Feral Kitten #2

Okay, now I know that the word got out. Within a month of getting Morgan into our house, another kitten set up residence under our deck! I'm such a softie! We went through the whole thing again and trapped the kitten the same way as before. But this one was a fighter! She was a bit older than Morgan, so she had more determination. After a struggle, everything was okay. But since she was older, more time was required to make her feel comfortable around us. This experience tells me that at some point, a feral cat will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to tame. Of course, this depends on the cat to some extent, too.

I promised my husband that I would find a home for this one, since this was going to be #4 in our house, so I set out asking people if they wanted a cat, I posted signs and kept at that for a number of weeks. Well, you know the rest of the story! We got attached to her and we still have her today. She is a small (6#) cat with a big personality. She is very talkative and playful and seems to get into the biggest messes! I'm glad we couldn't find a home for her.

Here is a picture of KatyLady soon after we trapped her. She's not much bigger today.

 Here she is (on your left) with our Humane Society Cat of 13 years, Saatchi. It's amazing how similar they both look!

Feral Kitten #1 - The Successful Trap!

After those multiple failures at trapping this kitten, I had to re-think my strategy as to how I might trap it. I knew I wanted to trap it, but had no idea which direction to take.

In any case, I knew I wanted to make the kitten as comfortable as possible while it was outside, so one night, I left my garage door cracked. I placed a small basket with towels inside it on the floor of the garage, and put some cat food next to the basket.

The next morning, I noticed that the cat food was gone, but also that there was a bit of cat hair and dirt from "someone" who had been in that basket! I suspected I knew who it was, and this gave me an idea.

Now, one thing I have to say before I continue, is that this kitten was not as skittish as some feral cats are, once they are fully grown. I think a fully-grown feral cat might not have gone into that garage so easily, or if it heard someone approaching, it might have run out of the garage. So the next night I saw the kitten go into the garage, and when she had been there awhile, I snuck outside and quietly closed the garage door that I had left slightly open.

Voila! I had her! Well, I had her in the garage. Now, what do I do to get her in my possession? I knew I had to leave the overhead door shut, so I focused on the other door.

Here's the trap I set: I found the kitten tucked in a corner of the garage opposite the opening of the door. I went out and purchased some plastic bird-netting that gardeners use to protect their tomatoes, and I came home and taped it all around that door. Then, I created a barrier leading from the wall where the kitten was to the wall where the door was. Since the light came through the netting, the kitten would try to escape in the direction of the light.  Because of the barrier, it couldn't go anywhere else in the garage to hide. I got a broom handle and gently poked it down in the corner where the kitten was perched.

After a few attempts, the kitten charged out from the corner and toward the light, right into the netting. It immediately got entangled in the netting, and as it struggled to free itself, I released the netting from around the door and enclosed the kitten inside it, held it close to my body and rushed it into a bathroom in my house that I had prepared for its arrival. I had a kitten litter box with litter, food and water, and a super-cozy place to sleep!

By the time I had the kitten next to my body, moving toward my house, it knew it had been caught and was totally submissive. I held firmly, just in case it would try to escape. Inside the bathroom, I easily removed the netting from it and left it alone for awhile to get used to its new surroundings. From that point on, it was easily tamed.

We have had Morgan for over 2 years, now.

Feral Kitten #1: The First Traps

A few years ago, my daughter spotted a calico kitten in our front yard.

"Mommy, Mommy! A kitten is in our yard! Come and look!"

I came and saw it, but as soon as I looked, it was gone. I rushed to the kitchen to open a can of tuna fish, and I placed it under a bush and left it there for the night. The next morning, it had been eaten.

In a few days, that kitten was living under our wooden deck in the back yard (our deck was raised up about 8 inches, so it provided a shelter for all kinds of small animals at various times).

We fed that kitten for a few days, but it became apparent that this kitten was a stray. Since it was cold outside, I decided I needed to trap it. I would worry about finding it a home later (yeah, you know where this is going!).

We set a booby trap on the top of the deck. It was a large overturned box tilted up by a large stick. I strung some fishing line from the bottom of the stick and pulled the line into my house, so that I could jerk the stick from inside my house and have the box trap the kitten. I also taped a 5# weight plate on top of the box, just in case the kitten tried to get out from under the box.

It worked! I trapped the kitten! But er, uh... I didn't think about how to get the kitten out from under the box once I trapped it! Big mistake. We so much as tilted the box and that kitten shot out so fast! There was no catching it. Back to square one.

I went to the hardware store to get a humane trap. I got one that I thought would be appropriate - a little larger than the size of a kitten. This was another mistake - I got a humane trap for a squirrel! I should have bought a larger one. Hey, how was I to know the right size for trapping a cat? All the outer boxes for those humane traps have pictures of possums and raccoons and squirrels on them - no cats! Anyway, I set the trap up, but the kitten was too smart and didn't go in the trap. Not only that, she kept setting the trap off without getting trapped! I gave up after a few attempts.

Next time, I'll share with you the trap that worked!

Welcome!

Hi, to all you cat lovers!

My friend suggested that I begin this blog to exchange information regarding feral cats, and to share my experiences I have had with these creatures. In doing so, I hope we can educate one another and ultimately help to decrease the feral cat populations around the nation.

So this is a forum! I want everyone to chime in. Because I realize that the more I learn about feral cats and cats in general, the less I know about them. One thing is for sure: I have a heart for these animals and I want to do whatever I can to help the situation, to alleviate suffering and to restore ecological balance in certain parts of the country.

Domesticated cats were never meant to live in the wild. It's rough out there. Some survive, but most suffer. In the next few posts, I will share stories about the feral cats that have come into my life. I hope you can share your information with me too, so that we will all be better equipped to handle this growing problem.