A Day at the A

Today was spay/neuter day at the ASPCA.

We brought 12 cats and left with 12 cats now spayed/neutered, ear tipped, vaccinated and already on the road to recovery!

As you know, we had some luck on Wednesday night in the rain trapping 7 of our 12 cats.
Thursday was not so lucky. We trapped ZERO!
I built a drop trap to catch those that would not go in the traps.
Friday we got 2, Hemi and Beetle for a total of 9.
Shawn labeled Beetle's trap
while Lisa, seeing Hemi had a little cold, set him up with a heat lamp.



So then it was Saturday, our last shot.
We started early at 11 am. We caught Bolt, one we have only seen once, and found he has what we think are bite marks turned to abcesses on his back. Lisa is keeping a close eye on him and he seems to be doing ok.
We had not seen any sign of Muffler, the long haired gray cat. We assume this cat belongs to someone and is being kept inside while we trap.

We will go back for Muffler at a later date.
Knowing getting Muffler was not an option, we just had one left.

We stayed until about 3 pm and decided to take a break and try again at 10 pm for that last kitten, Winch. The other night, Winch played in the trap and ate all the bait without triggering the spring door and just walked right out several times. GRRR!
So here is the rainy start to our last chance of getting that last kitten.
After catching (and releasing) a couple of possums (or the same one several times), we heard a trap snap again and thought, damn those possums! Turns out it was Winch! The last one was finally caught!
We had room for one more in the truck so we went to another lot Lisa and Shawn are familiar with and a friendly walked right up to us begging for attention. Our 12th trap was filled! More on him later...
So then it was time to set them up at the recovery space and get home for a couple hours of sleep before transporting them all to the ASPCA.
We were happy to hear they were all healthy enough for surgery and all came through just fine.
Pics of all with their new stylish ear tips to come!

Lucky 7

Tonight was trapping night 1 of 3.

It was cold and rainy, but we still headed out with high hopes.

Within an hour and a half we had 7 cats in traps!

After that, we did not see anymore cats, they were hunkered down for the night staying warm and dry somewhere. We didn't catch any more cats, but we did catch (and release) 2 possums!

Last night we put up fliers alerting the neighborhood that we would be performing TNR and asking the community's cat feeders not to feed for the week.

A special thanks to my boss, Michele Rodriguez, and her father, Rene, for translating our flier in to Spanish!

Here are some pics of a few of the cats we trapped tonight.

Hexbit

Grommet

Axle

and my little friend, Hitch

Weather looks better for tomorrow night.

Paws crossed to get the rest...

Van Day

Today was the day for the kittens to be spayed and neutered! All seemed to be 2 pounds and ready to go, so I packed them in a carrier like sardines and away we went!

Well kindof...Mama was not happy about her kittens being locked up in a carrier. She went from front to back and side to side trying to figure out how to get them out. Then she came over to me and started lunging at me, hissing and swatting!

Luckily, everything went great, thank you ASPCA! All 4 kittens were accepted and successfully spayed and neutered. They were eager to get home and I was eager to get them back to mama! When I walked in she heard them crying and came running over. This is what she had to say...

Yikes! She is a fierce mama! She was sooooo mad at me! I quickly put the kittens in their crate with some food and she immediately turned her attention to them. I am pretty sure she did a head count before letting me escape.