Last Hurrah!

Well, I'm on my summer break now.  Officially.

Yesterday was my last clinic appointment day til end of August.   I tried to catch the last two trailer park cats, tried hard, and failed in the end.  Actually it was my shoulder that conked out.  It's been sore awhile, off and on actually for years.

I pulled a muscle out of it years ago and it never quite healed right.  I've also dislocated that shoulder three times in my life, so its prone to issues.

The problem with it goes clear down my back to my shoulder blade, across to my neck too sometimes, I can feel it.  But the primary issue is pain right in my shoulder if I raise my arm too high or turn it wrong.  It loses power then, and I drop anything I'm holding.   I was telling my brother about my shoulder woes and he said he's experiencing the same thing.   Too much heavy lifting without enough rest.  Now I wear a sling at home to keep myself from using my right arm much.

With rest, it heals fast.

I've got two trailer park cats to return this morning, then I'm all done with cat catching for awhile and I'm really happy about it, looking forward and smiling.

25 adult cats caught at that trailer park plus 14 kittens caught who won't go back in just over 2 weeks.  Boom, cat issue there solved!  There's one tamish male in the park not yet fixed and one in heat female--Kinkette, but the drop trap is still set up over where Kinkette lives and I taught the mother and son how to use it.  I told them to wait ten days at least to even try and try to get things there to seem normal again.  I feel very proud of the work done there and done so quickly too.

I was there Saturday for a good share of the day again, hoping Kinkette would come by.  She didn't.  I saw her once briefly in the morning.  I caught another big male who strolled through, had to, he was causing trouble, even spray marking the trap, so I dropped it over him and he was shocked!   Aw too bad big guy.

Another male, on the left there, showed up at the trailer park.  I hadn't seen him before, but he was freaking out the fixed cats while I waited on Kinkette and knew I'd have to get him.  That's Simone, a fixed female, eating under the trap and Sushi, another fixed female on the right.  Gambino, the boy, was fixed yesterday.

I saw Pele's two kittens too.  Pele is a skinny small young brown tabby whom I already got fixed.   She had two tiny kittens I saw a week after returning her, one black and one tabby.  They would not enter traps but the colony caretaker lady said the mom would bring them out to eat once the other adults were done.  So that was a long wait.

Isn't she darling?

Mom, Pele, finally brought them out Saturday morning, to eat under the drop trap and stood back.  But now fixed big male Boy Bob, was also under there eating.   I had to drop the trap anyhow, over those tiny kittens with Boy Bob under it too, and release him first.  He was so shocked he'd been tricked again.  He's a nice cat, who would let kittens and females eat first if I put out wet food.

I had to meet someone at Home Depot then, and while they were inside, I couldn't help but get the trap with the kittens in it into the front seat and reach in and say hello and that everything would be ok.  Course they didn't know that then.

The little gray tabby tux manx kitten, already in my bathroom, one of Kinkette's, was thrilled when I brought them into the bathroom, like I'd brought him new toys.  Oh my was he happy to have little friends.

You would not believe the amount of food those little tiny ones have been eating.  And drinking up KMR from a bowl.  I've gone through an entire can of KMR powder in just a couple of days.  It's good I got them.  They were starving.  I named the little black boy Beanie, because he's just so darn cute, with big huge eyes.  I haven't named the other two yet.

KATA will take them, but not til next week, since the foster taking them is enjoying a visit from her mother.

So I really tweaked out my shoulder sitting there again two days at the trailer park and hoisting heavy traps.  Sunday I couldn't do a thing with it, and made a plea for other cats.  I had three from the trailer park by then---an orange tabby boy, one of two, from the second trapping location there, plus a gray tabby tux girl from that other location.  That's where the other orange  tabby, mostly tame, is, who still needs fixed.

So Julie brought down one of the two trailer park kittens she is fostering, one of the first caught, a girl, and now over 2 pounds, big enough to be spayed, and KATA trapped three girls and brought them, so I had seven despite being out of commission Sunday.

I only have photos of the four trailer park cats, including Sylvia, the kitten.

Sylvia, a little girl kitten, now spayed, from the park, who will get a real home.

Pele's little tabby girl kitten, before I caught her. 

I'd gone with Italian names for the first two caught at the second location, Mia for the torti and Roma for the big male.  So we named this guy Luigi.  He's a sweetie too.

The big guy from the other location got an Italian name too---Gambino!

This young girl too is now Italian!  Linguini!

Lastly, I will leave you with this short video clip.  Until you sit for hours, waiting for the cat you want, to come eat under a drop trap, you probably won't know the things that go on.  For one thing, Sassy, the tame cat, thought my car was her play toy and would scratch at the car door til I let her in, to wander my car, getting herself into all kinds of binds.  And for  awhile Sunday evening, when Luigi was in the car in a trap, she sat beside the trap and playfully swatted at him through the trap wire, prompting howls of protest from him.  I had to admonish Sassy and tell her taunting cats in traps just isn't right.  This drop trap issue, in the video clip below, comes up often using a drop trap and a pull cord for springing it.   Playful kitties!!!  Fortunately, he didn't drop it on his siblings there eating under the trap, but I have had that happen.

Break time for me!

Onward to Infinity!