Teach a woman to trap

What's the old saying, give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.  Well, in my world, it's extremely satisfying teaching someone to trap. Everyone thinks trapping is some mysterious skill, well it's not, it's equipment, patience, luck and timing mostly.  Karen feeds at a nearby colony and she reached out when a cat who has remained unneutered showed up with a wound.  We went out Tuesday evening to try to trap him but no cat.

I wasn't available the next day so I showed her how to set up the trap, and with this colony a stick and string was needed, all the other cats were keen to go in of course.  Wed morning she went at the normal feeding time (this is important) and fed the other cats, no Frankie.  Finally he showed up and in he went after a bit of hesitation.  Karen told me her heart was pounding as she waited for him to get far enough in.  Boom, she pulled the string and she had him.

Since he had a wound we decided to take him directly to a vet instead of the TNR clinic.  Karen was so excited, her first solo trapping and she got the cat!  Frankie has been neutered but needed to have his canines removed so he's recovering at Raven's now.

Spring has sprung and I have a list of cats to trap, most are holdovers from last year, got to get to work.

Frankie in the trap

Here are two of my beautiful boys at home.  I put this new bed down when I came in the house with it, but now it's the most popular spot in the whole place so I guess it's staying put.  Such a cat thing.

Buddy and Oliver

I got up the other morning and went downstairs to scoop the boxes and honest to god this is what I found, a heart in the litter.