Before going to purchase a wood burning stove - check with your local City Managers office. I know many places are making them illegal and forcing people to put in pellet burners instead. IF you get the all clear, you might want to ask about getting an insert if you already have a fireplace, If you dont, I would not worry about your cats getting too close. Once you visit a store to check out the demo, you will see that most of them throw out heat a certain way, some you can put a Christmas tree or house plant right next to and it wont dry out at all. I think your cats will be fine but just as a deterent you might want to purchase a couple of kettles to go ontop of the stove to keep the air more humid and discourage any jumping.....good luck

It's a township where we would build the house, and I don't believe there is an ordinance banning them. If one was even proposed, I would be at the trustee's meetings every single month and I would protest if I had to. What's next, banning wood burning fireplaces?

To me, half the point in having a wood-burning stove is that you can use it if something happens and you can't get out of the house for a while, or if something happens in society, etc. Feeding it pellets is no better than feeding natural gas to a furnace...the material has to be pressed, packaged, and shipped (which is also environmentally unfriendly), while I can get wood from the woods out back. Silly rules they have nowadays.

We have used a woodstove insert in the last two houses we have lived in and that goes back to 1971. I have indoor five cats and have had a few more or less since then and never has there been a problem. Cats are quite smart.

Krycek.. I also had the same very concerns you have...
We don't have a stove but an insert in our fireplace. We have 5 indoor cats, and, no, they have never been tempted to go too close or jump on it. I'll second the idea of keeping a kettle on top of it to make the air more humid.

Keep warm with your cats!
Anne-Marie

They can feel the heat long before they are close enough to get burned. You don't need to worry about it.

I have a wood-stove, had it for 26 years, and always have cats in the house. None ever tried to jump on top of the stove, they do love to stretch out in front of it and enjoy the radiant heat.
In summer, when it is not used, they jump and walk on it, as soon as there is a fire, they don't even attempt it.
Not to worry, enjoy the nice, warm cozy feeling.

I grew up way back when and we had wood stove for cooking and heating and always had cats around. They never jumped on the stove even with yummy cooking going on. I have a wood stove now as well and no cat has ever jumped on it.

The answer is yes, and yes. My cat jumped it once. She didn't stay on it long enough to get a burn, she was off of it in a millisecond. Another cat of mine used to love to jump up on the natural gas cookstove top with a pilot light under it, I imagine for the warmth. She did this once when the burner was on and set the hair on her tail on fire. She also only did this once. Some cats don't read the rules. LOL.

I do not like pellet stoves. I did a short stint in a hardware store who sold them and also the fuel. We ran out of pellets constantly and the poor people who had the stoves were always calling around looking for sourcing. I discussed this with my feed mill manager who also sold pellets. He said that isn't a problem so much anymore because the honeymoon was over with pellet stoves. LOL.

Yes, they burn hotter than woodstoves, and thus slip under the EPA regulations on smoke emissions, but the stuff what goes into pellets can be any type of agricultural waste or wood by-product. I'm not convinced we aren't sending something worse than smoke up the chimneys. The worst part of it is............you need electric to run them. So, you buy a generator? Then crank on the fossil fuels to run your stoves? Whose kidding who on green impact.

My sisters cat used to sleep under the wood stove, she loved the warmth.

When my wood stove is going, guaranteed all the pets will be lining up on the table or under it near the stove. We haven't cranked it up yet.

We've heated our home mainly for years with a wood stove because it was cheaper (sorry 4 kids, hubby's a tree surgeon = free wood) we NEVER had a problem with our cat who since gone gone to rainbow bridge, EVER go near our wood stove peaked or low, she'd lay near it for heat but not ON or touch it!

Joy

We've had one for about 15 years and have never had a cat jump on the hot stove. They love laying anywhere and everywhere nearby it though.

Someone once told me they'd be afraid to have a wood stove with their small children. Kids might not be as smart as cats but one touch of the hot stove and I'm sure there'd never be another incident.

This is the 32nd season with my free-standing wood stove. It sits on a brick hearth, and that's the favorite spot for my cats - and dogs! They've never jumped on it.

I have 20 acres of prime hardwood (White oak, Red oak, Hickory, Beech), I think I'll pass on the pellets.

Having had my cat this past winter jump on my woodstove which resulted in having to go almost every day for a month to the vet for bandage changes, all the while worrying she was going to die from infection, was horrible. She then developed health issues after being on pain meds for so long so I would really be careful regarding cats and woodstoves!