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.