Feral Female Farm Cat Caught

Good news on the homefront. Many of you may have read about the ongoing saga of Sweetie – one of the fertile feral females on the farm and how I've been trying to catch her on and off for about a year. Well, I caught her two evenings ago and she's now back home desexed and recuperating in our rumpus room, which overlooks her territory on the outside. The vet did a splendid job and she has dissolving stitches in her abdomen which means she doesn't have to make a return visit.

The entire experience has been traumatic for both the cat and myself because she trusted me and I felt as though I was betraying that trust when I caged her up and took her offsite for the operation. She's doing well now and is communicating with me again with her soft meow whenever I visit her. I paid extra for pain relief so I hope it's holding. I'll release her in the next 48 hours or so once I'm content there are no complications from the surgery. The best signal for me is that she appears to be relaxed and has eaten a lot since her return last night. This is a great relief. Her last litter was the Xmas kittens, which I've written about in the Chronicles of the Xmas Kittens series – two of which are sitting on a cushion right next to me in the office as I write this blog post. The emotional stress was a temporary discomfort to the long term stress of having the cats constantly reproducing when I'm trying to curtail the cat population on the farm, and then having to socialise and find loving homes for the kittens. I don't indiscriminately give kittens or cats away without checking out the character of the human companion who will be taking them. The quest is on now to find good homes for Sweetie's offspring.

At a later time I'll write a dedicated post on the subject of how to and how not to catch feral cats based on all the tricks I've learned during the last 12 months.

Chronicles of the Xmas Kittens – Journal Entry 2

Well I tried for the last three nights ... and the master plan came close to working but then failed at the last moment! Hence the need for patience when trapping feral kittens.

The first night everything happened as it should, except for some unanticipated events that also invariably come up as plot-points in movies or in books to spin the action around – you mustn't forget that I'm a writer and observe life through storyteller's eyes in a slightly different way to normal people. I fed all the animals and then left just a little bit of food for Sweetie and her kittens before walking off. I needed Sweetie to be hungry so I could lure her away with the promise of more food in another location. As it turned out, when I returned to the drain where the kittens were hiding, Sweetie had already disappeared to hunt down another meal (probably at the major feeding station). I was quite excited at this turn of events and sat down next to the drain and dropped food into the containers. What I had not taken into account was that two of my domestic cats turned up to see what was happening. Also, the kittens were more wary and fearful when their mother wasn't around so they kept to the drain and refused to congregate around the food container. Two of them darted out occasionally to grab a piece of cooked chicken but then carried it back into the drain. The other two didn't come out at all.

About ten minutes later Sweetie came tearing aggressively around the corner again, and ran to the drain to check that her babies were there. Once the kittens saw and heard her, they relaxed. She then ate some of their food and then circled behind me to clean herself. Some of the other grown ferals joined her, as if it were a communal meeting place and they all sat around in a semi circle behind my back. Two of the kittens came out and began eating. I  left a little trail of food scraps leading up to the cat cage and then – wonder of wonders – one of the little black ones walked into the cage to help him or herself (I haven't checked out their sex yet) from the feeding tray inside. I gently closed the door ... and then began to have second thoughts. 

I didn't want to take a single kitten away to a strange place. I didn't want to do it in front of its mother or the other elders. I didn't want to traumatise them anymore than they would be already and so – what did I do? – just at the moment where it discovered it was shut in and was starting to panic – I opened the cage door!

Yes ... I'm an idiot! Guilt got me in the end and I left the kittens with their mother that night.

On the second night, events unfolded slightly differently. That night I was going to lure Sweetie into the major feeding station and then lock the window and door so she couldn't go back to her kittens. This time, she didn't budge from their side and just ate the little bit of food I had left for them. When I returned she still hadn't left them. To compound matters, several of the other male cats joined the club. Sweetie must have been on heat because one of the males kept following her and sniffing her backside. She had no time for shenanigans and just kept growling at him and swiping him with her paw. 

I ended up sitting next to the drain for about an hour. I just offloaded all the food. Sweetie came back and gradually the kittens clambered out. This time I made the decision that if the opportunity came, then I had to harden my heart and take any that may have climbed inside the cat cage. The little creme and rust one (see photo) approached but then took a side path.

However, this morning there was a breakthrough. I loaded up the dish and then walked away for a few minutes. When I returned, all four kittens and Sweetie were eating. Two of the kittens went into the drain but the two black ones remained at the dish. One had its back and hind quarters to me so I slowly put out my hand and began stroking down its spine with the expectation that it would immediately shirk at my touch and run away. It didn't. It remained in place for about two to three minutes. Its coat was quite lovely. The sunlight exposes a beautiful copper colour rippling through the black hair. When it suddenly looked up and comprehended that it was I  – a human that was touching it – it suddenly ran back inside the drain. But a moment later he/she was out. 

I also reached out and touched the other little black one and made a physical connection for about five seconds. This is great progress and I will continue along this path. If my original plan doesn't work, I will obviously need to adapt it so that I start the socialisation at this point and then when Sweetie starts to be more comfortable roaming away from them, I may be able to catch the little cuties. Will keep you updated.

Chronicles of the Xmas Kittens – Journal Entry 1

I know Christmas has long gone and we're over the wine, food, presents and carols, but the story I'm about to tell you started for me on Christmas Eve.

I had been cooking up big all day and during the evening I scooted away to take care of my dog and cat feeding chores. I live on a farm so everything is spread out. I walked to an outside room, located about 50 metres away from the house, which I use for meal preparation and as a feeding station for several of our cats, including the more bolder ferals who consider themselves part of the main coterie and hang around the tool shed and garage, but are still shy of being touched. Boots (a male we caught and desexed) is one, and Sweetie (a wise and street-smart older fertile female who we have NOT been able to catch – see photo) is the other. 

As I walked through the doorway I noticed Sweetie sitting in a long plastic tray under the window. Beside her was a lovely little white kitten with rust colour patches on its body. It took one look at me and then darted away in fright over the window sill onto the ground and then hid in a protruding drain pipe. 

I was equally startled because the last thing I expected to see on the farm at this time was a new kitten, as I monitored the females (and their bellies) closely and had not noticed that Sweetie was pregnant. Then again, she had recently been away for extended periods ...

The first thought in my head was "Oh no! The rest of the family are going to kill me!" They are patient with my feral socialisation activities but it seems as though the cats had been breeding more last year than any other year, even though the number of un-desexed females had not grown. I began speculating that perhaps the kitten didn't belong to Sweetie. Perhaps it was a stray and she had adopted it. Or maybe it was Sweetie's and I had missed the signs entirely!

The kitten stayed in the drain pipe and when I inspected it I noticed a little black one hiding in the interior. "Double oh no!" They backed down the pipe and disappeared into the shadows.

I let them be, and later on, returned to walk around the farm and look for their hiding place. I visited all the places Sweetie had traditionally had her litters but came up empty. She is notoriously inventive when it comes to hiding her babies, and exceptionally protective of them too. I have watched her divert the dogs and other male cats away from her nest and, if absent for an extended period, she would look around in all directions to make sure no animal or human was watching and then slink back via an obstacle course to make sure she wasn't being followed.

I found the litter on Christmas morning by accident. I came around the corner of a shed and spotted Sweetie on the concrete slab below a silo ... beside her were one, two three, four kittens who fled into a covered drain. Two blacks, one white and rust, and one pixie headed tortie and white. I left a little bit of food for them and returned that evening.

Sweetie had gone to the main feeding station so I had a few moments to observe them alone. They had obviously been taught to flee and hide while their mother wasn't around. They hid in two pipes inside and occasionally I could see little ears and eyes, noses and whiskers protruding to see if the threat (me) was still in their domain. A few minutes later I heard a gentle sound that was a mixture of a meow and a chirrup – mum's call to her babies. They all perked up and listened and then after I had backed away, poked their heads out to look for Sweetie who had returned from the feeding station with a large piece of cooked chicken in her mouth. She looked like a miniature version of a lioness. It was the same behaviour I had seen from the big cats in various nature documentaries. She dropped the meal down beside their hiding place and two of them emerged and ate ravenously – the two black ones, which I have since found out to be the boldest of the siblings.

I found out later from our next door neighbour that Sweetie had used his old caravan at the back of his chicken shed as their birthing place. When she had started weaning them, she obviously moved them to the drain area closer to the food source, yet still out of sight of our two dogs (who by the way are fascinated with cats and will not harm them).

The kittens are about seven weeks old now. I did not strategise or do anything about catching them until the new year, but I have laid the foundations slowly during the last few weeks. This case is different to the others because of the following reasons:

(1) For the first four weeks the kittens were not exposed to human contact in any shape or form from near or afar;

(2) They are located in an inhospitable area that is easy for them to hide in but exceptionally difficult for me to access;

(3) Psychologically they are more alert and smarter than any others I have encountered;

(4) Sweetie, their mum, rarely leaves their side.

The socialisation process will be tricky here. I have set the scene over the last few weeks by locking up the dogs when I am close by, and by sitting near the kittens while they eat and then gradually decreasing the distance from about 20 feet away to two feet away. I have also set a cat trap in a sheltered area close by with absolutely no success. I think the older cats trip it deliberately because the door is shut in the mornings when I return and none of the bait is taken. However, I have set out a cat cage with an open door near the drain so that they get used to it and relax. I want them to think it's just another non-threatening part of the environment. Over the last few days I have left a plate of food inside and have returned to find the contents gone. 

I have now set up a cat safe room in our outside gym. All the things are set – hidey places, warm spots, a feeding station, a toilet station, two full water bowls and a number of toys.

Wish me luck! Tonight I have to try and get Sweetie out of the way and then return to the drain to set down some food for them in the cat cage. If they are extra hungry they will go inside and all I have to do is close the door, which is the way I caught Boston (one of my other cats).

Fingers crossed. 

In the movies, if characters announce their plans to other characters (and thus the audience) something will inevitably happen to thwart the plan, so I am taking a big risk outlining my strategy in this blog journal entry. 

Wish me luck!

(By the way, I have been trying all day to upload pics of all these cats for you, but Blogger will not let me. I will try again tomorrow.)

 

2009 Beginnings

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2009 will be great for you. 

My blogging activities over the last few weeks have been sporadic I know – I put it down to heavy work deadlines, weariness, the frantic Xmas and Boxing Day cooking schedule, overseas visitors staying with us en masse, and of course the varied activities of my 20+ feline friends. A quick wrap up for the end of 2008 revealed several things in regard to the feral cats living on my farm:

(1) The four newly born kittens I covered in a previous post disappeared. I am presuming they died because I found no trace of them. How this happened, I can only speculate. Either predators or a natural death. It is always sad when animals die, let alone those who haven't had a chance to even live.

(2) I have a young feral cat (he's about seven months old) living in my studio. He comes in at night and goes outside in the morning. His name is Boston. That's his photo. I caught him two months ago. He is the oldest kitten I have socialised and I will devote more blog space to writing up a case study on him (as well as the other kittens I have socialised) so you can get an understanding of the inherent process with slight adjustments and variations according to the age, temperament and position of each kitten in the cat hierarchy.

(3) I have just found four new kittens. This mother cat – Sweetie as she is known – came in under the radar. I didn't even know she was pregnant again. She is also the mother of Boston and must have got pregnant with them around the time that I caught him. These Xmas kittens are gorgeous and I will be chronicling their journey in a series of blog posts. I have not caught them yet so you will be getting step by step description and action as the story unfolds. This also emphasises the need for me to try and catch Sweetie again so I can get her desexed – she is just too street smart at the moment and avoids the cat traps entirely. Let's hope the kittens will not be as hypervigilent or as intelligent as their mother so I can start the process and rehome them ASAP.

How to Socialise a Feral Kitten - Part II

Catching Your Feral Kittens

A hungry cat is more likely to step into a cat trap than one that has just been fed, so the best time to catch feral cats or kittens is at meal time – that is, early morning or evening. 

The first tool you will need is a humane cat trap that is triggered by the cat eating and pulling on the bait. A panel slides down and the cat is trapped inside. You do not have to be present for this to happen. If you cannot access a cat trap then get a cat cage or a box with air holes on the side and a lid, blanket or towel to go on top. However, you will need to manually catch the cats and put them inside for transportation.

The best age at which to catch a feral kitten is between six to eight weeks old. Too young and they may not have been weaned; too old and they may be more shyer, suspicious or street smart. That is not to say you can't catch and work with an older kitten or cat (I recently caught one that was four months old), it's just that if you intend to rehabilitate it then you may need to make adjustments to the basic socialisation techniques, which will be covered in a future blog post. 

There are several ways you can approach the task of catching a feral cat or kitten, depending on your proximity, access and cat receptiveness to human contact.

Firstly, you can do what I call the "snap catch" or the "slow conditioning catch". The "snap catch" basically means catching the cats quickly without any preemptive socialisation or human contact. The advantage of this method is that you can make a decision and get things started, especially if you are operating under a time constraint. The disadvantage is that you can traumatise an already terrified cat to a higher degree and make it more difficult for it to trust you.

The "slow conditioning catch" means gradually getting the kittens or cats to associate you as being a food provider prior to you catching them. This won't instantly get them to trust you from the outset, but it will maintain the continuity of you being a carer (and therefore less of a threat to their safety) so that they ease into the rehabilitation process more easily.

Just remember that feral kittens are taught from the outset by their mothers (and nannies or aunties if they live in a cat commune) to fear humans – from their point of view we are predators – and accordingly they will hiss and spit at us. It will take some patience, kindness and love to convince them otherwise.

 

Here are some tips for setting up a cat trap or cage:

1. Do not feed the cats prior to setting the cat trap so that hunger becomes the motivating factor to step inside the trap.

2. It is preferable to trap cats in the warmer months rather than the cooler months, as the cold weather will interfere with the scent molecules emanating from the food (this, however, is out of your control because the timing of your catch depends on the age of the kittens and not what season it is or what the temperature gauge is telling you).

3. Set up two feeding stations in the same place every feed time close to the cat's home or nest. One is for the older cats (feed them first so they are distracted) and one is for the kittens close to their nest or where they hide or play. Try to get the kittens' feeding station set up out of the line of sight of the adults' one.

4. If possible, set the empty cat cage down near the kitten's feeding station several days before you want to trap the kittens so that the cats get used to it, explore it and it becomes part of their normal landscape. 

5. Use a sheltered area so the cat is not exposed to extreme weather or temperatures, and cannot be accosted by any passing predators – human, dogs or otherwise.

6. Avoid catching the cats on days or nights where there are high winds, rain or snow, or any inclement weather.

7. On the catching day, cover part of the cage to provide some protection from the elements. This will also give the trapped cat some small degree of psychological comfort. However, do not let the covering interfere with any trap mechanisms.

8. Hang some aromatic food on the end of the hook (this can be raw or cooked chicken, a chunk of fish or red meat but not tinned cat food). It needs to be solid so it won't shred and break on the hook when the cats eats it or pulls it.

9. Leave the vicinity and if possible check in every few hours in order to bring in the caged cat to safety as soon as possible. 

In the "slow conditioning catch":

1 to 6 as above

7. For about seven to ten days prior to the proposed catch date, sit down close to the kitten feeding station and talk to the cats and kittens as they eat so they get familiar with your voice, smell and presence.

8. Communicate with the cats by using a high sing song voice that matches the pitch of normal cat meows. Use 's' sounds like "psssss" or "puss puss" as they also respond to those.

9. After a few days try to stroke the kittens by rubbing down their spines, hind quarters and tails. (It may be too early to go for their chin, head and neck). The kittens will then associate your loving touch to food and perceive it as a positive thing.

10. If you build up the trust in this way, then on the proposed catching day it will then be easier to pick up the kittens while they are eating and put them into a cat cage or box with a cover before transporting them elsewhere.

I usually scoop up the kittens at breakfast time while the mother is out of the line of sight, so as not to induce her into defending and protecting her kittens or to traumatising her into perceiving me as just another "evil" human (I may be projecting a little and anthropomorphising the experience but it has worked up to now). There is a point at which she will begin separating from the kittens and not be guarding them 24/7. This will vary according to how many litters she's had, her maternal instincts, her personality and the age of the kittens, but as a general rule, the older they get the more she will leave them on their own.

When the mother comes back she will usually search high and low for her kittens and then wait in one place for them to return. However, after 24 to 72 hours the memory of them will start to fade and she will revert to her single life again.

Emotionally the catching time can be stressful for you too, as you may experience a sense of guilt for the act of separating the kittens from their mother. The way to cope with this is to keep focusing on the bigger picture – you or someone else is going to love and care for them and give them an opportunity of living out a happy and healthy life in a way they previously may not had. The life of a wild cat can be a hard one!

Hide and Seek and Kittens

Mimsy, the tortie and white mother feral cat on our property, has been walking around with a bulging belly full of kittens for the last few weeks. She has about three litters a year, and is too intelligent to walk into the cat trap I have consistently set up for the last six months in order to get her to the vet to be desexed. I've switched around the bait, switched locations, switched tactics but to no avail. Our vet said that cat traps in winter are often unsuccessful unless the cats are absolutely starving, because the cold affects the smell molecules in the food so the smell doesn't carry in the air. I just think our older ferals are too street smart to walk into the traps. Anyway ...

I fed the cats this morning in the cat shed we had built for them and I noticed that Mimsy came in last. Her stomach was still a bit puffy but not the awkward swaying balloon I had been accustomed to seeing. I thought she may have had her kittens but when I looked into the nooks and crannies in the shed I couldn't find them. (The shed itself has many levels and many escape routes so that the cats have free passage in and out. I have lined the ground with straw which keeps it very tidy but also warm in winter.)

I later saw my cross border collie Belle, who is absolutely incredible at sniffing out kittens, sitting to attention near a fenced in cattle yard. Mimsy spotted her too and, in a great display of maternal courage, ran across the grass to launch her hissing self at Belle who promptly backed away. When I investigated further, I found two dug out burrows in the long grass with an entry and exit to each. When I peered into one, I spotted four tiny black and white kittens nestled inside and squeaking for either attention or in fear at being disturbed by the unfamiliar sounds around them. 

I took our two dogs away and then returned. I found two lengths of old criss-cross iron (don't ask me what it's called or what it's used for) and then attached them to the fence that ran around the burrow so that the cats could still walk through the holes but the dogs couldn't get in. Then I left them alone.

As I mentioned before Mimsy has had three litters this year. The first one was the most beautiful bunch of cats I had ever seen – all five of them were completely different in colour (a tabby, white with black stripes that looked like paint, a tortie and white, black with white face and paws, and a silver and white tabby). Gorgeous. Their temperaments were lovely as well – they bonded quickly with humans and were and are very loving. I found good homes for three of them and kept two. 

The second litter died from the cold I suspect. We had a bitter winter this year and unfortunately they must have been affected, despite the fact they were completely sheltered in the straw of in the cat shed. I heard their tiny meows for about two days and then they stopped. When I looked for them on the third day, all four of them were dead. They were ginger and white. My cousin buried them in his garden.

This one is the third litter. I wonder how they'll go? You can mark my words I will keep you posted on their progress.

Quick Quiz and Bios

Question: Which of these two cats – the ginger or the white one – are feral cats?

Well, the answer is both of them – they are brothers from the same litter. It would probably be more accurate to say they are ex-feral cats, as they have been domesticated and live in and around the house.

Their mother who I have named Mimsy is extraordinarily fertile and unfortunately for us, too savvy to get caught in a cat cage so that we can have her desexed. She lives at the back of the family property in a cat shed which my generous and kind hearted father built for the coterie of ferals we have living on the farm. Mimsy is a tortie and white cat and has given birth to many multi-coloured offspring, which I will gradually introduce you to over the upcoming weeks. Some remain here with me and others have gone to loving homes with various good-hearted cat people. Unlike their intelligent mother, these two wandered into the baited cat traps (loaned to us by the Animal Welfare League) when they were about eight weeks old. We promptly brought them to our rumpus room which we have converted to a rehabilitation centre and home for cats. The rumpus room is set away from the rest of the house and has a tennis table and old furniture in it with lots of places to hide for the newcomers who need a feeling of safety and security in the first instance before they begin trusting humans. It's warm in the winter and cool in the summer if you open the windows and doors.

It took about three days to have Saffron and Snow purring and in my lap. They were the second lot of cats I had taken in. The socialisation period can take between 24 hours and three weeks, depending on the age and temperament of the cat in question. These two are exceedingly gentle and very placid in nature. Snow is so relaxed when you pick him up that you think there is something wrong with his muscles. He elongates and drapes over your arms as if he is a droopy piece of material. In summer I need to put sun tan lotion on the tips of his ears and nose, as white cats are particularly vulnerable to skin cancers. He also has a distinctive walk that reminds me rather ironically of the Peggy Lee "Peg" dog character in Disney's Lady and the Tramp (watch the YouTube clip below right to the end to see the walk I'm talking about).

Saffron is slightly more shy in nature but enormously affectionate. He is one of those cats who is never any trouble and he loves being in on the action – he goes walking with the dogs and my sheep (singular) when we troop around the farm in the morning to do chores.

Many people have wanted to take Saffron and Snow home with them but it's never going to happen – we adore them too much. I do not sell or trade animals. The only thing I do is find good homes for some of the kittens I look after. If I didn't the cat population would be double on the farm. And by the way, the interview process for the people wanting these kittens is tough!