Feral Cat Resources Trap/neuter/return, managing a
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Feral Cats
Feral Friend
Diane Young manages the sanctuary's local Trap/Neuter/Return program for feral cats. This is a "Day in the Life."
My day starts by piling traps, towels, and cans of food into my trusty Toyota pickup. I boost my wonderful dog, Walter, into the front seat, where he provides moral support, and off we go to work at Best Friends.
I say "trusty pickup" because, one winter day, it waited until I had transported 12 feral cats 60 miles to the clinic before it stopped running due to a blown head gasket. I am very appreciative of my truck's sense of responsibility.
Setting Up the Plans
At the Best Friends Welcome Center, I get a call from a woman who just moved from California to a town an hour north of here. She has 20 feral cats at her place and 20 at a neighbor's, and is hoping Best Friends can help get them spayed and neutered.
We make an appointment to start trapping them, and I explain that it will take several trips to set traps, collect the cats, and return them after they're fixed. The caller offers to put the captured cats in her garage overnight so they won't be cold.
Next call is from a woman in Pennsylvania wanting hints on how to catch a feral kitty that will just not go into the trap. I give her all the hints I know and ask her to please let me know how it all works out.
An e-mail from the town of Hurricane, about 60 miles from here, tells me that someone left six small kittens on a doorstep. We locate a foster home, and I e-mail back to say I'll pick up the kittens in two days.
Next call is from a woman in town who's caring for an already fixed colony of ferals, and needs cat food. I load some extra food into my truck, along with all the traps, and set off on today's rounds.
Today's Business: Gray Cats in a Barn
The main business today is trapping some gray cats. An old neighborhood barn is being torn down, and a family of cats that have living there for years are running everywhere. (It's amazing how many generations one unfixed pair of cats can produce.)
I set seven traps (that's the easiest number for our vets at the clinic to handle on a single day, unless they're doing a spay/neuter "event.") Sometimes I cable the traps to something sturdy - this ensures that coyotes can't bother anything. But today I'm trapping in a back yard, which is safe.
The person who called me says she will make space under a shed for shelter once they come back.
To set a trap, I put the cat food, tuna, in the back. (These are humane traps, with a little door that falls when the food is touched.) And I put a soft, small towel on the bottom of the trap so those little feet don't have to stand on the wire, and a big towel over the trap so the cat will feel safe. I store the towels in a big trash can with catnip sprinkled inside, which helps the cats relax a bit when they're frightened.
Little gray faces look out at me from the nearby bushes, noses sniffing the tuna as I open the cans. I'm very quiet, and act like I don't see them. I set the traps and go back to my truck.
Who's in That Trap?!
Next morning, while it's still dark, I go check the traps. Since I've trapped here before, I check each cat for a left ear clip before loading it. We always ear-tip cats when they've been fixed, so that when we go back, we know who's been fixed and who hasn't.
As I approach the traps quietly (they're all closed, which tells me someone's inside each one), my nose tells me that one of the traps holds someone who's not supposed to be there! I put a plastic tarp over that trap, and then open the back door. I hear spray squirted onto the tarp, and then the skunk runs away. She's beautiful - sleek and black, with an iridescent white stripe, and she waddles away, with a full stomach! A rare treat, I'm sure.
I check the rest of the traps, let one go (a clipped ear says she's fixed), and find four grays and one unexpected orange-and-white. I load the traps into the truck, then head back to the sanctuary.
Later, after I release the newly fixed and vaccinated ferals right where I trapped them, I take my traps to the car wash, and the smelly towels back for a good wash, to be stored in my catnip sprinkled trash can until their next use - which won't be long!
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