Tuesday, October 11, 2022

#35 Trap and Fix Feral Cats

 10/11/2022-- I saw the all black kitten ("panther") alone in the yard after cuddling with mom and her + first litter juvenile (panda) disappearing for an errand.  Kiddo and I snuck out to the yard in our jammies to try plying it with wet kitten food (picked up at petstore adjacent to swim lesson yesterday), which worked.  Proto-siamese kitten ate a little off a stick while hiding in the bushes.  Panda came back and growl-polished off the rest of the can, but I think this was a good learning experience for the kittens and they are almost independent enough to take in.  Kinda want to keep siamese and all black and then that calico thing has a personality on it and then baby panda is has so eerily similarly markings to panda, it is tempting to keep them as a colony (fixed!) than to drop them at a shelter...  

10/12/2022-- find adult/juv cat doing weird gymnastics against the garage door.  Turned out the kittens were napping in there when I closed it and they got stuck.  3 left.  Could not find the 4th (black & white) and assumed it was hiding elsewhere.  10/13 AM found very distraught black & white in the garage (after dreaming of dead cat bodies under the truck).  All black joined adult/juv that morning for wet food.  catty cat grey and the paws siamese twin were missing but Paws brought them back later in the morning.  

10/16/2022-- determine these are 4-5 weeks old after watching some cat week by week development (and trapping videos).  Called for TNR pricing 2 days ago and it is hundreds-- $325-$663.  Was worried mom would move kittens after Rho snuck through the gate during breakfast and the garage incidents.  She moved them, but not all the way across the street as I feared.  I think they are set up in a snag of Mexican creeper/derelict perimeter fence/orange tree.  Hope that kept them kind of dry.  Tiny Paws (the siamese looking cat) has come out with Panda as the sun came out, but the ground is still very wet.  

10/18/2022-- Hubby complains of 7 or 8 fleas on him working out in the garage.  Rage visit to Home Depot to fumigate.  Have they bitten me?  Don't think so, seemed mosquitoes were a bigger issue.  Then again, I'm not in shorts and I'm not dwelling in one area more than a few seconds.  Moms never can.  So I spend most of the time kid is in preschool calling around, finding a shelter for the cats (which claims they don't handle Santa Ana cats but SAPD says they are under contract and do...)  Finding the least expensive spay provider ($260/cat).  Plan to get a carrier at petco today after the swim lesson.  oof.  But I found 3/4 kittens without supervisors and got almost a full tin of food into just them while petting them.  Tux was very wary and dragged the container she eventually showed up for into the shrubs.  PTSD from spending the night in the garage alone?  Or maybe already skittish and that was why it was hard to find when we were chasing them out of the garage.  

10/21/2022-- have fed 3/4 kittens in carrier twice (baby panda is very wiley).  Started a photo album for them and placement.  Someone interested in fluffy blue eyed cat.  

11/18/2022-- ok, so many updates here.  The fluffy blue eyed cat went up to potential owner who made a vet appointment same day.  The update was it had a host of problems (ring worm, fleas, mites, herniated disc that needed to be operated on, etc.) they eventually found a shelter to bring it to in LA.  I loaded up the other 3 the next day (this would be 11/11) and took them to our local shelter that claims not to handle Santa Ana cats, while Santa Ana says they are under contract with them.  Right.  So I picked a street a quarter mile away where the north side is Santa Ana and south is Tustin and said we'd found them there.  I keep looking for them to be posted on the adoptions page, but no dice.  Hopefully they didn't have big problems too and are just getting a little older before they get posted as the youngest ones listed there are 10 weeks.  

I'm continuing to feed Pause and Panda and the earliest the low cost spay and neuter place could take them is mid-February.  Plenty of time to get them on a routine and comfortable eating in the kennels, right?  Pause doesn't wander far but sometimes doesn't show for meals or just waits outside the crate for Panda to finish.  Waitlisted to be notified if spaces open up sooner.  

1/31/2023-- Low cost spay and neuter could get us in a few days early which is fortunate because I was worried the routine might be disrupted during Hawaii trip and not have a reliable rhythm for the return.  The cats had been chased constantly for about a week and a half by an incredible number of neighborhood Toms coming out of the woodwork.  Pause power backed out of the carrier so fast I didn't have time to close it.  Panda, a bit braver went back in for food and I locked her in.  Bribed Pause with wet food and astonishingly got her all the way in.  $480 and about 10 hours later, I picked them up from the low cost spay neuter place in Laguna Hills.  We were charged for Elizabethan collars which both had pried off before we got home.  Got some pain meds that I dressed wet food with so hopefully Panda is getting some relief.  Pause slunk off to hide without checking out the offering and had most of an abandoned can of cat food with her in the crate all day at the vet...  

2/28/2023 Cats seem to have recovered fully outside of growing out the fur on their shaved bellies.  We're continuing to feed them twice daily...  

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