Monday, November 28, 2016

Nine More Cats Being Fixed and Another Kitten From Waterloo

I was gifted 9 spay/neuter reservations that someone else wasn't going to use, up at WHS today.  I didn't want to waste them!

So I went back up Saturday night to the colony near Sweet Home.   I'd trapped four of the six cats in the colony about ten days back, but failed to catch the mom of the four teens, or one of the teens.

I'd left my drop trap set up there, for the old guy to feed under, to get them used to it.  And he did too.   Not the usual.  

I sat in my car, in the dark, out about 30 feet from the covered lighted garage, while he nervously watched from inside his house.  I could see the curtains in the bathroom move. The bathroom window faces the garage.  I knew he was watching and hoping.

The weather was horrible.  Rain poured.  Wind howled.  It was cold.   I could barely even see the drop trap through the rain hitting the windshield.  Nonetheless I caught the mom cat very quickly.  I transferred her into a trap, set the drop trap back up quickly and got back into my car.  The wait would be long.

Over in Corvallis, the Civil War football game was in its last minutes.  I'd heard some in and out coverage of the game on the car radio while driving up to the colony.  The Oregon State Beavers were trouncing the Oregon Ducks.  The Beavers had not won the Civil War football game in many many years, but this year the Ducks are crap and the Beavs whopped them.  I'm not even a football fan but the news felt like a good luck omen.

I'd sat there freezing, barely breathing so I would not even move the car for almost two hours when that teen finally showed up and ducked under the drop trap to eat..  I didn't even know for sure it was the right teenager, since another one looks a lot like him, and the windshield was so hard to see through from rain.  But I yanked the cord, to drop the trap over him, and it was the right teen, and the old man came out happy and I was happy too.  They're getting fixed today.  I named them, for the records, Norma and Norman, off Netflix's Bates Motel series, which I enjoy.

Norma on the left, Norman on the right.  They are getting fixed today.
Then I contacted an Albany colony caretaker, referred to me a couple months back, but for various reasons, people busy the main one, they hadn't had time to deal with it.  They were up for me coming over yesterday morning.   They don't know how many are there and hadn't talked to the neighbor, who also cares for them, because of his work schedule, but nonetheless, I set up the drop trap and dropped it when five cats were under it eating.   Took less than half hour.  I transferred them out to individual live traps and all five, sexes unknown, are up being fixed also.

Charlie

Face

Midnight

Mittens

Nightshade
Then Spay Inc. said they had someone with two kittens although I thought they were going to be older and wilder.  When they came they seemed so little, but were both over 2.5 lbs, so I knew they could be fixed.  They came from somewhere in Brownsville is all I know.  The pair, I called them George and Agnes, tore up the bathroom last night.  Not in fear, as ferals might do, but in play.  They looked so self satisfied this morning too, over their destruction.  

Well, they're up being fixed.

Little Angel George

And George's partner in demolition, Agnes
Remember a couple weeks ago, returning a lactating cat, Autumn, to the county park and immediately trapping her three tiny kittens?   Well, Julie had taken all three, but brought me one of them, saying she couldn't tame him, two days ago.   He tamed very quickly, actually.

I named him Chinook for the King Salmon that roam the Pacific off Oregon's coast.  But there's something wrong with him.  He was very dehydrated when he came here and still is, plus he's only pooped once, little hard rabbit pellets too, like he is severely constipated or something.  He still hasn't pooped much or eaten much.  Giving him fluids and cat lax, keeping him warm and happy and hoping he will survive.

Chinook




5 comments:

  1. When you transfer the cats from the trap to the cages, do they fight you much? Do you have a special way of handling them? I'm thinking about this as I look at the scratch on my arm from one of my cats from yesterday. She didn't want to go into the basement where she needed to be while company was here.

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    Replies
    1. I never touch them. I completely cover the drop trap, then put a transfer trap transfer door against the transfer door of the drop trap, and lift both doors up at once, creating an opening from the drop trap into the live trap, via its transfer door. I leave the live trap mostly uncovered, so they run for what they think is light, out of the darkened drop trap (because its covered), into the live trap and I drop both transfer doors at the same time. It's really much easier than I'm describing.

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  2. More good work.
    Agnes is a charmer. And I will cross everything for Chinook.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agnes is quite charming, but it was her brother who charmed the clinic workers, when he was fixed today. They wanted him!

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  3. Well done! My best to all these darlings and you.

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