We discovered a feral cat with three kittens in the garage a couple of months ago, and we've been cat stalking ever since. There's a local woman, Nancy, who has been helping us to get them captured and neutered. We started with putting out six traps with food inside that were unset to allow the cats to get used to eating there. First Nancy, the cat lady, was able to trap the mama cat - the kittens had all disappeared about 4 days prior. They never went to the traps at all, so we thought they were taken by some owl or eagle or coyote or cougar or whatever predator may be lurking around at night. The Mama cat spaying report said although she was still lactating, she hadn't fed kittens for several days. But Nancy thought we should leave the traps set in hopes the kittens were still around and we did that for several days. She thought we should close them at night though to keep other animals out and I closed them each night.Then an atmospheric river hit this area, and we got home late one evening after a stressful day. It was pouring rain, pitch dark, and there were 6 traps to deal with. I fully intended to do my job, but kind of forgot about it and was in bed when I remembered. Rather get up, get dressed, and fumble around in the dark, dark woodshed, I reasoned that it couldn't matter that much if the food got eaten...I would refill in the morning. In the morning, when I got up, I saw I had two texts from Nancy - First one: 11:30 p.m. "A possum is in the trap, just let him out..it looks like the rest of the traps are still set, did you forget to close them? Maybe close them now when you let the possum out." I had already told her she had the worst possible helpers on this project, but this sure confirmed that for her. Second text: 12:05 a.m "No problem, I came out and set him free and closed all the traps." OMG - she came out at midnight in the rain to set the possum free?? I couldn't have felt worse, but it was already morning when I saw the texts. That is one dedicated cat rescuer! She sent me the video of the possum too...which, sorry, but I found kind of hilarious...here's a huge FAT possum waddling into the trap. He can hardly even get in the trap and sure couldn't turn around inside it. I have never seen such a huge possum. I asked her if maybe the possum had eaten the kittens, but she assured me possums were great and only eat ticks. (I have never even seen a tick in the last 30 years, so I can't imagine how a possum got that fat on ticks.) But that is cynic Rosie talking, sorry. I DID see a big possum stalking a kitten one time when we were at a hotel in Biloxi, MS. Our room had a balcony over an overgrown weedy area before the sand and the water and we heard the kitten mew and then saw the possum. We scared him away, but didn't try to catch the kitten, but maybe he was just looking for ticks on the kitten.
So the saga continues...five days after Nancy returned the Mama cat, I looked out at the basket of straw I had left her in the garage, and was horrified to see FOUR HEADS - the kittens were back after two week of no sightings. Yikes. We are officially back on cat watch and the kittens are getting bigger every day. I'm worried they'll multiply before we can catch them. I'm fine with all four hanging around as barn cats, but I'm also anxious that we could get overrun by cats.
Cameras are back on, food is back in traps, and we are hoping to catch all three kittens before they start breeding...and the clinic will be closed for a couple of weeks around Christmas.
to be continued......
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