Outdoor Cats Caught Keeping Themselves Warm Using $500 Starlink Satellite Dishes

As the cold weather and storms plague some parts of the United States this winter, people are making sure that their pets are indoors, safe, and warm. Sadly, that’s not the same for all cats. Many outdoor cats have to find ways to keep themselves warm.

Aaron Taylor recently discovered how cats in his area are surviving through these harsh weather conditions. On December 31, Aaron posted a photo of five cats curled up on his self-heating satellite dish on Twitter. The post quickly went viral and amassed over 190,000 likes and 26,000 retweets.

Aaron was using a $500 Starlink satellite dish to connect to the internet. When he was having trouble with his connection, he decided to take check it. He was surprised to find five cats curled up inside of it on a snowy day.

In his Tweet, Aaron wrote: “Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days.”

The dish has a self-heating feature that melts off the snow to prevent interference with the connection. And it seems like the cats discovered this too. They would pile in all day, sometimes until night when they go back to their heated cat house.

This may be great for the cats, but not really for Aaron. He confirmed in a tweet that these cats “slows everything down.”

For those concerned about cats outside in cold weather, Aaron clarifies that they do have access to a heated cat house. But even when temperatures reached -13 degrees Fahrenheit, the kitties still use the satellite dish as their precious $500 cat bed. Aaron adds, “When the sun goes down, they head back to their house.”

It seems like he’s not the only one dealing with this kind of situation. Another Starlink user reported a similar occurrence when a raptor was photographed enjoying the heat of the disk.

The Starlink service is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. It currently has 1,600 satellites flying around in space. They are preparing to launch far more so that even those in rural places and far from any grid can get online.

Starlink satellite dishes have a self-heating feature to melt snow. Engineers created this feature to stop snow from interfering with the signal. Aaron suspects that these daytime luxury naps occur because the sunlight heats the dish from the top while the internal dish heater warms it from the bottom making it a perfect heated day bed for these felines.

As it turns out, the cats on the dishes aren’t Starlink’s only concern. Starlink made headlines in December after two near misses between Starlink satellites and China’s Tiangong space station, leading China to accuse the U.S. of “ignoring international treaty obligations and engaging in irresponsible and unsafe conduct in outer space.”

Futurism’s Dan Robitzski, reports that Starlink satellites are responsible for 1,600 near-crashes in orbit every week. He also claims that a number that he reports is likely to increase as Starlink plans to launch more satellites in the next couple of years.

The American Veterinary Medical Association recommends keeping cats indoors during this kind of weather. This is to avoid dangers associated with diseases, parasites, as well as speeding cars, attacks from other animals, poisons, and the extreme weather. Preventing cats from going outside keeps them safe.