3 colonies in LIC

First stop, the Bakery.

Well look who it is, Mama.

Let's get a close up of that crabby face.

When I see her I can't help but hum this tune

"Bad, bad, Mama cat, baddest cat in the whole damn town".

And now that I think about it, I probably could have named this guy Leroy Brown because after trying to bust out of a trap with his face "this guy looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone..."

He is not the black and white I had seen a few weeks ago, but he was there and did not have an ear tip, so he got trapped! My neighbor took a look at him and said he has come to her porch to eat, this is a couple of blocks away so he is roaming the neighborhood.

Over to the Greasy Paws lot.

Hemi, King of the concrete jungle!

Peek-a-boo, I see Hitchy poo!

She sat under the car watching me dish out the food waiting for me to serve her.

One more stop.

Another colony in LIC.

A friend asked me to pop by and check in on these guys.

At the first feeding station, I saw that one kitten my friend needs to catch.

So I set up the trap and went over to feed at the main feeding station, when I returned this is what I saw! Wow, they came out of nowhere just for 1 can of Friskies!

Instead of catching the kitten, that fat ass tom you see making his way to the front of the trap got trapped. I had to let him go, I'll be back when I am not lugging a trap on my bike!

Meanwhile over at the main feeding station,

Where's Waldo?

Can you find the cat supervising me?

2 cats in this photo

Snow Day

I stopped by the lot this morning to see how it looked after the big snow.

I see they were out and about.
This is the lot with the shelters.
The snow plow did not do them any favors...
Plywood saves the day!
We used it to keep the entrances and the area between the two shelters clear.

It looked like they had a little space, so I cleared a little more out of the way.

No-one was there, but I think we can thank the plow for that.

This is the area between the 2 shelters, the doors face each other here and the plywood stretches across the tops to keep the area clear.

Nice and clear under here, pretty amazing.

Lisa stocked them up with food the night before!

FOLDING TRAP PT 2 - WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

This trap IS the greatest thing since cat nip!

Thank you Tru-Catch for sending these along, they are well made, sturdy and they work!

And in this corner...

2 posts ago I posted a video of a folding trap from Humane Way and found it to be poorly constructed, difficult to assemble and fold, and the trap door was catching and a couple of times it did not close properly.

Meet the Tru-Catch 30 ltf Trap!

It folds!

Tru-Catch saw the video of the other folding trap and contacted me to have me try out their traps! Nicely done Tru-Catch! They sent 2 traps and I LOVE them!

(I sent the post to Humane Way to let them know I was having trouble with their product and they have not contacted me at all.)

As you can see it folds up to the height of a sneaker.

Video of assembly.

TRUCATCH wins this one paws down!

In comparison:

Both traps fold down to a nice, compact size.

Tru-Catch: Handle for use when folded and set up, set up and fold down is easy, trap is well made and designed and is sturdy, trip plate takes less pressure/weight to trigger door, trap door is reliable, customer service I have experienced so far seems top notch.

Humane Way: Handle only available when set up, set up and fold down is difficult as the fit is too tight, trap seems poorly made and flimsy, trip plate takes more pressure/weight to trigger door, trap door is unreliable as a couple of times it did not lock when I was testing it, can't rate customer service as they have not responded to my email, however that tells me something about it now doesn't it.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO TRUCATCH!

http://www.trucatchtraps.com

They are also on facebook!

Checking in on the Greasy Paws

I was at the bakery setting up some traps, but the new guy was not around today, so I left food in the traps and secured the doors (with zip ties AND padlocks) so they remain open and the cats can go in and out to eat. Plan is that when I go back I can set the traps and hopefully the new guy, thinking this is a nice, safe, new feeding area, will walk right in and I get him/her. Well, in theory it works, we will see. So I passed by the greasy paws lot while I had my handy zip car and a few extra minutes.

Love that M-F feeder!

They were all lined up for the grub and hanging out. Was nice to see them all out with plenty of food for everyone!

The cats I saw were Hood, Hitch, Muffler, Hemi, Hexbit, Winch, Torque, Beetle and Grommet.

Muffler and Hitch took a couple of breaks to play tag with the birds (no birds were hurt and kept coming back for more). But otherwise no-one even looked up!

A folding trap Part 1 - Do not buy this one

A FOLDING TRAP

SOUNDS LIKE THE GREATEST THING SINCE CAT NIP, BUT...

I just received this new trap in the mail. Yes, I caved and bought one. I was very excited about getting a trap that folded and could be packed away in a NYC apartment and easily transported and set up as well. Well, it does fold, that is nice, but assembly is a little tough. The trap door side was either not well made or messed up during shipping. It is too tight, is tough to assemble and the door sometimes gets stuck on the way down, not good if a cat does not get trapped in the trap! It is tough to get this door to fold down because it is too tight and there is nothing to grab on to so be careful with finger placement as my finger nail got ripped (ouch). It is also difficult to set up that side because it is too tight, I use my foot to hold the trap and pull! I will work on it and use a pliers on the clip while trapping to try to create more space for the door to fall. A couple of times the door did not fall hard enough to lock, so that would also allow the cat to walk right out :( The other side of the trap works just fine and is easy to assemble and fold.

I will let you know how/if it works. If anyone has used one of these please let me know your experience. I am going to send the vid to the manufacturers to see what they say. Unfortunately, I need it and don't have the time (or the patience) to send it back and ask for a new one. I also don't want to deal with the hassle of packing up this baby and sending it back then wait around for a new one. Ugh! Disappointing!

As you can see, it folds very compact - PLUS!

Only as high as Miss Tigra's cheese wheel toy.

(Yes she is still playing with it now, she can't help herself)

Here are the details. I will let you know what the manufacturer says, so far they were a pleasure to deal with, however I have not yet told them about the trouble I am having with the door.
This will fit nicely in many hiding spaces in a NYC apartment!
Special thanks to Miss Tigra for the modeling!

Here is a video showing folding, assembly and use.