Seeking help weighing decision to bring feral cat(s) inside

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ChirpySquirrel

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Well, another major rollercoaster last night. And now I need serious help. Much to my astonishment and glee, I trapped Milly last night. She's the one I thought would be the most difficult to catch. I should be celebrating and overjoyed. And I was for a brief time. Then I made another colossal blunder. I'm trying here but I feel like I'm not cut out for this. I did not want to leave Milly in the trap any longer than I had to so I figured I'd transfer her to the cattery I have set up and block off the upper 2 levels so it would essentially be like a crate. I got the litter box in there and food and water. I then proceeded to completely botch the transfer. She was so calm and moving so slowly that I got complacent. I was supposed to have the cattery door in place to block any chance she could escape but once she emerged from the trap slowly I guess I thought she was calm and would be super cautious. Whatever the case, as soon as she was out of the trap, she flew out and I failed to get the trap out of the way and close the door in time. So what did I do? I panicked. I tried to grab her which obviously only made things worse and got my arm scratched really bad in the process. After she bounced and slammed around the room and tried to climb everything and anything including the walls for a few moments, I realized I had to just get out of there. All night she was frantically darting around and jumping up and down on everything in site. She kept jumping up on the window sill and lunging herself at the window only to crash to the floor. I can only hope she hasn't and won't injure herself. I am at a loss as to what to do and I feel like this is a huge disaster. Tiny Tuck is in that same room but he's in a crate of course (which Milly climbed up and down on all night). Any possible ideas to get Milly calmed down and in a crate would be forever appreciated. I have reached out to the volunteers and the rescue I have been in contact with but that was late last night and the only advice was to just leave her be for a while.
 

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First of all, no one is cut out for this, so don't beat yourself up. The woman who now runs the local TNR/rescue got her start when she was overwhelmed with abandoned ferals after a feeder moved and ended up on one of Jackson Galaxy's shows, sitting there with him sobbing. I have been in the ER twice with animal rescue issues (one cat, one dog)...not that is a good thing, but there is no magic solution to dealing with ferals. You might want to look into animal handling gloves, raptor gloves, or rose pruning gloves. Always wear a jacket, even in hot weather, in those situations.

As I understand this, Millie is still in the room and Tiny Tuck is safe. She is not interested in him regardless, as she is focused on getting out. It will take a while for her to calm down, but I would try to retrap her in the room. If you let her out, that will probably be the last time you get a chance to do this for a long time.

What sense did you get from her when she was in the trap? Do you think that she is feral or stray or abandoned? Originally, Millie was the one with the eye injury that healed but you had considered not re-releasing her once you got her. This leads me to think that she has potential to calm down once the shock is over and that she might respond. You may have to start to feed her in the trap again, or possibly can use a cat carrier which she can go into to eat and in time you can close the door. Can she live in the cattery for a few days without being trapped and then you can restart the process? I wonder if the rescue would try a drop trap, which is definitely not a one man operation, so it that is the case don't let them just loan one to you and leave you with it.

Is your arm okay? Go to the doctor if you need to and get antibiotics. You only have to say that she is a stray that you encountered.

You did not botch this up. Ferals are a wild card and anything can happen.
 
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ChirpySquirrel

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Thank you for the reply. A little more background- I know Milly is completely feral/non-socialized to humans since I have been feeding and observing her since she was probably a month old and her mom started bring the litter. The mom is also feral. I've been feeding her since she was a kitten and was only maybe 5 months old when she got pregnant. Yes, Milly is the one that had the eye injury. Even though I've known she is completely feral, yes, I made the decision to no release her and try to socialize her in my house. I've always known it would not be easy but I was not prepared for this situation.

She's so agitated that I do not expect to have any chance at feeding her in a carrier and being able to quickly rush in there and close the carrier door before she bolts. Anytime she hears me approach at all, she dives somewhere or climbs something very quickly. I don't have any better ideas than trying to go in with another baited trap and wait it out to see if she will eventually go in again. I fear that could take many days. I've been trying to get someone from the rescue or the volunteer to help determine a plan but they are not responding so obviously they're busy. I just feel like I can't keep waiting around with no plan. Of course, that mentality is what go me into this mess. I am not sure what will happen when I try to go back in the room and I'm really worried she will freak out again and go ballistic. She is a completely different in this situation than outside where she was always so timid and showed zero aggressive behavior. But pushing any creature to this level of stress I'm sure can bring out the most frightful behavior. I think I should have invested in some body armor. I just don't want to make a really bad situation worse by going in there and stressing her even further so I haven't even tried to back in the room.

Tuck is safe in his crate but I also need to be able to go in to feed him and clean his litter box. He's been so good though. Just a model citizen. Basically as calm as can be even with Milly constantly banging around and jumping/climbing everything, including his crate. I have been hoping he would rub off on Milly but no such luck so far. They've observed each other but I'm not sure under these circumstances that they fully recognize one another. They had been pretty consistent playmates outside. Even recently when I think winter conditions seem to put an end to their playfulness, I would see them in the same general vicinity together out in the fields and every once in a while they would share a little time eating under my porch.
 

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Milly is still very active in the cattery? Often, even upset ferals will make a second decision to hide in a corner or to make themselves as unnoticeable as possible. If she resort to that behavior, the hiding, I would go in, try to use a trap to get her accustomed to trusting it again. You may have to disguise it and rig it so it won't close. Start to put food very close to the entrance and cover the wire with cardboard so that she does not feel it under her feet.

I have only had one feral actually come at me unprovoked and he is one of my current outdoor cats....long term, so this is not sudden illness or injury. This morning I was not up for his foolishness and used a pig board as I walked by him. Most ferals want to be as obscure as possible, which is why I think that Milly may go into hiding in the cattery. When you go in to feed Tuck, cover yourself up and don't focus on her if she is hiding, but just go about your business.
 
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Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear- Milly is not inside the cattery. I was not able to get her locked in there and she escaped into the bedroom. So she is loose and running around rampant in the bedroom. She can't escape the bedroom unless I open the bedroom door and she is ready at that moment to bolt out. I am afraid of that for sure and also afraid of setting her off into another frenzy when I go in. She's very agitated and has made it clear she wants no part of me being anywhere near her. She has spent a good deal of time on the roof of the cattery which is pretty high up and doesn't really have a safe way to quickly get down. She has to jump to the windowsill and many times she crashes to the floor when she tries to get down. I have a camera in the room so I've been able to monitor most of her activity. I'm afraid she will injure herself especially if she tries to get down super quick when I enter the room. It seems like she hasn't decided on a hiding place or isn't choosing that option. At some point I guess I'll have no choice but to find out.
 

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Okay. Now I see more of the situation. Since it is less than 24 hours, I would wait to see if she at least stops the frantic behavior. Is there a place she can hide in the bedroom? Usually not a good idea, but it might give her a place to settle and calm herself.

Wait as long as you can, try to enter the room with something to block her exit, protect yourself, including eye covering if you think it is necessary. At some point she has to exhaust herself and she will become hungry so she may eat if you leave some food in the room for her.
 

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Oh dear, sorry to hear about the Milly situation although I think it is good that she is inside. I have seen a scared, frantic cat climb the walls and couldn't believe how high she got before crashing to the floor. It is sad to watch them be so upset when we know we are doing our best to make their lives better.

I have just a few thoughts! Would your vet be willing to give you some gabapentin? I have used it when I needed to get a semi-feral indoor cat (who I couldn't handle) to a vet appointment. You could try putting it in Milly's food and it might calm her down. I had mixed results with it and still had to do a little chasing around the room, but others have reported that gabapentin worked so well they could pick up a cat who usually wouldn't allow it. Might be worth considering?

When my two outdoor cats were first in their safe room, I used a tall baby gate at the door. I then added a VERY tall barrier that I made out of wire shelving units (simple to make, info on the internet) and put that in a semi-circle around the outside of the gate, attached at either end to a door knob or stair railing with bungee cords. This way, I could be inside that tall secure barrier and open the baby gate without worrying that a cat would charge out. It can't hurt to also have something to block the door as you enter. I hated to do it, but I found that if I gave a little "hiss" as I opened the door and opened it very quickly, the cats would back away.

Good luck and please don't feel you are failing at this. As fionasmom said, anything can happen with ferals!
 
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ChirpySquirrel

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I’ve read about gabapentin in other threads and I texted my vet this morning to ask if that would be an option. I haven’t received a reply. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. I am really worried they are just too busy to help me with all the stuff I have going on, much of which is time sensitive. This situation with Milly is quite a setback not to mention I’m really starting to doubt I’ll be able to get the vet services or direct assistance with managing the process of taking in ferals I have been counting on for me to have much of a chance. I feel like things are unraveling right now. :frown: I definitely do appreciate your advice and guidance which is very helpful. I was able to get in the room earlier this evening and set two traps with the help of a friend from work. We went in with double hoodies but did not get attacked thankfully. My main concern is that Milly has had very little food for 3 straight days going on 4. Right now her only food and water is in the traps. Is this the right thing to do? It's so hard knowing she has to be suffering. So far she is showing no signs of interest in the traps and I don't know if starving her will work to make her go in. You would think eventually she will decide she has to eat and drink something but I'm not so sure. She may have decided that she won't go back in a trap no matter what. Should I at least leave water out for her? She's still quite anxious and active and isn't resting much at all....how long can cats go without any meaningful sleep? I'm also running on very little sleep the last few nights but I don't know how I can leave the traps unmonitored all night. Thus, I'm sitting here watching her and typing at almost 3am instead of sleeping. She will actually start meowing a very sad and desperate sounding meow at times. I guess I had always heard that meowing is how cats communicate to their humans :confused2: She is still really restless and moving around from place to place rather often and a bit frantically. Then she will climb back up to the top of the cattery and stay for a little bit. Then back down to the window sill. Then sometimes right back up or sometimes she'll jump down to the floor and pace around for a while from one side of the room to the other. She won't give Tuck any peace and quiet. He mostly just lays in the back corner of his crate. I would have made it more comfy if I would have known he'd be in there quite a while or that he would lay in the corner and not recognize the cat tree with the condo and perch as somewhere he can actually step foot. He was supposed to get surgery tomorrow which is now looking unlikely, and then he was going to go in the cattery. That was the plan before I trapped Milly and managed to goof up and let her loose in the room. I have another cattery which would be for Milly and Lippy but I never got a chance to assemble it with all the other cat situations and everything I've been dealing with. It's all in pieces in the room and I'm not about to be in there trying to assembly the darn thing with Milly on the loose.
 

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Tuck can't be taken in because of Milly in the room or did something else fall out of place? Is the vet or rescue not following through on the original plans?

As for gabapentin, vets will usually not prescribe it for a cat who is outside and could pass out or get loopy anyplace and be in danger, but Milly is confined so it should not be a problem. Cats can respond in varying degrees to it, but it is certainly worth trying for.

You might want to consider putting Milly's food near the trap, but not in it. That will not help you to trap her any more quickly, but she will possibly eat and if you use the gabapentin, you will need to have food available to her that is not in the trap. She should eat, so if the only food is in the trap right now, I think that it should be moved out temporarily.
 
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Tuck could be taken in but the vet with the rescue I had made arrangements with is not responding to confirm I can bring any kitties in. Can't recall if I mentioned it before, but the same night I trapped Tuck, I trapped another kitty who I've had in the enclosure in my garage for a few days now also with the expectation that I would be able to get him in to her today. He's extremely shy but will now come out of the kitty house if I reach in and start petting and scratching him. Then he perks up and starts purring and seeking attention. Otherwise he just stays put in the back of the kitty house. He really just needs lots of love but I haven't had much time to spend with him. I certainly get how busy the vet is but I can't really keep things going without the vet services. Also having Milly loose in the bedroom makes it more difficult to try and transfer Tuck from his crate back into a carrier. I'm honestly not sure how to go about that (the volunteer that has been helping me told me she'd come and help with the transfer but I'm getting the impression she may not be able to follow though with that. I can't risk another mess up allowing Tuck to escape into the room as well.

Back to Milly-- I would love to try gabapentin but I may have to start calling other vets to see if I can get any help with that. In the meantime, I'm actually working to set up a remote triggered drop trap. I'll have to try and monitor on camera as much as possible, but at least Milly may be willing to go under the trap and get some food. If I don't happen to observe at the moment she goes for the food, at least she would hopefully not fear it the next time and eventually I could catch her that way. That process could still take days or longer but at least she would be able to eat. She has started hiding in the gap between the wall and Tuck's crate at times. She barely fits but she can get back there and the sheet covering the crate hangs down almost to the floor which gives her a bit more cover. I'm also wondering if it could be possible to trap her back there and block off the exits with a crate or trap that she'd have to go in. Or I could try just tossing a heavy blanket over her and hope to be able to wrap her up. This would require some help though which I'm having a hard time finding. That sort of approach could go wrong and I'd end up traumatizing her even more.
 

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I think that all of your ideas are good ones and workable. Not being there, I can't say for sure which one is best, but try to get someone to help you. Throwing a blanket over a cat can work; you normally get one chance and make sure that you are protected before you do this. There are even people who use fishing nets to scoop up the cat and then drop them into a carrier, cutting the net away from the rim as they do. I have never done this, and have never seen it done live, but know people who were the outdoors type who did this. Drop trap is probably the best idea and safest for all of you, but have someone there for the transfer. Try to get these volunteers to see that you are only asking for a few minutes of help, not for them to take the cats. A friend could help you with a drop trap if they know what their part is.
 
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ChirpySquirrel

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Thank you so much fionasmom fionasmom for such quick replies and helpful comments. I just got done setting the drop trap up with a bunch of good food underneath. I feel like it has a better chance of success but now I'm going to feel like I need to be monitoring on the camera 24/7 so as to not miss her if/when she goes for the food. At least I don't have a life anymore lol.
 
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ChirpySquirrel

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Ok, so many small miracles have been taking place along the way but this is a slightly bigger miracle to me- I'm tired but happy to report that I trapped Milly in the drop trap last night. I was also able to arrange with the vet to bring in Tuck and Milly tonight to the rescue. They'll stay there overnight and get their surgeries and hopefully everything else to ensure a clean bill of health on Saturday.

After what happened with my last transfer attempt, I was too nervous to try without someone to help. The kind volunteer that's been helping me with things couldn't come last night but came this morning and we were able to transfer Milly to a regular trap (which went way more easily than I expected) and we got Tuck transferred into a carrier for transport to the vet later tonight. Milly has not been the timid, scared, careful kitty I have observed outside all these months. Under all this stress, she's aggressive, desperate, and will simply not rest. Confinement is not her thing. It's heart breaking to have put her through this and it worries me that she is going to have that much more difficulty adapting. She spent all night trying to break out of the drop trap. Even now, she's fighting in the regular trap. I don't know if there's such thing as an easy or ideal transition for a feral kitty, but this has been pretty rough.

Thank you all for your continued support. Tuck has been so good throughout this ordeal. He is just calm and accepting of the situation. I just hope he won't hold the stress of the Milly situation too long. He was actually doing so well before I brought Milly in that he would sit there and watch me calmly as I changed out his food/water or cleaned his litter box. Now, most noise or me coming in the room causes him to retreat to the corner and try his best to hide and be unnoticed. I feel positive that he will be able to be socialized...I actually wonder if he was with people when he was a kitten but then got tossed out in the fields after he was weaned. A lot of the "cat people" I've talked to around here say it's really common for people to still do that. Somehow there is just this misconception that as long as a kitten has a field, he/she will be just fine. I guess it's just easier to think that way than to actually take the time and effort to care for them and try to make sure they find a good home.
 

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I am so glad to read this! You got a break finally and are probably ready to go to the vet, or already have. Also glad that the vet is stepping up to the plate and helping you in a timely fashion.

It is not just wherever you live....many people believe that a cat can hunt and survive on its own. Around here, the supposition is that they can be ratters. The irony is that while rats can be urban pests there is certainly no guarantee that there are enough of them to support abandoned cats.

My guess is that Tuck will go back to his old self once the stress is over. Ask the vet about meds for Milly to help with the transition. In her case it may be a good thing to be able to help her to calm down. I also forgot to say yesterday that the only Feliway product that has seemingly worked for me is the Optimum diffuser.

Please let us know how this goes.
 
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Now that the high of getting Milly under control has worn off, I'm realizing more and more what I'm up against and it's sending me into a bit of a panic. My guess is if/when I catch Milly's sibling, Lippy and their mom Stormy, I will then have 3 very scared and agitated kitties who will try anything and everything to escape. What I've been calling a "cattery" maybe isn't the right term. They are fairly small vertical enclosures with wire meshing and and a wooden frame. Supposedly they are made for outdoors but I doubt they are design with terrified feral kitties in mind. Here's a link to the exact product: Catery on Amazon

I got them at the recommendation of the volunteer since she had used one with her 3 feral kitties, but she got the kitties at a much earlier age- 3 months I think. So right now I have two of them. I was thinking I probably need a 3rd. I would put Milly and Lippy together in one since they are bonded for sure. I'm not sure if even that matters or is a good plan. Stormy would have one and Tuck would have one. I have very few concerns about Tuck at this point. The other 3 have me terrified after observing Milly's behavior. I'm reading articles today about how a determined cat can break out of enclosures in ways that would seem next to impossible. I watched a video of a kitty figure out a latch on a cage that I probably would have a hard time figuring out. If Milly has been any indication, they will be scratching and clawing, banging around, ramming and slamming themselves into every inch of the enclosure to try to get out. These catteries have latches that don't exactly seem all that difficult to unlatch. The wire meshing is really not all that robust and with the strength of these kitties (which I believe I have highly underestimated), I'm wondering if they will be able to eventually tear through the fairly thin wire with their claws. I mean these things are Chinese made and the structure is not particularly strong. What I had not really considered previously until seeing Milly struggle so mightily in the bedroom, the drop trap and the regular trap was just how determined and willing to do whatever it takes at any cost to get free. My anxiety levels are skyrocketing that they will be able to escape their cattery and I will be dealing with more wild animals on the loose tearing the bedroom to pieces jumping and climbing everything trying to find any possible way out. I mean, Milly was flinging herself at the 2nd story window, climbing walls, tearing up carpet and walls, etc. I'm asking myself what exactly am I doing here? Am I paranoid or are these legitimate concerns? Will they calm down after a while? Even with almost no food or sleep for days, Milly was still struggling mightily and working around the clock to try to figure a way out.
 

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Those are very nice cateries. I am not going to say that your concerns are not valid. TBH, years ago I rescued and fixed a feral litter. Completely feral mom who lived outside, fixed, for the next 10 years with no potential for any human interaction. One kitten became a complete house cat, two of them became indoor pets who were happy to be inside but were not overly involved with anyone, and the other two, almost immediately after being spayed, escaped from my bathroom. There is a screened floor to ceiling window on which I had opened the top for air. They figured out that if they climbed up the screen (which is on the inside due to some weird code when the house was built) that they could escape. So they evidently scaled up about 5 feet and left. Possibly one one actually did the thinking and implementation of the plan and the other one just followed, but they did get out.

Can you secure the lock in any way? There is cat proof screening, but it would be a huge job, if at all possible, to rescreen the cateries. Would the vet give you gabapentin for them?

What has happened since yesterday? Did they go to the vet?
 
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ChirpySquirrel

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It's been hard to find any time to post updates and things are all very chaotic right now. I got Tuck and Milly to the vet and got them back home last night. Tuck is a girl and was pregnant. Her surgery went well and she is doing fine. She just sits still in one spot mostly. Milly is a boy and his surgery also went well. But he will not sit still for more than a few minutes and is constantly trying every possible way to break out of his crate. I put Tuck in the cattery and Milly in the large dog crate because I felt like the dog crate was more secure and it's less likely that he can break out. He has completely destroyed everything in there and scattered litter far and wide. I'm not even sure he knows what the litter box is there for and I'm really having doubts whether he will use it to do his business. I have no clue how I'm going to even attempt to clean up in there or keep things sanitary. He keeps dumping his water bowl and getting litter in his food. The crate isn't really large enough to give adequate separation from the litter box and food/water dishes. I have not even tried to open the crate so I'm basically just trying to fold up and shove paper plates with food on them in through the crate wiring. He growls and takes an aggressive position whenever I lift up the sheet covering his crate.

Meanwhile, I still have the nice kitty in my garage (now named Marshmallow). I took him to the vet with Tuck and Milly and it turns out he was already neutered and has a microchip. The phone number unfortunately is no longer in service so all I have is a name and an address which happens to be in a trailer park several miles away and on the other side of the freeway. Not encouraging. Trying to find time to do some detective work is proving very difficult.

Also, very critical at this point is to keep trapping. So many balls in the air already but I have been observing the mom (Stormy) lately looking rather big and that has me terrified that she will have kittens in the tree pile any day now. I've never seen Stormy go in a trap or even approach a trap so I can only hope it will be possible to get her. To make matters a lot worse, it has turned brutally cold again with more snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Single digit low temps in the nights to follow. It makes it miserable to trap, trying to keep the bait from freezing, etc. and causes me to worry incessantly about them going hungry in freezing conditions. I certainly want to get Lippy trapped asap as well if nothing else than to see if reuniting her with Milly will be a positive for their adjustment.

Please, any pointers, advice, knowledge, etc. anyone can provide- especially regarding cleaning Milly's crate, keeping Milly under control, litter box and food/water solutions would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 

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New poster here, and enjoying your thread:):hellocat:
Isn't that something about the genders :DRegarding Milly (poor guy), wouldn't the vet give you the gabapentin to calm him down? Obviously he will chill out in time on his own, but I know he needs to settle now.
Regarding Stormy, will the crew let you put a trap near the woodpile?
On Marshmallow, his previous family must have given up hope, so they might be overjoyed to get him back.. but then again maybe not?
But since he's not much trouble right now, can you keep him in place until you address more urgent things, then get back to him.. then if you have time to Google one of those reports on people that cost a few dollars (less than 5), you might be able to get a current phone number. I think one of the sites is called Spokeo, but they pop right up when you search. And maybe you'll also have time later to check on Next Door, Facebook, etc. to see if anyone's looking for him. Or even ride by their address and leave a note if you can find them or there's a front office of some kind..
You are doing amazing, keep up the awesome work and bless you :heartshape:
 

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I have seen sheets covering crates become an instant calmer for cats, including ferals, but clearly not for Milly. As you know, the hormones take up to 30 days to be eliminated from the system, but that sounds like an eternity for this behavior. Was the vet agreeable to any medication in the meantime? I agree that something is needed as he does not appear to even wear himself out. I know how stressful this is and how much you feel that your hands are tied.

It is great news that you were able to get Tuck fixed and that there will not be kittens. Major accomplishment. As for Marshmallow, that is an unfolding story ranging from the family really does want her back to they absolutely don't and maybe even abandoned her. Unless they have absolutely no phone service of any kind, it is not hard to update microchip information and is something that they should have thought of as her owners.

Keep trying to do whatever is possible. You have been amazingly successful so far. If you can get Libby, that might be the key to Milly calming down. I did see this once with a couple of feral siblings.
 
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Milly did rest for a while during the day but is currently back at it with his restlessness, climbing up every side of the crate and banging around and kind of going bananas again. He's covered in caked on litter and probably whatever might he may have deposited in there not to mention food. I wonder if I actually contributed to his restlessness tonight. You see, today has been quite miraculous as far as trapping goes. I can hardly believe how incredibly well it went. First I trapped Lippy. I was elated. He basically went right in and sprung the trap without much hesitation at all. I brought him in the garage and set another trap out as quickly as I could. Not long after, I had another kitty trapped. This one has been coming around for a little while but only recently has been coming by most days. He's also socialized to a certain degree. So he went in a small crate in the garage and I hurried as fast as I could to rebait the trap and put it back out. On my way out, a dark little blob scampered off from under my porch and into the field. I suspected it was Stormy, the pregnant mom that looks like she could give birth any day now. I thought what bad timing...if I had been slightly faster I could have had the trap out when she came. But I set the trap under my porch and went back inside. Ten minutes later, Stormy was back under the porch. She was very cautious and moved in slow motion while checking things out. But then, she caught a whiff of the food in the trap and decided to venture in partially. It seemed like an eternity, and I fully expected her to back out at any moment, but she eventually went all the way in. Still, the trap did not trigger. She kept eating for a while and still nothing. I couldn't believe it....was the trap stuck? How could I get so close only to have the trap malfunction. But after a few agonizing moments, suddenly the trap door dropped shut! It was done! After all this time, I had the whole tree pile family. What a realization.

I got in touch with the vet and was able to meet her at the rescue at 9:15pm. I took the 3 kitties in and the vet did her best to estimate how much time before Stormy would give birth. We made the decision to get the surgery done tomorrow morning. Lippy will stay at the rescue until she can do her surgery on Thursday. The other kitty turned out to actually already have a tipped ear and was neutered. I came home with Stormy and that other kitty, which I then released. I decided to put Stormy up in the room with Milly and Tuck instead of the bathroom where I've normally kept kitties overnight in their trap to wait for surgery. Now, that's where I'm wondering if I made a mistake. It seems that ever since I put Stormy in the room, Milly has been super restless and agitated again, trying to tear and claw and climb and bang around on anything and everything within reach. Is it possible that Stormy's presence there next to Milly has set him off again? I had thought perhaps it would actually have the opposite affect. Not so much.

I can ask again tomorrow about the gabapentin. I had hoped we had finally gotten to the point where Milly was going to stay calm. Sadly, it seems we far from out of the woods. I'm also struggling to figure out how accommodations. I have another crate and another cattery. I still don't think I trust the cattery for any kitty that is as intent on escaping as Milly which means I don't really feel like I can risk putting Stormy or Lippy in there. Rescreening would certainly help but I feel like I would need to reinforce the wooden frame as well. I will have to pick up Stormy tomorrow afternoon/evening after her surgery so I need to figure things out quickly. I suppose I can look at it like this- I'd rather have this dilemma than to still be constantly worrying about how in the world I was ever going to be able get them out of the tree pile.
 
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