Four Cats Being Fixed Today--From New Colony in Corvallis

Yesterday, I returned the four cats fixed on Monday, which included the last cat left unfixed, the calico mother, from the downtown Albany colony, and three from Eugene, including the black mother and two of her three feral kittens, owned by the brother in law of the folks who adopted Purrly.

I got 13 cats in total fixed, through Poppa funds, from the downtown Albany colony. Three were big males, one of whom has turned delightfully tame and healthy and hangs out now, on the good neighbor's porch. He's a medium hair black and white boy. The two other males show up for food, although the orange one now rarely shows. The Siamese is a constant there for food. He was abandoned by a woman when she moved, along with other cats, who lived in the same little house as the tenant, who came after her, a man, who abandoned Hope when he moved out, the mom cat who ended up so badly injured.

So there were the three big boys, all now healthy looking and much happier. Then there were the girls---Hope with her three kittens, an adult torti, with two kittens, and the calico, with four very flea ridden kittens. All three adult females were fixed. Hope is no longer there of course. Also, not one of the kittens had to remain living in that yard. The good neighbor found a home for the torti's two kittens. I took on Hope's three plus the last little Siamese kitten from the calico mother is still here. Keni, Poppa's president, is fostering the calico's other three kittens, including the gorgeous Flamepoint Romeo. Hope is still in foster in Corvallis. So, as a result, 15 cats are fixed (the couple who adopted the torti's two kittens got them fixed) and 10 never returned.

For today's fixes, I went to a new colony in Corvallis. There are 25 or 30 unfixed cats there. I used my drop trap because I wanted to fix first only adult females. The caretaker pointed them out. I put a large amount of wet food mixed into dry food on a newspaper in the middle back of the drop trap, which is a large net on a frame propped up with a stick. A string is attached to the stick. A zillion little gray and black kittens and teens swarmed the food immediately. But also, a couple of the adults I wanted were under the net box eating. I yanked the string and trap dropped.

One must then go forward, cover the frame of the net box with a sheet, to calm the cats, and hold it down while the cats in the framed net bounce around.

There is a wood panel door on one end of the front of the trap that one can lift up. I put the back of a transfer trap up to that door, and open the live traps' transfer door by lifting it up simultaneously with the wood panel door on the drop trap. This allows one or two cats out of the drop trap into the tomahawk live trap, then I lower both doors, keeping some cats in the drop trap while one or two are now in the live trap. I can pick and choose who I want to keep.

Most of the cats in the first drop were not "keepers", and I would just let them out of the live trap, then repeat the procedure for each cat held beneath the square of the framed net drop trap, until I had let one out into the live trap I wanted to keep for fixing.

Then I would just switch to another trap against the drop traps door. I caught four adults this way, very quickly, in two string yanks, while being able to quickly release kittens and teens, who could wait to be fixed.

Below are the four "keepers" from last night's drop trapping, up being fixed today. The caretaker says they're all females, but I"m not so sure the all black isn't a male. Will find out soon enough, when I pick them up. UPDATE: The black short hair is a male. The other three are females. The medium hair gray with white chest and curled tail, was pregnant.