We were able to catch three more feral cats and get them spayed (yup, all females again). It took my eldest four hours doing a stake out on the traps and watching from her vehicle to catch them. I assisted, but she did most of the work. We estimate that there are at least ten more. It is a shame they are feral, they are beautiful. This brings us up to 5 neighborhood cats taken out of the baby making ring. If each female can birth 3-6 kittens, that is 15-30 kittens that won’t be adding to the population. Let that sink in. So please, if you feed outside cats, get them fixed. Only feed the cats you’ve decided to care for, don’t leave food outside overnight or unsupervised. Cats are smart and sneaky. As are the local raccoons.

That is my public service announcement for today. More craft posts coming tomorrow.

Here is Sophie doing her balance beam demonstration over the chicken run. She is now almost completely an inside cat, but when she does go out, this is a favorite move. She was the original cat to figure out the path up there, and I’m fairly certain she kindly taught it to the neighborhood cats. Maybe she hosted a seminar: How to get the best chicken viewing.

We have our trail cam set up where we are trapping feral cats, to see who we aren’t seeing when we are out there looking. Our local cat shelter said to expect double the number of cats in a colony than are seen. I can see how that would be the case, as there are pictures of cats that I have not seen with my own eyes. What makes cataloging difficult is that there are at least two long haired torties, one or two (or more) short haired torties, several black both long and short haired, at least one tabby, at least one orange, as well as the neighbor’s cats that I know are fixed. The big flame point is easy to spot, and he seems to be unique in the colony. There are also cats that don’t show up on the trail cam. Different territories maybe?