Successful Last Trapping Job

 Almost done for summer.   Yesterday I took 13 cats and kittens up to FCCO to be fixed.  It was a long promised endeavor and I'm happy I got it done and also that its almost over with.

Monday was a killer day, but a good one even so.

I'd headed up to Sweet Home Sunday evening to pick up a girl cat, one of 8 unfixed cats at one location.  At least she is the only adult female (for a little while).  Two of her four kittens, now ten weeks old, are girls.

Diamond from Sweet Home, fixed Monday

  

Monday I took Diamond to the Salem clinic.  I'd gotten a cancellation appointment there.

After leaving her at the clinic, I headed straight down to the truck stop on the freeway, where I had trapped 20 in the two hot days near the first week of May.  Those 20 included 8 kittens and one young mom of three of the kittens, all of whom Silverton Cat Rescue took.  Of the other 11, one turned out to be a tame male, who one of the workers then found a home for.   I returned ten of the 20 cats then, after they were fixed.  Five girls and five boys.

I knew there were more needing fixed.

It was a long day Monday, to say the least.  I didn't get down to the truck stop to start until about 8:30 a.m.  I was able to trap these two fairly quickly, both of them, after turning a corner at the expansive property, and catching them in the act.  

I was told the mom had kittens up by the highway.  Yikes.  I carefully parked and walked up to the guardrail, by where all the big rigs constantly leaving, exit onto the highway.   Slipped between the guardrail and berry vines to an area of flattened grass and berry vines at a slope down to a creek.  I set a trap, skeptical that there were kittens right here so close to that extremely busy highway and truck stop exit to the highway.  

I set another trap over by an occupied mobile home, the one in front of the one that was burned, in a learn and burn in May, and two others by the office where there were still kittens from the two now fixed mom cats Queenie and Villa, a Siamese mom and a young calico mom.

The third adult I caught was another muted torti tux, over by the mobile.   I also caught a Siamese kitten over at the office.  I thought wth.  In early May I'd caught three Siamese kittens there and had no idea there was another.   By this time, it was 2:00 p.m. and I had to run the four home, then head up to the clinic in Salem to pick up Diamond.   

From the clinic in Salem, I drove all the way to Sweet Home, to take Diamond back and give the folks a case of wet food.   I then drove down highway 228 back to the truck stop, to continue trapping there.  I arrived at the truck stop just after 5:00 p.m.

I ended up not leaving again til nearly 5:00 a.m.

During that time, I caught 2 more adults--a black kitty, with a white chest spot, and another buff male.  I also caught two more kittens near the office--the calico kitten and another tabby.  I didn't know there was a second tabby.  I caught one tabby kitten back in May.   There is one more kitten there I have not caught yet. 

These are three of the four kittens who were big enough to be fixed yesterday.

I was told the torbi tux female, Tia, who does not hang around the office, but elsewhere, had a single kitten.  I saw her, after dark, crossing towards the restaurant, kitten in tow, but I split the kitten and mom by driving my car slowly their way. The kitten dashed back into the bush by the motel pool.   I tossed some wet food into the bush and quickly set a trap by the curb and caught her.

Tia, the torbi tux mom, was fixed back in May and at that time was both pregnant again and lactating.

She was done with her one kitten, you could easily tell, tired of being shadowed by her and since the kitten wasn't following her to where food was, I knew that kitten was probably doomed if not caught.

tia with her kitten

I caught three of the four young bufferoos by the highway but not the fourth.  It was for that fourth kitten I waited it out there into the early morning hours.

I became so tired I lost my keys in the brush down below the guard rail.   I was so tired I thought what a nice bed the flattened grasses would make.   I finally took her three siblings back down, all in one trap, to use as bait to catch her.  I played kitten sounds on my phone and she'd answer with plaintive cries.

I went into the convenience store at the gas station and asked if they had any hot meat I could use as bait.  They gave me some roast beef which I microwaved piping hot and put it in the trap beside her sibliings.  They got excited over it and I gave them some, hoping the sounds of them moving around and eating would draw her.

this worked and at 4:06 a.m. I caught her.  Oh, and I also found my keys.

At that point, I packed up empty traps and left.

I napped late into the morning, then went back down to meet the manager there, and we went up to her residence in Sweet HOme and caught four adults there quickly.

Yesterday morning I loaded up nine adults and four kittens and headed to the fCCO.  The four bufferoo kittens, all buff and white, from near the highway are not big enough to be fixed.

I dropped them off at the FCCO to be fixed, then headed to the rest area and napped several hours in the back of my car.  When I picked them up, I got a big surprise.  A friend offered to take three of the kittenes--the two calicos and the tabby.   A worker at the truck stop is taking the Siamese and a friend in LEbanon is taking on the four bufferoos today.

So, I gotta get going, to return the others now.  And after that, take the bufferoo crew to Lebanon and I'll be done for the summer!

Two office area kittens, now in Portland

Tia's calico kitten

One of the four bufferoo crew, composed of three boys and one girl

Weighing the bufferoos.  this one was 1 lb 7 oz

the hold out bufferoo--the girl

First bufferoo boy caught is the hisser spitter

So it was a good couple of days.   There is still one kitten and two adults that I know of there needing fixed.  Between the last few days and the first endeavor there in May--33 cats helped there at the truck stop.

The bufferoos mom and her latest boyfriend right before I caught them both.