A Rainy Day in Austin,TX

Yesterday was a long chilly, tiring day. A day of steady rain temperature in the mid 40's. A good day to stay home in front of the fire. Alas, I had 7 cats loaded into the car and ready to go to Austin. I needed to by on the road by 5am, so I set an alarm for 4:30, woke up at 3:30. It didn't seem worth it to try to go back to sleep for only an hour.

Sixty miles in the dark and pouring rain, several minor adrenaline rushes and quite a few prayers, we all made it safely to AHS (Austin Humane Society). Misery loves company. A few minutes after my arrival, Marcia pulls in, she also had brought 7 cats 60 miles in the dark and rain. We commiserated for a few minutes, then retreated to the shelter of our cars.

Thank you Mike for unlocking the doors a few minutes early. Had all the cats checked in by 7am, then as my usual routine, went to MacDonald s for my second breakfast. Then to my favorite parking lot to catch some zzz's. I spent a few peaceful hours napping snug in my car. Unfortunately I can only sleep so long before the chill and aches creep in. What to do until the cats are ready to go home. Walmart? Nothing I really needed. Goodwill? Every time I go I spend money, plus not a good day to by trying on clothes, I had too many layers on. Plus 'taint natural undressing when it is cold outside. So I did something that Rennies do when the weather is bad, I went to see a movie. American Sniper, not a good rainy day movie, good guys and bad guys. I wish life were that simple.

Uneventful ride home in the rain, all kitties fed in my car and tucked in for the night with a heat lamp to keep them warm. It took a while, but the wood stove finally got the house warm, after a hot shower I was ready for bed.

Fast forward... 5am I am awake again, this time waiting for daybreak so I can see to release the captives. This is one of my favorite parts of the job. It is such a relief for them, after being though so much to be back in familiar surroundings and for me to relinquish responsibility for them. Also by now they can be pretty stinky, I am always anxious to get the traps out of my car, laundry sorted and the car aired out, which will be a challenge today as... it is still raining!

Phyllis

Chess Club Café Kitty

Cows and Cats

Another day up before dawn, this was one of those cool gray kind of days that is common this time of year in Texas. Not one of those misty-moisty days, but one where the clouds are low but not quite touching the earth. It was cooler than yesterday, a sweater and jacket day. One that was comfortable if you were moving around but chilly if you sat still. Rain was predicted starting at 1pm, once is starts raining trapping is over for the day.

I really dreaded telling  Phyllis that her cat had escaped, she took the news as well as can be expected, she did cry a little. The missing cat is the remaining son of one her favorite toms, BonBon.

Phyllis did come out to my property and called for him. The best I can hope for is that somehow he makes his way home or that he hangs around here and eventually I will be able to trap him again.

So, today we got 3 young adults, which makes 7 out of 9 caught. There are two mama cats left, one Phyllis has not seen in a couple of weeks and one who was around early but then disappeared for the day. So all in all it was a good trapping job, with only 1 or 2 cats left, Phyllis will be able to handle the rest herself. I thought I was done for the day, but no.....

I was to meet some friends for lunch at the Chess Club Cafe, I arrived early and took a seat by a window. Glancing out what do I see but a little cat huddled on the back porch of the restaurant. She was close enough to see that she did not have an eartip. Hmmm, now what? I asked about her and yes nobody minded if I tried to trap her to get her spayed. But I was warned “she didn't do humans”. Problem was all the traps I had with me in the car had cats in them. So what I did was transferred 2 litter mates into one trap, thus freeing up one trap. As I snuck around the back of the building, she scampered around the side, luckily I was able to see what hole she used to dive under the building. At first I set the trap on the back porch, no luck. Then I moved it to right in front of the hole. Bingo! She is a pretty little kitty, light orange and gray, not a torty, but a torby. Maybe I will be able to get a picture tomorrow. What a great way to trap. Set the trap, go in and have a nice lunch with friends come out and the cat is in the trap. Nice and easy!

Sally and Rosie supervised the trapping the last couple days.

Sally

Rosie

Ya Win Some and Ya Loose Some

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.

Another Trapper Would Understand

When trapping cats you have to adjust to their schedule, that means you are setting traps just before dusk and dawn. I usually trap at night, which causes me to have a somewhat broken schedule. I may sleep in the afternoon then stay up late trapping. Catch a few hours sleep then get up really, really early to be on the road by 5am to be able to get to the Humane Society by 6am. To be first in line.  It is important to be one of the first ones there, as first in, is first out. So if you are lucky you will beat Austin's afternoon traffic. Needless to say that by about 7:30 am I am tired, so it has been my habit to borrow a few old blankets to make a pallet in my car to sleep on. A slight misunderstanding arose when a worker saw me take the blankets. Thinking that I was stealing them. Later when questioned I explained that I was only borrowing them for the day to sleep on.  I explained that when I put 15 cats in 15 traps into my small car there is not much room for blankets, thus my borrowing for the day habit. This brought a round of laughter, and a bit of head shaking. Is it strange that I should park in a church parking lot and burrow under a pile of blankets for a few hours? Another trapper would understand!

They are both predators and prey!

They lurk in the shadows, between dawn and dusk, in alleys, cemeteries and barns. They are predators, that stalk campuses, prisons and warehouses. They are prey, that hide in barns, culverts and parks. They are the feral cat, wherever there are feral cats you will find the feral cat trapper.