The number of cats is always a shock to people when they move into a trailer park. But it's a way of life for the residents who have lived there for years.
It was a new neighbor who called for help, emailing information about “50 cats” roaming the trailer park.
I visited the trailer park and saw signs of the caregiver, Robert.
The old trailer park was kept up. Robert’s trailer was surprisingly well-maintained, except for well-organized shelter areas and food bowls. I left information about our services and finally caught Robert at home after the third visit. Once I caught him at home he was glad to get started. I think the reason people don't contact us is because they simply don't believe anyone would trap neuter and return all their cats. Who blames them :)
Robert works all day, so I asked him if I could get going first thing in the morning while he was gone.
The first attempts are the most important because the cats are not leery of the traps. My husband was kind enough to get up at 6:30 a.m., in the dark, drive across town and watch as I set up a drop trap. I dropped the trap on four cats and transferred them into individual traps. All that day I set up traps around the yard.
It was a miracle how the spay\neuter appointments fell into our laps just when we needed them! Twenty-one done in a week! What would I do without miracles?
Eighteen of the cats we trapped were females. There is no reason every one of those females would not have had at least two litters this year, averaging four kittens each. And the female kittens could have had their first litters by December.
When I had the first batch of females away, being spayed, Robert started pulling out kittens from under his trailer. As I was releasing the first females, Robert showed me the kittens. They were still nursing.
The problem was which of the cats were the nursing moms; the one’s I just released or the ones I had waiting to be spayed?
We took the kittens to the remaining cats, checked to see which were lactating, and “asked” them who wouldn’t mind nursing a few mismatched kittens. It worked! I don’t know why.
Comentarios