stopped trapping since then.

The pyramid cat house was my favorite. It is fully insulated – it just needs a floor added and straw stuffed inside.

They also had other feral cat shelters and cat-themed projects throughout the empty lot.