The chilly winter weather Houston is experiencing this year is motivating animal welfare nonprofits throughout the city to provide quick shelter for at-risk animals.

Friends For Life, an animal shelter and foster care organization, responded to the winter storm that hit the Houston area Tuesday and Wednesday by distributing more than two-dozen small-scale shelters for cats and dogs. Staff members and volunteers at Friends For Life regularly make "WARM houses," shelters composed of Rubbermaid tubes lined with foam and hay for insulation.

"They're in large demand," Friends For Life spokeswoman Megan Carpenter said of the shelters. "Most people really like them because they're lightweight and helpful during this time."

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Due to the inclement weather, Friends For Life, located on E. 22nd St. in the Heights, and whose program includes nearly 300 animals, was closed this past Tuesday and Thursday. The nonprofit still managed to distribute 26 WARM houses Monday and Tuesday and built 46 during the remainder of the week.

Many of the beneficiaries of the WARM houses are feral cats. The City of Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC) website describes these felines as unsocial cats that fall under the umbrella definition of "community cats," who lack owners.

This year, more than 240 WARM houses were made and distributed for feral cats and 22 slightly bigger ones for dogs. In exchange, the shelter accepts $20 donations — the price for materials for a single shelter. Carpenter said Friends For Life does not want failure to pay to discourage anyone from picking up a WARM house for their pet.

People interested in receiving a WARM house "just simply have to let us know and we will help them out. If they can donate anything, that's fine, if they can't, we understand," Carpenter said. "Our main goal is to help as many feral cats as we can during this weather."

Other groups anticipating the cold also labored to help animals in need.

Houston PetSet is a fundraising organization that raises funds and redistributes them to local animal welfare nonprofits, Friends for Life among them. In anticipation of the drop in temperatures, PetSet helped spearhead a Jan. 13 effort by Huts 4 Mutts, a group dedicated to providing shelter for dogs living in lower-income homes.

"We were rushing to get them into the community because we knew the temperatures were dropping," Houston PetSet co-founder Tama Lundquist said about the efforts. Huts 4 Mutts "came up with this quick, easy, fairly inexpensive design" for the dog houses, costing about $40.

Lundquist said 100 volunteers from five separate PetSet beneficiary organizations built 130 dog houses in about four or five hours and distributed them this past Monday and Tuesday in Houston.

Meanwhile, the icy temperatures failed to freeze operations at the city's largest resource for animal shelter and protection, the Houston SPCA.

"We didn't have any impacts, in terms of our operations," Houston SPCA spokeswoman Julie Kuenstle said as she cited the organization's use of a 24-hour animal ambulance.

Kuenstle said the SPCA's team of animal cruelty investigators were managing calls about the welfare of apparently shelterless pets during the cold spell. Texas law states a person must provide shelter for animals in his or her custody.

Kuenstle pointed out that the SPCA recommends people bring animals in their care inside during cold weather. Sheltering should protect pets from wind, sun, rain and sleet and dog houses should be off the ground to keep surfaces dry, she added.

Carpenter, of Friends For Life, urges limiting the length of time pets are out during the cold and ensuring they are not exposed to ice.