Hey guys! You have probably seen me posting a lot in the pregnant cat and kitten care thread! Our rescue is currently "closed for intake" due to the amount of sick cats and severe medical issues that we have taken in this summer it has completely drained our supplies and veterinary fund. During this "closed" time we are focusing on our feral colonies. We have a couple small colonies that we have been TNRing.
These two beat up toms we just caught recently and got neutered. We were contacted about a few barn cats that someone inherited when they bought a ranch and moved into it. They said there was only a momma cat, two kittens, and a black and white tom cat. Unfortunately one of the kittens got hit by a car, the other we caught and were able to socialize and adopted. These two toms we had never seen before we trapped them- go figure! So we still have at least one more tom cat and a momma. I imagine there probably are more unseen ferals though.
We recently were notified about a colony living in a park near us... We are not so creatively calling them our Park Colony. We went out to evaluate last weekend. When we first pulled up we immediately saw a mom and 4 6 week old kittens. They ran away the second we looked at them. Then we opened a few cans of food and about 5 more adults showed up and an older kitten (6ish months). The older kitten was injured, the first day I saw him he was limping on his back leg. We went back the next day to leave a letter for whoever is caring for them (to get more information as well as to coordinate helping them). The injured kitten that day was just dragging it's leg I think it is just getting worse- who knows how long it has been like this and what happened. I feel like at this point they will probably have to amputate it. I am hoping we can catch him/her soon. My priority now is catching him and catching the young kittens asap. We are going back out tomorrow evening. I am thinking the 6 week old kittens we can probably lure into a carrier, I was planning on stopping and getting some KFC to lure them in lol. The injured one I am not sure HOW we are going to get him. He wont come within 30 feet of us without running. I think if we try trapping him we are going to catch one of the other curious ones and I don't want to do that until I get a plan of action set for spaying and neutering them. The current caretaker has gotten back to me. It sounds like he is an older gentleman who is coming to the end of his caretaking of them. He has been feeding them for 15 years and now is having health problems preventing him from caring for them like he wishes. He said there are 14 cats (I am not sure if he is including the 4 6 week old kittens) he said 6 of them are spayed/neutered. At one point he had it down to just one unspayed female. Now here we are again.
Any tips for catching this injured guy? I really want to catch him and the kittens and then I plan on planning a day to trap and take the adults to a low cost clinic.
Here are some pictures I have gotten of them with my phone! (I am a big picture person lol)
A bad picture of the mom and babies because they wouldn't let me get very close lol
This is the injured baby under the picnic table.
This *May* be the mom of the kittens... I am not sure. It could be another cat that could be pregnant? She came pretty close to us the second day so I am thinking it isn't the mom because the mom would not get close the first day.
These two beat up toms we just caught recently and got neutered. We were contacted about a few barn cats that someone inherited when they bought a ranch and moved into it. They said there was only a momma cat, two kittens, and a black and white tom cat. Unfortunately one of the kittens got hit by a car, the other we caught and were able to socialize and adopted. These two toms we had never seen before we trapped them- go figure! So we still have at least one more tom cat and a momma. I imagine there probably are more unseen ferals though.
We recently were notified about a colony living in a park near us... We are not so creatively calling them our Park Colony. We went out to evaluate last weekend. When we first pulled up we immediately saw a mom and 4 6 week old kittens. They ran away the second we looked at them. Then we opened a few cans of food and about 5 more adults showed up and an older kitten (6ish months). The older kitten was injured, the first day I saw him he was limping on his back leg. We went back the next day to leave a letter for whoever is caring for them (to get more information as well as to coordinate helping them). The injured kitten that day was just dragging it's leg I think it is just getting worse- who knows how long it has been like this and what happened. I feel like at this point they will probably have to amputate it. I am hoping we can catch him/her soon. My priority now is catching him and catching the young kittens asap. We are going back out tomorrow evening. I am thinking the 6 week old kittens we can probably lure into a carrier, I was planning on stopping and getting some KFC to lure them in lol. The injured one I am not sure HOW we are going to get him. He wont come within 30 feet of us without running. I think if we try trapping him we are going to catch one of the other curious ones and I don't want to do that until I get a plan of action set for spaying and neutering them. The current caretaker has gotten back to me. It sounds like he is an older gentleman who is coming to the end of his caretaking of them. He has been feeding them for 15 years and now is having health problems preventing him from caring for them like he wishes. He said there are 14 cats (I am not sure if he is including the 4 6 week old kittens) he said 6 of them are spayed/neutered. At one point he had it down to just one unspayed female. Now here we are again.
Any tips for catching this injured guy? I really want to catch him and the kittens and then I plan on planning a day to trap and take the adults to a low cost clinic.
Here are some pictures I have gotten of them with my phone! (I am a big picture person lol)
A bad picture of the mom and babies because they wouldn't let me get very close lol
This is the injured baby under the picnic table.
This *May* be the mom of the kittens... I am not sure. It could be another cat that could be pregnant? She came pretty close to us the second day so I am thinking it isn't the mom because the mom would not get close the first day.