We moved to a house in the forest. There are badgers, foxes, (pine) marten and 3 buzzard on our grounds but everybody living next to us and/or across the road, comes up with the advice: get a cat (or two, three). We're not 'cat persons' but we see the advantage of owning cats. So we decided to contact the local rescue shelter for cats, specifically for cats that don't want to come into the house; cats 'on a mission': catching mice!

Earlier today, a nice lady from the shelter called us, offering us the adoption of three cats: one (app 3 y/o) was found tangled in fish lines and with two hooks in his skin. The other two -siblings- were rescued when walking on the hard shoulder of the motorway. Apparently, all three get along really well, so that's no problem. All are neutered and chipped. Plan is to pick them up on Monday. That gives us today and tomorrow to get all sorts of cat-related items. Knowing my wife, she'll go overboard on this sort of things...

From what we've learned: it's a good idea to put the cats in a locked room for two weeks, to make sure they get used to the new situation. We have an abandoned 13x4m chicken barn behind the house, where they can stay. That box is ticked.
But, what's next, after those two weeks? Keeping them in the barn isn't the problem. Ultimately, I want them to live all year long under a carport in 3 separate 'cat houses' like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLeiTl9jxiQ (Although I've now found out that a 'back door' is also a good idea: as an escape route). How can I get them to move from the chicken barn to the carport 100m down the path? Why the carport? Well, I hope that the cats will act as a physical obstacle for martens to chew the car's wiring!

I'm sure there's a lot to tell us, total novices, what the do's and don'ts are!

Menno