12 Cats Ready to Go

I ended up with 12 spay neuter reservations today.   Last night, I was offered another four on Tuesday.

I must admit the 12 going today were easy.

Five of them were contained by a new property owner in the hills beyond Sweet Home.  They'd moved onto the property that already had a mother and her four teen girls there.  So they trapped and contained them until they could find a way to get them fixed.

Today the five girls get fixed.

I'd also called the Lebanon Sisters colony.  I got a lot of adults fixed there last spring before my break but they had kittens too young to be fixed then.  Now the kittens are reproduction age.

They've had a couple visits since I was there from the county animal control man.  Someone asked him to check on the cats there.  She said they were very proud to tell him that they were almost all fixed.  He took them a bag of food and told them to stop by the county dog shelter to pick up some more, if they needed it.

I'm glad he's keeping an eye on it.

The one sister was happy to see me and chat away and we did chat and then she contained three of the now five month old teens, three of the girls, because the teen boys are already humping them.   I think she said there are seven teens needing fixed but maybe she said eight.  It was good to see her.  I get to thinking of the folks I trap for as friends.

 But the first thing I did Sunday was head back to the Lebanon colony.   I couldn't get anyone to answer the phone or the door, so I just assumed they were still asleep even though it was past 11:00 a.m. and set up the drop trap off to the side of my car.  I was after what I thought to be the last unfixed cat there, a black and white male. 

All I saw though were the four fixed girls--Tortilla, the muted torti, Halfucinno and Cappucinno, sisters and tame, then Puppy, the tame black and white mom cat to so many of the cats there.  But then, strutting like a cowboy, up the driveway, here comes a massive tabby tux male.   Oh my.  My heart began to beat.  I wanted to catch him!   But with the drop trap?  That would be risky.

This big guy suddenly showed up.  Tortilla wants to sniff noses.

He strolled up and touched noses with Tortilla, who seemed to adore him.  He glanced at the two torti girls now eating under the drop trap, then went to sniff out the drop trap.  He was about to go under.  I was holding my breath.  When a car pulls into the driveway.  Oh shoot.  It was a relative and about that time the colony caretaker, now awake, comes out of the house.  Oh well.  After they went back inside to visit, the unfixed black and white, Newsie I am calling him, came out and went under the drop trap and I caught him.

Newsie, the black and white I was after

Then I decided I would use my biggest Tomahawk trap, selectively, to try to get the male, who was still hanging around, off to the side of the house, over the brushline.  So I set it up back 25 feet from the house porch, put the water bottle under the trap door, tied my line to it instead of to the drop trap stand, and waited it out.  The kids were back by then, from church, and just as the big guy was half in the trap, eating, they came running out, to race to the backyard, to play.  Oh shoot.

But back he came and into the trap he went again, but that was after an unknown muted torti went in the trap to eat, one I thought maybe I should catch.  But there's a fixed owned muted torti across the street and I wasn't sure it wasn't her, then I would waste the opportunity to get that huge boy.  That huge boy could do major damage on other male cats, maybe he was the one that hurt Pirate, I thought.  He needs neutered priority number one, I thought.

Unknown muted torti showed up.   The only muted torti at the colony I know of is Tortilla, who is now fixed.  Is this Susie from across the street, who is owned and fixed?  The man at the house where she lives says its Susie.

So I waited and here he came, slinking out from under a trailer and back into the trap.  I didn't look at it, as I waited for him to be far enough in the trap.  I had the line in my hand, and took a sideways peek and he was in far enough and I yanked that string, that pulled out the water bottle holding the trap door up, and he was trapped.  He didn't make a squall about it either.   Just sat there, confused, resigned.

Andre, the Giant

But in the meantime, another classic torti had shown up.  I knew she was still around, but had forgotten I hadn't caught her yet.   This time I hauled the drop trap to the side yard, behind me where I sat on the porch and set it up there cause she hangs out on that side of the yard.  But who should come along?  A black and white young cat with no ear tip.   What?  Another black and white?

In the meantime, I walked across the tracks to the house where the muted torti lives who is fixed and knocked on their door.  A man answered this time.  Before I'd talked to a lady there, who said they had the fixed black tux and the fixed muted torti but three unfixed males.  I showed him the photo of the muted torti I took when she was atop the trap and he said "Yup, that's Susie."  But later on I thought, I should have asked if the woman was home, because probably to a man, every muted torti looks exactly the same. Maybe to most women too. So, I don't know if that was really Susie or not.  I hope so because if its not Susie, means there's another unfixed female needing caught and fixed.

Back sitting on the porch, the black and white one was under the trap and here came the torti I wanted to catch and then they were under the drop trap together and I couldn't believe my luck and yanked the cord that pulled its stand out and dropped the trap over them.  Then I transferred them out to live traps and that was that.  Four more.  Maybe I'm done there.

TinyWhiney eyes the drop trap from behind it

TinyWhiney gets caught

Bad photo of Oblique, the torti 

So I've got 12 to load up this morning.  Five from Sweet Home.  Three from the Lebanon Sisters.   Four from the Lebanon Tracks colony.