The situation is this; Phyllis
is a kind lady that is taking care of about 32 cats of her own, then
when her neighbor died she sorta inherited those cats also. She
managed to catch and get fixed all but one wily female. Who promptly
presented her with a litter of feral kittens. Fast forward and now
there are 9 cats to catch. Luckily Mama Kitty only seemed to have one
litter a year, unfortunately she would not bring the kittens around
until they big enough to be hard to catch. Poor Phyllis did what she
could, but with only one trap and a small car, she was fast becoming
overwhelmed.
Yesterday morning I arose at
break of dawn, and drove out to Rust Ranch. It was a pretty morning
in Texas with the sun just coming up and the birds greeting the
morning with song. The temperature was comfortable to be warm enough
in a sweater. I had high hopes that we would be successful in
trapping the cats we needed to catch. We had set up the situation for
success, by bringing the traps out a few days ahead of time so the
cats would be used to them. By feeding the cats in the traps with the
traps tied/wired open, to lull them into a false sense of security.
We had decided to trap two days because not all the cats showed up
every day. Now was the first day of trapping, Phyllis withheld food
yesterday afternoon but unfortunately not in the morning. So the cats
were hungry, but maybe not hungry enough. She had all her regular
fixed cats well fed in hopes they they would stay out of the way.
The first two cats we caught were the two males. Males seem a bit
less wily than the females, I can only suppose that the females are
like that because of the responsibility of taking care of the
kittens. Wherein in the males seem to be interested in easy food and
sex. Hmm...sound familiar.
We had caught three altogether
when I had to leave to keep an appointment, when I returned Phyllis
was so excited she claimed that a miracle happened, we caught the
wily Mama Kitty that she had been trying to catch for 3 ½ years! She
said the kitty just showed up and walked straight into a trap!
Yeah a victory!
Now comes the depressing part,
I brought the 4 trapped cats home with me to keep them safe in their
traps away from the coons that hang around Phyllis's. I have a car
port that I can set up folding tables to put the cats in traps on.
Now I have learned from sad experience that you have to secure both
ends of the traps so if one accidentally falls off the table in will
not open releasing the cat. I could have swore that I had done that!
About 1:30 this morning I heard a crash, and when I went to
investigate there was a trap on the ground with the door wide open
and the cat gone. It was too dark to see exactly what happened. I am
sure I secured the trap, I can only guess that kitty had been pawing
at the door and had worked the twist tie loose then when the trap
fell off the table it landed upside down and the door autocratically
opened. This is disturbing in many ways, an unfixed cat is now loose
in unfamiliar territory and I have to tell Phyllis that I lost one of
her cats.
To be continued.......
The Empty Trap, if you look closely you can see the untwisted twist-tie.
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