Friday, July 15, 2011

Happy

I nailed that N. Albany colony tonight, the remaining cats. I didn't really know how many were left. I knew of one male. I knew of the long hair calico, the gray tux female and the mom of the bottle babes. Then I spotted two more females. One was a silver tabby who was almost under the drop trap when the big orange fixed male knocked it over trying to rub his cheek pheremones on the edge of it. That spooked her off. I knew of kitten Stealer, another long lanky brown female. She's terribly shy.

I trapped the gray tux female, the calico female and a black male, very young, whom I did not know was there. We found one of the bottle babes dead and I decided to take them with me, along with their mom, so we got them in a carrier and her too. Another kitten, bigger, was in the carrier they were in. We don't know whose she is, so she came along for the ride. I then trapped the gray male kitten who is Rocky's brother.

Darkness fell and cold set in. Although it's mid July, the weather has been cold and rainy. A chilly wind came up.

The colony caretaker went inside. Her daughter went back to her house. Just like I like it, alone with the cats. I knew now my chances of nabbing the leftovers were greater. I knew of three left: the male who only comes through now and then; the silver tabby shy female and the Kitten Stealer, long lanky and brown.

My flashlight was going dead. My binoculars got water in the lens and were blurry from moisture. I was totally exhausted. But I saw a lanky brown start eating under the drop trap, which was forty feet from me. I strained to see if it was the fixed brown tabby male. I was sure I saw no eartip, but it was the cats length that assured me it was Kitten Stealer, who stole the gray kitten from another mother.

I yanked the cord, which pulled the stick holding the trap up, then ran over and threw a blanket over the trap to calm the two cats beneath the netting of the trap. One was Trouble the fixed torti point Siamese.

The brown lanky girl bolted into the trap from the transfer door first. I then lifted the drop trap up to let out the fixed Siamese. She shot off but came right back for more chow. I reset the drop trap, even though I figured my chances were slim of catching either of the two remaining cats. I wanted the girl.

But just as the colony caretaker came out on her deck to ask me to leave, since she was tired, I spotted the back of a darkish form eating under the trap. I could not see by this time, due to my flashlight battery life ending and my blurred binoculars. I had to go by guess and because the cat did not look familiar and kept looking back over her shoulder at me. Paranoid! The silver tabby female was paranoid I remembered from the one time I saw her. I yanked the cord. The trap fell. I raced over, tripping up in the cord itself, which tangled in my sandal straps. Didn't matter. I had just snagged the last adult female in that huge colony!

I've got six more adults bringing the grand total of adults caught there to 41. I grabbed the two bottle babes, the bigger kitten who had latched onto the bottle babes mom, and the gray boy. Four more. I've already taken out 11 kittens, so that 15 kittens. Add it up and you get 56 cats helped at that one location in a very short time.

Will I ever catch the final adult male? If I run into him when he roams through I will. Other than that, there are still seven kittens out there, although Psycho mom, who is fixed, took her two out into the brush. They probably won't survive.

I also took up six Lebanon cats to be fixed today. Five were from the Kind Man/Evil World colony and the sixth was the Wonder Woman's new roam in Himilayan male.

Before taking them up to the clinic, I returned the two females who were fixed yesterday from the Kind Man colony. This afternoon, before trapping at the VV colony, I returned two of the big males fixed today from the Kind Man colony, as they were wide awake, and the Himilayan Wonder Woman male. I also returned the two females and two male kittens, fixed yesterday, to the 5th Wheel colony. That caretaker had contained the other cat I missed with my net, so she came home with me. I hope she can also be fixed tomorrow.

So I'm pretty happy that the 5th Wheel colony is contained again. The only adult now not fixed there is a black male who only comes through now and then. Then there are about 11 more kittens who will need fixed in about three weeks.

I still have three of the Kind Man colony cats here recuperating. Three of the five fixed today from there were males, but one was young and skinny, so he's getting over fed here a couple of days. Then there was Bella, who was in heat, and then the calico, mom of two young kittens she abandoned to get preggie again and she was preggie again. So she's getting over fed and rest for a couple days, too.

Yes, I've been busy and am very tired. But boy, I am happy to have contained several very large cat situations quickly. There are quite a few more to catch at the Kind Man colony but I targeted females who were likely pregnant first, so I have some breathing room. And thank you Poppa Inc. for footing the spay neuter bill, along with the FCCO, who fixed 15 so far of the VV cats.

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