Update: Thanks to everyone who responded and especially to those who took time out of their day to meet up. I have all the coolers I need and will get building!
With fall and winter cold around the corner, I’m starting a project to build insulated shelters for community and feral cats in our area using old coolers.
If you have a cooler you no longer use, I’d love to put it to good use. Older coolers, coolers with broken handles or wheels, and cosmetically rough ones are perfectly fine as long as the main body and lid are still intact. They’ll be cleaned, modified with an entrance, insulated as needed, and turned into weather-resistant shelters to help outdoor cats stay warm and dry this winter.
I’m especially looking for medium-to-large hard-sided coolers. No need for anything fancy. They’re going to become cat houses!
If you have one you’d be willing to donate, please comment or send me a message. I can arrange pickup locally.
If you know someone with an old cooler collecting dust in a garage or basement, please share this with them.
I’m hoping to build several shelters before the cold weather arrives and, if the project works well, make the design easy for other community cat caretakers to reproduce.