Feral #32

We have been trying to get this girl into a trap for some time now.  She is extremely skittish and usually leaves the yard promptly when she sees us, making this trapping exciting and educational.

"Big Eyed Marble"

We trigger the traps manually so that we can avoid catching cats that are already fixed.  We use a stick tied to a long string to prop open the door.  Because this cat rarely stays in the yard when we are outside, this was going to be tricky. We started by running the strings the full length of the yard, but she still was leaving with us there, so we ended up running the ropes through the screen door of the house and sitting and waiting inside, out of view. This worked, she came into the yard while the traps were primed!

Also of note, we tried a fish based soft food this evening thinking, "What cat doesn't like fish?" Turns out, the feral cats in this colony don't.  A number of them didn't seem interested at all. The cats that did come by were only taking a few bites and leaving. So we took a risk and went outside while she was in the yard (since she clearly wasn't attracted to the trap bait) and swapped out one of the bowls with a chicken flavor bait. This brought a couple of cats over, attracted to the new smell. After little hesitation this time, she went in and we got her!

Feral #31

A dim note to start our new trapping season, but also a case we had yet to encounter...

Warmer weather meant that we had the opportunity to try trapping again, and we caught our first for the season. This is our 31st overall.  This cat, who we had dubbed "Fence Tabby Two," had rarely been seen in the yard until the last few weeks.  He had mostly been seen on the other side of our fence only (hence his name).  He had been around more recently because it is mating season, and that always brings the unfixed males back from their extended, wandering adventures.

"Fence Tabby Two"

Unfortunately, the vet discovered a serious medical issue when we brought him in to be fixed.  Every single one of his teeth were extremely diseased.  We had noticed some bloody drool after trapping him, and we thought he had cut his mouth on the trap somehow (there are no sharp edges on the trap). The vet told us that wasn't the case. His teeth were so bad that simply eating would have caused them to bleed.  The vet described the feeling of this condition to us "like having a non-stop root canal on every single tooth at the same time...with no anesthesia."  The vet believed that euthanasia was the best choice, and we agreed.  The other options were 1) fix him, release him, and watch him die a very slow and painful death to eventual starvation, or 2) we could have ALL of his teeth extracted, resulting in the same end.  This guy got dealt a difficult hand in life being feral in the first place, and this condition made it exponentially worse.  We are glad that he is no longer suffering.

Start Your Engines

"Eh, What's up, Cat?"

There has finally been some warm, dry weather and we thought it would be a good time to get out there and see if we could trap one of our remaining targets. We thought we were going to have to wait until daylight savings time kicked in to start the project again, but Mother Nature gave us an opportunity. Unfortunately, we haven't trapped any more, but we have some interesting observations to share.

1. Cats forget.  It has been just under 4 months since our last trapping, and since we haven't been feeding out of the traps during the winter, it seems that many of the cats have forgotten how the traps work. Almost all of the cats approached the traps, sniffed at them, and paced around them trying to figure out how to get to the food. Only about half found the entrances and the other half wandered away.  As long as the weather is nice, we will fix this by doing daily feedings out of the traps again. 

2. We have significantly changed the colony since this time last year.  Last Fall (when we started keeping track), the unfixed cats significantly outnumbered fixed cats. Now, the opposite is true!
 

3. Almost all of the cats made it through Winter.  We decided on a two month verification period (two months unseen) before we officially remove a cat from the attendance roll.  Some of the cats don't frequent our yard as much as others, so this keeps us from mistakenly removing them.  We had not done an "official" attendance check since our last trapping, but during the last week, we've seen all but 3 cats. Those three still have time to show themselves though.  Additionally, we had to add a fixed(!) cat to the list that we had never seen before (complete with ear-tip, so it's probably not someone's pet).

Kitten Update

We made a post at the beginning of October about two kittens that we found on a chilly evening. We took them to the Humane Society of Boulder Valley where they were estimated to be only 4 weeks old. They are now 3 months old and the humane society has put them up on the website as available for adoption. We wanted to share their progress.

Kitten 2, now "Olive"

This poor thing is the perfect example of the hardships of feral life. She had no idea what was going on when we found her because her eyes were all glued shut with infection. We used a damp cloth to try and clean them out, but even after the gunk was gone, things still looked bad. We are sure that a lot of effort and love by the folks at the humane society went into helping this cat. We hope she finds a great forever home with warmth and safety away from the harshness of feral life.

Kitten 3, now "Rudy"

This kitten was in much better shape when we found him and took him to the humane society. We hope he also finds a great home where he can live a life away from the harshness of feral life. We know that fur patterns are random in cats, but both of these cats remind us of other tabbies in the colony.

We are always excited to report successes because we must remember the more difficult outcomes. In our time with the colony, we have found a number of deceased kittens that were either taken by disease, inaction by an inexperienced mother, or predators. These two were only 4 weeks old when we found them, and clearly weren't supposed to be out and about on their own yet. We wish them the best!

December Numbers Update

Wanted to do a quick update. With the holidays, cold weather, and lack of sunlight after work, trapping during this time of year is not happening. Luckily for us, this is not breeding season.  Perhaps it's the onset of the cold weather.  No time to mate when you're barely staying warm and trying to fatten up for the season.

With that, we've mulled over the list and updated the numbers according to our method of tracking the cats. The important numbers are: Total population is DOWN to 50 cats. Of those, 44 are fixed. We still see the six unfixed ones out there regularly, so we know they haven't disappeared, and they are still the focus.

Feral #30

Feral #30! Now that the weather is getting colder, the days shorter, and we've switched out of Daylight Savings Time, trapping on weekdays after work has become impractical. If only we could see in the dark! This will slow us down, but will not stop our progress.

"Fence Tabby One"

A few weeks ago, we experimented with microwaving wet cat food to enhance the smell. On that day, we saw new cats we'd never seen before. The extra stinky food really worked! This is one of those cats. She hasn't exactly been a regular since then, but last night, she didn't even blink an eye. We set the trap, walked away, and she bounded over the fence and went right into the trap.

Feral #29

Cat attendance at trapping time can vary greatly. We have seen as few as 10 and as many as 40 in one session. This time, we saw a tabby cat with bright green eyes that we had never seen before and it was already fixed (BONUS!). We also saw the following cat for the first time, to her misfortune.

"Flawless Blue"

There are a number of blue cats in the colony and they all have something that makes them unique from the others. Things like white fur on the tail, or white on the paws, or white on the chest, or blind in one eye, or fat. This cat, however, has nothing. It is slender and complete. Despite never being in the yard for dinner before, Flawless Blue didn't hesitate for a second going into a trap to eat. Talk about an easy catch!