Denting the Colony

 The Portland news station predicted the next atmospheric river event would not really hit til about noon in the metro region.  I took an hour off that estimate, for this area, and decided if I went to the Shedd colony at 9:00 this morning I might have some luck catching some cats, before the prolonged downpours began.

I sure did have luck, caught 12 cats in all, before I had to quit due to pouring rain and all traps full, but some of those are kittens I intend to tame.   It was a good thing I caught the white face torti kitten.   She was cold to the touch and badly dehydrated.  

I couldn't put them in with the other two from this same colony, now healthy and scheduled to leave for the FCCO and Kitten Caboose on Friday morning.   I didn't want to jeopardize their futures.  So one is still in a trap and two are in a cage in the living room.  All three will move to the bathroom Friday morning.   I gave two of them sub cu fluids, wormed and defleaed all three.  They are siblings of Zippy the orange tabby in the bathroom, who is now healthy.  All three are tortis.

I caught various orange adults, also a calico, a muted torti and a light spotted muted torti tux.  I saw another larger muted torti run off.  Would like to catch her.   The colony has all colors of cats.  Lots of orange, buff, calico, torti but also blacks, black and whites and brown tabbies.  

But the big guy in the video above was a delightful surprise.  I did not catch him, or even try.  I had no trap along big enough to hold the monster orange tabby tux manx boy who came wandering down from one of the outbuildings, trailed by a young adult buff tabby and joined quickly by the tiny torti kitten, now in my living room in a kennel.

The nutria were out too, and kept trying to go under the drop trap.  One even tried to eat the rope cord I was using to yank the drop trap down.   Finally the couple came out with a pile of vegetable trimmings and dumped them out by a fence.  The nutes were fighting over the cabbage leaves.   

I'm also overnighting vet student catch and a Lebanon woman will transport 8 cats up to the FCCO tomorrow for her spots.  She has school and can't go of course.   Half the cats are here and half with the transporter already, who is overnighting in town with a relative and will pick up the rest in the morning here.  

The vet student, when she came, to drop off cats, who a transporter will pick up, looked at the colony kitten in the trap and said, "Does kitten season ever end here?  We'd never see kittens that young in Idaho this time of year."   I told her it used to end, but the weather's changed, milder winters with mostly rain that comes in spurts, these atmostpheric river events where it pours inches in days with mild temps.  We got into talking about the changes in climate trends.   California guy on TV said they'll have to learn to live with flooding because these monsoonal events with rain so heavy it spawns raging floods, must be adapted to and used now, to get as much of it to soak into dry underground aquifers as possible.

There's another black kitten there, probably the sibling of Silly, the girl kitten in my bathroom. 

A nutria watches the big orange tabby manx arrive, flanked by a buff tabby.

Well, making a dent out there.  The colony has ten more spots in a couple of weeks, along with four more Kitten Caboose appointments then, for the three tortis and the second black kitten, whom I will try to catch tomorrow.