The First Archie

On a summer evening in '07 David and Marlah went trapping at a colony out in the country.  They watched the cats come and go and were pleased to trap two adults and a small kitten, perhaps 9 or 10 weeks old.   David also saw another kitten about the same size, hanging back, probably intimidated by the larger cats. 

The next day the cats went to the vet, were spayed/neutered and had their left ears notched to indicate they are altered.  I had been away on business but got home in time to go with David to release them back into the colony.

When the traps were opened the two adult cats sped away.  David took the trap that contained the kitten out of the van and carried it to the area near the house where food is placed. He held the trap high and looked at the kitten.

"He doesn't look feral" he said.

"He looks like a kitten, Dave" I replied, "But we are not taking kittens in just because they are there. He's very close to being too old to tame and he must have a mamacat here in the colony; he will be fine with her. You know it's a good colony and the cats are well fed and have lots of shelter."

"I don't know." David said "I don't want to let him go.  Let's see if I can touch him."

"No. Don't." I protested.  Even a small feral kitten can do quite a job on an unwary hand and David has the scars to prove it. He's been to the doctor several times for antibiotics, but he persists in trying to rescue every kitten he sees.

Ignoring me, David lifted the trap high, released the lock and pushed his hand inside.   I expected the kitten to hiss and spit, and probably bite and apply his claws if the hand got too close.   To my astonishment and David's delight, the kitten done none of that. It rubbed against David's hand and started to purr.   

We took the kitten home, of course, and named him Archibald which quickly became Archie. When we handled and examined him we realized his claws had been clipped.   This was a bit of a mystery. I spoke to the caregivers but they did not remember seeing any kittens and they certainly had not clipped any claws. I spoke with the people at Maritime who had done the surgeries, but I knew before I asked that they would never have clipped the claws of a feral animal.   The only explanation is that some very cruel person had adopted the kitten, clipped it's claws, then abandoned it in a feral colony full of strange adult cats.  His chance of survival was almost nil, so Archie was very lucky that David took a chance on him. 

Next evening, Marlah and I went to the colony as spend several hours watching and counting the cats, but we did not see the other kitten.

Archie remained grateful for his rescue and developed a very sweet and loving personality. He was also very pretty with promise of being a handsome cat some day. David found it very hard to offer him for adoption.  When an adopter was chosen, he was concerned because she was a young woman and only agreed to part with Archie when the adopter's parents came forward to say they would care for him in the event she was not able to.

Here is photo of the first Archie along with one of the current Archie. 

Archie I

Archie II 

We have stayed in touch with the adopter of the first Archie, and she provided photos of him as an adult. What a handsome cat he grew up to be!

Just When I Thought I'd Seen It All

You never know with trapping. Ingenuity and inventiveness are necessary: after all, you are trying to outsmart a cat.

Sunday night David and I set a drop trap in the very nice well-appointed kitchen of a couple who live in central Moncton.  I've set snap traps inside a house before, but this was my first time to set a drop trap that will stay there for several days.

The couple in question contacted ca-r-ma because they have been feeding a female cat and her kitten.  There are racoons in their area and they wanted to make sure the cat and her baby could get the food without attracting the coons so they started to feed them inside their house. The cats can come in, eat and then leave when they want to.  Over time they have begun to spend more time indoors but their hosts cannot touch them. A litter pan has been set up, the kitten uses it well and the female most of the time.  When we went to set up the trap the kitten was asleep on a chair in the kitchen. He woke up but did not leave. His foster mom has been trying to tame him and he will now eat from her hand. When I dangled my keys near him he came over to sniff curiously and got within an inch of my fingers.  I know he can be tamed and the caregivers will likely adopt him as a pet.

I wish I had photos of these animals.  The mother cat is a very pretty dark tortie and the kittens is just beautiful. He (presuming gender based on appearance) is orange with mid-length fur and white paws and bib.   I will try to get pictures when they are trapped.

The plan is for the caregivers to place the cats' food inside the trap, which is tied open, and next Sunday night they will drop the door and catch them.   They work shift work, but both are off on Monday so they will be there for the cats when they get back from surgery. Mama cat will be able to stay in overnight in order to recover and since she comes in at night to sleep the cold should not bother her too much. If all goes well the kitten will remain indoors and never go out again.    Perhaps even the mother will eventually become tame enough to be an indoor cat and either stay with the caregivers or be adopted.  

Archie and Hunter Today

I estimate the boys are about 14 weeks old now. The photos clearly show Archie's little folded-in front paws. He can grab things between them but there is no strength to his grip. He waddles around quite quickly, loves to be held and petted and has a great purr.   Hunter is a slim handsome guy, a deep rich orange with a triangular-shaped head, large ears and a long tail. He is nervous of strangers but very friendly with me. He will roll on his back to get his tum tickled and will purr whenever he is petted. He does not care to be picked up, but will tolerate it quite well and even purr so long as you don't try to hold him for too long.  Hunter seems to understand Archie's limitations and does not try to tussle with him, but he loves to play with toys. Both kittens are Whiskas treat addicts.  Second x-rays of Archie's feet were taken and sent to AVC, but nothing has come back yet.   The boys are almost ready for adoption.

Final Trapping?

"This could be the last time, this could be the last time, may be the last time, I don't know..."

Tuesday night Cathy and I went back to the colony where we got Archie and Hunter.  We took the drop trap and set it on the caregivers' deck where the cats are normally fed.  The caregivers were not home. Shadow, a beautiful shiny black cat that the caregivers rescued when she was a kitten, watched us intently through the patio door.  The grey male we previously altered watched us too, not coming too close, but crying plaintively because he had not been fed that day.  He is only semi feral and Cathy and I have both been able to touch him in the past.

We got into the van and started the waiting process.  It was not long before a large beige and white cat appeared. He circled the trap just once then walked in as if he knew the way. I waited a few minutes, hoping other cats might be attracted by the sound of him devouring the feast of sardines, but no other cats appeared except the grey, who circled the cage cautiously and tried to reach the fish with a paw through the wires.  

I dropped the door and we bailed out of the van quickly. Cathy got a transfer cage and I brought the flashlight, my camera and a blanket.  Inside the cage, the cat was doing acrobatics trying to free himself. I wanted to get a photo of him hanging from the top with all four paws, but he was becoming so upset that I stopped taking pictures and helped to get him into the transfer cage.  The only good shot I got was this one:

Once he was in the transfer cage and we shined the light on him, we could see the notch in his left ear.  A small, neat slit that means he is altered.   We opened the cage and he was off like a shot into the night.

We stayed until after 9.  We saw several cats, and some of them spent time inspecting the trap. One even went part way in to eat the fish offered just inside the door, but backed out without fully entering. We saw the black cat whose tail we amputated earlier this year, looking sleek and healthy. We saw the orange tuxedo that Marlah and I brought in with a wound on his neck, completely healed and looking good.   There was another black cat, this one with a tail, that Cathy and I trapped a few weeks ago, and at least two orange males we are quite sure we also already altered. 

Finally we decide to give up and go home. We are not actually sure there are still any un-altered cats in this colony, but the colony has certainly increased since the man next door moved.  From the old man's place, at least eight cats have joined this colony, bringing the total being fed from four or five to twelve or thirteen. Two cats were euthanized and I have the two kittens in foster care. 

Is this the last trapping for this year?   Will  I trap again next year?   Good questions, and only time will tell.

One Happy Ending

Ca-r-ma's mandate with the Canada Revenue Agency identifies us as a TNR group. Placement is secondary, but placement has always been part of what we do.   Orphaned and at-risk kittens are taken into foster care, vaccinated, treated for worms, fleas etc, spayed/neutered and offered for adoption.

Recent elections changed our committee chairs, but until the end of 2012, Marlah is in charge of trapping and I am a ca-r-ma trapper. Marlah tells me where to trap, but usually she doesn't know much about the colony. I get that information from the caregivers, and Cathy and I go out to get the cats/kittens.

 In the past couple of weeks, we have caught...or more accurately, the caregivers themselves have caught....two female cats that are very obviously non-feral and have been owned. We know that, not only because of their friendly behavior, but also because both are spayed. One is also de-clawed, the mysterious tabby lady of my previous post. 

Having spent two weeks looking for the owner of the one that is not de-clawed, a pretty little grey tortie, I decided it was time to find her an owner.  The people feeding her can't keep her because their elderly cat does not like her at all  and we don't want her to spend the winter outdoors. I put her on kijiji and on ca-r-ma's facebook page.  I also sent the tortie to Natalie, who looks after the website, to have her posted for adoption.These are both great cats, but adults are always hard to place, especially at the time of year when hundreds of cute little kittens are still available.

Not to worry! :)   The good people of Moncton have not let me down. I have had several offers to adopt both cats and the tortie went to a good home.   I am sure the mysterious lady will also be placed easily if the owner is not found.

 I think ca-r-ma may have one or two other adult cats that are in need of adoption.  I know Sharon had one she called Casper (photo below) and somebody told me Simba's sister has been returned.   (Simba is a wonderful little guy who had serious medical issues and was adopted by Kim.)  Once I have found the owner or found a home for my second refugee, I will refer anyone who contacts me to Kim in case there are cats she needs to place.

Mysterious Lady

One of the caregivers in Sunnybrae has been trying for several weeks to trap the cats she has been feeding.  She got two of them and there was one more to go, so when she called Friday morning to say she had the cat, I was ecstatic.   We're so close to the end of the season it is very important to get the last few cats done if possible.  

David went with me. We took a transfer cage because it is much easier to carry a cat in it than in a trap.  The trap was on the side lawn at the caregiver's home and she came right out to help us. It was a crisp dawn and the grass was cold and dewy.  The trap had been wrapped in a blanket and then in plastic to protect the cats from the weather if they were caught at night, as all of them were.  We lined up the transfer cage, raised the doors and the cat shot into the cage immediately.   It's a handsome dark tabby with beautiful markings. We put a cover over it and David loaded it into the van. I brought along the empty trap; this little colony is done.   

At Maritime, David brought the cat inside and we took off the cover to look at her while the paperwork was being done. 

"There's something metal on her side." David noticed.  He lifted the cage onto the counter and we all looked closely.   The cat was wearing a black harness with silver colored metal fittings; tightly fitted it was almost invisible against her dark coat.  

The clinic staffer who was helping us was very nice.   She said they would check to see if the cat was altered and would not notch the ear if they had to spay/neuter because the cat was likely owned.  

The vets don't like us to bring in owned cats and we never do it on purpose.  They have every right to be concerned. People who own pets should pay the cost of spay/neutering themselves; it's important and part of being a responsible owner.  The vets give us a discounted rate for the surgeries they do and they should not have to alter pets at that rate.  I know that sometime people lie to us, telling us a cat is homeless when it is actually their own. We can ask questions but we can't confront them and finally pretty much have to take their word.  We would not want to refuse to alter a homeless cat just because it's friendly: people dump and abandon their friendly pets every day.  I was actually surprised the staff member at Maritime did not just tell us to take the cat back where it came from.  Thank goodness she didn't.

As it turns out the cat was not only already spayed but was de-clawed on all four paws. If we had taken her back and turned her loose it is unlikely she would have survived much longer. Unable to defend herself or even climb a tree she would be easy prey for a coyote or hawk.  The home where she is fed backs on a large open field surrounded by woods.

Thus began the mystery of the missing lady cat.  They took the harness off at Maritime and we examined it carefully, hoping there might be contact information on it somewhere. There was none.   My foster home is full and there is no point in asking Kim if anyone else can foster, so I took the cat home and put her into our shed for the night.   Frantically I posted the above photos on kijiji and lost and found pets and also emailed them to the SPCA hoping someone had reported her missing. David and I managed to open the front of the cage a bit and slip in some water and a little canned food, which the kitty happily devoured.  She was very friendly and rubbed against fingers poked through the cage.  We had to be careful: if she were to get out she might run away and in our unfamiliar neighborhood she would be lost forever.  We could not keep her in the cage for long, however, and we worried over what to do if no owner came forward immediately.

Where did she come from? I wondered. Does she belong to a neighbor of the caregiver? If so, if we turn her loose she should be able to find her way home......but no responsible owner would let their de-clawed  cat out, especially at night, and this one had been coming for food for several weeks.   Is she lost? If so somebody must be looking for her at the SPCA and through other venues where missing animals are posted.  We didn't dare risk letting her go, but she had nowhere to go when she left our shed. 

Next morning I talked to the caregiver and thankfully she and her husband agreed to care for the cat until we could find the owner or place her for adoption.    We took her right over and released her in their basement.   She looked around for a minute then ran into a corner.  In an few seconds she came back toward us and made a beeline for the litter box which she desperately needed.  Hopping out, she came to the caregiver, rubbed around her and as soon as she was petted began to purr.  Then she hurried over to me to get more pets.  Her tail was high and her purr going strong.  She seemed so happy and grateful to be an environment where she felt safe with people who cared about her.

And so the search goes on for the owner. My internet posts have yielded several comments and I have received two emails. One was from some yo-yo who said I should "set the cat free" and the other was from a nice person who offered to adopt her if we don't find the owner.    We put up flyers today in her neighborhood and at the SPCA.  

I am a bit obsessed with this mystery.   Somebody loved this cat.   She is so sweet and friendly it is obvious she was handled gently and well cared for. The owner invested in her: the cost of spaying and de-clawing is not cheap.   She may have been taught to walk on a leash which means they spent time with her and probably tried to make her happy and enjoyed her company a great deal.

Where is that person?

Stay tuned for the rest of the story. I'm hoping there's a happy ending.

Some Days You Win, Some Days You Lose

Trapping night last night. One of our caregivers has the drop trap in Sunnybrae trying to catch the last of three cats she's been feeding, so Cathy and I set out with three snap traps for the colony where we got Archie and Hunter. 

The old man is gone now, fully moved into his seniors' apartment.  We stop at the caregivers house next door and set up a trap on the deck.  There's a small sleek grey cat hanging around the deck crying. He has not been fed today because we were coming to trap and he is not impressed.  We recognize him as a cat we caught two visits ago and we can see the nick in his left ear. We don't want him to go into the trap, so I offer him a bit of the sardine we are using as bait and he comes quite close to me to get it. 

We drive over to the next property, backing the van up the narrow lane in the dusk so we can drive out in the dark when we are finished.  The yard is dark and shadowed by trees and the building the old man lived in stands stark against the twilight sky.  As we get out of the van we spot an orange tabby tuxedo sitting on a pile of weathered lumber, looking at us. 

Cathy carries two traps to positions in the yard. I carry the bait and blankets to wrap down the traps. There is absolutely no wind so we don't have to worry about the blankets moving and spooking the cats.  The night is not cold but we get into the van and talk quietly so we won't be noticed.  As we sit a black cat comes along the path from the caregivers' house next door. He stops, sits down and looks at the van.  After a minute he gets up, turns and walks back the way he came. The light is dim, but I don't think he has a tail. 

I can see one trap in my rear view mirror but the other one is around a corner, nearer the building.   It is just getting dark when Cathy goes to check and comes back with the further trap. Inside is the orange tabby tuxedo.  I have forgotten the flashlight so we put the trap into the back of the van so we can check out the captive in the overhead light.   He sits quite quietly in the cage, gets up and turns around but does not struggle or hiss.   We are not sure if his ear is notched, so Cathy takes the path to the caregivers' house and borrows a flashlight.  She notices that the trap we left there is still set and empty.  By the time she returns I am pretty sure there is a notch in the cat's left ear.  We shine the light on him, and sure enough, the notch is there on the back edge of the left ear.  This cat has been neutered.  I look at him carefully. Earlier this year Marlah and I caught a tabby tuxedo with a miserable-looking wound on his chest.  The vets treated the wound and gave the cat a shot of slow-release antibiotic.   This looks like the same cat, but there is not sign of the wound.
I open the trap but the cat just sits and looks at us.  I put my hand in (not recommended but I'm sure this one is not really feral) and touch him gently.  As I withdraw my arm, the cat decides to go and shoots out of the trap and away into the night.

We get back into the van.  It is very dark now and there has been no moonrise. An hour passes slowly and we see no sign of any more cats.  We decide to call it a night.  Cathy carries the two traps back to the van. We leave them baited because I plan to try and catch the wanderer that has been eating on our front deck for the past couple of months. 

We drive around to the caregivers' house.  The grey cat is still there, still complaining about the lack of food service and the trap is untouched.   We take it down and Cathy gives the cat the bait.  He comes right up to her and she is able to touch him.  I get the rest of the can of sardines and approach him slowly.  As as squat down to dump the fish onto the grass, the cat comes toward me, and I am able to touch his head and run a hand lightly down his back before he shies away.  The caregiver comes out and we return the flashlight. I tell her about the cat we caught and let go. She thinks it sounds like the one that had the wound; she says he has recovered very well and the wound is no longer visible.  As we back out of her yard, we see the caregiver placing a pan of food on the deck.  The grey male is still the only cat around but he is watching the pan anxiously. 

I drop Cathy at home.  The caregiver who has the drop trap has not called so I know she did not catch the cat. Our other Sunnybrae caregiver calls to ask if she can take the wire off the snap trap where she has been feeding and try to catch the cat overnight that she has been trying to get.  I am happy to say yes and she will call by 7 am if she gets the cat. I set traps in our front and back yard and check them twice before going to bed.

In the morning my traps are still set and still empty. I leave them set.  There is no call from the caregiver and the only cat to go for altering is a non-feral female found behind TMH. The people who found her have been fostering her and now want to keep her.  Because she was a homeless cat, ca-r-ma is happy to have her spayed. I have to pick her up early because the people leave for work, so we are there before 7 am.  The vet is not open so David and I sit at Tim's sipping coffee until 7:30.  

All in all, it was an unproductive trapping night, but I am always happy to see some of the cats we have altered in the past.  They are always in much better condition than before surgery and it is especially nice when those that needed medical help show up looking hale and hearty.   Perhaps next week we will be more successful.