Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Entertaining angels

We still have a feral cat problem at my place of employment over a year after a first wrote about it here.  We have been steadily addressing the problem and have been making all kinds of progress...and today we hit a watershed moment.  Today, we trapped what we believe to be the THE LAST fertile female feral feline.  She's been caught before...but when Jan (the very, very tenderhearted lady who spearheads the effort to get all of God's creatures into a loving home...or at least fed) took her to the vet, he told her she was still nursing...probably a young litter, so Jan returned her immediately to care for her brood.  She's had two other litters since then and has evaded all other attempts at capture.  Her last litter was getting that teenager look (well, tween anyway...big enough to be weaned for sure) and her baby-daddy (who was NOWHERE to be seen for awhile) had started to come catting around again.  We knew that we had a narrow window in which to act.

Finally, we convinced Jan to skip at least one feeding to get them good and hungry. 

Jan: "I just hate the thought of them going hungry tonight."

Me: "Are you kidding me?  You feed those kittens on a more regular schedule than I feed MY CHILD.  They will be fine."

It broke her tender little heart to do it, but within 5 minutes of baiting a trap with some really stinky wet food, we had Momma cat trapped and en route to her special surgery.  We reset the trap and got this little fellow:



There are two more that look just like him and then another yellow kitten.  Jan has a lady that has worked wonders socializing the other litters of kittens from out here and she said that she had the time and space for these four. (Of course, right now we only have one in custody...the others are still on the lam).  They are really beautiful kittens...and like I said, their siblings (at least half-siblings) have turned out to be wonderful pets after being socialized.
Please let me know if you are at all interested in adoption of one of these cuties once they're a little less bite-y and Tasmanian-devil-like.
Update:
Also, the cat-whisperer who will be re-civilizing the little monsters....err...angels will be getting Momma cat after her surgery tomorrow.  After she gets over being pissed off that her hoe-ing days are over, we believe that she will come around and will actually be relieved to no longer being a kitten factory and will need a home as well.

Updated Update:

Momma cat is not only no longer a Hoe...She is also not feral in the least. She's had her special surgery and did really well. I got her out of her cage after she returned from the vet's office and she was a bundle of purring calico love.  She was desperate for some petting.  She was mighty unhappy about going back into the carrier...and she's still going to the lady who's domesticating Momma's demon spawn (they are feral) for fostering.  Please let me know if you can provide her a permanent home.  Now that she's spayed and up-to-date on shots, she will make someone a wonderful loving girl.



Also?  We captured the yellow kitten.  He is very, very fuzzy and cute...unfortunately, he is a complete asshole.  He will need some time with our kitten-tamer, but in a couple or three weeks should be ready for a home as well.

2 comments:

  1. Gracious, he looks like Barley! So glad that you work with good people who are willing to help this kitties out!

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  2. He does look like Barley! Doesn't Barley need a brother once we teach one of them not to be a spit-fire hell-beast? The lady that's socializing them cannot keep them long term.

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