Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Toby and Shimmer Get Fixed (Black Pearl's kids)

Toby and Shimmer got themselves fixed yesterday. So did another stray from Jefferson.

The Jefferson stray is a female teen torbi, tame and delightful, dumped off in the yard of an old woman who feeds strays, much to her chagrin, because she's struggling severely financially and even with household chores already. At least now she's fixed. I need to catch two more males and possibly one other cat there still too. I got three more caught and fixed there a few weeks ago. Two of them never returned and could have been owned, but she was adamant that since they hung around her house and she fed them, that they be fixed.

If a cat has no collar, there is absolutely no way to know if it is owned or not, even if tame, because abandonment rates are so high in these parts. If a cat is on some one's property unidentified, eating their cats' food, spray marking, and fighting it's going to get fixed and rightfully so, that old lady says. Pet owners need to be responsible.

Toby and Shimmer are the two remaining of Black Pearl's kittens. Tiger Lily, the biggest of all three, was fixed last week and went to a home.

I was back over at the house in Albany who fed Black Pearl before I took her, and crawled under it to grab the kittens. I was after the two remaining unfixed cats there. But the wife wasn't home and she is the helpful one. The husband who feeds the cats isn't as helpful at all, due to some health issues I think.

I ended up drop trapping the calico but she panicked and ran the drop trap a couple feet out, to the steps then just dropped down onto the first step and was free of it. It is a very difficult place to trap. Last time the wife was there, and had a big heavy block to go on the back of the drop trap. I mistakenly thought she was going to be there, and would have that block. So I didn't take anything heavy for that purpose. The husband was not willing to find anything. So, I decided to just try it without.

There's no light. I was guessing it was the right cat from slight color variations. I have to run the string for the stick across a sidewalk and watch in my mirror for pedestrians, even free roaming dogs, of which there are many in that area. It's not exactly a simple place to trap. And so I missed her. He wanted me to stay and keep trying but I said "no". I asked that he start feeding out back because it's so much easier to trap out back and I can sit inside, although they are caring for their daughters highly excitable two small dogs that bark constantly if anyone new is in the house or at any sound. It drives the guy nuts. His daughter and her husband are living in England I guess. And he said it would cost $4000 to ship them over and her daughter could only pay half of that. But now he says they're moving back to the states, so he can't wait til those yappy dogs are back with his daughter.

But the yappy small dogs make it very hard to talk to him even, if he comes to the door and might also make it impossible for me to sit inside and push a button to drop a trap. I asked them to trap once and they had called excited that they'd caught the calico. I was happy too. But when I stopped by in the morning to pick her up it was not the little calico, but rather Calico John, the big male calico fixed a year ago. He even has an ear tip, but they didn't think to check.

They're nice people they just don't know much about trapping cats and the wife works too many hours to have time to learn and the husband can't or won't, not sure which. The wife wants the breeding to end, however. The problem has been new arrivals and failure to finish. I knew about that calico and orange tabby a year ago when trapping, but they thought it was good enough when I got 13 and would not participate further then. But when the tame Black Pearl showed up abandoned, had kittens, then the calico had kittens, but only one survived and a few more arrived, she called me.

One of the new arrivals was Tiny Tim. I also trapped another white big male, also a new arrival, at that time and the one survivor, a little black and white male, of the calico's kittens and took in Black Pearl and grabbed her three. So that makes seven more fixed and five of them removed. Just two to go. And I think the calico is now in heat again. I just am urging them to participate, not make it so hard on me, that I have to sit out there in my car for hours to get those last two.

I know it's a bad neighborhood. Crime. Drugs galore. Loose dangerous dogs. Cat abandonment in that area is sky high. But we got to finish this little pocket of misery at least. Have to. I will get it done.

There could be more new arrivals too, that I don't know about, because it's pitch black dark when I trap, because otherwise I can't due to high volume pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk. I can't leave traps set because the already fixed ones get into them, making it hard to catch the not fixed ones. He doesn't know who he's feeding. I can't impress upon him the need to know, by taking photos, which can be so helpful to identify cats that need fixed and who is fixed.

They just think I can sort it all out, which is a compliment, I know.

And I will sort it out.

In other news, I was notified by Poppa yesterday that they will remain viable at least until May. I was shocked, but happy! I didn't win that damn Thanksgiving lottery. Darn it. That's six more months of funding although I don't know how much money they have left or if it will last until May. But maybe I can find more spay neuter funds out there. I asked if they are closing because of burn out or if I could find available grants so they still had funds if they would continue. No word back yet on that.

6 comments:

  1. awesome about poppa!!

    that's nice to hear more backstory on tim :)

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  2. That's wonderful about Poppa!

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  3. Shimmer looks just like Tim, HB. Just like him.

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  4. Yay! I'm so happy for you!

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  5. Happy turkey day!!
    shimmer is so beautiful than :)

    he's getting bulked up now. ned likes to call him scamper-man.

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  6. Sounds like Tiny Tim is doing great, HB. Shimmer is gorgeous but am having no luck adopting out cats lately at all. It is quite scary.

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Round Up

Today is cat round up for tomorrow's five spots.  Two more came up from the vet student in Harrisburg late this morning.  Over 60 fixed ...