High Drama in Catland

I spent a useless evening attempting to catch the white female at the Geary St. colony.   Feeders won't stop feeding, or even get cats in their own yards fixed.

Lots of owned cats out free roaming too in that area.

There was a new arrival, a skinny light orange and white male, yowling piteously, looking for cheap sex.  Boy does he need neutered.

There are only two more I want to catch, but residents of the area also make it hard.  I get harassed there each time I go by someone.  Twice last night in just the 2 1/2 hours I tried to catch that poor female.

First it was a large group of what appeared to be gang wannabes.

Then it was a resident of a duplex.  The woman on one side is very nice and lets me in her place, if I need to use a bathroom, or to just sit and chat.  I asked if I could set a trap behind her car, since the white cat sometimes sits there.  She agreed to that.  I finally decided to call it a night, and had collected that trap, when I see the other side of the duplex door open.  A woman is standing there staring at me.  I say "hi".

Then she starts in.  Calls me a creeping stalker who steals cats, and all sorts of other names.  I tell her I'm trying to help their neighborhood, but she keeps on with it and I finally walk across the street, to get away.  My  big mistake was to say "hi" or to think anyone gives a shit.

I talked to the neighbor who originally wanted help with the cats and she says the woman yells at lots of people and while we chatted, the duplex lady shone a flashlight on us, then would blink it.  It was nuts.  She's scary.

At this point, I decided, my own safety was more important than catching that sad white female.

Some things you can't solve.

Earlier in the evening, I'd caught another short hair white, but I knew where he lived, on a porch, as an outside cat.  I went to talk to them.  They agreed to get him fixed, but when I went back to get the trap he was in, he'd broken the trap and vamoosed.

The broken small tomahawk transfer trap

Is this trap fixable?  Only if the metal strength of the door he bowed out has not been compromised.  Otherwise, I'll have to reinforce the metal of the door and add a lever on top, to help hold the door in place, once the trap is sprung.

I told the folks who own him what happened and they said they'd put him in a carrier as he was right back on their porch.  They said they had him, and I walked around to get him, just as she picked up the carrier.  The door fell out, and he again vanished.  Their carrier was missing fasteners on the front that hold the top and bottom of the carrier together.  So with his weight in it, when she picked it up by the handle on the top, the bottom with him in it, sagged down due to no fasteners and the door dropped out of its holes.  I gave her zip ties to secure the carrier, but he didn't return and now is hopefully set for neuter next Monday.

They call him Fletcher.

So I just took one cat to be fixed today---Midnight, a Lebanon girl.

Midnight, getting spayed today

Cat wrangling is always rock and roll and sometimes scary, but its the people that make it hard to solve a problem that very obviously needs solved and could be, if neighborhoods could set aside their issues and coordinate to just get it done.