Izzy has been subtly trying to claim Grandma’s blanket as a bed for some time. I pick it up to knit and she comes over for lap time. Usually I am able to move it off to one side so she can’t take up residence, but I failed this time. She was pleased. Until I needed to turn the work. Silly cat.
I finally collected the trail cam pictures. Over a 20 day stretch, there were over 1,600 pictures, mostly of cats. With that many, I’m glad there were some funny ones of the cats trying to catch bugs (above) and a tender moment (below). If you will notice, the short-haired black cat has intact ears, which means she has not been fixed. Darn it.
Setting up the live trap and leaving it for a couple days worked to desensitize the cats to its presence.
I used a prop to hold the trap open, with fishing line tied to the bottom so I could control when the trap closed. I had at least three already fixed cats circle in and out of the trap before an unfixed torti finally went in far enough for me to close the door. She was not happy, but I got her in to be fixed, so no kittens from her.
I saw three more unfixed while I was watching. So we’ll run this setup again. We are up to 12 fixed in the colony.
We are down to the most skittish of cats in my neighbors colony needing to be caught and taken to be fixed. The slightest breeze ruffling the trap cover sends them running. So I did a little tailoring on the scrap of sheet I use to cover the trap. I sewed seams along the backsides for a close fit, then sewed buttons and button hole elastic along the bottom so it won’t have room to billow.
The button hole elastic did not come this thin. When I was in a frenzy of making fabric masks and all the thin elastic was sold out, I bought thicker elastic and cut thin strips, leaving a narrow button hole band. It works quite well for this purpose.
I left the front part of the cover loose so it can easily be put back to set the trap, and be pulled forward when the cat is caught to help reduce freakout. The trap is also sitting closed at my neighbors house so the cats get used to seeing it (and not only seeing it when they see me).
There is a tree with a deep crevice in our back woods. The neighbor cats like to sit in the crook above the hole and watch, so I’m pretty sure something has made a home in there. I’m just not sure what.
Critters and Craft 