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!

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!

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!

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...