2 out of 3

I trapped the mother cat (Joy) tonight. Stripey won't go near the trap. He's so smart. He'd be smarter if he let me trap him, though.

1 out of 3 Ain't Bad

I trapped Earl. He's in my car, with the windows down a bit. I will take him to a Forgotten Cats woman's house tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night, I will try to trap Joy and Stripey (again). I'm exhausted.

Earl successfully ate the food from the trap once without getting caught. I had to put more food in the trap and position it a little differently. After he was caught, I wasn't fast enough covering him up. (They calm down with the cover over them. Strange.) He was really thrashing around. The sound of the trap and Earl's panic made the other two cats panic. (It is really kind of scary. If I didn't know it was for the best, I would have just let him out.) Joy and Stripey wouldn't even go for the bait after that. Sigh.

I put the other 3 empty traps in my car too. I worry that my car might be bait.

Here are some new pictures of the cats.

What Did I Get Myself Into?

As you know, I've been taking care of some feral cats. Because of the holiday and my recent trip to NSF, I haven't been feeding the cats as regularly. I fed all 3 last night, and they were quite happy about that.

Anyway, I contacted Forgotten Cats and they just got in touch with me about the cats. The current plan is for them to give me 3 traps, I'll trap the cats and then take the cats to their clinic (about 30 minutes away) to be spayed/neutered. I have to be fast when a cat is trapped. I need to cover the trap and put it into my car so that they other cats don't realize what is going on. I have to do that 3 times (once for each cat). The woman in charge is trying to find a place for the cats, but she may have to return them back to the dumpster area because it's difficult to find homes for the feral cats. Sigh.

The woman was wondering if there was someone else who could feed the cats after I leave. Last night, a 7-year-old girl saw me feeding the cats and she seemed intrigued. A kid might be a good one to take over for me.

I couldn't find the location of the clinic on their web site. The woman told me that they can't do that because people drop cats off there all the time. They can't even put their name on the door. The people dropping off the cats are well-intentioned, I'm sure, but that must be difficult on Forgotten Cats.

The woman was really assuring that I'm doing the right things. She said that the cats will be a lot harder to trap after I leave because the cats trust me. I still think anyone who brings food would become the cat's friend. She also said that I can feed the cats as much as they'll eat. I was worried that they might be overeating because they eat so much, but she said not to worry about that. It's really difficult for the cats to get enough calories in the wild and they tend not to overeat.

One of the funniest things that the cats do is to look at me through plants and think that I can't see them. I'm looking right at them! I saw the mother cat across the street from the dumpster. I talked to her, shook the food bag, and reminded her who I was. I thought she might follow me, but she didn't. However, after I got to the pavilion where I feed them, she showed up pretty quickly after that.

Frank asked if I'm up for this. Um, no, not really. I'm leaving Delaware Friday night, and I have a bajillion things scheduled for this week. I am hoping one of the students I'm working with this summer may be able to help.

The things I do to save the world (like recycling the tons of empty liquor bottles in the apartment I'm subletting).

Dumpster Cats

Here are some pictures of the cats that I've been feeding:



From left to right, that's Randy (kitten), Joy (mother cat), and Earl (kitten). I'm guessing at the relationship between the cats. Joy isn't much larger than the kittens, but Frank thinks she's the mom.

The picture isn't black and white, but the cats are all variations of gray and white. I only see the cats at night, so I can't take great pictures of them.

The more I think about the cats, the more upset I get. I've been looking at shelters, the DE humane society, and various other options. I can donate money to the organizations, but what they really need are homes for the cats, and I can't take any more cats in. (Sydney won't allow it.) I adopted Sydney from a no-kill shelter--to support an organization that doesn't kill animals, but maybe I should have gone to a different type of shelter to save a kitty. Or, maybe I should have gone to one of the smaller organizations.

I have contacted Forgotten Friends, an organization that will spay/neuter stray cats and then release them back where they were. They figure that cats are better off in the wild, where some kind person will feed them, than at a shelter that could euthanize them. For the most part, I agree, but I read several stories of mean children/people abusing stray cats.

I was considering various scenarios for how things will play out for Earl, Randy, and Joy, and none of them seem good. Like, the three cats could be spayed/neutered and released back to the dumpster, but I won't be around much longer to feed them. On the other hand, what if Forgotten Cats decide that the kittens can be tamed and adopted out, but that the mother cat won't. So, the mother cat goes back to the dumpster without her kittens? That doesn't seem right.

These scenarios are why I don't like SUV. They don't package things up
nicely in the end. I'm not sure how to end this story nicely. I mean, of
course, all 3 cats would find good homes, but the adoption statistics posted on some of the sites I've looked at don't seem promising.

Dumpster Treasure

The dumpster at the apartment complex where I'm subletting is the home for 3 gray and white kittens. Frank and I discovered them Saturday, and I've fed some combination of them every night since then (dark gray kitten; dark gray kitten and stripey gray kitten; dark gray kitten, mostly white kitten, and stripey kitten; stripey kitten).

We went to the Blue Rocks game. The Blue Rocks are a minor league baseball team--Royals farm team. The Blue Rocks have three mascots. (Plus Reggie the Party Dude.) Mr. Celery is the second mascot. The story behind Mr. Celery is something like "Someone found a celery costume by the dumpster, took it, and we have another mascot!"

I was reminded of the Glitter poster that Patrick got from me from a pile of posters by the dumpster.

My sister replied: "I swear, you get some of the best stuff from a dumpster: up to three gray and white kittens, a celery costume, a Glitter poster. Why do people throw this stuff out?! But let's not underestimate the value of the highway. Where else could you get a giant inflatable microphone?"

The Legend of the Giant Inflatable Microphone is a whole other blog entry. I wonder if Dad remembers the Legend.

Comfort is lowest priority

The Best Compliments Ever

Tonight, at the Italian Festival, drunk guys told me that I don't look like I'm 30. To prove my age, I showed my driver's license. That was probably a bad idea because one took it away from me. I tried stopping the conversation with the drunk guys by making sure they knew that at least a few of us were much older than high school and by saying stuff like that I majored in computer science.

For handling the drunk guys, Lucy called me "The Coolest Professor Ever", so I definitely have to put that on a mug now.