Welcome to PIF Tails Virtual Cat Community
Description Short Haired Black and White Girl with one white and two black kits
Rescue Date 5th June 2003
Rescued From A local garden with a humane trap
We spend a couple of days trapping Fleur and her kits but it was worth it.
Yesterday, I was weeding the front garden with Milo helping me. Several people stopped and chatted to me but one strange lady tried to stroke Milo (he was scared of her !!!) This lady went on to say that she needed to get rid of a mother and kittens living under a hedge in her back garden. So silly me volunteers to remove said cats.
After ringing nearly every shelter in the area, I find one who will take the cats in, if we catch them first. This morning off we go. So we are trying to catch these cats but we do not have access to a trap. We do have cat carry cases, tuna, blanket to throw over cat trap and strong gloves. We are going back around 7pm, that is when mummy starts begging for food at the neighbours. Wish us luck.
I have found shelters which can do the following :-
Loan traps but full can't help or home cats
Will take all cats caught, if not feral
Will take kittens only to raise and rehome
Will pay for spaying or neutering of any feral's we catch.
So we are on the list for loaning a trap. The CPL have all traps in use until a week tuesday :( The neighbour will not feed them tomorrow and we'll have another try. I am surprised that NO shelter will actual trap them for you, they relay on people catching these cats themselves. What we do then depends on how the cats are.
If the mum is friendly, we'll take her and any kits to Thornberry shelter, no kill shelter who have reserved a place for them if we catch them. If she is feral CPL have promised to pay for her spaying and we'll hold her overnight and then release her. As a neighbour was feeding her, she should be alright (Though I am thinking about making her a cheap shelter to put in the neighbours garden, if I get permission) The young kittens, will be rehomed by Thornberry, if caught. Also one of the above shelter will hand rear the kittens if we only catch them and not mum. But we may catch none, as the owners are very loud and insist on stomping around the garden and shouting at the top of their voices, to help us? I had mum 1/2 foot away from me, interested in the tuna I was offering and he boomed and of the cat ran off *sigh*
We caught Momma cat and the two little kits. Hurrah, the CPL rang this morning saying a trap had become free. I was round at the neighbours house by 12.30pm. I set the cat trap up using tuna and after circling the cage twice she set the trap off. Catching the mum took 10 minutes.
The kittens took me and Steve 45 minutes fighting the giant bramble bushes to catch the two little kittens. One black and one black and white and very very cute.
Luckily the adult mummy cat must have been a pet at some point (not feral) and calmed down quickly. We have just got back from Thornberry Shelter, where Mum and kits are settled into a nice warm cage together. I am just going to go back and check that we didn't miss any kittens, though everyone has just seen two, better to be sure.) Also I want to see if the older litter hangs around still or what.
Oh No. There is a third kitten. That we haven't caught yet. I went back just to nosy and found another black kitten. We couldn't catch her, she hid too well, so we are going back in an hour to try again. If we catch her, we'll have to hold the kitten at least overnight, shelter is closed until 11am tomorrow. My arms are hurting with all the scratches from the brambles, we are going to order takeaway after we catch the third kitten. I feel so bad for her, we have taken her siblings and mum away, though her dad (big fat tom) is still around. We'll catch him later and get him neutered.
Bad News, we still can't find her :( I am so tired and my arms hurt, I'm starting to think we'll never find this one again. If we had known another kitten was out there, we wouldn't have took mum It's getting dark, so she's probably (hopefully) holed up somewhere for the night. So the day has a complete mess, we shouldn't have picked up any cats, hindsight eh.
But I just have no idea where she went. One minute Houdini kitten (Named because she just vanished into thin air before our eyes) was running from me to Steve about 2 metres off though the brambles and she just vanished.
...Houdini appears.
We went over to the neighbours garden to look for her and Steve managed to catch her in his hands. Didn't he do well, any advice on raising feral kitten ?
We took our visitor to the vets where she passed all her blood tests and is a medium or longhaired little girl. (Well the vet is pretty sure, she is a girl) So I would like to introduce our Fifth cat Bramble, so named after the bushes, we fought though to reach her.)
I rang Thornberry shelter, Fleur and her kits have all been re-homed to loving families. Great news :D