just a cat

I just read all 19 pages of this, and I have to say that you are doing some serious work Jon!!!  Well done on being compassionate and kind and quite the photographer.  I've been toying with the idea of a cat for a while now, but I still am a little bit leery after a pretty traumatic cat experience when I was a child... This thread is not helping my desire to try again, haha.  

Random Question-  Do you know approximately how many cats you've personally rounded up for spay/neuter?  It has to be 20-30+, right?  Amazing work, both for the cats and for your community. 

In reply to golfduke :

Thanks, things really evolved from early in this thread. I think that I've spayed and neutered 25 cats now. I've found homes for three kittens and adopted four. Feeding the 'Wilds' has become part of my daily routine in the morning and evening every day.

Getting a pet is nothing to rush into, but if it's right for you they can really enrich your life as you do theirs.

While I was at Rallycross today, a former coworker/friend that I don't see much anymore called to see if I had any kittens available.

"No, but there's three young kittens in my area. Do you want one? They're wild animals and will need to be socialized."

He grew up on a farm and said that's exactly what he'd like. I put out the small trap as soon as I got home and left it for 20 minutes.

He's a male and his current name is Theodore. Joe will be picking him up shortly.

Edit: When Joe picked up Theodore,  he said that he'd be happy to take one more. I'll try trapping again tomorrow. I think Sasha still has three little ones.

He should still be able to tame the kittens at this point. Way to go!

Una attacks my foot.

I bend down and Miso jumps on my back, flexing her claws and gently biting.

It's time for me to learn to clip claws.

When I had Minnie at the vet, I told them that I felt like I had one more (Sasha) and I would be all caught up on spay and neuter with my local cats. Now it feels like I'm falling behind.  At least two cats that I don't know have shown up in the last few days, plus I may be under-counting due to very similar markings. I need to make sure that the vet tattoos the ears of every cat I bring in going forward.

With the remaining little kittens,  I posted this on a Facebook group associated with the local shelter:

Feral kittens usually do pretty well.  This is one I rescued from work about 8 years ago, along with her brother.  The other two from the litter were much more adventurous, and I suspect they ventured outside the building when either the owl or coyotes were around.

She got caught up in a conveyor belt before I could catch her.  She was VERY cautious when people were near, so it took longer to gain her trust.  She disappeared for two days, and I feared the worst. She lost her tail, had a bad cut on her left hind leg, and her left ear is permanently down.  The leg healed quickly with the liquid antibiotic my vet gave me to put on her food, and she ate the food I put down near her new hiding spot.

It took several extended stays with the vet to get her right, and we even found a hidden problem after the other problems were taken care of.  She had an impacted bowel as well.

But all that was in 2016, and she's been a very good cat, if a little bitey once my senior cat passed on.  They were quite the couple.

In reply to racerfink :

lol, they are holding hands. 

This week we plan to bring our kittens Una and PJ to be spayed.

The ferals all seem to be doing well. I have roughly twenty 'regulars' in the area that I have names for. Sasha's seven kittens from this year quickly grew the population.

She is very attentive to both of her litters still.

I have tried many times to trap her with no success. When I'm present, while the other cats eat, she watches everything from the terrace above the food bowls. If I have a trap, she will not come down.

Ok, I finally finished my grand cathouse. Now just waiting for some cold weather. I've got two black 2 year old toms that I've been feeding since last summer, one near my house in the neighbor's wood junk pile and one at my old job sight, a flood pumping station and flood wall. They are too feral to ever domesticate and not guaranteed to not spray even if spayed, I think. The pumping plant cat and his kitten are hanging just outside the back door of the pumping station in a large double walled and plastic wrapped straw insulated and stuffed cardboard box.

I've also got 6 maybe 6 month old kittens 5 that are the next door crazy cat lady that can't afford to fix her herd of cats living out of her garage that are reproducing of which I have one from last years batch that I rescued. I can't afford to fix them either and hardly any of the outdoor cats last very long up here by the north pole. At least none of these will freeze to death. Too bad North Dakota doesn't have a veterinarian school that could do a public service of fixing all of these poor feral strays that are everywhere.

Here's the Grand Cathouse and a few of it's new occupants. I need someone to paint some flowers and grass and cats to help camouflage the freezer.

Here is the link to my heating questions to the hive mind. GrassRootsMotorSports.com: HVAC Help Hooking Up a Thermostat Relay For Custom Use

As you can see, they are no longer skin and bones. Not shown is an orange and white kitten.

And probably dad.

And I can't forget our 5 inside rescue cats plus 1 rescue dog.

Hobbs, Marty, Agnes, Odie, and Edith plus Della the dog. Hobbs who was rescued by the Vet as a 6 week old. Marty and Agnes were born in my basement the day after I trapped Judy their mom who was living under a dead van in my yard along with their other 4 siblings in March just before a snow storm. 6 week old Odie who's mom stuck him in an upright 24" tall 18" dia. PVC pipe sitting in our yard, and finally 6 week old Edith who I heard mewing from behind the overhead door inside our garage. Della was abandoned at the Animal Shelter where she sat for 6 months because she was so abused and showed aggressive behavior. She's still crazy but has calmed down a lot with age.

Wife says that there is an invisible giant neon sign with an arrow that St Patrick stuck over our garage that says, "ANIMAL LOVERS HERE".

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Great pics. It's funny how much some of those cats look like the ones I feed.

Our kittens are mostly recovered from being spayed. Una recovered quickly, but PJ disappeared in the house for almost a full day. We were worried, but she's fine now. She has always been more reclusive and sensitive than her sister Una.

I'm off tonight after a busy week+ of night shift. Relaxing at the back gate with Tom and Tanya. Sharing confidential patient information as I drink some cheap wine. Stuff like, " ...dude was screaming for the whole 40 minute flight." "She pulled out her IVs and blood went everywhere. "

Thomas likes to hear the details.

Una and PJ like to climb on top of me in the middle of the night or snuggle in beside me. Never both. Only one or the other. This morning I told Mrs AAZCD, "I never know which sister I'm sleeping with."

Yesterday morning walking out to the car I thought I heard a cat. We have rarely seen any on cameras over the summer.

I came home from work and heard squawking immediately upon exiting the car. Looked around a bit and found a kitten hiding under a bush noisily announcing it's location. Flushed him out and he ran up inside my tractor but we were able to lure him out with some food.

So now we have this:

My daughter calls the last set of rescue kittens The Children (they're now 15 & 13lb.), so this one is The Child aka Grogu.

Looks like s/he was ditched by the mom on Monday, this screenshot is the last evidence of the family 😔 and I found the kitten over 24hrs later.

Looks alot smaller than the other two.  So far, incredibly friendly, very talkative, very fast for being as wide as it is long. We got the burrs out of its fur and don't see any fleas on the flea comb. It immediately figured out the sandbox within an hour or two. Vet appt Monday 🤞.

We have multiple ppl fighting over it already, so forever home won't be a problem.

I finally had a good daylight view of the phantom cat. He eats what is left when the street cats leave and always has run away before I can identify him. I confirmed it is Smokey - trapped and neutered last summer.

Anita:

She showed up one day in early October and ran right to the bowl as I was putting food in. Before eating she rubbed on my hand and looked up at me. I assumed that she was a neighbor's cat supplementing her diet. She has shown up hungry almost every day since then. I estimate her age to be about 7 or 8 months and she has no fear of standing up to any of the other ferals to hold her place at the food bowl.

I was hesitant to declare her 'feral' and have her spayed. I finally decided to go ahead. She is most likely abandoned or stray. If she is a neighbor's outdoor or barn cat and has kittens, they will undoubtedly inflate the population of 'my' cat colony rather than being born and contained in a home.

I didn't have to trap her or bait her. Simply held her and put her in a carrier to bring to the vet.

She's a snuggler and a has sweeter temperament than a lot of house cats I've known.

Mrs AAZCD started talking about keeping her. We have five cats and four dogs. It works, but we need limits. No more additions.

I carried her outside this morning when I went for the morning feeding and set her down at the gate. She pranced ahead of me to the spring and resumed her place among the ferals. I'm going to install a cat door in my garage and she will always be welcome there.

Pins in one of Goblin's legs from when she ended up with two broken legs a couple of years back were starting to back out into her knee. 
Wife DVM pulled the pins yesterday. 

Discharged this morning, back to the horse/tack room with her buddy Orla. 

Goblin is the short haired one. Orla was a bit distressed by her absence yesterday. 

Aggie, trying to convince me not to go to work

Anita showed up wearing a flea collar this morning. I'm pretty sure which neighbor she comes from now and I'll chat with them later to clear things up.

I trapped Little Kim this morning and dropped her off for spay and rabies shot. She is from Sasha's early summer litter and has two siblings that I have 'on my list'.

We have been feeding Elvis in the Have A Heart trap for a week or so with the trap door disabled. He's still super wary after a couple of months. Do you think it will be possible to tame him? Any tricks that you know of? I've had cats all my life but this is the first obviously wild grown cat I've dealt with.

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

We have been feeding Elvis in the Have A Heart trap for a week or so with the trap door disabled. He's still super wary after a couple of months. Do you think it will be possible to tame him? Any tricks that you know of? I've had cats all my life but this is the first obviously wild grown cat I've dealt with.

All of the cats I've dealt with were either less than six months old or had already been partially socialized. VolvoHeretic or others may have a better answer. I think that it's possible to tame Elvis to the extent that he is comfortable being in a home with his people, but I don't think that as an adult cat he can be tame in the way a cat that has spent it's whole life with people. There's some good advice online from people who have done it. This page and some of the others it links to may be helpful to review: Can You Tame a Feral Cat?  

Some thoughts:

Confinement; The initial phase of taming would be keeping him in an area where he gets used to being indoors without having too large a space. I have a large dog crate that I use for keeping ferals in the house while they recover from treatment. It has space for food & water in non-tipping bowls, small cardboard box with litter, and a small box to hide in. For a larger space, a (cat safe) bathroom or laundry room could work. After a week or two of confinement he may feel more safe and secure, knowing that food, water and safety are available where he's at. Expand the space with some supervision. Expect him to find a hiding place and be 'gone' for a while, but return to food.

Expect a male cat to spray things if it is upset or stressed. That may or may not end after he has been neutered.

An adult cat will need a long commitment to become tame. Do you have holiday travel plans?

Socialize gradually. Play with cat toys. Gradually work towards touch. A touch on the neck while feeding may be a good start. G-Man never liked being picked up, but would choose times that he wanted to sit with us and be petted. He always hid when people besides family were in the house.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for the insight and article. I think what I'll do is trap him and get him fixed. Our front screen porch is big enough to set up 2 dog crates zip tied together with everything he needs while he recovers. Play it by ear after that.