Good news, everyone. Last week I finally captured shy Mimsy, the last fertile feral female living on the farm. This has been an 18-month endeavour and I'm mighty pleased with myself. I've mentioned her before on this blog – she and the other mature feral cats have just been too smart to step into cat traps so I've had to think outside the box so to speak. I worked out a strategy similar to that used on Sweetie a few months ago, although this time I actually used two cat cages instead of one in order to increase my odds of catching her, especially when there were other cats eating at that particular feeding station.
I set the cat cages down inside the cattery (see previous post) where I fed them breakfast and just left them there with their doors open 24/7 so the cats thought of them as benign objects. In the mornings I would put a little pile of food on the outside of the door, in the interior of the cage at the entry point with a little trail leading to the back of the cage. I then sat behind the cage while the cats ate so they all got used to me. What happened was that the other less cautious cats would walk inside the cages and eat the food. I in turn would just ignore them. Mimsy, of course, witnessed this and began gradually letting down her guard.
The timing had to be absolutely right and I had to keep refining my technique from morning to morning. For example, I had initially lined the interior of the cat cages with towels but found that it got under the cats' paws or would block their view of the food at the back. The cats also sometimes dragged out the towel when they snatched the food from the inside. I also found that if I slightly elevated the cage on a thin plank of wood it would aid in the swing-action of the doors. Furthermore, because it is getting colder over here in Australia (it's Autumn) I had to use a smellier bait (odour is suppressed in cold weather) – tinned fish did the trick. On top of that I had to position myself so that I could shift quickly and not give myself away with any sounds or extraneous movements. I also had to hold back on the milk and the dried food which I traditionally left out for the cats to get them completely focused on the food I wanted them to eat inside the cat cage.
On the morning in question it all went swimmingly. It so happened that Mimsy was the only cat who came into the cattery. I had left two piles of food on the outside of the two cages to increase my chances of catching her and she ate the first lot then did a snatch and grab from the interior (that is, she would poke her head inside the cage, grab the food and then eat it on the outside of the cage). Then ... miracle of miracles ... she slowly walked into the cage. I had to wait until two thirds of her body was inside. I knew I would only have one opportunity and I had to make it count, otherwise she would be on to me and I'd never catch her again. But there she was – eating away with just her rump and tail on the outside. I just lurched over the top and swung the cage door closed on her backside and secured it. She panicked a little but then settled down more quickly then I had thought. I then walked the cage to my car and strapped it into the back seat with a seat belt then drove immediately to the vet (they open at 7.30 on weekdays). She did not meow once.
That night, I picked her up at about 6pm and again she was completely quiet. She was sitting up and seemed calm. I've never had an experience like this – most cats who are frightened will be very vocal. I had prepared the gym at home (where I had previously kept the Xmas kittens) and walked inside and put the cage onto the carpet. Then I just slowly eased open the cage door. Before I even had time to step back, she was out like a bullet and hiding under the mini trampoline. I left her some food and water and then quietly withdrew.
The next morning I made my way back to the gym to give Mimsy her breakfast and to check on her progress. She had eaten her dinner and I expected her to be hungry. I could not find her. I looked everywhere – behind and on top of fridges, under exercise equipment, in boxes – nothing. I thought she may have been hiding in plain sight and then came back with a torch in daylight like a CSI investigator to see if I had missed her. Nothing. I then sent somebody else in to look for her. Nothing. I couldn't understand it. The window was closed except for about an inch and the screen door was completely shut and I knew nobody else had gone in to see her during the night. What's more, I had wedged a container against the door and it was still in place.
I was quite perplexed but thought that if she had escaped she would head straight home so I was up the hill and looked around the perimeter of the cattery. She was there – interacting with her friends Hissy Fit and Diamond. I was gob-smacked. Mimsy was obviously a Houdini and smart and supple enough to escape. My only theory was that somehow she had wedged open the screen door and squeezed through a gap either on the top or bottom.
The upshot is that she appears to be her normal self and that the entire episode didn't seem to stress her out too much. She just wanted to get back to business and for her that means reuniting with her companions and getting back to normal life on the hill.
Mimsy was an excellent mother – we have kept six of her babies who are beautiful healthy cats in their own right with wonderful temperaments – but her days of reproducing are over. Now it's her time, and if Sweetie is anything to go by (Sweetie has put on healthy weight and is having a wonderful single life) then Mimsy will do just fine.
