Cotton and 8 Cats Trapped for TNR at Once

Cotton, from the farm colony

 The girl I trapped last Tuesday night, whom I didn't even know was out there, is doing just fine.  She is gaining weight, has lost her extreme flea population, and been wormed, vaccinated and even tested over at Heartland (negative).  She's not going back to the farm.  If a kitten in a colony can be tamed and adopted out, they don't go back to such a life.   Already I've taken 12 kittens from that colony and KATA has taken four others.  Cotton is kitten number 17.  All adults are now fixed. 14 in all.  But they include 3 boys about Cotton's age.  I am not sure if they are tamable.   Probably so, with time.

I often put wildish kittens in a harness and use a zip leash, to maximize exposure to the big wide world of human habitation, without them being able to run off and hide.  Especially here, where I have a lot of cats and many of them are not nice to kittens.

Also, am helping an Albany family feeding the offspring off two females that found their way to the family's rural property, probably dumped or bred nearby by others.  This was an easy thing, because the woman is anxious to get it done and follows directions and helps!   Man alive, wouldn't it be nice if everyone made things so easy?

I went this morning with my drop trap, and just as I'd asked, she had not fed them, had her own cats contained, and the unfed teens were swarming.  I set up the drop trap and waited only a couple minutes, for one last kitten to crowd under and dropped the trap on 8 cats at once.  8 cats!  In about 15 minutes of time there.

A mother, and seven kittens.  Six of the kittens are hers.  The other kitten is the only survivor from the missing  (this morning) mother's litter.  She believes the others in his litter were killed by owls.  That other mother is the only one I didn't catch and did not show up this morning.  So hopefully the woman will be able to catch her later today or tonight.  I left her traps.  Here are photos of six of the eight I caught.

Mom, up front and two teen kittens

Three more of the teens including the outsider, the black boy teen, from the other mother.

 Been pouring here in Oregon.  We're happy here about that.   Thank goodness it came.  Great relief has flooded me with every drop that falls.  I was out enjoying the rain yesterday evening, letting it hit my face and smiling.

 I had only 3 sets of trick or treaters who braved the down pour.  They had some great costumes!

Now guess who gets to eat all that left over candy?