Paul and I have always been advocates of animals... we have many that have come in and out of our lives- our three cats, our family's animals, the feral colonies in Austin, and of course the rescue cats and dogs we place in homes. And now we venture into managing a feral colony in Pasadena.
Austin, and now Pasadena support feral colonies of cats. The SPCA has a program (SNiP) to neuter or spade feral cats, so that the cats can be returned to their territory and maintain a stable low population by not reproducing.
Paul and I ordered a Havaheart live trap cage for this very purpose. Paul also bought an instructional video on trapping feral cats, which had some incredibly good pieces of information (such as cats define their space by what they can see, so they ram the cage and will hurt themselves trying to get out, but if you cover the cage, they "calm down").
We left the cage outside for a week, so the cats could get use to it. We would have preferred to leave it open unset, so we could get the cats used to going inside for food, but it seems this is a downside the the Havaheart cage we got (there are Havaheart cages that you can leave unset in the open position.) So last night, after asking our neighbors to bring in the food they normally leave out, we set the trap. We placed a blanket over the cage, paper on the bottom (so we can pick the cat up and it has a "floor"), fresh wet food in the back and a little teaser on the way in... and we waited. I left the window open so we could hear the trap going off, and within a few minutes we had a cat sniffing around the cage. Paul thought for sure they would not be used to going in for food and we would have trouble catching anything, but alas hunger prevailed! We heard the trap door snap shut within 5 minutes!
The poor kitty had to spend the night in the garage, but I left the light on for it (okay, it was really so I felt good, since, as Paul points out, cats like the dark AND it was under the blanket). This morning I dropped it off at the SPCA and I should be able to pick it up tonight! We will release it tomorrow and begin the process over once again.
UPDATE 2/4/08 2:07PM
Our MALE feral cat is doing fine and will be picked up tonight. :-)
Austin, and now Pasadena support feral colonies of cats. The SPCA has a program (SNiP) to neuter or spade feral cats, so that the cats can be returned to their territory and maintain a stable low population by not reproducing.
Paul and I ordered a Havaheart live trap cage for this very purpose. Paul also bought an instructional video on trapping feral cats, which had some incredibly good pieces of information (such as cats define their space by what they can see, so they ram the cage and will hurt themselves trying to get out, but if you cover the cage, they "calm down").
We left the cage outside for a week, so the cats could get use to it. We would have preferred to leave it open unset, so we could get the cats used to going inside for food, but it seems this is a downside the the Havaheart cage we got (there are Havaheart cages that you can leave unset in the open position.) So last night, after asking our neighbors to bring in the food they normally leave out, we set the trap. We placed a blanket over the cage, paper on the bottom (so we can pick the cat up and it has a "floor"), fresh wet food in the back and a little teaser on the way in... and we waited. I left the window open so we could hear the trap going off, and within a few minutes we had a cat sniffing around the cage. Paul thought for sure they would not be used to going in for food and we would have trouble catching anything, but alas hunger prevailed! We heard the trap door snap shut within 5 minutes!
The poor kitty had to spend the night in the garage, but I left the light on for it (okay, it was really so I felt good, since, as Paul points out, cats like the dark AND it was under the blanket). This morning I dropped it off at the SPCA and I should be able to pick it up tonight! We will release it tomorrow and begin the process over once again.
UPDATE 2/4/08 2:07PM
Our MALE feral cat is doing fine and will be picked up tonight. :-)
5 Comments:
> and of course the rescue cats
> and dogs we place in homes
...not to mention your friends' spoiled rotten domestic cats, when they need a temporary home. :)
- Jeff
> not to mention your friends'
> spoiled rotten domestic cats,
> when they need a temporary home.
and not to mention when we provide a home-cooked meal and a place to sleep for our spoiled friends :-P
-- Paul
What's this "we" crap? I heard you cooked ONE meal. Frozen pizza and edamame don't count as homecooked!
Pizza and edamame do too count! Anyways, I made stroganoff and spaghetti, so that was two meals not just one. ;-)
-- Paul
We need you to come trap some feral cats in Pearland! ACK. Our neighbors leave their un-spayed cat outside all day and she's a whore! Anyhow 2 ferals seem to come by a few times a day. Sure she'll be fat soon. One of the ferals limps all the time.
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