Featured Colony Member: The Cute One

The nicknames of the cats in the colony are given to help us keep them straight in our notes. These names come from either physical or behavioral traits. This girl has some unique things about her, but her nickname really sums her up.

"The Cute One"

This little girl is the only calico cat in the feral colony, as surprising as that might be. There are a large number females with the tortoiseshell pattern, but The Cute One is the only one with the white, which is the defining part of the Calico pattern. She was born in 2014 and was fixed early in 2015 when she was just old enough to start having kittens. She showed up in the yard one evening with her ear tipped. This was a sign to us that one of our neighbors must be actively practicing Trap-Neuter-Return this year and gave us a boost into looking at the program seriously ourselves. We don't think she ever had any litters.

Coming soon...

Watch for special posts October 16th!

Ferals #9 & #10

We're into the double digits now. These are a couple interesting kitties.

"Tabby Point Siamese"

There are several cats in the colony that resemble the Siamese breed. This little lady has it in addition to the popular tabby pattern. She was from a Spring 2015 litter. This is the first feral cat that the vets have told us that they noticed something out of the ordinary. She looked to have a digestive issue, so they gave her an antibiotic shot. She should be easy to keep an eye on.

 "Total Black"

Of all of the black cats in the colony, this boy is the first one we've noticed that has ZERO identifying marks. No white patches, no cool colored eyes, he is the definition of black cat. Quite a contrast from the tabby point above! He is also from a Spring 2015 litter.

*Update* - Total Black DOES have an identifying mark: They clipped his right ear instead of left on accident.

Compiled Clowder Quantities

Later we will be posting ferals #9 & 10, fixed today, but we wanted to document where the colony stands now.  We know of and regularly recognize 45 cats in the colony (a new one appeared last night, possibly a transient male).  Of the 45 known, there are now 22 that are not fixed.  Of these, we have our targeted priorities, and we are effectively making it through our list.  Half of the 22 (11 exactly) are this past summer’s kittens we did not catch (now that we have developed a method for catching the kittens, we hope to let fewer of these grow up in the colony – on a side note, all of this summer’s caught kittens were successfully socialized and adopted out!).  The growing kittens are not of breeding age yet, but we are targeting the young males.  We want to get them before they become transients and are more difficult to catch.  The unfixed females will maintain residence in our yards with the food sources, like the fixed cats, and we have several months (until approximately next April) to get to them before they start producing new kittens. Several of the cats have just given birth, and we cannot humanely trap them until their kittens are weaned.  Taking them for 36 hours would mean death to their kittens.  That’s probably it for this fall’s kittens though, so that’s good.  No more known pregnant cats.  Several of the new moms have no problem feeding from the traps, so we will catch them once they become eligible.  A couple of the cats are of little breeding concern as, while they are around, they are not accepted members of the colony and do not get much in the way of breeding “rights”, like former featured member “Balls”.  They are lower on our list than the male kittens, but we will be fixing them soon enough anyway.  In the end, not counting the kittens and currently ineligible females, this leaves 7 cats we would very much like to fix soon.  These are pretty encouraging numbers!  Wish us luck in finishing this by Spring!

Ferals #7 & #8

These two feral cats are the 7th and 8th we've trapped and had fixed; a boy and a girl this time. We had been hoping to get these two for awhile now. After practicing some patience (read that as "let almost every other cat go in the traps, eat, and leave), they finally went in.

"The Pretty One"

This cat's coat of fur is the inspiration for her name. She is from a litter in 2014 and has a traditional marble tabby pattern with tortoiseshell mixed in there. She has also got the attitude to go with it! She was caught once before but she escaped after some clumsiness with the trap. She has mothered at least one litter, but we assume more.

 "Balls Jr."

Balls Jr. gets his name because he looks like a young version of another male in the colony. We can't be for sure if he is the son of Balls (Featured Colony Member), but he sure has the look. He was born in the spring of 2015 and this guy liked to strut his stuff around, but he doesn't have it to strut anymore.

Featured Colony Member: Balls

If there is a hierarchy in the colony, and our last Featured Member is at the top of the chart, then this boy is at the bottom. At feeding time, the other cats all push him out of the way; he is literally at the bottom of the food chain.

"Balls"

Balls was born early in 2014. As a kitten, he developed a bad eye infection. We guess it was upper respiratory, but it could have been something else. His eyes were glued shut with nasty gunk at one point (we referred to him as "Gooey Eyes") and we were certain he would not survive, but he did. His eyes are no longer glued shut, but they are definitely not in good shape. Based on our interactions with him, we can tell that he has difficulty seeing and is easily startled. He does, however, have a huge set of testicles (hence the name he has now) and he does not hesitate to show them off. There is a Spring 2015 kitten that looks just like him which we assume is his offspring, though we're not sure how he mated since all of the females shove him out of the way at dinner time. When we get around to trapping him, we will have to change his name to "Former Balls" or something.

Volunteers #5 & #6

Chalk 'em up, here are our 5th and 6th trapped feral cats. Their photos are after surgery, so they're a little groggy. These ladies won't have to know the hardship of giving birth in the wild.

 "Tux"

Tux may be a funny name for a girl, but of the whole colony, she is the only one with a tuxedo style coat pattern. She is from a spring 2015 litter. We set the trap up and went in the house to get food for the trap. When we came back outside, she was already in the food-less trap waiting. We are manually tripping the traps, so we just pulled the rope and got her.

"Pale Spotted Tabby"

Pale Tabby is also from a litter in spring 2015. She is pretty big and we thought she was a boy because of her size. The dull fur coloring trait is pretty popular in the colony, as well as the spotted tabby pattern. She happened to get them both.

An hour after we let Tux go, she was right back in the traps for some food. We'd been told that after a cat is trapped, they would most likely avoid going back in. Half of the cats we've caught have gone back in the traps later, and all of the already-fixed cats (that would have been trapped in the past at some point) go in, too.