Catamania

The Crazy Things We Do For Love—of Cats

By Lynne Ware

The tiny and dilapidated porch above is where Lynne crawled to rescue the feral kittens. A number of these wonderful cats you see here are now waiting for their forever homes at the SHAID shelter.

As I lay belly down on the muddy ground, head underneath the rotting porch, in search of the tiny kitten cries we were hearing, the thought did not occur to me to wonder what a decrepit 66 year old woman was doing in such a situation. I did, however, wonder how I was going to get back on my feet.

Such are the crazy situations in which I often find myself as a TNR (Trap, Neuter and Return) volunteer. Since beginning this work in 2007, Beth, my partner, and I have seen parts of our county we didn’t even know existed. Feral cat colonies are often located in the “back of beyond”. One colony of about 30 cats used an abandoned school bus as their base. Others live in woodpiles, under porches, sheds and trailers. The luckier ones have caregivers who have made modifications to their sheds etc. to allow access to the cats. The ferals are not fussy and do not require 5 star accommodation, just a dry place to get out of the weather.

This lovely little guy is Gordon at three months old, the

first rescued kitten from beneath the porch.

I imagine you are wondering about those kitten cries I mentioned earlier. Indeed I found four tiny babies, so young their eyes were not even open, curled upon the cold damp ground in a ball. Momma cat was nearby hissing and growling at me. What to do? What to do? This was a colony of 50+ cats and we had TNR’d 58 of them but, obviously missed at least one male and one female who was facing off with me now. The dilemma was that if I left the kittens, momma cat would move them to a less accessible spot and we might not get the chance to catch them again. On the other hand, they were too young to do without momma. I so wished I had a trap with me as the ideal outcome would be to bait the trap with the babies and catch momma too.

This is Xena, rescued by Beth and fostered by
Lynne. You will find Xena at SHAID waiting to
get to know you. She loves to play and cuddle.

Unfortunately, as I had only come to the colony to bring food, I did not have a trap. I did have a cat carrier so I carefully transferred the babies into the back of the not very big carrier as Momma Cat supervised, growling and hissing. I am lucky she didn’t attack but, in truth, that possibility never weighed on me.  Leaving the carrier door open, we retreated to give her a chance to enter the carrier. She eventually could not resist the cries of her babies and in she went but, sadly, not all the way as it was quite a small carrier. I decided to try and push her rear end in and slam the door once she was all of the way inside.  My ancient body was not as fast as hers was, though, and she backed out before I could shut the door with not one, but two, tiny kittens in her mouth. Away she ran and did not return.

Now I am left with two tiny motherless kittens. What to do? What to do? Call the vet for advice. Our wonderful vet said to bring the babies to her so off we go, listening to tiny but mighty cries from the kittens. Sadly, when we arrived, it was discovered that one kitten was not doing well. Now I am in tears and overcome with guilt for moving them but the vet assured me that he had not been thriving for some time and laying on the cold, damp ground where his momma had him probably caused his demise. We are now really on the horns of a dilemma. If we go back and try to trap momma by having the remaining kitten in the trap, we may end up with the other two tiny babies being left and dying without their mother as she will have them well hidden by now. If we leave them, we then risk adding to the colony if we are unable to catch them later. Momma Cat made the difficult decision for us by keeping the kittens and herself well hidden. No sign of them was seen for many weeks. Remember, this is one wily female cat who avoided getting trapped while 58 of her friends and relatives did! You have to respect her intelligence and survival instincts even though she frustrates you to no end.

Smoke is a little shy but has adapted well and
loves to play and watch the world go by from
the window. Smoke and his sister Xena can be
found socializing at SHAID.
 

So what happened to the other kitten we had removed? Well, Beth, experienced at hand raising everything from raccoons to kittens, took on the task and now has a lovely 3 month old gray and white boy who she has added to her indoor cat “colony”. Gordon, as she named him, is as cute as any little ball of fur can be. He is friendly and loves everyone in the house, dogs and cats alike. You would never know he was born a feral.

But what of the other two?  After two and a half months, while Beth was at the colony trying to catch the few remaining adults that have not been fixed, she saw the two kittens running around. The adults have learned to be trap wary and were not even tempted by the sardine bait but the two kittens gamboled right into the traps. Beth couldn’t believe our luck!  Now another decision faced us. With the local shelter full to bursting and with a long waiting list, what to do with these little ones? They were old enough to be fixed and returned but could we tame them and find homes for them? We decided to try. As Beth transferred them from the traps to the carriers to bring them to my home, she was prepared for the worst. We had already had one kitten, last year, from this colony who simply refused to be tamed so we were not overly hopeful. These kittens had been feral for almost three months. Geared up in protective gloves, jacket, etc. she reached into the trap and discovered they were just scared and not nasty, a good omen.

Over the next few days, I handled them as much as possible and on day three they started to purr when being snuggled! Now they are happily ensconced in my downstairs bathroom, are using the litterbox, eating like horses and are learning to play with toys. If all goes well, they will have a place at the shelter later on this week.  I sure hope so because Xena (she is the more outgoing of the two) and Smoke (he is a polydactyl like so many of the colony) are very easy to love and I cannot be a “foster failure” this time….all but one of my five animals are the result of my failure as a foster parent to be able to give them up.

By the way, in case you were wondering, luckily there was an old chair near where I was planted facedown under the porch and I was able to haul this old body up. No harm done, just a little more stiff than usual the next day. This is definitely work better done by a younger crowd? Do I hear any takers?

As noted above, Gordon has found his forever home and his sister Xena and brother Smoke are now available for adoption from SHAID. If you want to know more about the TNR program, or would like to offer assistance, send an email to Lynne at: shaidylady@eastlink.ca