When you have several large properties or businesses around you, you do not have control over the cat population. Carol knows this from experience but keeps hoping she's trapped the last cat. LOL. That dream was defeated again when she saw momma and four kittens traveling across the back lot of her business. She always calls GCCCP and asks for help.

We have become great partners, and she has become so good at trapping. The company that she works for is understanding about her efforts to keep the cat population down and prevent kittens from being born. No one there wants to see more kittens!

It's a process to trap at Carol's business, where there are already a huge number of cats that have been fixed and fed. It's a matter of knowing the habits of the new cats. With the help of the workers in the yard, momma cats usually find a location away from the colony. We set up five traps there, tied them open so they were inactive and fed only in the traps at a certain time every day. Carol bought her own Web Cam so she could watch the activity on her phone and computer. Amazing!

After keeping the traps tied up for a couple of weeks and watching, Carol knew kittens would go in, but mom was trap-savvy and never seemed to go in.

We decided to activate the traps and at least get the kittens.

The day Carol trapped, the four kittens went into the traps first thing in the morning. It wasn’t a cold day, and we decided to leave the four kittens in their traps to attract mom. One trap door with still open.

Carol didn’t have a lot of hope, but I had been happily surprised so many times that I knew there could be a happy ending. At about 4:30 p.m. Carol looked at the web cam and saw that the fifth door was shut! Mom finally went into the trap.

GCCCP took the mom and her four kittens up to IHS to be spayed\neutered and vaccinated, then returned them to Carol. No more kittens.

A couple of things you should know at this point. One caregiver can take three cats a week for Trap-neuter and return (TNR). But a litter counts as one cat.

Another thing to know-- usually if a kitten is 6 weeks to 2 months old there is a good chance that Idaho Humane Society will take it in and get it adopted.

If the trapper chooses to tame older kittens, he or she can ask to become IHS fosters and foster the kittens until they are adoptable. If the kittens are deemed adoptable at a later date, the kittens can go up for adoption.

If the kittens do not become tame they will be released at the location they were trapped. This option is at the discretion of the community cats coordinator.

If you choose not to sign up for the IHS foster program but foster the older kittens on your own, you can make an appointment for your tamed kittens, as strays.

This is the option Carol chose.