Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're wavering, just pull the trigger and get it. Background: I've been trying to tame a feral for over a year now. I finally have her comfortably eating and sleeping on the back deck, and in a major breakthrough she began letting me pet her about a month ago. But we're still not on picking-up terms, and she thinks the house harbors cat-eating monsters. Last year I got her a Kitty Tube shelter, but she wouldn't go near it and survived the brutal NE winter sleeping in leaf piles, judging by her fur. Every time I saw her bounding through snowdrifts higher than her head my heart cracked a little. This year I resolved to get her into the darn shelter. I started by placing her favorite blankie (the "Mysterious Purr Pad") into just the flipped lid on the deck. No problem. Then I moved the pad into the body of the kitty tube, with the lid off so she could see the sky and not feel trapped. After a while, she adjusted. But when I put the shelter's lid on, she took off for parts unknown again. I decided to try a heated pad in a last ditch effort, and settled on the small sized Lectro-Soft because it was reasonably priced and would easily fit into the 22" diameter (round) Kitty Tube. I started with the Lectro-Soft underneath the Purr Pad in the top-free shelter again. She took one step on it, settled down, and barely budged for 48 hours. Impressive. The moment of truth loomed when I saw rain in today's forecast. The shelter top went on just as the first drops hit after breakfast. She poked her nose through the entrance, pondered her options and lit out for the territories. Rats. But wait! I went down a few hours later, and there, between the raindrops, glimpsed a furry ear inside the shelter. She peered out at me through the downpour like, "Yeah? You were saying?" I'm now feeling much more sanguine about the winter. PRACTICAL DETAILS: the many heated pad options may be confusing (I was confused!) This one is more flexible than the rigid "Extreme" or "Original" versions, but it has a tough vinyl coating with a removable soft cover, and seems plenty durable. The 14" x 18" pad initially looks small, but cats hunker down or curl up in ways that compact their bodies. The only caveat is the size of the plug head, which didn't fit through the cord hole in the Kitty Tube (the pad the Kitty Tube folks manufacture - at twice the price - has a segmented cord that threads through the small opening.) I just ran the cord through the door of the shelter instead. I'm attaching photos so you can see the set up. (First = Lectro Soft inside the Kitty Tube with the roof off; second = power cord coming through the KT opening.) Bottom line? This thing makes cats happy, which makes us happy. Get it. EDIT: I discovered the Lectro-Soft's one weakness: if anyone pees on it, it's hard to get the urine smell out of the soft vinyl cover. I discovered this when another (male) stray tried to move in on my girl cat's territory. I ended up buying the "original" pad, which is rigid plastic and doesn't retain odors, for my girl feral. The new male inherited the lectro-soft he'd peed on. Now they're both warm & happy.