A Kitten from the Colony

A kitten from the colony!

I care for a colony of feral cats, which I began TNRing last summer.

I had rescued 8 kittens in the spring, some with infected eyes
and one poor kit lost his eye. Luckily the humane society cared
for them, and they all became healthy and got good homes, even
one eye!

Well, I trapped all fall and winter - and in the fall I lost about 6 cats during a spell of bad weather - before I'd shelter boxes out for the cats. Now
of course with the shelter boxes, I have ALOT less problems with them
wandering for cover or shelter. They stay where they know the food
will be delivered and where there is shelter...

So, fast forward - in March a few of those "disappeared" cats (3) showed up again!! I had to haul out traps and trap again, as they were not fixed.
So, I grabbed a Mamma who had JUST given birth - last month and fixed
her. She had (2) confirmed polydactyl kits, just like her - brw tabby with lovely pointed faces...So I've been trying to catch them while YOUNG
so I could tame.

Last night the boldest kit, came out of the shed hole to eat. I simply
leaned over, and scruffed, and the rest is history!! He did not struggle
one or two hisses and off we went. Now he is ensconsed on my
sheep skin couch having eaten last night and this morning, yummy
baby food and adult wet. He is TINY about 5 wks old, just weaning.
Perfect grabbing time!!! yayy. One less kit to catch.

Wish me luck on the others, that they will be as quick and easy.
There is one much larger solid grey, one poly and a silver tabby
left to "snatch" These last, will be hard, as they don't
emerge from the shelter till late, and its hard to see them at night.

Anyway, little boy is lovely. He has had several nasty ticks pulled
off him, and I am in love. He will go to a rescue group shortly
for adoption! Yayyy. One less roaming kitten, and one that
WILL be speutered!!! )

Originally Posted by opilot

Wish me luck on the others, that they will be as quick and easy.

Click to expand...

I wish you and your protegées much luck!!!

Sending my warm wibes along the way.


Very good you do have a fruitful cooperation with a good fostering / adopting group. (yes I see you do much of the fostering yourselv).
This is most essential for any really successfull TNR work.

Thank you Stefan. I know finding homes for the youngers ones
is good - it gets them out of the colony, to a home where they can
be safe. All my kits go fixed of course, I do NOT let any adoptions
go through without the cat's being "done"

I had alot fewer kits this year to deal with, as I have fixed 14 cats
total of which 10 were females. there were 20 to start with -
but 2 died on me, and 4 disappeared, with only 3 coming back...

I am really lucky I did get as many as I did, or we'd have had
30 or more cats running around.

My best guess is i have 1 female and 2 males left to catch of
the orginial batch. Only 1 breeding mom, so that's not
too bad. I also have 3 confirmed kits to catch - a polydactly,
a silver tabby and a solid grey...

Not bad for a years worth of trapping!!

I have 2 lovely cats from the colony at home - a lavendar/blue mac tabby named Laphrogie (Frogita for short!) and a lovely long fluffy blue grey male named "Grey Goose" The kits mother is a brown tabby with 2 polydactly toes in front and is absolutely stunning brown maine coon style look with the most beautiful face and tail!

This kit is a brown tabby with silver blue tipping he is simply stunning.
He has a wild African Sandcat looking face Big bat ears

And a HUGE meow when he wants! Even at 5 or 6 wks he can really pipe up when he is hungry...we call him Mr. Hoffbrau (for the beer, LOL). Mr. Hoff for short

I'm feeding baby food, and KMR - he is lapping it up, can eat dry
I think, but is JUST starting weaning. He probably is a little young
to take, but I had SUCH a good opportunity, that I had to take it...

One less to trap and one less to breed! Whoo ee...

Great job! Catching them is the key to success!
Catching kits is not always easy but it has to be done.

Originally Posted by opilot

Last night the boldest kit, came out of the shed hole to eat. I simply leaned over, and scruffed, and the rest is history!! He did not struggle one or two hisses and off we went. Now he is ensconsed on my
sheep skin couch having eaten last night and this morning, yummy
baby food and adult wet. He is TINY about 5 wks old, just weaning.
Perfect grabbing time!!! yayy. One less kit to catch.

Click to expand...

It just cracks me up how fierce they try to be when you first snatch them up. If you got no struggle and only a few hisses, he wants to be tamed! Stumpy did the same to me and within 2 minutes of the snatch, he was laying on DH and purring.

Sending big that you quickly catch the remaining kittens!