Meet Dot and Daisy

Here are Michelle's latest fosters, Dot and Daisy are from last week's trapping, both about six months old and totally friendly and sweet.  They have a few health issues we are dealing with but they will be fine with a little TLC and a lot of meds.

We trapped one more female from that location on Wednesday but we are only about halfway done, and the cats have gotten smart very quickly and are avoiding our traps.  Right now we are dealing with two locations both with three litters of kittens already born.  Realistically it will take a few months to get those colonies totally under control but can you imagine if we hadn't already trapped about ten in each colony?  That's how colonies go from two cats to 20+ in one year!

New problems require new solutions

Just a quick update that of the 10 cats that were trapped last Monday, three are going into foster homes, sadly one had to be euthanized as she was very ill, and the rest went back to their "home".  We still have lots more work to do there but we made a good start.

No rest though, the problems kept piling up, first we went again to try to convince the property owner at the CG colony to let us keep the shelters and feeding stations there, or at least one or two, but he is getting too many complaints from his neighbours, so sadly as of next weekend the cats won't have any shelters or anywhere dry to eat.  It's heartbreaking the lack of compassion many people have.  We are still trying to find other spots but no luck so far.  Of course we will still feed them but their lives will be much harder.

Then I got a call from the daughter of the woman who used to live there and fed the cats in her backyard, she had taken in three cats from the colony when she moved, and continued to feed, we would visit her and the cats.  This winter she fell ill and now won't be able to return home so the cats have to be rehomed.

Lionel is a friendly old diabetic guy, we rushed him to the vet on Friday once we found out he hadn't had his insulin in three weeks.  They are just going to stabilize him and then Lynn is going to foster him!

Lionel

The other two, Thelma and Houdini, are still very shy even though they have been inside for a couple of years, they will be a bit trickier to place

Thelma

Houdini had to have an eye removed and was named that because the first time I trapped him he managed to escape from the trap overnight, that's why I always zip tie them now!

Houdini

When I think and worry about getting older the only thing I care about is what will happen to my cats.

Ten cats trapped!

I have to say that I was happy to settle down this evening with a cup of tea, it was a long day, catsitting on each end, and a day of trapping in the middle.  We went out to that large colony in Scarborough, it was a chilly day but we managed to trap nine cats, there are still at least eight more to trap, and a few kittens who will need rescuing once they are older, but we made good progress today.

 One pretty young female, I basically shoved her into the trap.

 And Jim a short distance away managed to get another cat from his small colony.

I have yet to be able to get a good picture of a cat in a trap, this one below is the same one as the cat rubbing up against Larry's legs above.

It's been quite the week!

Well we are back to work and with a vengeance!  It may not officially be spring but it is for cats, lots of pregnant cats and kittens already being born.  Our week started last Sunday at Dufferin and Lawrence helping with a 20 cat colony, Lesley and I packed up a mom and four 2 week old kittens and took them to a foster, meanwhile another cat was giving birth, and about three quarters of the colony was thankfully being TNRed.

Then Monday we went to two locations to trap, at the second one the first thing we saw was this kitten with a badly injured leg.  We were able to trap her, a sibling and the mom who oddly also was limping.  Five traps full we headed to the recovery centre and the cats went to the clinic the next day.  From location one we had a male and an already spayed female, strange because she was new to the feeders.

Then we got the call we always dread.  The worst news first, momma cat had a tumour on her paw and was in bad condition so very sadly had to be euthanized.  Our other cat, who they thought to be about six months old, had what appeared to be a birth defect, but must have been touching the ground as the bottom of the paw was abraded and infected.  The only thing to be help her would be amputation and because she was feral they recommended euthanasia.  Lesley and I said no, we wanted to give her a chance so we took her to our trusted vet.  They agree that an amputation is necessary but we hope and believe that since she is only six months old that she can recover from her surgery and become tame and live a happy life inside.  We had the best three legged cat who was missing his front leg!  Animals are much more resilient than people!  They never feel sorry for themselves.

 Before we could even take a breath, we were contacted about a colony in Scarborough with about 20 cats.  We went there this morning and sure enough, there are 20 cats, fed and loved by Larry the former firefighter, but they are in desperate feed of spay and neuter.  There is already one tiny kitten with a mom in the garage and by the looks of a few cats there will be more kittens and likely before we can get there to trap them all.

To top it off, they moved a bunch of dumpsters at the yard and destroyed some shelters, it's all in transition there so I have to figure out a new spot for Lily, Tibbs and Minky to eat and sleep.

While I was out

Many mornings I get up and go directly out to my catsits, and one day last week my cats decided breakfast was way too late and took matter into their own hands.  One of them (and nobody is telling) knocked down a container of dry food from the counter.  Thankfully for them it opened, leaving them with a buffet.

Of course they still wanted their regularly scheduled meal!