pregnant stray living in my garage!

Thanks for the help everyone, I've set up a better trap and I'm going to try and trap the white cat as well as Preggers. If I'm trying to attract the cats to my garage should i have the light on, off, or a small lamp beside the food? I need to be able to see when a cat's there so that i can pull the string and the trap falls.
All help apreciated, Robert.

A muted low light would work best.

Quick question if you don't mind my asking - what's the plan? Sounds like you're planning a trip to the vet?

Laurie

Yep once i catch it i'll take it to the vet to get checked out for worms or anything, and also buy quite a big dog cage for my garage and put it beside the boiler which should give it some heat. I've been sitting watching the trap from the window for about 3 hours and no cat has come! I'm starting to think that i did scare it off last night with the failed atempt at a trap, Robert.

I assume your using a drop trap? If you have a have-a-heart trap that is easier because you dont need to look when the cat will go in, it closes automatically. But you need to check every couple of hours if you catch the cat.


Usually when a cat is fixed it gets vaccinated against rabies and, well forgot the other thing.

But there is other things cats can pick up, like aids or leukemia. Now for a stray you may not be keeping, tests for those 2 things are expensive, but if anyone will eventually be adopting these cats, they'll need to be tested for those.

A fecal sample can be taken by the vet to see if the cat has any internal parasites,like worms. If they do they have de-wormers for that.

Also, if the vet can give the cat something to get rid of fleas (like frontline), that is also good.

Again, just fixing the cats and getting the 2 main vaccines is most important, if there not pregnant.



Females who get spayed need to be caged at least 3 to 4 days after surgery, they take longer to heal. Males about a day after. But you need to watch for any signs of a bad reaction from the anesthesia, you can ask a vet what to look for after you get a cat fixed and when to feed them after.

In the cage you should have a food/water dish, cage lined with newspaper and towels for extra comfort, and a litterbox (not filled with the clumping grain litter, get non-clumping litter,preferably unscented.)

You could even put a catnip toy in if you want.

If it's cold cover the cage at night with a few towels, but make sure the cat has some air.

Ok thanks for the help everyone, here is a 'diagram' of my very basic trap, tell me what you think if you can even make sense of it.

When the cat goes inside the upside down box to eat the food, i pull the string causing the stick to move and the box to fall!

Cats a very smart. Since you tried to trap her just a day or two ago she probably "knows" what your up to now. If you can contact a local shelter and ask if they have a humane trap you could rent or borrow for a day. I'd also wait a few days before tying again... this will give her time to let her guard down again.

This is a hav-a-heart trap Basically, you bait the back end of the trap and when the cat walks in it trips a switch that drops the door. The bait is far enough away that they can't run out before the door falls.

You know, these are good ideas. I'd give her a few days of food before trying to trap her again. I hope whitey cat is leaving enough food for the other stray and that she'll be back!

....you may also want to have the drop trap set up, put the food in there, and give that a couple of days before actually pulling the string. Giving her the sense of safety eating under the box might help too.

Laurie

HOnestly, I think if you can get your hands on a humane trap, you will have an easier time. She will be scared enough. It will be easier to "collect" her in a metal wire humane trap and take her to the vet or transfer her to a carrier.

And it can be disguised a bit by putting a tarp or a towel or blanket over it.

Right i got Pregers in the box last night but she escaped into my garage and when i went back in today there was no sign of her so she must have got out somehow :S.
It was really difficult to try and get her from the box into a pen that i'd made her, it was then that she escaped.
I hope she comes back but i wouldn't be surprised if she didn't .

Keep the food out and I bet she will. Particularly if your the only one in the neighborhood feeding which I suspect you are since the white cat keeps coming back too. I wondered how you were going to handle moving her from your trap. Does your pen have 6 sides? or just 4? If there is any way to squeze or jump out she'll find it and cats can squeeze through some pretty tiny openings.

I want to thank you for continuing to try to hard to help this kitty. I hope she realizes that your only trying to help and comes back.

hi! i just saw this and I can tell you about my pregnant Mama cat at the car wash! she was the smartest kitty! and pretty feral, not stray! I covered a humane trap w/beach towel, put can of tuna in at the end, and left for about 30 min. there were other cats around and I was scared I would get one of them instead! When i returned, to my surprise she was in there, so I took her straight to the vet, he was very busy, and so was I, so they took her out of the trap and put her in a holding cage, I didn't mean to leave
her there that long, but several days had pasted and he finally did an exam,
I wanted her spay/neutered!
I didn't even know if she was a girl or boy, my son said, he knew she was a girl, because of her dainty little beautiful face! he was right, she was a girl,
and a pg. girl at that! the vet said, "I sorry she is too far along to do the spay, so you need to come get her and take her to your house and let her be, until she has her babies!" I said, "that cat is wild and she has never been to my house" he said, "this cat is not wild, she is the sweetiest cat I've been
around!" Well believe me, until she was confined to the cage for that week, she was wild at the car wash! I had been feeding her from Oct. til the end of April! she was wild!
Not anymore! I picked Mama up and brought her home, put her in my son's playroom with a litterbox, she was a total lady! so sweet! so beautiful, and she used her litterbox, everytime, she was so good, we never knew she was there! Precious angel! one day, May 27, 2005, my son went to check on her, he opened his window, (I was outside) and yelled , "Mama has had a kitten and it's white!" "I think she is going to have another one!" I ran inside, she had a black one, and then one more tabby, who was the runt, and came out screaming! That was the one we kept, and named "Scream", we gave Fred and Ethal to some great people! They wanted Scream, but I was still feeding her kitten milk because the other two were total pigs! Here are some pics!
this is Mama
Here they all are, Look at Scream posing for the camera!
Scream and my Son Jace
The 3 stoges! That Scream she should have been a model!
and one more right before she left us! Gosh! I can still cry over losing that special baby!
I still have Mama, she is the best kitty, she totally trusts me, and sometimes Jace, but if there are a lot of even a few people over, she darts, and hides, or out the door she goes! She is still afraid of people! and of thunderstorms, she freaks out bad, and she wants to go outside during the storm, I won't let her but she meows so loud! is scared to death! Bless her heart! I love my girl!!!
So good luck! hope you catch and take care of a kitty that will be so appreciative of your love!!!!
Monique

Put the food out and she will come.

...and that's exactly why we use enclosed traps, like the one Meaghan provided a link to and not drop traps.

Laurie

I'm going to clean out my garage tonight. while the cat had escaped into the garage i saw the places that she went and hid so i know where to put blackets now. Is it possible to borrow a professional trap from your vet do you think? Because i havn't got a lot of money at the moment and i can't afford to buy a trap and a dog crate/cage!
Thanks, Robert.

P.S Carwashcats- those little kittens are incredible!

Can't hurt to call and ask... check with your vet, local shelter... anywhere tha might have one.

These links may help you find someone - but it's worth a call to the vet. Ours has one they lend out.

http://www.irishanimals.com/cats/index.html
http://www.catchat.org/adoption/ireland.html
http://uk.dir.yahoo.com/Science/Biol...ehabilitation/
Scroll down: http://www.petsandvets.com/shelters2.htm

But your vet may know of a place in your area.

Laurie

OK i got a picture of Preggers and a video of the white kitty. Neither is very good quality but tell me what you think!




The picture and video were taken just as it was getting dark unfortunately, I'll try and get better photos soon.
Robert

I take it that is as close as she'll allow you to get? Looks like they are both eating... that's good.

Well i had to take that photo and video from the window because the noise of the front door opening scares them off but I've held the white kittie before and I've sat about a foot away from Preggers while she ate. But ssince the other Night when i trapped her i think the level of trust has slipped slightly but I'm sure if i don't try anything like that for a while she'll start to trust me more again.
The more i think about it the more i think that it was a foolish move trapping Preggers in the box. She must have been so scared! Theres no point trying to trap her again untill i have both a proper havahart type trap and a dog crate because i can't keep her in the trap while I still havn't got a crate!
I've asked even more people now if they know anything about the white cat but still no-one knows anything but i suppose she could come from anywhere within a mile or so of my house and i can't check all the houses within a mile!
Robert.

Your right... probably best to just keep feeding her until you have both a trap and crate.

You can't check all the houses but maybe you could put of fliers?

PICTURES!!!!!!!!! Yeah - preggers is back eating! And the little white kitty looks - so little and white! We have a little white kitty, and that's what we called her for a long time.

Your vet - or vets in the area - may well have traps to lend. Sometimes (here) they ask for a deposit which they give back when you bring the trap back.

I don't know if you saw this list of links, but I'm posting it again just in case. They lead to lists of rescue shelters/resources in Northern Ireland. I don't know where you are, but you do - so you can check them out and call around. They may be able to help - both with lending a trap, or with a low-cost or free spay/neuter. You never know. Figured it's worth calling around though.

Originally Posted by LDG

These links may help you find someone [to lend you a trap] - but it's worth a call to the vet. Ours has one they lend out.

http://www.irishanimals.com/cats/index.html
http://www.catchat.org/adoption/ireland.html
http://uk.dir.yahoo.com/Science/Biol...ehabilitation/
Scroll down: http://www.petsandvets.com/shelters2.htm

But your vet may know of a place in your area.

Laurie

Click to expand...

Laurie