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| 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.
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| 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.
Hello all,
ReplyDeleteWe know of at least 3-4 other cats that are still out there, including one known female (with a second female likely) so we are almost done!
Since we want them all fixed to prevent more litters from showing up in the Spring, and that these last few are proving to be very difficult to trap, it is VERY IMPORTANT that we get them as soon as possible so we can release all of the adults back into the wild so they can reorient themselves to the area and get themselves used to being back out in the wild before any snow starts to fall.
Also, and this is important: We've recently noticed that dry and wet food has been put out by the dumpsters in the mornings. We don't know who might be doing this, but it is VERY unhelpful and is in some sense it is sabotaging what we're trying to do. We need these last few cats hungry and willing to go into the traps to eat, so we're asking anyone who might see any food at the dumpsters to either store it for later use when the project is done, or to just throw it away- Jaime or I will be checking the area at various times throughout the day, so if anyone happens to see someone feeding the cats, let them know we will be removing the food as soon as we see it.
You can let them know that the cats will NOT starve if we do this. Our trapping procedure is such that, each night, after we are done and before we leave, we tie-off the traps, leaving them open, with whatever wet-food/tuna we use as bait left in there. The traps are tied-off so they will NOT be sprung, so no cats will be trapped overnight, but instead they can walk in and eat the food and leave.
Maybe the cats have learned to wait us out and wait until late-night to eat, but with there being food available to them during the day, we cannot know for sure, so we're putting an end to that.
Otherwise, things have progressed well overall on the project- the cats are doing well, staying rather calm in the cages, but now that we're near the end, it'd be nice to start getting them back in the wild as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for this update. I want to say that there always seem to be a couple of tough cats in every project and it's obvious you are now down to those. It is absolutely critical that these cats do not get food anywhere so that they get so hungry that they will finally decide to go in to the traps. For that reason, the feeding by others needs to be stopped completely, as you have stated, and I also believe you should not allow these cats to get food in the traps overnight that are left tied open. Leave the traps set overnight or, if you are afraid to do that for any reason, remove all of the food and close the traps. (If you can possibly leave the traps set overnight, DO SO! That is the best time to trap reluctant cats because they are far braver at night.) Otherwise, they could go on indefinitely, happily getting the food out of the traps every night and never getting caught. It's time for being a little bit tough - and that will help get these cats caught, so is the best and kindest thing you can do for them.