R is for Relentless

R is for Relentless.

Which I am, when it comes to tracking down unfixed cats.

I get excited to see a big tom, in the distance, because I want to track him down, catch him and get him fixed.

I was breathless the other night, invited to dinner in Lebanon, for helping a woman net a feral mom inside her house.  She'd had kittens the day before out on her porch.  The woman took the kittens inside, trying to get the mom to follow and she did.  But then what?  She had a room upstairs prepared for the wild young mom and babes, but how to get her up there.

She called me. I went over with my home made fishing net and netted her.  The cat broke two pots with plants before I got her in my net and covered with a towel. I carried her in the net and towel upstairs to where her newborns were ready, waiting for mom in a comfy heated bed.  This was the day before I left for the last trip to the coast, with two kitties, for vet dental care.

Apparently young wild mom was not ready to be a mother and refused them.  That night, late, the woman took the newborns to Karen, who fosters bottle babes for a rescue.  Last I heard all were still alive, despite being only a day old when taken from mom, but the smallest, the girl, was, five days later, refusing food and on death's door.

Wayne, another bottle babe at Karen's place.  He was found in a building about to be demolished in Sweet Home.

But, invited to dinner on Sunday for helping net the feral mom a week ago, seeing seven or eight unfixed cats outside, some with balls hanging prominently, I could barely focus.   My blood was on fire, and my eyes burned like a tiger's.  The woman said, "What's with your eyes?"  Then, "OMG, you're addicted, aren't you?"

"Ok," I said, "I admit it.  I haven't trapped a cat in three weeks and I'm going stark raving mad.  There are 8 unfixed cats ten feet from me, out on your deck, and I have trap in the car.  Let me trap just one.  Right here, right now.  PLEASE!"

She had work to do.   It was a no go.

But next week, it's a maybe.

I am relentless as a weasel tracking a vole.   I always shall be relentless.

R is for Relentless in my quest to stop feline overpopulation.