Cathy started trapping with me last year. She's a great trapping partner. When she says she is available she always shows up on time and ready to go. I can't lift anything heavier than an empty trap without causing serious back pain, so she does all the lifting. She has the patience to sit quietly for hours when needed and is truly dedicated to the care of the cats.
With a snap trap, she's an expert, but her first attempt at drop trapping did not go so well. She dropped the door and caught the cat, but the tip of his tail was caught under the door. She intended to raise the door just an little bit so he could pull his tail in. (The door is not heavy; he probably would have pulled it in anyway, and if not, we were there in seconds to put him into the transfer cage.) Unfortunately Cathy raised the door too much and the cat took off. It took us two hours to get him back into the trap. Tonight I am determined that Cathy will handle the drop rope again and this time she will make a catch.
We've been to this colony before. It's the one where the five kittens were born and died mysteriously a couple of weeks ago. We hope to catch the mother cat and get her spayed before she has more kittens.
The caregiver comes to help us prepare the drop trap with canned food and kibble. We run the window down a bit on the passenger side of the van and pass the spindle that holds the drop rope through the window so Cathy can hold it, then I get into the driver's seat and we wait.
The first one into the trap is the only cat in the colony that seems to be totally non-feral. In my mind, I call him Snuffles because he has chronic URI, but he seems otherwise healthy and well fed. He's been trapped and released several times and does not seem to mind so long as lunch is involved. We are glad of his help; seeing him happily eating encourages other cats to enter the trap too.
Soon another cat enters the trap but the caregiver, who is standing nearby in the yard and talking to us quietly through my open window, indicates that it has already been altered. Both cats eat quietly, while a few others show up and begin to mill around the trap. After a few minutest the first two cats leave, apparently satisfied. We wait. Cautiously a large tabby steps through the door. Front feet, pause, reaching forward for the food, one back foot and then, ever so slowly, the other. The caregiver says he does not think that one is done and we can't see an ear notch.
"Drop the door." I say, and instantly Cathy does so.
I am out of the van and hurrying to the trap and the caregiver is there before me. As the cat stops jumping around we can both see that it's ear is not notched.
Cathy comes running with a transfer cage and a blanket. We get the cat into the cage, cover it, and Cathy carries it back to the van. Her first successful catch with a drop trap!
We reset the trap and I hand Cathy the spindle again. I add a can of sardines to the bowl of kibble in the trap and get back into the van. The caregiver brings a new pan the Kelly sent along with us over to the trap, puts it inside and pours water into it. He explains that he occasionally gives the cats milk in a pan and he hopes that if they see him pouring something they will expect milk and go for it.
It does not take the cats long to come back and start walking around the trap. Snuffles goes inside confidently and is apparently delighted to find the fish. He settles down to feast.
The other cats are not happy. They try to reach through the cage with their paws but the food is too far inside to get to. To our delight we notice amongst them the mother cat that lost her kittens a couple of weeks ago. She is interested in the trap, but wary. She sits down near the van to think about it.
She is a pretty creature but seems somewhat gaunt. That would be normal if she were nursing kittens, but she isn't.
After some consideration, the little girl wanders back to the trap. She circles it, sniffing. Two other cats are also examining the trap, and inside Snuffles continues to much happily. The female approaches the door and takes a step inside. She stops, picks up a bit of food and eats it. She looks around, her ears twitch and then she backs right out of the trap.
Cathy makes a huff of exasperation but we both know it is just a matter of time.
Suddenly Cathy says "Oh, pee-ew!" and we both smell the unmistakable odor of male cat spray. There is now no doubt that Cathy's first catch, safe in the back of the van, is a male. I'm glad the windows are open.
We are talking to the caregiver in low voices through the window when I glance at the trap and see the female cat approaching it again in a purposeful manner. Cathy is on high alert as the cat walks straight into the trap and begins to eat beside Snuffles. She drops the door.
For a small female cat, she certainly can make a fuss. She leaps about in fear and poor Snuffles crouches in a corner out of her way. Kibble, cans, water and the bowls all go flying.
The three of us quickly get the cat into a transfer cage. I snap on the lock and Cathy covers the cage and puts it into the van.
The trap is a mess. I remove the empty water bowl and use a window scraper from the van to pull the food into the center of the trap so the cats can't help themselves by sticking paws through the sides. There is water mixed with sardine juice on the floor, pooled in a back corner, and soggy kibble and bits of fish all over the trap that is the floor. To a cat it should look and smell irresistible.
Snuffles watches me fixing up the trap. I pet him and before I am back in the van he is back inside the trap, happily continuing his lunch.
We wait. After several minutes other cats return to the trap area. They sniff and one tries to reach the food with a paw through the side of the trap but can't get anything. A round plump tabby enters the trap but the caregiver shakes his head; he's already altered.
From the other side of the house a new cat appears. It's handsome dark tabby tuxedo, long and well-muscled and almost certainly male.
"I wish you could get him." says the caregiver. "He sprays all over the place and he's responsible for most of the kittens born here."
Cautiously the newcomer approaches the trap. He sniffs at the side of it, and then, apparently emboldened by the two cats already eating, he walks right in like the king he is.
Cathy drops the door.
The whole trap shakes as the two feral cats leap and grab at the wires. I am glad I put twist ties at strategic points to prevent the walls coming apart. Snuffles has once again crouched in his corner and seems more intent on avoiding the other cats than on escape, but the other two are going ballistic as we rush over.
The first cat into the transfer cage is the plump tabby; his ear notch is plain to see. Cathy drops the door again and I back the cage away, open it and let the cat go. On the next try we get the big guy into the transfer cage. He has a huge head and his body pretty much fills the cage. Cathy says he is heavy and I have no doubt he is.
Snuffles is once again released. He walks a few steps away and sits down, waiting to be petted.
The caregiver tells us he thinks all the cats that hang out near the house have probably now been trapped, but there are cats in the garage on the other side of the yard. He and Cathy pick up the drop trap and carry it over there while I back the van around and park where we can operate the trap.
The caregiver goes into the house, and we settle down to wait. Because of the angle the van is at, I now have the drop rope. We watch as a small grey cat, probably last year's kitten, comes out of the garage and checks out the trap. We see a tortie wandering in the field behind the garage, and a few minutes later she comes around the building and also begins to look the trap over along with another tabby. The little grey one goes near the door and looks in, but something...perhaps one of the larger cats nearby...spooks him and he runs into the garage. Suddenly a small orange cat runs past the van and approaches the trap. We watch him join the other cats cautiously trying to find a way to get the delicious-smelling food inside. The little grey on returns and again shows great interest, but it is the orange one that enters the trap. He goes to the food and starts to eat.
We'd really like to get the little grey one too. We think the two half-grown kittens may be siblings and comment to each other how sad it is that they were not caught last year and given homes. Cathy asks if we were to trap both could we take them? We have only on transfer cages left and our appointment is for four cats. I am sure we could get both smaller cats into one transfer cage....I'd be able to transfer one to a separate cage when we get home..... and I am willing to beg the vets to take an extra if we get one.
The two bigger cats continue to examine the cage from the outside and the small grey one lays down at the front of the garage and folds his paws under as if he intends to lie there for a while and watch his sibling eat.
I am vaguely aware of the other cats but my focus is on the orange one. Suddenly he lifts his head and glances to the side. I drop the door.
When the last cat is safely in the van, Cathy goes to tell the caregiver we got him and are leaving while I wind up the rope. We leave the trap. We will be back and the little grey cat will hopefully still be there.
Driving back to Moncton on Coverdale road, we see a bald eagle. It swoops so low over the van that I can clearly see it's curved yellow beak and one of its eyes. Just one more hazard waiting for homeless cats.
I drop Cathy off.....David will put the cats into the shed for me at home....and she remarks that it is just past 6 pm. An amazingly quick trapping, we got the female we were worried about and the big male the caregiver really wants altered, and Cathy got her first, and second and third, drop trap catch. And it still has not begun to rain.
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