More Cats More Cats More Cats

Uh huh.   That's the story around here.  Kittens galore. 

I was called to a location where I'd trapped before, this time a different house.  Mom cat and kittens under a deck and unwanted.

I fumed and fumed.  I'm still tired, I tell myself, from the last weeks.  In the end I went out there, a little after 3:00, because it would eat away at me if I didn't, I knew.   Kittens born wild need caught in a time frame when they are under six weeks of age, to tame fast.

I couldn't tell from video clips she sent, their age.  They were dancing through a lattice, playiing.  I had her measure the lattice holes and when told the holes they came through were only 2 inches, I knew they were small enough to still tame.

I set up the drop trap and put a plate with tuna and wet food in the middle of the back and it wasn't one minute before out comes mom and begins gulping that food down.  She was so hungry.  Soon two of  the four kittens were with her, but no sign of the other two.  So I yanked the cord dropping the trap over the three, then trasferred them out. I had to use my net to get the kittens.  They were too little to figure out the transfer door.

I used my flashlight and auto mirror to look behiind a small cabinet near the lattice and spotted whiskers and was able to get a third out.  But no sign of the 4th.

I had arranged with a friend up near McMinnville to take the mom, get her spayed today actually, at the spay neuter clinic where she volunteers, then place her in a barn home.

It is unusual to find a placement for a feral mom and not the kittens.   I drove up to meet her then, on the west side of the Willamette.  To do this, I used the Wheatland Ferry.  $2 to cross the river on the ferry in a car one way.

It's kind of fun I think.  It takes only a couple minutes to cross.

After handing off that sweet little unwanted mom, I headed clear back up to where I'd trapped the three kittens.  I knew I wouldn't sleep without catching the fourth.  I put the three kittens, now in one live trap, under the drop trap, as bait.  And waited.  Did not take long for the fourth to emerge.   She was lonely and wanted her brother and sisters.  I dropped the trap over her, pulled her out with a net and put her in with her siblings.  And that was that.

The mom cat had eaten two more cans of food in the trap, on the way to the ferry crossing.  The three kittens had eaten three cans of wet food and they're only half pound in weight.  These were starving cats.

So anyhow, I got four kittens in the bathroom and hope to find them a placement although I think every shelter and rescue has my number blocked by now.  Lol.  That's kitten season in this county.