How cold is too cold?

[TabbyLover]

Hi everybody,

So last night I had an experience I'd only read about in books:

being awoken by an extremely loud yowl directly outside my bedroom window. It doesn't often get below freezing here in north Texas, but last night we enjoyed temperatures of 20 degrees F. I am so mad at whatever neighbor of mine not only lets the cat(s) roam free, but doesn't even bring them in on these cold nights!
It was extremely disturbing both to my sleep and to my own kitties who kept rushing to the window to see what the commotion was about.
I didn't know what to do, since I couldn't bring some strange cat into the house to possibly pass diseases to my boys.

So how cold is too cold?

Incidentally, I found the passage I remembered at 3AM, from my fave Canadian author's Anne of the Island, for your reading enjoyment:

"I don't like my boardinghouse...surely ALL the Kingsport cats can't congregate there at night, but half of them must. I adore cats on hearth rugs, snoozing before nice, friendly fires, but cats in back yards at midnight are totally different animals. The first night I was here I cried all night, and so did the cats. You should have seen my nose in the morning. How I wished I had never left home!"

[eman]

this website might help
http://www.cozycatfurniture.com/cat_newsletters/catnewsletter16.html

[tuttifrutti]

I am in North Texas too, and I do let my cat out still during the cold weather. She usually only goes outside for 10-15 minutes (I think she goes to the restroom, she doesn't like using the litterbox if she can go outdoors.) I make sure that I have her inside before I leave the house and at night. Cats do not adjust very easily to the cold, especially kittys like mine who enjoy the 110 degree weather during the summer!

[Bente]

When Kyrre was still an outdoor cat, he would be outside even when it was -4 degrees F, and that wasn't a problem. I don't know how well cats that are used to warmer weather does in the cold though.