Update on Our Kittens

All but 2 of our 11 kittens have been adopted. Phoenix and Pebbles went to a home together, Andy was adopted to a loving couple that had no problems caring for him with his medical condition (he has a heart murmur), Autumn went to a home with a couple that fell in love with her beautiful long coat - they had some issues with her not being overly friendly but said they want to keep her anyway and hopefully one day she will love them.  And lastly Rascal (aka Rapunzel) was adopted out - she had a pretty serious condition which stopped her from being adopted from the couple that wanted her. Her foster parent noticed that she had really bad breath and took her to the vet - her gum lining was rotting away and there was bone exposure. She was on med's for a good while but healed up and was back to being a lovable healthy kitten. Lucky for her the same couple that was interested in her still wanted her.

Jinx and Spidey are the 2 kittens left and they are staying at my house until they get adopted. Spidey still hasn't been added to the Petfinder site because he still isn't ready to be adopted. It is taking him a lot longer than the other cats to trust humans - we still cannot pick him up or really get close to him, he is getting better so hopefully one day he will warm up to us and we can get him adopted out.  My husband is falling in love with Jinx so who knows we might end up adopting him ourselves. He is playmates with Amberly so it would be hard separating the two of them.

It is such an awesome feeling knowing that 9 of our kittens have been placed in their forever homes. :)

4 of our Kittens have been Adopted!

Sorry things have been a little busy lately so I apologize for the lack of blog posts. Out of the 11 kittens 4 of them have been adopted - YAY!!!  Four of them are still at my house (Andy, Autumn, Jinx and Spidey) and the other three are at another Cat Shack Volunteers home (Phoenix, Rascal (aka Rapunzel) and Pebbles) - Rascal's adoption is pending, so she might have her forever home very soon!

Our Adopted Kittens:

Amberly was adopted by my husband and I and she is such a bundle of joy.  She purrs nonstop and plays with everything she can get her paws on.  Our 3 other cats are still getting used to her but every now and then I do notice them sniffing each other without hissing, so in time I know they will all be buddies.  Amberly loves to hang out in our bathroom sink; she also loves running water, pasta, bread and pizza crust.  She follows us everywhere and we tend to trip over her since she is always walking in between our feet.  I am so happy that she has a forever home now and everyday that I look at her it reminds me of the cats outside and that soon her life as a feral will be a distance memory.

Bam-Bam was adopted by one of my high school classmates, Kristin.  She recently lost her 5 year old cat Alex because of a heart issue and even though she could never replace him she wanted another companion for her 6 year old cat Bob.  On 12/12 Kristin adopted Bam-Bam and picked him up during the Santa Pet Photo day at PetSmart - she was so excited to bring him to his forever home.  Kristin has re-named Bam-Bam to Sam (she also calls him Sammy) and he is doing very well.  She has posted several pictures of him on Facebook playing with lots of toys, sleeping on the couch with his paws stretched out, and hanging out next to her on the computer.  Bob is still a little unsure about Sam but hopefully soon they will become friends. 

Tyke was adopted last week and even though he hissed at the owner they still fell in love with him and wanted to take him home.  I will get more information from Barb about how Tyke is doing with his new family.

Jesse was rescued back in November and Anne from LVH has given her a loving forever home.  

   

Santa Event at PetSmart

Bam-Bam with Santa

Santa with his first dog of the day

Pebbles and Phoenix

Well, some of you were aware that back on December 12th I volunteered my husband to be Santa Claus at PetSmart in Whitehall for the pet photo day.  He came home one night and I told him that since we didn't have anything going on and we needed to take the kittens to PetSmart for some exposure I volunteered him to be Santa from 11-4pm.  He was ok with it as long as he didn't have to take pictures with tarantulas or snakes.  Luckily he only had dogs, cats and some birds.  The proceeds from the event went to The Cat Shack and it was great to see that we had a very good turnout - Dave did a great job as Santa and made a lot of pet owners very happy!

We took along 6 of our kittens (Andy, Autumn, Jinx, Phoenix, Pebbles and Bam-Bam) to the event and had 2 adoption applications filled out.  It was a great opportunity for our kittens to get some exposure and they really got a lot of attention. 

Jinx at PetSmart

Andy and Autumn at PetSmart

Bam-Bam went along with us because his new owner Kristin was picking him up that day.  After the event was over Phoenix and Pebbles were taken to a different foster home with Barb a Cat Shack volunteer that already had their siblings Rascal and Tyke.

All of the kittens have now been posted to Petfinder and are awaiting their forever homes.

Dog House Shelter

Dog House

Linda, George, & Ralph

Saturday, December 11th was a big day for the cats.  10 more were released to join their family released from the previous weekend and some very kind humans delivered the biggest cat house they have have ever seen - well I guess that would go for us too.  Linda from LVH found this amazing dog house on Craigslist.  Linda and her husband George, Ralph, Darlene, David and myself helped move this monstrosity into it final destination.  It was heavy, gigantic, and just plain AWESOME!  It looks like it could fit 15+ cats comfortably and possibly more if we could install some shelves, since it is very tall.

Final Destination

It was rather a difficult and time consuming task moving this house from its previous owner to its final destination in the woods.  First we needed someone with a trailer to pick it up, then we needed at least 6 strong men to move it (well we had 3 men and 3 very strong women, lol) and then we needed something to move it on the uneven ground.

After walking through several thorn bushes, getting hit by tree branches and having to stop to remove rocks and sticks out of our path we finally got this house back into the woods.  It looks great in its new location and I can't wait to see the cats using it regularly.

In time, hopefully after the holidays we will have someone cut out a second exit for the cats and have more shelters built; but for the time being it makes us feel better knowing that they do have somewhere to go to get out of the elements.   

2nd Release Back Home

Dave and Linda

On Saturday December 11th we released 10 more cats.  Originally it was going to be 11 cats but one of them seemed friendly and let me pet her, so we decided to hold on to her for one more week in hopes of finding a barn for her to go to.

One last look before they took off

Once we opened the carriers they again all ran out as fast as they could and were out of our sights within seconds.  Linda helped Dave release them and she seemed to get a kick out of them enjoying their freedom.

8th Visit to NNN

On December 3 & 4 we decided that these days would be the last days to trap any remaining cats.  We hadn't really seen any in a few days so we knew that we were coming to an end.  On Friday night (12/3) we trapped a Pastel colored tabby with fried chicken and after setting hot fried chicken out several times during the day and night on Saturday (12/4) we only trapped one more and he was a jet black beauty. 

Both of these cats went to the last and final NNN appointment on December 8th.  Both are recovering from their surgery and will be released back to their home in the woods on Saturday, December 18th.

7th Trip to NNN

Big Momma on her way to NNN

Today Big Momma and Heathcliff were taken to NNN for their surgery.  They have both been very calm the past couple of days and would never leave the back of their cage, sometimes hanging out in their litter-box.  Yesterday Heathcliff seemed upset with me and hissed while I was giving them new food - maybe he knew that he was next to be neutered.

Heathcliff on his way to NNN

This morning Heathcliff was once again upset and David had a hard time getting him inside the carrier.  His attitude was not helping with Big Momma either.  After a long struggle he finally got both of them in their carriers. Linda from LVHN will pick them up today and I will let everyone know the update as soon as I can.

Update 12/7 - Surprisingly Big Momma was already altered, so she was not the one popping out all the babies.  Hopefully out of the 16 females we already altered we have now ended the population problem.

14 Cats Released

1st car load

 Yesterday David and I released 14 of the 32 cats back to their home in the woods.  It took 2 car trips and some careful separating since these cats have been sharing cages together, but they all seemed very happy to go back home.  Once David opened up the doors to their carriers all but 2 cats bee-lined out of there as fast as they could.  Not sure if the orange guy and the calico were scared to leave or they didn't want to head back to the woods but after a minute or two they also booked on out of there and were out of our sights fairly quickly. It was very sad to see them go, but the woods is their home and we told ourselves that they will be happier there than stuck in a cage.

So what cats did we release?

We released the cats that went to the first three No Nonsense Neutering appointments (11/18, 11/23, & 11/24).  Frazzle was part of the first group at NNN but she was placed at Trinka's (a Cat Shack volunteer) back on 11/21 where she will stay until she is adopted out as a barn cat.

Ready, set, Go!!

The next group to be released on either December 11th or 12th will be the 5 cats that went to The Cat Shack Clinic on the 11/21, the 4 from the fourth NNN appointment on 11/30 and the 2 from the fifth NNN appointment on 12/2.  The 2 cats that went to NNN on 12/3 we aren't sure what we are going to do with them at this time since they are very old and might not survive the winter.

4 cats still need to go to No Nonsense Neutering - 2 will go as a walk-in on Tuesday (12/7) and the last 2 will go on Wednesday (12/8) and they will be released on December 18th after having a 7-10 day recovery period.

Rescue is Coming to an End...

David and I are going to set traps tonight (12/3) and tomorrow (12/4).  If we do not get anymore cats in the next 2 days we are going to start releasing them on Sunday (12/5).  The cats that we had held onto since the first appointment at NNN on November 18th, will be the first group let go.  We will also release the cats from both the 11/23 and 11/24 appointments as well.  The rest of the cats will stay with us for about another week so they can fully recover from surgery and then they will be released either on December 11 or 12th.

Ideally we would like all of these adult cats released to a barn, but we have had no luck finding one.  If someone can locate a barn or another location for these cats please feel free to let us know and we can look into it.  Releasing cats to another location can sometimes be hard on the cats since they are not familiar with the area and if other cats are already there they might not take a liking to the new colony that has arrived; so it is probably best in the long run to release them back to the area they already know and call home. 

Unless we catch more cats in the next 2 days, we will once again see 30 cats back in our parking lot/woods; but thankfully 11 out of the 41 are kittens and they will be placed into loving forever homes.  So we will now need to make sure that this colony has plenty of food and water starting on Monday, December 6th and we will also need to keep an eye on them for any cats that may be sick or if there is another litter.  Please read the articles I posted in the Feral Cats 101 section of this blog for more information.

Thank you to everyone that has donated money, food, blankets/towels, and litter!  Thank you to Theresa (with The Cat Shack), Brenda, Darlene, Ralph and Linda for transporting these cats to and from NNN.  Trinka (with The Cat Shack) thank you for lending us 13 traps to catch these beautiful babies and for all the advice you have given David and myself on how to trap them - the KFC tip was awesome!!  Thank you to The Cat Shack, Trinka and Kimberly for lending us all the cages to house these cats.  Thank you to Linda, Brenda, Eileen, Theresa and Trinka for lending us carriers so these cats had a secure place to hide out and so we could transport them in a cozier place rather than inside the traps. Thank you to Brenda, RaeAnn, Denise, Eileen, Linda, and Darlene for helping clean out the cages. Thank you to Denise and RaeAnn for feeding these guys their dry and wet food practically every night when they were still outside. Thank you to Anne for taking a sick kitten (Andy) from us and supplying him with the medicine he desperately needed.  A BIG thank you goes out to The Cat Shack for getting some of our ferals spayed and neutered at their clinic, giving the kittens their vaccines and tests, supplying us with all the Frontline we needed for the kittens, the Clavamox, eye ointment, litter boxes, litter, and dry food.  Thank you to Tanya from SPICER for helping vaccinate and test some of our kittens. Also, a thank you also goes out to my husband David for putting up with me and this crazy project I got him involved in, we have only been married for 2 months and after doing this for 1 month straight I think we can handle just about anything - I love you! 

David and I could not have helped this colony without the help we have received from all of you - THANK YOU!!

Jaime and David

BIG MOMMA has been caught!!

Big Momma and Heathcliff

Last night (12/2) I went to Redners to buy some fried chicken (since it was cheaper than KFC), hoping to trap the last few cats that were out there.  We only knew of 2 maybe 3 cats left and they seemed to really like the fried chicken.  So knowing that Big Momma was still out there we knew we could not stop this rescue effort until she was captured.  She is the one cat that we have seen pregnant time and time again - so this queen bee needed to be trapped and soon!

I walked down to the traps to set them and who was hanging out near 3 of them sniffing around and checking things out.  It was Pepe Le Pew - our skunk that seems to really enjoy cat food (wet and dry) as well as tuna fish and fried chicken.  I trapped him once already and boy was that a frightening experience for me (I'll post something about that later), so this time I just watched him from a distance with my very dim flashlight.  He must have smelled the fried chicken in the bag I was holding because he started coming toward me.  I kept taking large steps backward and he continued to follow me.  I'm thinking great what the heck do I do now - I can out run a skunk, right?  Well, to my luck he decided to turn back around and head straight into the woods.

Knowing that the skunk was hungry and in the woods somewhere nearby I was terrified that he was going to sneak up behind me when I was setting the traps with this huge bag of fried chicken I had in my hands. Paranoid I set each trap with large amounts of fried chicken, looking over my shoulder every 5 seconds for Pepe Le Pew's big return, but thankfully that never happened.  

I left thinking to myself, great when my husband and I come back in about an hour there is going to be a skunk in one of these traps.  So, I headed home for my nightly routine of feeding and cleaning out litter boxes and after a very quick dinner (cereal, yum!) David and I headed back to the traps hoping to see cats and NO skunks.

We walked to the first trap and it was empty, when I came down the hill to the second trap I saw glowing eyes with my flashlight - YES we caught one.  It was the orange guy (Scrappy), he looked really beaten up - poor guy.  Then not to far away from his trap was another one set a little further back in the woods and we saw glowing eyes in it - it was BIG MOMMA!!!  We were so happy to see her - we have been trying for weeks to get this girl and she would not go inside the traps for us.  She wouldn't go in for wet cat food or tuna fish - but she must not have been able to resist the smell of yummy hot fried chicken.  

She has been paired up with another orange guy that we trapped the night before on (12/1) with King Kong. They will both go to NNN on Tuesday, December 7th.   

6th Visit to NNN

King Kong & Scrappy on 12/2

On Wednesday night (12/1) I heated up the leftover KFC from the night before and hurried quickly out to the traps since I had to meet my "little" from Big Brothers Big Sisters for our weekly get together.  I only had time to put the KFC in 3 of the traps, hoping that this would be enough.  About an hour later my husband stopped by from his way home from work to check on the traps and he saw the biggest cat EVER from this colony inside one of them.  So, we decided to name him King Kong!

King Kong is heavy, very slow and not too active.  Once placed in the cage with Natty & Comet (that went to NNN yesterday) he just plopped down next to the litter box and did not move.  This morning when we needed to get him inside a carrier for his surgery it was quite a struggle.  We had to push him with the end of a broom stick and even my own hands, we even tried cornering him with the carrier and NOTHING seemed to work with this guy - he just did not want to leave.  After what felt like forever he finally gave up and went inside the carrier.

Scrappy is in poor shape :(

Scrappy was trapped last night (12/2) with fried chicken that I bought at Redners from their heated section.  It was a lot cheaper than KFC and Scrappy didn't seem to mind.  Since King Kong was alone in his cage we decided to place Scrappy in there with him and they would be the next 2 to go to NNN.  Scrappy got his name because he is badly beaten up.  His eye is sunk back in his head, his ears are torn up and his face looks all scratched up.  Not sure if he got in a fight with another cat or possibly another wild animal out there, but he is in rough shape.

Scrappy was a little difficult getting into the carrier this morning as well.  I think he was just petrified after witnessing how hard it was to get King Kong in and why he was next.  He hissed a little but eventually went in the carrier on his own.

I dropped them both off this morning and my sister Erin will pick them up this afternoon.  I will update everyone with how they are doing shortly.

Update (12/03) - My sister Erin picked these 2 cats up from NNN and was told that they are very old and need some tender loving care.  She mentioned that they will not live much longer and they were afraid to perform surgery on them, but went ahead and did it anyway - King Kong was treated for ear mites and Scrappy was treated for lice.

Update (12/13) - Trinka from the Cat Shack has offered to take these 2 cats to her place where they can live out their lives in a much more relaxed and peaceful environment.  Thank you Trinka!!  Both Scrappy and King Kong will be take to Perkiomen Animal Hospital on Thursday, December 16th where they will be tested for FeLV and FIV.

5th Visit to NNN

Comet

On 11/30 we trapped 3 more cats using fried chicken from KFC. We caught a young tabby that we are going to try and socialize, another adult tabby (Comet) and a calico (Natty).  Once placed in their cages both Comet and Natty were very curious as to their new surroundings; they were not shy coming right up to the front of the cage where I was to take a look around.  This morning when we needed to put them in carriers they both walked right in without a problem, YAY!!

Since we do not have anymore appointments with NNN we are going to take the last remaining cats as walk-ins, but they will only take a maximum of 2 cats at a time.  David dropped off Comet and Natty at NNN this morning and I will pick them up this afternoon.

Natty

We are still having some issues with someone feeding the cats at the dumpsters.  I threw away the wet food that was put there yesterday and I plan on throwing away what is there today as well.  If you see anyone feeding these cats please ask them to stop or throw the food away yourself.  Feeding these cats is not helping our efforts and with Christmas fast approaching my husband and I will not be able to continue this project much longer, so trapping these last few cats must be done in the next few days.

Update 12/13 - These two beauties were released back to their home in the woods on Saturday, December 11th.  Hopefully they enjoy the big dog house that we placed in the woods early that morning for all of them.  

Bam-Bam

11/30

Bam-Bam was trapped on 11/26. It seems we trapped this tiny and adorable tabby before he developed any feral attributes, as he was very easy to handle without any hissing or spitting, right from when we first introduced him. Since then he's come along well, eating wet food (sometimes from our hand/fingers) and sleeping a lot. He's yet to purr despite all of the attention, but he is very comfortable laying next to Andy, Jinx, Phoenix or Pebbles (we think they might be siblings or even possibly litter mates).

He's started to react to things like the laser-pointer dot, though he hasn't begun actively playing. He's still shy and prefers to cozy up to his friends rather than sit with us, but we think progress is being made.

Bam-Bam is so TINY

Bam-Bam tested negative for FeLV/FIV/Heartworm and has been vaccinated. He is currently being socialized but has been posted to Petfinder. If you would like to give this adorable boy a forever home, please fill out an adoption form on his page.

Update 12/13 - Bam-Bam has been adopted!  Out of our 11 kittens Bam-Bam was the first to go to his forever home yesterday.  His new mom Kristin recently lost her 5 year old cat Alex just a few weeks ago and didn't want her 6 year old cat Bob to be all alone.  Her veterinarian recommended that she get a kitten as a companion for Bob.  Kristin is an old Southern Lehigh High School classmate of mine and saw Bam-Bam's picture on Facebook where she immediately fell in love with him because he had the same flat face that her cat Alex had.  She stopped by my house for 2 hours last Saturday (12/4) to see Bam-Bam and knew immediately that she wanted him.  She filled out the adoption application and heard the good news that she was accepted on Friday 12/10.  Kristin stopped by the PetSmart Santa Claws photo event to pick Bam-Bam up and take him to his forever home.  Bam-Bam is currently in the process of being introduced slowly to his new big brother Bob.   

Pebbles

Pebbles first night in her new play-pen

Pebbles and her brother Bam-Bam on 11/30

Pebbles was trapped on 11/25. We were rather surprised as we weren't sure if she was still out there as we hadn't seen her in awhile, but we're glad we caught her. She was slightly resistant at first, but quickly cozied up to her new roommates Jinx, Andy, Phoenix and her possible brother Bam-Bam. 

Since then, she's been eating regularly and has just recently developed some playful tendencies. While she's still getting used to being handled- like the others, she still shies away when we attempt to pick her up and she has yet to purr despite a lot of attention, she has begun to play with bits of string and will chase the laser-pointed dot. Hopefully, its a big step and will lead to further socialization where she now becomes more comfortable outside the cage.

Pebbles has been vaccinated and tested negative for FeLV/FIV/Heartworm.  She is currently being socialized but if you would like to give her a loving forever home she has been placed on Petfinder. Just fill out her adoption form. 

Update 12/13 - Pebbles attended the PetSmart Santa Claws photo event yesterday where she got a lot of exposure.  She was taken to another foster home after the event and was placed in a beautiful walk-in play pen at Barb's house (a Cat Shack volunteer) with Rapunzel (aka Rascal), Tyke and Phoenix.

Andy

11/10 when Andy was really sick

Andy was the 2nd kitten that we trapped back on 11/10 and he had an upper respiratory infection just like Amberly.  We did not have medicine for him at the time so we took him to Anne (a LVH employee) since she already had medicine for one of the other sick kittens (Jessie) that she captured.

Email from Dave on 11/11/2010 - Andy has been hiding in the corner- both in and on top of the carrier. I can't tell if he's eaten anything yet but it's not likely. His eye is puffy and could use some cleaning and if we can't get him into a vet soon, I might throw on a long-sleeve shirt and gloves and try to clean it and give him at least some temporary relief.

Update from Anne (11/15) -  Andy is doing well. I have enough antibiotic and eye ointment for both. I also gave him a Frontline PLUS treatment. We have been calling him "Andy" but won't be able to keep him; too much kitty testosterone in the house upsets all the 'girls'. So, maybe the girl scouts can find him a good home. We heard him meowing for the first time this morning and he jumped from the corner he was hiding in all weekend to the 2nd tier of the cage. He is sooo little! My husband is home today. He said he was going to handle him alot today to get him used to the human touch because he is very scared and tries to flee our arms. I trimmed his nails but they are still sharp enough to leave scratch marks. He is a feisty one and soooo cute. He fits in the palm of my husband's hand.

Update from Anne (11/19) -  Andy is getting better. I've been giving him the same meds that I am giving to Jessie. He is coming along. He is very shy. Maybe depressed? He's not as scared and jumpy as he was last week. Have you caught any of his siblings? I think it would lift his spirits to be with one of them. I hope so because I'm starting to fall in love with him especially when he nestles with me and falls asleep.

11/25 - He is getting better but is still on med's

Update from Anne (11/24) -  Although he is very comfortable with me he is still scared when I remove him from his crate. I sit with him on the bathroom floor away from all the other cats and he curls up in my magazine basket instead of running around. I got 3 meows out of him this morning!

Update (11/30) - On Sunday (11/28) Andy tested negative for FeLV/FIV/Heartworm and has taken his first dose of de-wormer.  He is still a little shy and is not a happy camper when taking his med's (eye drops and clavamox) but we hope his eye clears up soon so he can become the playful kitten we know he is.  He did show some signs of playfulness last night when we showed him the "red dot" that Amberly and Phoenix were playing with.  We will continue to socialize him and get him ready for his forever home.  He has been listed on Petfinder and if you would like to adopt Andy just fill out the application listed on his page. 

4th NNN Appointment

Spice

Today was our last scheduled appointment at NNN. We could only trap 4 cats in time for this appointment and we know of at least 4 more cats that are still out there.  Hopefully can trap these last few cats in the next couple of days.  Thank you to Theresa from the Cat Shack and Darlene & Ralph from LVH with transporting these cats to and from NNN today.

Gandalf

These 4 were all trapped on separate days last week and since there are only a few cats left it is getting rather difficult catching them. We do need to ask anyone that has been feeding them wet or dry food to please stop. We need these cats to be hungry so they will go into the traps for us.  Thank you.

Cupcake

Update (12/02) - All of these cats have been doing well since their surgery on Tuesday.  Spice and Cupcake are rooming together and Gandalf and Simba are rooming together - they have all been piling up on top of each other keeping each other company and I'm sure they are staying nice and toasty this way too! 

Simba

Update 12/13- This beautiful group of cats were released back to their home in the woods on Saturday, December 11th. It was a beautiful day out (around 46 degrees) so they were able to get reacquainted with their home in the woods before the cold weather hit today.

 

3rd NNN Appointment

Pepper

Spaz on top of Rocky

These 4 cats went to NNN today.  Spaz, Murphy, and Rocky were all trapped Monday night (11/22) with Autumn.  Spaz was originally roommates with Rocky but we separated them because when we came out to check on them Tuesday morning their cage was a disaster.  We weren't sure if the 2 weren't getting along or if they were trying to find a way out; but the food and water dishes were turned upside down, litter was EVERYWHERE and the blankets on top of the cage where all over the place.  So we placed Spaz in another cage that morning and when I came back at lunch to check on everyone I noticed that he did it again to his new cage. So needless to say he is not a very happy cat and we felt the name Spaz suited him well.

Murphy

Murphy was a roommate with Autumn and they hardly ever left the carrier.  Murphy was very calm this morning and after just several tilts to the carrier he was sharing with Autumn he just walked right on out and went directly inside another carrier; this was not the case with our newbie Pepper that we trapped last night (11/23).  Both Rocky and Pepper were in the same carrier together this morning and when we got Rocky into a different one we thought we could just close the door to the carrier Pepper was in... Oh no we could NOT.  He jumped right on out of the carrier and panicked looking for a way out and started going from corner to corner of the cage pulling down the blankets.  Since it was getting rather difficult pushing him inside the carrier that was already in the cage I got another one and we somehow got him inside of it.

Rocky

What another exciting morning for us...

Thank you to Theresa from The Cat Shack and Brenda from LVH in helping with transporting these cats today. 

Update (11/29) - Spaz and Murphy have been rooming together and for the first couple of days after their surgery they both seemed to be calm and recovering from surgery nicely.  Spaz is back to being her usual self and is making her cage a complete mess, poor Murphy.  Rocky and Pepper on the other hand are doing great and have been nothing but angels in their cage.  The only thing to note with Rocky was that we found out he was already neutered, so either he was fixed several years ago when a co-worker of mine trapped some of these cats or he was someone's pet that got lost or left behind.

Autumn

Autumn over the summer

Finally we caught Autumn!!!  We have been trying for weeks to get this beautiful little girl and she would never go inside the trap for us.  So on Monday night (11/22) we decided to put a trap right next to the box that she likes to sleep in and just wait.  After waiting patiently in the distance I saw her come out from the woods and walk right on by the trap up to dry food next to the dumpsters.  After hanging out at the dumpsters for a little while she slowly made her way down to her favorite box and saw the trap.  She sniffed it and walked around it checking it out.  Then the moment I was waiting for finally happened... She went inside!! 

This is a better box, isn't it?

Then the torture began... The trap did not go off and she just kept eating away! I turned my head to try and get Dave's attention since he was monitoring the other traps further down and then I heard a loud slam. The trap went off and Autumn was inside.  Oh, I was so relieved to have finally trapped this little girl.

She went to NNN today with the 3rd group of cats, so I will post an update letting everyone know how she is doing in the next few days.  If she tests negative for FeLV and FIV she will be placed with the other kittens.

Update (11/29) - Autumn has tested negative for FeLV/FIV/HW and has been paired up in a cage with Amberly and they are getting along just great. Autumn is very shy and we are currently working on socializing her for adoption. If you would like to give her a loving forever home, please fill out an application listed on her Petfinder page. 

Tyke

Tyke's first night & Rascal made him feel at home

So if you've been reading so far, you've noticed that we've caught Rascal and Phoenix but have had some difficulty catching their litter-mate and little orange buddy. He's been spotted several times entering traps and eating the bait while sitting on the triggers themselves, but his tiny little body just wouldn't set it off! Very frustrating, to say the least, and heartbreaking as he no longer had any of his siblings around to hang with.

Tyke, Rascal, Jinx, and Phoenix

On Monday night (11/23), we were fortunate that little Tyke decided to follow a tiger into the trap, and both were trapped in an instant!

We were able to successfully separate the two from the trap without incident later that night and we moved him in with his two siblings and Jinx. Since then, he's been rather terrified, hissing and scratching, but we're hoping that the familiar presence of his litter-mates and the VERY-protective Jinx, who has taken on the role of older-brother will help him adjust and become more sociable. He'll be getting tested soon with his sibling Rascal.

Update (11/29) - Tyke has tested negative for FeLV/FIV/HW and is currently being socialized with his sister Rascal (re-named Rapunzel) with a Cat Shack volunteer in a very nice walk-in play pen.  He is looking for his forever home; you can fill out an application on his Petfinder listing page.

Rascal

11/22/2010

Trapping Rascal Sunday night (11/21) was a very frustrating experience.  She went in one of the large traps and her weight would not set off the trap.  We watched her eat the bait and then the tuna fish in the back of the trap for what felt like forever.  She happened to be with her brother (Tyke) and we thought maybe they would both go in together and grab a bite to eat; that way they would definitely be heavy enough to set off the trap.  Well we were watching from a distance and it looked like both of the kittens were in the trap when it went off and to our surprise only Rascal was inside while the orange kitten ran away.  We were happy but sad at the same time, because now the orange kitten (Tyke) was the last one left in that litter. We tried all night to trap the orange kitten but we didn't have any luck.

Jinx, Rascal and Phoenix

We brought Rascal home and after talking with Theresa she said that it would be best to put Rascal in the cage with her brother Phoenix, so she wasn't lonely.  We are going to have Rascal tested immediately for FeLV and FIV, so we do not harm Jinx or Phoenix; but with all the cats testing negative so far we thought it would be ok for now.

We are slowly trying to socialize Rascal, but she is still very scared.  Rascal is very happy hanging out with her brother Phoenix and Jinx has welcomed the newbie as well, they have all been sleeping together and keeping each other company.

Update (11/29) - Rascal (re-named Rapunzel) has tested negative for FeLV/FIV/HW and is currently being socialized in a very nice walk-in play pen with her brother Tyke at a Cat Shack volunteers home.  She has had several people interested in her since she was listed on Petfinder, if you would like to help her find her forever home please fill out the application listed on her page.