Caught a Tenth Black Cat

Well, I caught a tenth black cat up at the rural colony. No mature males, however. After catching those first six, which were three juveniles and three adults, I caught four more, the last this a.m. Four of the first six, all of whom were fixed yesterday, were females. The two males were both juveniles. The three adults were all females, one of whom was in heat and a fourth female fixed was a kitten, with the end of her tail badly skinned. The vet had wanted to amputate but the caretakers said "no" that hopefully it would heal on its own. Poor little girl. I know the folks don't want to spend money on cats that likely will be killed by predators at some point.

After catching the first six, I saw two kittens with an adult. I caught the two kittens after that, and then two more adults. I assumed the adult with the kittens was a female, too. I am fairly sure I saw three more adults, after catching the first six, which would mean, since I've caught only two more adults, there is at least one more cat out there.

I wonder if one of the two adults not yet fixed will be the mature male, the impregnator. He is out there somewhere, if he has not been killed by a predator.

They had a cougar go after one of their tame cats. They saw the cougar and took a shot at it but missed, as it disappeared around the corner of the shop. The cat booked it inside and safe. Two days later however, he went out and never came back. Now they keep their tame cats, except one, inside. They also had a cat who was bitten across the spine and paralyzed, who died slowly. They've had a lynx walk across their deck.

They have had numerous cats disappear. At night, the coyotes howl close by. They have all the big time predators: cougars, bobcats, lynx, coyotes and foxes, along with Great Horned Owls, who take kittens. It is very hard on them to have cats show up then be killed in such horrible ways.