Feral #36 and Numbers Update

This catch is particularly exciting! This cat has been pregnant many times and we're glad she won't have any more kittens after today.

"The Visitor"

"The Visitor" is an interesting case. She has been present since the beginning of this project, but she has been the most elusive and stubborn cat we've come across. At one point, we determined that she was not a true member of the colony and this probably contributed to her behavior. She would venture through the yard without stopping. We would put traps in her usual route hoping to get her, but to no avail. Members of the colony seemed to strangely tolerate her, as member cats chase away other cats that aren't part of the colony, but not her. 

She is the mother of the kittens from our last post. In the past, we have seen her slowly grow to full term pregnancy, disappear for a few days, and come back not pregnant. However, we never saw her with kittens. This time was different. After giving birth, she was around all day every day. After about 5 weeks, we finally saw the kittens and were able to get them to the humane society for socializing and adoption.

Now that we knew she wasn't nursing any more, we set out on a mission to trap her. We were nervous that after we took the kittens, she would revert to her wandering ways. She had never been in a trap and couldn't figure it out, though she clearly wanted the food we put in it. Eventually, the drop trap we sometimes use turned out to be the winning ticket! Her legacy as a mother can finally end and she can live out the rest of her life without having to deal with the relentless pursuit of unfixed males and the inevitable pregnancies & kitten rearing that follow.

Numbers Update

It's been few months since the last numbers update. There was a slight uptick in the spring while other unfixed male cats were roaming through the area regularly, but there has been a slight downward trend in population this year overall. The colony has had an overall downward trend in population since we started this project twenty-one months ago, and it is almost half the size it was a year ago. For more information about how these numbers are generated, please check out our post about our Procedural Population Tracking.

Fresh Feral Kittens #5 - 8, Straight from the Garden

Kitten season is here and we have been on the lookout, keeping our eyes and ears open. We try to find any kittens we can (as early as we can) and get them to the local humane society to help them avoid the feral life.

There is an unfixed female that we have been trying to catch for the longest time. She comes through the yard, but never stops. We've placed traps in her usual path with moist food, but that isn't enough to distract her from whatever mission she is on. We could tell by her size that she was pregnant, and then she didn't show up for a couple of days. When she did come back, she wasn't pregnant any more. This isn't the first time she's pulled this over on us. However, we have never actually seen her with kittens in tow. We assumed it would be the same this time around.

This is when things changed. She was suddenly around all day, every day. We knew this was odd, and while we didn't want to jinx the possibility, we assumed the kittens must be close by. The weather was really nice and then changed to cold & snowy for a few days. On Saturday, the weather warmed up and the sun came out. That's when we saw them. They are about 5 weeks old and this was probably their first day outside of the den (under a pile of brush). They were laying in a group, enjoying the sunshine. Mom is skittish of us, of course, and ran off when we approached. However, the kittens just looked at us and didn't fuss one bit while we picked them up. We took them to the local humane society where they tend to have plenty of foster moms at this time of year. They will be socialized and once old enough and friendly enough, they will be great candidates for adoption.