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.

New Kid on the Block at the Bakery

2 weeks ago at the bakery...

I thought I saw a pussy cat!

Today I confirmed it, we have a new resident.

Pics and video are not great today, I forgot my camera so these are compliments of the blackberry.

Both times I found this cat lounging in one of the bakery shelters. Glad they are making good use of them. The warehouse has heat, and these are probably quite cozy!

Glad to know someone is using them!

Time to find some traps...

As I was tidying up, the warehouse door opened and Shannon and Juliet came in. Here is some video of Juliet (Shannon hid before I could click start). She is so cute, and nosey! She is always watching me clean up and put food down, but stays far enough away to feel safe.

I am always so happy to see them and know they are well!!!

A Peaceful Ending for a street cat on 9th Street

"My Little Girl" is the cat that roamed the block around my old apartment in LIC.

She was named "My Little Girl" by her caretaker and I call her "Little Girl" for short.

She would walk me around the corner to my stoop when I came home at night.

She would not come in the door, but she would sit and watch me until I went in the building and wait until I closed the door behind me. She loved being petted and the special snacks I gave her. Everyone in the neighborhood knew her.

Mildred, her caretaker, had Little Girl spayed 8 years ago and has fed her on 10th street every day since. Mildred wanted her to live in her basement, but Little Girl wanted to live outside.

A few months ago, Mildred took her in because she didn't think Little Girl would make it through another winter. She had lost a lot of weight and Mildred did not want her to live her last days alone in the cold. This time Little Girl had no complaints, she moved in to the garage and Mildred showered her with love and kisses.

This morning, My Little Girl passed away safe and warm in Mildred's garage.

Rest in Peace My Little Girl

Room at the Inn

The last tasks to knock of the to do list were to build shelters and clean the traps

Here is one of the two shelters we built.

Shelters, traps, drop trap
Only one lot of the three allowed us to put out shelters for the cats.
There was a large metal container in the back of the parking lot and they told us we could put 2 shelters behind it.

It was perfect!

You could hardly notice they were there.

Shawn passed by the lot the other day and walked in to check on the shelters. As she picked up the board on top, a gray cat bolted out! They are being put to good use!

Good luck to all the Greasy Paws!

All the cats are doing it...

Ear Tips!

Here are all 12 cats showing their trendy new ear tips!

First I would like to introduce you to The Grays.

The Grays are 3 gray tabbies that are always together. 2 small ones, Winch and Hitch, and one larger one, Torque. They are always in the same place and eat together, so we decided to keep them together at the recovery space. I like to think it is a mama and her 2 little girls.

Here is Mama Gray, Torque.

She's a beauty!

Baby Gray, Hitch!

Baby Gray, Winch!

This was the last cat in a trap.

Very skittish, and very cute!

Look at mama, Torque, watching over her in the trap to the right.

Handsome Mr. Turbo
Dapper Mr. Hood
Hexbit
Hemi, the big guy.

Hemi is the cat that has the hematoma on his right ear.

Ear looks better and he is one tough cookie!

Don't let that timid look fool you, he was hissing and striking as soon as we lifted up the cover to clean his trap! He is assumed by the car lot owner to be the grandpa of all the cats.

Grommet

Bolt

This guy has the bite marks/abcesses on his back.

They have been healing very well and he is doing great!

Weetle Beetle!

Beetle is such a cutie.

He is acting tough here! All 4 to 5 pounds of him!

And this is Beetle's little curly bobbed tail!

Axle

Another big guy!

He LOVES to eat!

Handsome devil!

Monday night we released the males and tonight, Wednesday, we released the females.
Here are the males lined up Monday night ready to be released.

Video of the release.
The first 40 seconds is uneventful, but then you can see them dash out one by one.

And here are the empty traps!

All the Greasy Paws cats have been returned!

By the way, tonight when we arrived to release the rest of the cats/the females, guess who was sitting at the fence eating dinner...MUFFLER!

The cat we did not see ONCE during the trapping dates.

Someone decided to take her/him in so we would not get her/him!

And that little stinker sat and watched us from the time we showed up tonight until the time we left!

STINKER!

So, about that other cat from Greenpoint...

This is Kermit

Turns out he was already neutered and had been picked up by someone in the neighborhood but put back in the lot when they found out he was FIV positive.

This cat is absolutely adorable and just begs for love.

He has ringworm now, but is being treated and will be ready for adoption very soon.

Here he charmed Shawn in to holding him!

Shawn said Ringworm, Shringworm and picked him right up for a snuggle!

He was sooo happy!

He is being fostered by the wonderful Alen! They named him Kermit because under a blacklight ringworm shows up bright green!

Here is Kermit getting his first Sulfur-Lime Dip!

He was sooo well behaved! What a great cat!

We wish the best for this little guy!

He is absolutely wonderful and sugar sweet!

He fully deserves to be someone's baby!