I have 2 cats and love them 95% of the time. Steve tolerates the same 2 cats. Needless to say we are not in the market for any more cats. There has been a small black cat hanging around for a while and we found out a couple of weeks ago that she had had 4 kittens, under our neighbor’s shed. This neighbor is rarely home as really does not like animals.
Another neighbor and I tried to coax out the mama and kittens with food, water, and a lot of ‘here kitty kitty’s’. We got close, but not close enough to catch any of them. Luckily I am married to a field biologist with access to live mammal traps.
The first evening we caught 3 kittens—1 per trap. Overnight I caught another kitten—and a possum. The possum was not part of the plan. Steve had to go to work so I was in charge of releasing the possum and setting up the trap again, in hopes of catching the mama cat.
I should have taken a picture of ‘my’ possum, but I was too focused on letting it go without incident. My possum was not this cute—this one looks friendly!
My possum looked a little more like this, less friendly. He was a little more scarred on his face as if he was a fighter. I wore gloves.
Luckily, possums are nocturnal and he was not moving all that fast. I had to sort of shake him out of the cage. We were both relieved when that was over.
The kittens hung out for the day in the traps/cages where I gave them frequent attention. I set up the larger trap and, in a few hours, caught the mama cat (again, no picture—what was I thinking?).
This morning we took them to the animal shelter. They are really cute and I hope they get adopted, but no matter what, the world doesn’t exactly need more feral house cats. I know that sounds harsh, but being homeless is not good for the cats, or for the birds and other animals that they snack on.
Surely these guys will find a home. If you are local, maybe you need a kitten! Click here for the Sherman Animal Shelter info.
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