Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not see fit to delay the breeding season along with the spring.
It's already May and we have barely begun trapping. We've taken in a few cats already, but one expedition came up empty handed and in a couple of cases some of the cats taken in had already been altered.....either someone forgot the ear notch or they were done by an owner who later abandoned them.
Not discouraged, Cathy and I headed out to very large colony in the late afternoon of a cool but sunny day. I was feeling optimistic because we had placed a drop trap at the colony and asked the caregivers to feed inside it and not feed on the trapping day until we arrived.
As it turned out, the caregiver had misunderstood and put out dry kibble earlier in the day. This definitely does not help, but once their caregiver dumped a big can of canned food into dishes in the trap the cats were interested. They prowled around the trap, sniffing. One went in, then another. In the late afternoon light we strained to see if the cats in the trap had notches in their ears. Most did. A lot of the cats in the big colony look alike, so although the caregiver knows them well he was not sure in some cases if a particular cat had already been fixed.
While we waited the caregiver told us that a cat that had been obviously pregnant on our last visit had delivered five kittens and was living with them inside a shelter near the house. The kittens were only a few days old, at which age they really need the immunity they get from their mother's milk. We knew we would try to take them into foster care in six or seven weeks, but for the moment they seemed secure and the caregiver was ready to ensure nobody disturbed them so the mother would not move them.
Another heavily pregnant female entered the trap. I dropped the door, catching her and two other cats.
The cats paniced, as is usual when they are trapped, and began to leap and pull at the sides of the cage. Suddenly one of the side panels on the cage fell in. Two of the cats bolted but we were able to reach the cage, grab the fallen panel and put it back in place before the pregnant female could escape.
As we got the cat into a transfer cage, I could tell the caregiver was not happy. He's a tough middle aged country man, but when it comes to animals he has a heart of pure mush. "She is almost ready to deliver. "he said. "You're not going to abort are you?"
Regretfully, I told him that we would be doing that. Aborting kittens makes me sad too, but the fact is there is no place in this world for more cats. During trapping season the females are pregnant or nursing all the time. We can't spay nursing mothers because we risk the kittens dying, so if we did not abort pregnant cats we could not spay at all.
The caregiver then expressed concern for the cat herself. She is feral, but is one of the older cats in the colony and he is quite attached. He calls her "Mama" and she is very likely the mother, grandmother or other ancestor of most of the colony. I assured him that she would be seen by a very skilled vet and nothing should go wrong.
Re-setting the trap we caught one more cat, and then the cats seemed so shy away. They were not hungry and although they would come fairly close when their caregiver called, they shied away from Cathy and I. We had an appointment at Vet Care for four cats and did not want to leave with less.
"I wonder", said Cathy "If the cats would come to the trap if we weren't here. Let's go away and let the caregiver try to trap two more."
We got into the van and drove away from the house. I turned around and parked on the culvert at the end of the lane where we could see the caregiver and the trap but the cats did not notice us.
We watched the caregiver sit on a pile of logs in the yard, the trip rope from the trap in hand. He must have called the cats, because even from a distance we could see them running across the yard, and, tails high, milling around his feet. Very shortly he got up, picked up the trap and and carried it over near a garage on the property. He disappeared from sight for a couple of minutes and then we saw him running to get a transfer cage.
We drove back into the yard and helped get two more cats out of the trap and into transfer cages. We left the drop trap where it was because there are more unaltered cats in the colony and we know we will be back there soon.
As we drove away I was happy that we had the four cats, but my mind was on the very pregnant one, trusting Dr Drmac's skill, but still concerned that she survive the surgery. I thought about the kittens, too, snug in the shelter with their mother cat. I hoped they, too would be safe and that there would be a foster home available when they were ready to find homes.
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