Mass trapping in the country

Yesterday our dream team of myself, Lesley, Susan and Sandi headed northeast an hour out of the city to help out with a mass trapping at a barn.  It was a beautiful morning to help cats!

Farmer Ron has a large colony at his farm but wanted to get them spayed and neutered thankfully. Quite a few cats were inside a building and Susan managed to lure many of them into traps and we trapped a few more outside and rescued three little kittens!  By the end of it, we had thirteen adults and three kittens to drive back into the city, leaving only a few adults unfixed but there were a lot of calicos and torties in our bunch so lots of females.  Sadly most of the kittens who had been born this year had died so we were glad to get the ones we could, there were two other little black kittens we just couldn't catch.  We loaded up just before a thunderstorm hit, today they will all be spayed and neutered and then returned in a few days.  The farmer seems to genuinely like them and feeds them twice a day.  It was definitely well worth the drive!

I've seen fire and I've seen rain

I always turn off my cell phone at night so I don't hear the annoying pings of the texts coming in at all hours.  This morning I turned on my phone to find way too many texts!  There had been a massive fire at the recycling plant where our colony is.  It happened overnight, there were 40 fire trucks at one point.  Of course I was worried about my kitties but it was pouring rain this morning, not the best time to look for cats and access was blocked this morning.

This afternoon when the rain let up Sandi and I went down and had no trouble getting in and thankfully saw all our cats!  Hank's gang was a bit stressed, those trucks and sirens must have been terrifying and there is a lot of cleanup going on, but they still wanted to eat.  They are survivors!

Down the road at Sadie and Misty's spot it was all flooded, what a day.

It makes me so happy when I get these updates from Carol, look at our Floppy, no rain or scary sirens for him, just enjoying the view from his condo window.

Mom and kittens saved!

Another urgent plea went out this week about a mom and kittens in a yard near Yonge and Eglinton.  I was feeling a bit overworked but called the homeowner, she is allergic so wasn't willing to do much but thankfully she had a cat loving friend who lived nearby who I connected with.

With some encouragement and guidance, Melanie was able to grab two of the kittens and then Friday afternoon we went and trapped one more and the mom.  That left one little one all alone, Melanie tried all that evening but no luck, the poor thing was probably so scared.  I worried all night.  Melanie had the other three kittens in her bathroom and she went back first thing Saturday morning.  She was about to pack it in after a few hours when boom last orange baby in the trap!  Case closed!

The kittens are about 8 weeks I think, they just need a bit of socializing, and we will have to see if mom is friendly.  It really makes a difference when someone in the community is willing to get involved.

Full on kittens!

Kitten season is in full swing it seems!  Our week started with a full evening of trapping.  We began at Vic Park and Danforth where we've gotten 10 of 12 done but the last two were not to be that evening.  We then made our way across town to Keele and Eglinton to a new-ish to us colony.  Last time we got three cats and this time we quickly trapped two, thankfully we are almost done there.  I had been speaking with a woman earlier about some kittens and since we were close we decided to go have a look and see how old they were.

When we arrived the feeder had five tiny kittens all out on the grass and her young sons were playing with them.  Many of the kittens had already died.  There were two that couldn't have been more than two weeks old and the other three were about four weeks.  Normally I would never take two week old kittens and even four is borderline but these kittens were no longer in a safe spot and their mom wasn't around, we had no confidence they would be cared for so we bundled them up.

God bless Lesley, she bottle fed them overnight and by morning thanks to the wonders of Facebook and an amazing community, we found a super experienced bottle feeder for the tinies.  The older ones have been placed now too!

Our first batch of kittens

 Of course we will be going back there to TNR the colony.  That was enough of the west end for the week so yesterday we went to Vic Park and Sheppard to the colony we just can't finish, too many feeders and the females are very smart.  As soon as I went into the yard I saw a mom nursing five kittens so I ran back with a carrier and managed to grab one before the rest ran under a junker car. Two hours later we had two more kittens and an adult, two babies to go.  These ones are probably about five weeks.

Batch 2 of babies

One of the ones who waited us out.

I'd say that was a good week so far!  Four adults (three females!) who are spayed and neutered and eight little lives saved!

Kitten visits are the best!

Susan is doing such an amazing job with her kittens, she has a new appreciation now for all that mother cats do.  There have been challenges with this bunch, they started as bottle feeders and are now eating on their own, but they had diarrhea and weren't gaining that much weight.  In the last few days they have turned a corner. who knew one could be so excited about solid stool.

I love going over to visit, if I'm feeling the slightest bit down about anything, watching kittens run around and play cures all.

Floppy gets a home!

It's official!!!  After two weeks at Carol's all is going well with Floppy, now renamed Bear.  He is still shy but purrs when she pats him, and is starting to explore and is working things out with her cats. So Floppy (Bear) has a real home!  I cried this morning when I saw him on the adopted page.  He's come a long way in the four years I've known him, I am so happy that he will never be cold or wet or in danger again.  You couldn't ask for a better home than Carol's!  In my shameless way I asked her if she would adopt him, knowing she has a soft spot for the cats who have lived rough.  I never imagined she would say yes.  But she did, in his case, the fact that he is older and FIV is a selling point for her, one of those amazing people who wants to help the cats who are "special".

So yay for Floppy!  It's a good day in our cat world!

Floppy before

Floppy safe inside