Trying to trap a wiley mama feral cat is not an easy task and we were starting to feel overmatched. We've had the trap for Mama Kitty for a long time now and it has outlived its usefulness. It's obvious that nothing will work on Mama short of a tranquilizer gun. As for her feral kittens, they will need a more subtle and gentler approach.

My wife Lily has one weakness when she goes shopping. She often brings home a stuffed cat toy. We have umpteen of these toys and only Buffy our domestic kitty to play with them. They are spread out all over the living room. I had been noticing that some were missing, but I didn't give it much thought because we had so many.

One day, while I was working in the backyard, I saw a couple of the toys. What's up with this? I became suspicious because I've seen Mama Kitty exploring other areas of our house when she comes in to eat. She is still overly cautious and probably imparting this paranoid wisdom onto her family.

One morning, while reading the paper, I saw Mama sneaking out the door with a toy in her mouth. WOW!!! She was actually absconding with a toy for her babies to play with. Well, that really knocked me out. What a mom. I loved her for that and regretted that I could never pet her. We had a lot of those little super balls. I made a small hole through one with a fabric sewing needle with monofilament line that ran off a fishing rod. I could then cast off the upper level deck down to the feral kittens below so they could chase the ball. What great fun for all of us. We were now playing together and bonding in the only way we could at that time. We redefined cat fishing.

I used this method to entice them by slowly reeling in the ball through the den door where I had milk and food waiting for them. They started coming into the house much the same way Mama did. Mama in fact, was nursing them longer than she needed to. She was a very loving mother. Her babies were still a little on the thin side considering their age. they had to be somewhere around five months old by now. The feral kittens were getting used to exploring the house, but were still untouchable. We figured there was one black and one black and white male, one black and one black and white female.

One morning, when they were all in, the black male kept looking at me and meowing. I never attempted to approach the little guys for fear of a setback. They would have to make the first move. The little black one was now following me and meowing. I offered him more milk and food and walked to the opened screen door to no avail. Then I slowly reached down and gently picked him up. He purrrrred and I melted. BREAKTHROUGH!!!

Things were looking up. At that time, we were not even thinking of keeping any of them. Our main concern was to have them spayed and neutered.

We have a wonderful cat carrier that was made by a neighbor whose hobby is woodworking. It had a door with a latch that I could control so that an animal could go in and out on it's own. It was large enough to carry a full grown bobcat with ease.

We received four spay and neuter vouchers from the city. We had to go to a designated vet in our area. They informed us that they do just one feral a day and that had to be in the morning. We feel we are now ready for the task at hand... Or were we. We didn't know until later that it would become the THE TASK FROM HELL.

To be continued....

Copyright © Bill Franks
November 13, 2004