It's Hitch!

I released Hitch on August 17th. She ran to the back and is hiding to the right of the ladder keeping an eye on me. I have not seen her since, until today! The bakery manager assured me she has been seen on their other facility, but until today I had not seen her. And now he says he sees her in both places, but she runs like hell when she sees him!

I was refilling the feeders and waterers, and I heard a cat cry out to me. So I walked over and it was her!

I talked and blinked and she started to make her way down. I put down some food by her too.

 Here she is making her way down!

Bon Appetit!

And there she is ladies and gentlemen! Without a doubt, a face you can not resist! HITCH!

Trapped

While Hitch, now to be given the LOST name "Rousseau" as she is living at the Bakery, was working on her relocation...

We began trapping.

We were able to trap 3 of the 4 we were planning to relocate. Sadly we had to leave 2 behind.

Bolt

Piston

and

Grommet

We had initially thought there were only 4 left, until we saw this one coming around toward the end of recon and during trapping. Brown tabby, broken tail and has an ear tip. We are wondering if this is "Hexbit", whom we have not seen in quite some time. 

Bolt and Piston have been the best of friends on that lot. So it was very hard for me to separate them. But Bolt is going to a home, and I wouldn't take that away from anyone. I hope Piston and Grommet will make friends with the resident cats at the Bakery.

Here is their final time together before Bolt's dad, a feeder that spent a lot of time with him, came to pick him up

And here is Bolt's new dad!

Bolt was a little concerned, but we hear he is making great progress and even comes out for pets:)

Huge thanks to you and your mom for taking care of this group for so long and for taking a chance on a street cat like Bolt. 

Here he is in his new home! 

And his new name is Lucky! 

Can you think of a more appropriate name?

Off to the Bakery we go! Here is Piston's set up. Note, all the cats at the Bakery are named for LOST characters, so Piston's new name will be "Desmond". 

It was, of course, a lot for him to take in at first, but as all of us involved in rescue know...as long as there is a litter box to hide in, everything will be OK! So he took to the litter box, then realized he had his own carrier in there to hide in. It took a couple of days for him to get comfortable eating and using the box, but he's living in his relocation crate now like a champ! This guy can eat!

And after some medication for her cold, Grommet made her way there too. Due to needing some meds, she is a week behind Desmond (aka Piston). Grommet will now be called "Penny" from LOST.

She was pretty scared at first, but now she's eating and using her litter box too! 

Darn it she's cute! 

And so petite!

And as I finished setting up Penny (aka Grommet), look who I found up on top of a stack of boxes pretending to sleep, but watching us to see what we were up to...Sun! Or as many of you know her, MAMA!

Take good care of these guys Mama, they need a friend over there.

More to come...stay tuned!

Pre-trapping

After  picking up some supplies, and Mr. Eko's quality control check, it was time to prep the traps for the Greasy Paws lot

I needed to elevate them and wrap them in plastic in case of bad weather. I also locked the doors open so no-one could trap in our absence. We locked them to the fence inside the lot so no-one would steal the traps and so we could feed in them for a few days to get the cats used to walking in and out of them. One trap I elevated with pvc pipe, the other with 2x4s. I used padlocks, bike locks and chain and lock combos.

I made a sign to explain what we were doing and to encourage feeders to help us to be successful by not feeding. Some helped, some completely ignored our plea for collaboration.

Food and water were placed in the traps and Lisa and I shared shifts to refill the food daily as well as pull food left by uncooperative feeders. Yes, at least one feeder continued to feed throughout the whole project. If you are reading this, you were successful in keeping at least one of the cats from being removed from a hostile situation and moved into a colony with his litter mates and friends where they are wanted, congratulations. 

Relocating Hitch

Hitchy-poo is doing well so far. She didn't hide in her carrier today, but hung out in her shelf while I cleaned her litter box, refilled her food and water and put out some wet food. She is still a little nervous, but seems much happier here than in my kitchen. She'll be released in the warehouse soon. She just has to be isolated for a bit to get used to her new surroundings. Hitch is now in a warehouse with heat in the winter and AC in the summer. She's got it made in the shade. 

Here is her set up, plenty of room, plenty of food and water, covered for privacy and calm, a shelf to hang out in:) She's doing great. 

If you want to know more about relocation protocol, please click on this link to Neighborhood Cats.

What is happening at Greasy Paws?

This one we call Muffler

Greasy Paws is an un-managed feral cat colony in Long Island City. In 2009, Lisa and Shawn, of North Brooklyn Cats, were asked by someone to TNR some cats in some parking lots in Long Island City. They told me, Big City Little Kitty, and I asked if I could help out. So we started with some recon to find out how many cats were on the site, you can read about it here. 
As we finished up recon, we had a handle on how many cats were at the location and were able, with pictures, to differentiate between them for a full count, 13, and we introduced them with a Proper Introduction. Our fist night trapping, we caught a Lucky 7...in the rain! Over the next few nights, we trapped all but Muffler. Over the years we tried to trap her but were never successful. In December of 2009, we took the cats for A Day at the A, or spay/neuter at the ASPCA. They were spayed/neutered, vaccinated for rabies, received FVCPR vaccinations, received revolution for parasites and were eartipped to show they have been spayed/neutered. This was paid for our of our own pockets. As they recovered, we built some winter shelters to keep them warm. Only 1 of the 3 lots allowed us to put the shelters out for them. We then released them back to their home, the lots. We checked in to confirm there were feeders feeding them and that everyone was doing well after surgery. In January and February of 2010, everyone was doing well.

A trap (not ours) at the lot

In June of 2012, North Brooklyn Cats got a call from one of the feeders in the neighborhood that an exterminator had been hired to trap the cats. When exterminators trap cats in NYC, it is the law that they take them the NYCACC where they alert Neighborhood Cats if they are ear tipped, but if not ear tipped they are killed very quickly because they are feral and not adoptable. For ear tipped cats, Neighborhood Cats will reach out if the colony is registered to find the caretaker to bring them back to their colony. However, this is an un-managed colony and the lot owners were the ones who had them trapped, so relocation would be the only option and that is very rarely an option. When I went by on a Saturday, I saw this trap, baited and set, that had been left unattended, overnight IN A THUNDERSTORM, and was now in a puddle. This is unacceptable and inhumane. We NEVER leave a trap unattended. When cats are trapped, they are frightened and try to get out of the trap banging into the sides. So as soon as a trap snaps, we rush quickly to cover them with a sheet to calm them down, and then they are safe. Imagine if these cats were caught in this trap AND sat in them during intense thunderstorms! Terrible!

I went to speak with the people at the lot where the traps were. I was not welcome, but after some discussion they were open to having a conversation. They told me "I was welcome to take the cats" which I explained was not an option (and I'm pretty sure they already knew that;) because they were feral and there's no where for me to put them. Lois, of Neighborhood Cats, joined me and we learned that the main issues with the cats were overfeeding by feeders which left a lot of mess on their property and cats pooping on the lot where people walked. So, I told them I can't help with the feeders other than talking to them, but I can put out some litter boxes. The other lot owner just repeats to me "the cats have to go". I have explained to him repeatedly "I did not put the cats here, I don't feed here, I don't work here and I don't own the lot. So I am not responsible for these cats, however it was me and my friends that spayed and neutered them so they would not keep having kittens, so we were the ONLY ones to do anything about it and I'm doing what I can to help, but I won't do anything I feel will put the cats in any danger or harm them". He just gets more frustrated, but is cordial to me and says "The cats have to go". As of 7/27 the litter boxes are being used. The problem is, one of the lot owners was trapping and word on the street is he has trapped about 4 cats and has driven 10+ miles out and dumped them at some park so they can't find their way home. This was devastating to hear. Not only is it ILLEGAL, it is also disrespectful to dump cats to become someone else's responsibility (somethings that has been done to this lot owner on his lot) and IT PUTS THE CATS IN DANGER. These cats eat food provided to them. They don't hunt for it and they won't 'know where to find shelter and who knows what kind of trouble they may end up in. You can't just dump cats!  Luckily this person agreed to stop trapping and give the litter boxes a try.

Some other unfortunate events, the lots' owners/leasers and the feeders are having confrontations and things are just getting out of control. Some confusion about the law has popped up, here's the upshot of how it works. It is illegal to withhold food from animals, and its legal to feed on public property, such as the sidewalk area outside the lot; however, if food and garbage (cans,plates,bowls,food) are left behind, it can be considered a public health problem and this will trump the feeding law. So to do it properly, if a property owner refuses to feed and will not allow you to feed on their property, you can feed just off their property on public property, but YOU MUST REMOVE ANYTHING UNEATEN BEFORE YOU LEAVE! You must not leave anything behind. Feeders have been going on their property and putting out food on the lot leaving plates and bowls behind and shoving food and things under the wall of their shed creating a terrible mess and a lot of frustration. So the shed was cleaned and sealed so no cats or feeders could get in and the litter boxes were put out. We spoke with feeders we met to explain they can't leave litter out, some have really done a great job, others have not changed and continue to leave things behind. We had hoped that with these changes would mean less frustration for the lots and less trouble for the cats. 

What has changed everything is that one of the cats is suffering due to the reduced feeding and shelter close. We call her Hitch you can see how her sides go in under her ribs. I found that she was now skin and bones and I couldn't take it. I reached out to the manager of a warehouse where I manage a colony and asked if I can relocate a cat there. He said I could bring 4! They need more cats to manage the rodent population across the street from where I manage the colony in their warehouse! Woohoo! Now, please note, relocation is not always successful and has no guarantee, but if these cats do well, they will have a safe home where they have steady work, plenty of food and shelter to keep them safe. And a feeder is planning to take 1 as well so that's 5 of the 5 or 6 that are remaining on the lot. North Brooklyn Cats was trapping last Sunday trying to catch the cat that's friendly to one of the feeders. He is going to relocate this cat to his back yard. They didn't catch him, but they did catch Hitch.  So Hitch is in my kitchen in a crate awaiting relocation to the warehouse tomorrow, 7/29. She is not happy in my kitchen, but she will have a great new home soon. Stay tuned for more information! I will have another update done by the end of the weekend for what we are doing in the lot to prepare the cats for trapping.
I want people that don't know us to understand this is not our job. We don't get paid for this. This is not what we want to do. I will be financially responsible for 4 new cats for their lifetime, that adds up. We all work full time and have our other responsibilities, hobbies and obligations. So this going to take a lot of our time, money and effort to make this happen and then to manage and care for them for the rest of their lives. We could really use some help, so if you can make a donation (on the right side of this blog) please do. You can reach out to us at greasypawsLIC@yahoo.com for questions or information. If you are familiar with this colony, please read the signs and help us succeed in giving these cats a happy ending.