Back at It

 I was back at the doomed colony last night.   Why not?  I have five appointments Monday.

I admit trapping there is laid back.   I sit in a lawn chair and just wait, along with a very friendly lady who lives there in the RV park, who once fed them.  I set up the drop trap and wait around for one of the target cats to go under the drop trap.  And pull a string.  She helps me get them transferred out and to the car in a live trap.

Last night we were trying to keep skunks from going under the trap and she was out there hurling tortillas coated in peanut butter for the skunks, hoping to keep them elsewhere.  It was hysterical.  She was hurling them like frisbees.

It did work.   Except for one persistent one.   

I think there's only 3 males still needing caught and fixed after last night.  We're really cutting it down, on unfixed ones there.  Now just to find them all barn homes.  SCR has two barn homes to take two cats each, if they test negative, that is.

I caught one boy and three girls but will try to get another girl this evening, to better the chances that four of the five will test negative.   There seems to be no Felk in the colony, and just one young boy has tested FIV positive so far.  

If Batty is negative he's going off to a barn home, so he won't fight with whichever of the two big males left has FIV that resulted in poor Tabby's positive test.   He had a bite wound on his neck, so he's likely a recent infection and there are two suspects, of the two unfixed big boys left, who could be positive.  

Batty is now here, to be tested and fixed tomorrow.   Crossing fingers he is negative.

Dusty, one of the girls, and now here, to go to barn home if negative

Lone kitten, Munchy is the mom, but she swats at the kitten and doesn't seem to want him or her near her.  However I didn't catch Munchy when she was under the drop trap, not wanting to take her without catching that kitten first.

Sunny is one of the unfixed males.  The other two are big dominant Fluffs and the other is Smokey.

When Pepper went off to a barn home, and Tabby, who is FIV positive, was returned to the colony, the boy friends threesome was broken up.   But quickly Tabby and his best friend Fanta, were joined by Tortilini, a young now fixed torti.  I so hope I can find a barn home willing to take an FIV positive boy plus his two best friends Fanta and Tortilini.  To be frank, probably half or more of the free roaming unfixed boys, tame or wild, owned or not, in this county, already have FIV.

Skunks had a very good spring in the valley, with lots of babies surviving.  They're everywhere.  

Today is supposed to be very nice weather.