An unsatisfying trapping

This is poor little scared Maggie in the trap on her way to the vet. I was out early Tuesday morning again, traps baited with sardines and KFC. I quickly caught Socks, a black and white cat, who we are pretty sure was fixed last year, so I let Socks out and reset. After almost 2 hours I was about to give up, when I caught Maggie, one of the friendlier black cats.

My excitement quickly diminished when the vet called to tell me that she had already been spayed but had terrible dental problems and needed some teeth pulled. I couldn't say no, not wanting her to be in pain, so there goes a couple of hundred dollars. At least they will ear tip her so we'll know she's been spayed. I have to wonder about her story, the vet says she's around 7 years old, and she's pretty friendly, rubbing around our legs. She must have had a home at some point - who knows how she ended up at our outpost of civilization.

Saturday was rainy but that didn't stop Jackson from greeting me at the car.

Jackson loves to eat and doesn't hesitate to hide his impatience while I set up.

We've named the two kittens Mo and Jo. Mo is the black one and Jo is the tortishell. I think they are about 12 or so weeks old and must have come from the pontoon. They are still pretty shy but seem to be sorting out that we are the food people.

It's amazing that the other cats have accepted them. Here is Tina with Jo.

And here is the newest member of our colony.

I guess groundhogs need to eat too.

An early morning and an empty trap

I got up early this morning, well my version of early, to try to trap more of our ferals that remain unfixed. There are a couple of black cats, and two tortishells, one of whom is very pregnant currently - sigh. The trap baited with tuna and Fancy Feast, I stood back and waited, but to no avail. A couple of cats came to the end of the trap, including this little black one, but none would go all the way in, and I had to give up after an hour and get to work. I'll try again next week.

Just when we thought we had the boat location all taken care of, and no cats left to trap, two kittens have shown up, a black one and a tortishell, probably about 12 weeks old. I can't get close to them, and realistically, it's probably too late for them to be adoptable. You really need to catch them between 6 - 8 weeks in order to be able to socialize them properly. These two could probably be socialized but it would require a lot of work. They will live at the yard with the others - two more to fix, another sigh.

Jackson and Tina wanted me to hurry up and feed them. Raccoons are eating the cats' food so the cats are always hungry now.

Here's a great picture of Teddy, the patriarch or bully, whichever you prefer.

Bit of a downer day, I long to get to the point where we have them all fixed, and it's just maintenance, but I will persevere and console myself knowing that their lives are better than they would be since they have us caring for them.