Entire Day at BS. One of two adult Females Caught

I was out at the BS all day again. I wanted to catch both adult females left unfixed. Both have kittens. The back barn female's kittens are now five or six weeks old, and deep inside a huge stack of hay, piled in bales to the barn ceiling, to feed the cows over the long winter ahead. The bales aren't stacked tight together and cats love to tunnel between the bales. The tunnels extend dozens of feet and intersect both up and down, in complicated runways. But, these kittens are old enough to survive a night without mom, especially since there are many other now fixed females in the back barn willing to pull mom duty.

I was able to drop trap this mother with ease.

Then, I decided to go after the black mom, with three kittens, in the overstuffed garage. Big mistake.

The caretaker suggested we shut the garage door and human door and put a trap over the cat door, the only other way out, she said, in case netting her failed. We thought she was in a basket with her three two-week-old kittens.

The Big Plan involved me slipping a net over that basket. She'd bolt out, being feral, into the netting, and I'd put her into a carrier. The three kittens then would go into the rabbit hutch with either Moldy2 or Blossom. Both are still lactating despite now being fixed. Both have been back to babysit the three, when black mom takes a break.

The Big Plan went awry immediately. Everything was in place. The caretaker was set outside, operating Plan B. Plan B was a live trap with the transfer door end set smack against the cat door on the outside. If I missed her with my net, the caretaker said, she'd bolt out through the cat door, and, theoretically, into the live trap. The caretaker then would simply drop the transfer door of the tomahawk trap, locking her in the trap, when she tried to exit that way.

We were good to go and smug, too.

We caught the last adult male in exactly this fashion, only he was in the greenhouse.

We couldn't set the live trap to trip when a cat entered, because other cats might bolt out the door into the trap, springing it. Most of the rest of the cats, trapped now inside the closed up garage, slept through the whole thing, barely aware anything was transpiring other than normal.

The plan went amiss. Number one, the cat had been with her kittens underneath a cabinet area when we hatched the plan. But when we were ready to implement, she was nowhere to be seen.

Finally I located her crouching under another cabinet. This was not an area I could get to with a net. Immediately, we went to Plan B, the cat door/live trap plan. I yelled out to the caretaker, allegedly ready outside to drop the transfer door when she headed out that way, "Plan B". This was to signal netting hadn't gone right.

The cat went to a top shelf briefly. I climbed on a chair to look to see where she'd gone. This is a cram packed full of stuff garage, with little room to see or even move. She jumped off the shelf. I signaled to the caretaker outside by saying "Plan B. She's coming your way."

But then, the cat disappeared off the face of the Earth.

We were confounded. The caretaker said there are only three ways out. Through the garage door, if it's open, which it wasn't. Through the human door, if it's open, but it wasn't. And through the cat door, which was blocked with the live trap, from the outside.

For the next two and a half hours, we tore apart the garage, intent on redemption.

In the end, as usual, the cat had outsmarted us, with ease. There was a small hole, beside the heat pump's well insulated vent, up into the ceiling of the garage. The cowebs were missing and the insulation was slightly shredded, from use, probably by only a couple of the smarter cats. I went outside and found a vent that led from the garage's ceiling to the outside, very much open and minus cobwebs, indicating recent and frequent use. She'd long vacated the garage, hours before in fact, and was likely mocking us from somewhere nearby.

What fools we humans are, should we choose to attempt to outsmart the smartest of the cats.

There are always more ways out of tight spot than you or I might know. Always. The cats will know them. They will know them.

There are never only three ways out of anywhere to a cat.

Inside my mind, I knew she had exited long ago and that we should give up. But my human ego resisted our oversight and better sense.

On the upside, we cleaned the garage as we searched. Moldy2 took over nursing the kittens, excitedly. Blossoms boys are getting older. Moldy2 loves Black Momma's two week olds. They're so helpless, they need her. Moldy2 began bathing them like they'd never been bathed before. To me, they looked perfectly clean and beautiful already. Moldy2 glowed up at me like they were hers, chirping and purring.

Black Momma, known for her temper and claws, is going to be agitated. I'm not necessarily looking forward to our next meeting.

I have one female to take up tomorrow. And a slightly bruised ego.