The Stray Cat Saga: Part Two

When I wrote the first installment of the Stray Cat Saga, I was not prepared for the adventure that was to follow. The first new discovery was a third kitten. And the second new discovery was that mama cat (aka Midnight Boa) was expecting another litter of kittens.

Clearly, we had a problem. I headed straight for the telephone and internet and gave myself a crash course in cat behavior, healthcare, and adoption procedures. I called the vet, Humane Society, and PetSmart, and I conducted numerous web searches about spaying/neutering, adoption, and many other feral cat related topics because we had a few decisions to make.

What do we do with the mama cat? I realize I have previously stated that I hate cats, but let it be known that I don't mind having one around to keep the mouse population under control. In other words, I am not opposed to an outdoor cat in our yard. I am, however, opposed to an outdoor cat whose main goal seems to be populating our hillside with angry feral kittens. At this rate, we'll have 101 cats living on our porch before we can say "meow". So, if we keep the cat, she'll need to be spayed. Is that an expense we're willing to spring for? I don't know yet. If not, she has earned herself a one way ticket to the animal shelter.

What do we do with the kittens? In the meantime, we still had 3 wild kittens living in our bushes, and they needed to be caught and tamed so we could decide their fate. Here's where the real adventure began. One of Sean's friends at work had a live trap and offered to let us use it to catch the kittens. So we set the trap and waited for some magic. We soon found a few hurdles along the way.

Hurdle one: Mama cat was better at being trapped than the kittens. We solved that problem by keeping her in the garage when the trap was set.

Hurdle two: The kittens were not heavy enough to engage the trap, so they could go in, eat the tuna, and head back out to the safety of the bushes. We solved that problem by tying a piece of string to the trap and running it through the window so we could pull the string and close the trap from the comfort of our laundry room.

Hurdle three: Once we caught the first kitten and moved him to the garage, he kept escaping. We solved that problem by putting him in a tall garbage can with a plastic grate over the top so he couldn't jump out. (We gave him a blanket, food, and water, and we checked on him often. It was for his own good.) The kitten escaped so many times that Sean became pretty good at luring kittens into the trap with his laser pointer, then pulling the string to shut the trap at just the right time.

Hurdle four: No matter what we tried, we couldn't catch that third kitten. We kept the first two in their makeshift cage, but just couldn't get that elusive third kitten. At some point, we decided we may be waiting forever and it just wasn't nice to keep those other kittens confined in a garbage can. Sean found someone at work who offered to take the kittens to his barn in Paradise. We decided to take advantage of that offer, and took the two we had caught so they will be happy running around and chasing all the mice they could dream of.

Meanwhile, the third kitten (who we named Spook because he's easily spooked and therefore hard to catch) is still roaming the neighborhood. And I think mama cat may have had her second litter in the bushes somewhere because she is considerably skinnier than she was a few days ago. So in a few weeks the new kittens may show up on the porch and we can start over. I believe a call to animal control may be in order.

Here's a picture of the two kittens who are now enjoying their life on the farm. Voldemort (because he was the meanest) is on the left and Houdini (because he was the escape artist) is on the right. Aren't they cute?

Stay tuned for more Stray Cat adventures.

P.S. Spook likes to come to our porch  late at night and we have lots of fun shining a laser pointer out the  window for him to chase around. We're easily entertained.