Panic! Where's the Fifth Cat?

Male fixed yesterday, returned today, trapped by the Albany business over run with cats. They've trapped four now. This morning, on the way in, to return the male, a worker went by with a carrier. I rolled down my window and said, "What do you have there?" "Kittens," the worker replied. A coworker was adopting two of the kittens they found there, in a wall. One was the spitting image of his mother, the first cat they trapped there, who was spayed last week.

He had tapeworm segments on his butt, so I tape and roundwormed him and applied Advantage. He was rather beat up, been fighting and had some hair loss from fleas. I like to be able to worm and flea treat all the cats who come through but boy does that get expensive and has to come out of my pocket.

If I have money on the gift card account, which I currently don't, and the cat is feral and severely worm infested, I get Profender applied at the clinic. It's a fairly new product, a back of neck treatment that gets round and tapeworms killed for a month. Of course I love having Revolution on hand, too, another excellent back of neck product that kills fleas, flea eggs, roundworms, earmites, earmite eggs, for a month. How nice is that to give to ferals? But I don't have a shitload of money, unfortunately. Wish I did.

Usually, the best I can do is apply Advantage, which I do to ferals through the trap and if they're upset about it, I use my rig set up. My rig is a one cc syringe duct taped to the end of a mini blind pull. I zip tie another mini blind pull behind it. This way, I can insert this through the trap and plunge the syringe on the stick, with the stick zip tied behind it. Long distance Advantage application! I can do all sorts of things with such a rig safely to ferals.

I get strongid at a feed store, and mix it into wet food, that I place inside the trap. They usually eat it in the night after surgery, although females are less likely to than males. I have discovered the males really really get dehydrated and want water more than anything first, after surgery. Much more so than females. I don't know why, but I make sure the males have plenty of water in the trap for the night after surgery.

I get ferals to swallow tapeworm pills by freezing quarter pills of droncit in small bits of cheese whiz. I place these in solid pate cat food that has been slightly warmed early the morning after surgery. They usually can't resist. If I can handle a cat, I use the pill squirter, which is so easy to use. I follow any pill given by mouth in this manner with a syringe full of water. The vet at Corvallis Cat Care told me once about a study that showed a pill can take up to 30 seconds to travel the esophagus into the stomach if not followed by water, burning all the way down. I can almost feel that going down my own throat. Yuk!

Female, being spayed today.
The only male of the four being fixed today.
Another pregnant female, being fixed today.
And yet another female, being fixed today.

Oh my gosh! I was sure I had five cats in my car from the Cottonwood colony. Where is that fifth cat? Panic!

I raced home from the clinic to check the carrier I'd removed from my car this morning. I was sure it had been empty when I took it out. But was it?

Last night, the kids were helping load up the cats out at the Cottonwood colony. Didn't we put all five into carriers, one I had to trap, though.

Two males. Three pregnant females. I was not paying attention. Did we put all five in the car? Did one get out from an unsecured carrier, there, or maybe here, in my garage, in the night?

I'd headed to the clinic with I thought six cats in the car. One was the big male trapped by the Albany business and fixed yesterday. I returned him on the way to the clinic. I still thought I had five Cottonwood cats to deliver for fixing.

When I got to the clinic, I had three cats in carriers and one in a trap. Where in the world was that fifth cat? I was panicked.

I came home and checked the carrier I'd removed from my car for space this morning. Empty. Papers in the bottom untouched. Carriers latched. The empty carrier still in my car was the same. I called the Cottonwood people.

"Oh," said the woman jovially, "we missed the white socked male." Whew! "We'll get him in later," I told her. I was soooo relieved.

So only four cats are up being fixed---one male and three pregnant females.