A stray inspired a Minnesota family to build a heated ‘cat condo’ — and livestream it
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When Ola May VanDette was in the hospital in North Carolina with pneumonia, her daughter tried to find videos online to distract her. She landed on the Up North Cat Condo, a 24/7 livestream of outdoor cats from Frazee.
VanDette has never been to Minnesota, but she soon realized that doesn’t matter. The community she became a part of welcomed her and served as a much-needed distraction. She was hooked. Instead of sleeping, VanDette would stay up and watch the livestream.
“I couldn’t turn it off,” she said. “I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next and what other people chatting had to say about it.”
Quickly, the cats and their family — Jill, Kevin and Ashley Mohn — as well as the people commenting in the chat from around the world, became like family to VanDette in a time when she felt isolated.
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“I have felt very, very alone. It’s almost silly, but it feels like a family around me, listening to the other people talk and sharing a little bit. I had no idea that if I shared something, it would turn out to be something that people would appreciate hearing from me.”
The Mohn family said when they started the Up North Cat Condo livestream they never imagined the comfort and entertainment it would bring.
Everything started in the dead of this winter when Jill started catching glimpses of a thin, feral cat in her yard. The cat was scared and would rarely come up close to the house.
The family had cats before, so they knew to give her time and, soon enough, she was coming closer to the house with her three kittens. The Mohn family strategized — it would only get colder, and they knew they had to protect the cats. They tried to lure the cats inside, but they refused. So Kevin got to work and created what he has coined the “cat condo.”
He used an old dog house and refurbished it into a heated two-story home for the cats.
“It kind of got a hold of me, I just wanted to keep adding things,” he said. “We got it functionable before the weather got too cold, that was the goal. It has heating and lights, there’s some things to improve on, but it’s been really, really fun so far.”
There is a heat lamp, insulation, food, water, blankets and even some art hung up for the cats to enjoy. Kevin says he finds himself waking up in the middle of the night to check on the cats outside his window.
“You see a paw or somebody stretching or licking each other, the temperature says it is 75 and it is zero or above outside, it was kind of an unexpected feel-good situation. It took me by surprise how pleasurable it was to see them comfortable and safe,” he said.
The mother cat, rightfully named Such-A-Good-Mama, and the three kittens, Lila, Lucy and Larry, spend their days lounging in the condo, coming out for food and playing in the snow.
Ashley Mohn decided more people deserved to adore the cat family so she started social media accounts for the condo and a YouTube channel for the livestream that kicked off on Dec. 25. Ashley, a mental health therapist, says it is slowly taking over her life.
“I didn’t expect this all to occur, now it is my hobby. I go to bed and I dream about what I need to be doing, it’s just funny. It’s great, it brings joy. There’s a lot of people who are isolated in the world and it’s bringing those people together,” she said. “Winters are cold here. When it’s too cold to even go outside it’s nice to have something else to do and connect with other people.”
People from across the globe send Ashley photos of their cats watching the livestream and reacting. Fans chat about the cat’s behaviors, analyzing their every move, but they also talk about their own lives and how the livestream has helped them.
Ashley shared the story of a loyal viewer.
“He was talking, we had no idea what his story was and then he was like ‘my cancer came back, and I have to start treatment again but this is giving me hope, and I can keep going because I want to keep watching these cats.’ I was like holy crap, you just get goosebumps. It’s insane, it’s awesome.”
Before the livestream, Ashley says her dad, Kevin, had “never touched a computer.” Now, he hosts videos on the YouTube channel.
He plans to continue improving the condo in the spring and building new designs for other people who want to keep their neighborhood feral cats safe.
“It’s all just new to me,” he said. “It just came out of left field, but it sure has been great seeing people happy and that makes us happy. A cup of coffee tastes pretty good while watching these kitties.”
