My former neighbor (older lady) had a bunny in an outdoor cage and a kitty in another cage. One Winter we were hit with a lot of snow and knowing she couldn't get out back to feed/water them (the cages were about an acre away from her back door), I went over (took me a while to get there in 3' of smow), the bunny was rock solid, and I started crying. I had tried to convince the lady to bring the animals in the house. The cat didn't live long after a Summer of being feasted on by mosquitoes and died. Not sure how long it had been dead as I didn't check on them daily, but it died in the Winter also. People have this misconception that critters can survive fine in the Winter outside, that isn't always true. She never meant the critters any harm, she was just old and was raised that you didn't keep pets in the house. She used to tell me about her deceased hubby's horse Trigger that did a lot of tricks and she would have me bring my horse to the fence so she could pet her. She was really a nice old lady.