Seed Farm Single Kitten Moms Netted

Warehouse mother and her only kitten, Hopper, a little boy.

Pipes, the kitten from the other mother, on my lap.  His mother now won't take care of him.

Pipes is a sweety, but what to do with him, and with Hopper?

I was called out to a seed farm.  I've gone out there two or three times before, to catch cats to be fixed, but the old guy manager owner, whatever he was, would never let me finish.  He'd say he'd pay my expenses but then he didn't.  It was frustrating.  So he's dead now.

The new manager says things are run different now.  I was just going to go out and talk to them, line up the details, make the arrangements.  It was estimated there were twenty more unfixed cats, but a quick survey with workers identified three mothers and maybe a couple of males.

I spot a cat peering at me from the the end of a pipe.  Quickly she disappears into the pipe. I look closer and spot a kitten following her.  My eyes meet Carlos' eyes.  I nod.  "I'll grab my net," I say, excited.  It's hard to resist netting a cat out of a pipe.  It's so easy to catch them that way, especially when there are lots of already fixed cats around there.  This one, with the kitten, for sure wasn't fixed.

I had not come out prepared to catch any cats. I had my net in my car as always.  And by chance one carrier, but not even one cage cover or towel.  So I grabbed my coat.

We snuck up to the pipe.  Simultaneously Carlos blocked the rear and I covered the front with my net.  Carlos then hoisted the pipe up, from his end, and the mom shot out into my net.  I threw my coat over her.  Because my net has some holes I have not yet fixed, I wrapped my coat around her and carried her to my car where I transferred her to the carrier.  Carlos had grabbed the tiny lone kitten with her, only three weeks old.  I put her inside the carrier with his mom.  We searched for more kittens but found no more.

Hawks, owls, foxes and equipment make life there as a kitten tenuous.

Then along the side of another building we spot another mother with only one kitten, who is slightly bigger than the first kitten.

I have nothing to put the cat in so we move on.  Later however in the chemical room where we're looking for other cats, I spot a trap and point it out to Carlos.  "Can we use it?" I ask.  He nods.  It's a huge nutria trap but we get it out and Carlos carries it back.  He says, "Let's net that other one."  I agree.

I get the trap ready, to put her in if we're lucky enough to net another mom. I line it with an empty seed bag. We slip back up the side of the building to see if she's still there, with her kitten.  She's not in sight, but the kitten is.  I shove my net over the flex pipe, just in case she's in it, and Carlos lifts some of the coils.  Then the kitten rushes off and Carlos takes off after the kitten just as the mother shoots out of the flex pipe into my net.  I contain her in the net, as Carlos races back and forth after the kitten.  He gives up long enough to help me get the mom into the trap then we both go after the kitten.  Carlos suddenly grabs him but he's fighting and I yell "drop him in my net" and he does.   I wind him up in the netting and throw my coat over the trap as a cover and Carlos carries the huge thing back to my car, where I get her kitten, also a male, in with her.

One Seed warehouse lone kitten mother and her male kitten (to left).

Second Seed warehouse lone kitten mom, kitten behind her.

Supposedly the other unfixed female there is a Siamese and has two kittens a little older than the kittens we just caught.  I couldn't find her or those kittens.  I leave with the two young black moms and their solitary kittens feeling rather glib about catching two ferals moms with nothing but a home made net.  But finding somewhere to get them fixed readily is not so easy.  Gas prices have killed my budget for the month.  I had made FCCO appointments for they are over a week out.  Thankfully, they said if it was just two, to bring them on up on Friday.