Four Kitties Move On

 

The Rural Roadies, all four, are now in a barn home, acclimating to their new digs.   The barn owner has a camera on them, and after the Silverton Cat Rescue barn team set them up, she later sent them this photo of Neptune and Jupiter, in the cage on the left, while Onyx and Fluffy are on the right.   They're already feeling comfortable enough to wander around a bit in their acclimation cages.

A lot of people think adopting a barn cat means getting one and turning it loose immediately, like they somehow will know this is their new home.  That's like dumping a cat out in the country.  Exactly like that.   The cats have to figure out this is their new home, get used to the people and other animals and space, from a safe position, like these acclimation cages.  It's also important that cats go in groups of relatives or friends.   It's much more likely to work out if they are with family.   

Community cats bond with one another and with their territory.  They know where they can hide, sleep and find food.  When you take that away suddenly, they go into panic mode, hide for awhile, then try to get back home.   So you work at it a bit, to make them comfortable in acclimation, feel safe and wanted,  some folks sit nearby and read to them.

Anyway, good luck kiddos!!!

They had no chance of long lives or even good lives where they had been.   Now they do have a better chance.

I had kept them in traps until early morning yesterday, after their surgeries.  That's so they wouldn't move around too much.   Early morning, I let them out in the bathroom again, so they could use the litter box, drink and eat more, and sleep more.  I had two carriers set up in the bathroom and after a few hours, found two cats in each and simply closed the carrier doors, loaded them up and went off to meet the barn cat team and hand them over.  It was very easy.

I went along with the feeder lady to try to catch the last two teens at one spot she feeds last night.  Alas, there was food still there from when she fed that morning.  I had tried to get her to understand they have to be hungry to be caught.   No luck on that.  I don't think she is capable of not feeding.   Also, I found out she is not a patient person and wanted to leave within about 20 minutes after arrival.   So anyhow, it was a bust.  The county or city had cleaned out the trash there, which included her food basket.  She was upset about that.  I thought, get upset about them having to live like this and catch them.

I cancelled Hulu last night.  I meant to do it awhile back and forgot.  Then I got an email about them raising their price again and cancelled it immediately.    It was fun to have it awhile.   Maybe they'll do a subscriber drive again at some point and offer low monthly for a short time if you subscribe.   There's still quite a lot to watch online for free if you know where to look.