Ferals #49 & 50: Mr. Cheekers

Feral #50: The Cat, The Myth, The Legend....Mr. Cheekers! 

Here's a fella that has been hanging around for awhile and finally became consistent (and helpfully friendly) enough to trap.

"Mr. Cheekers"

Mr. Cheekers showed up very early in 2021. He was so skinny that his ribs and spine were visible. This made his jowls especially pronounced, hence his name. Over the spring and summer, we'd see him from time to time and he started to look healthier. We assume he was taking his share of the bait food we use to attract new cats to the yard. As the months got chillier, he became very regular in the early mornings, but never in the evenings, when we typically trap. 

He was never very skittish, but like most of the cats, he wasn't exactly friendly either.  One day he decided he wanted to be pet though, and after that he kept coming back for a good jowl scratching. This was the key to trapping him. We were hoping to catch one of the new unfixed females one evening, but were having no luck attracting any unfixed cats and it was getting dark when he stopped by, so it was his turn.  He did not want to go into the trap for food, but some petting and slow movement of the food bowl into the trap while he was eating convinced him to go in.  With a tiny pat on the butt, he was all of the way in, and we closed the door.  He hasn't trusted us since.  

And with that, we reach a milestone.  Mr. Cheekers is the 50th cat from this colony we've had spayed or neutered.  Unfortunately, he's probably not the last.  🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

Feral #49:  Unnamed and not pictured.  

We're discussing feral #49 second in this post, because this feral has not joined the list of fixed colony members.  Feral #49 was a solid grey/blue cat that we trapped shortly before Mr. Cheekers.  Unfortunately, like feral #31, this cat had an exceptionally bad case of FORL and would have had to have all of its teeth pulled.  As this is a feral cat, the vet recommended euthanasia instead, and we agreed. 

Feral #47 & #48 + COVID

These two siblings have been on our radar since the end of 2019, however, just as we were ready to start trapping for the season in 2020, COVID-19 became widespread and everything came to a sudden halt. 

"My Buddy"

 

"Kid Sister"

Needless to say, our plans were a bit derailed, but eventually things started to open back up.  At that point though, the unfixed cats had stopped wandering into our yard due to some intense, summertime landscaping nearby.   It took awhile for them to remember that we existed as a food source once that obstacle cleared up, but we did managed to trap and fix one cat in 2020.  "My Buddy" was neutered on November 6th.  

He's the first cat in the colony to have fused toes (a form of Syndactyly), which makes him unique.  He's also the most relaxed feral we've ever met, which makes him extra unique.  The vet had the same opinion of his odd demeanor.  Nearly all the cats in the colony are unapproachable.  Occasionally though, one warms up and decides we are OK.  "My Buddy" likes hanging out, and really appreciates a good chin scratch!

None of this uniqueness applies to his sister.  Although, she is one of few cats to come running over at feeding time with no hesitation the day after their big adventure to the vet.  The days are getting longer, and it finally warmed up enough for us to trap her.  She was spayed on February 22nd.  Good thing too.  It is definitely mating season, and the roaming males (the jowly, unfixed ones we often only ever see once), have been performing evening operas the last couple of weeks.  We know there's at least one more female we need to fix at the moment (that at least sometimes comes through our yard), so wish us luck on our next fishing expedition! 

Feral #46

This is the latest in the year we have ever tried to trap. It is harder to trap in the cold months with less light and less cat activity, but we felt like we had to try trapping this girl.

"Injured One"

This poor cat suffered from some sort of severe skin irritation. We can't be sure if her condition was some sort of severe dermatitis from an allergic reaction to something or if it was a type of autoimmune disease. Originally we thought she had been attacked by an animal, car, or human.  One entire side, and only one side, looked like she had been shot at by a pellet gun. However, we've tracked her and tried to trap her for almost a year since that first sighting, and the condition only worsened during that time. So, we knew something else was wrong. We knew it was unlikely to be contagious too, as no disease matches this skin condition (we did do a photo consult at one point to get a second opinion), and all of the other cats are healthy. She always had seeping, open wounds all over, and always moved as if in extreme pain. Somehow she made it through a pregnancy in late summer this year, and we're not really sure how. A little over a week ago she finally started coming to our yard for food and hanging out there (after never being in the yard previously) and she would desperately eat. So we were finally able to trap her. Seeing her up close for the first time was even more heart-breaking. The picture above was of the "good" side, and the other side was like something out of a horror movie. When we got her to the vet, we immediately asked their professional opinion to see if it matched with what we thought should be done. It was almost instant: she should be put down. There would be no way to treat her for whatever condition she may have, and it would be cruel to release her to continue to live in this state.

Finally, we'd like to emphasis that no other cats in the colony display signs of this affliction or any other chronic disease (at most, they occasionally pass around a mild head cold).

Feral #45

We've been trying to catch this girl for what feels like a very, very long time. She only comes into the utility easement, and if we are there to watch, she just stares at us. Stone-cold stare-down.

 "Starey"

Starey is another trapping that was only successful thanks to our Blink camera. Whenever we set up the trap and she comes around, she never goes in. She just sits outside of it and stares at us. And she knows if we are watching through the fence slats.  With the camera in place, she didn't think we were watching. She went right into the trap with no hesitation.

Of all of the mature cats we have trapped, Starey is the first one to poop in the trap over night. Some of the very young cats have, but they drop it on one end of the cage and then spend the rest of the time on the other end. Starey ended up covered in hers. It was disgusting. We transferred her to a clean cage and the vet bathed her after she went under anesthesia.

She has had at least one litter that we know of in the past, but we assume there have been more (we've seen her pregnant more than once, but could only verify kittens once). Thankfully there will be no more from her in the future!

Feral #44

This little lady showed up on trapping night, and had been on our list before, but disappeared for so long that we thought she had left. Turns out, she just didn't like us.

"Cream Muzzle Pink Nose or CMPN"

We spotted CMPN off in the distance on the same night we caught Feral #43, so we had to put her back on our attendance list. She is around 18 months old and has had at least one litter that we know of.

When we set up for the evening, we usually have a pretty good idea of which cats we might catch or hope to catch. However, when an unfixed cat goes into the trap, we take whoever it is because we don't want to miss any opportunities. We were hoping for a couple of different cats this evening, but we are happy with this trap. We definitely consider females to be more valuable targets than males when it comes to population control. She can go ahead and live out her life now without having to deal with those pesky males and kittens.

Bonus: Another successful use of the Blink camera!

Feral #43

We tried a new piece of equipment in this trapping. The unfixed cats come to the yard so infrequently now; it was time to get help from the 21st Century!

"Cross-eyed Small Black Goggles" 

We call this fella "Goggles" because his "Nictitating Membrane" ("Third Eyelid" or "Haw") are always showing. This can be a sign of disease or infection but none of the other cats in the colony have this condition right now. There used to be one like this that we trapped before. 

The 21st Century help we got was from a Blink camera from Amazon.

This allowed us to lower the trap over the fence into the utility easement and then remotely monitor who was going in and out. The system switches to an infrared setting that lets us see in the dark and finally catch this cat. No unfixed cats went into the trap before sunset, and without the ability to see in the dark, we would have never caught this guy. This video is from when we were lifting the trap out of the utility easement with the infrared activated.

Feral #42

This young gentleman is part of a litter that was born last year.  We have been monitoring him and his litter-mates, and he is the first one to get close enough to our property to trap.

"Copper Marbles"

Trapping Copper Marbles was actually a side effect of trying to trap a different cat.  A couple of different cats, actually.  Copper Marbles has been around, but not as consistently as several others that we have had our eye on.  The two we wanted the most were there, but one didn't go in the trap, and the other went in, but seemed to vanish out of thin air as the trap door closed. To our fortune, Copper here popped through the fence and went right in the trap; the night was not a total bust!