For all you cat lovers out there..

Your Jimmy sure sounded a lot like our Big Blackie.

When our original 3 feral cats appeared in our yard and eventually were found with the 2 brothers huddled together in our garden, we decided it was best to TNR them. As luck would have it, by the time we got through the "Process" with the county, a 4th cat appeared and he was all wounded up from fights. He got trapped the Thursday before our scheduled Friday Surgery day in 2022, but the County has a policy regarding wounded feral cats where the wounds came from sources with unknown Rabies history. This policy is to either house the cat for 120 day quarantine period, at one's property that must pass some kind of inspection approval process, or surrender the cat to the county to euthanize.

This is what happened to Big Blackie. ( A known Hostile and pretty vicious fighter) Hence, why I sought a more humane and non free choice for White Spot. Since White Spot was seeming like he was gaining confidence with me, and was appearing to have become mostly non combative with our 5 yr old feral, Blackie, he had hope to continue on with a healthy life if I was able to do what we did today with the Paid TNR Vac, Woundcare, Neuter etc trip.

I thank you all for letting me share, and also for your own cat stories.
 
My Cats Update.

Cat number 1, my 5 yr old Tux was a trooper today at the Mobile vax vet at Petco for his first trip since he was right around 10-12 months old in 2022. He tested negative for the yucky stuff cats can get like leukemia, etc.

Got home with him and Kitty 2 my short haired Black guy I call White Spot, still calm and peaceful in the large dog crate. He has eaten well, used cat box and overall seems at ease letting me mess about with his accessories, rattling the cage door latches and petting him. I am still amazed at how he has become brave in what seems like the last few weeks of a month's time after resurfacing from his disappearing all Winter. The part that amazes me is that for 3 years, he has been so scared of me that when he DID grace our place with showing up, I'd try feeding him and he would run away. Now he comes when I call his name.
 
Saturday, I released our White Spot back out to where he lived his past 3 years, into our yard at roughly 2:30 pm. By the time we got back from the store at 4:30, he had made it back around to the other side of the house where our driveway is and the door entrance where I feed him and my 5 yr old feral. For him doing so, I gave him another bowl of food. From then till now, 12:45 am he hasn't been far. I've fed him treats n dinner and last, I fed him some dry kibble inside the doorway and he was brave enough to enter the propped open door to eat and get petted. He could sniff around some and exit as he pleased. All went well with him being brave enough to enter. I'm so proud of him.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Saturday, I released our White Spot back out to where he lived his past 3 years, into our yard at roughly 2:30 pm. By the time we got back from the store at 4:30, he had made it back around to the other side of the house where our driveway is and the door entrance where I feed him and my 5 yr old feral. For him doing so, I gave him another bowl of food. From then till now, 12:45 am he hasn't been far. I've fed him treats n dinner and last, I fed him some dry kibble inside the doorway and he was brave enough to enter the propped open door to eat and get petted. He could sniff around some and exit as he pleased. All went well with him being brave enough to enter. I'm so proud of him.
Click to expand...
That’s how we brought Papa Midnite into the house. He was very wary at first, but ended up spending most of his time indoors with us.
 
Life got mostly back to normal Friday night when my wife got home from helping her parents in Ohio. She got to see the new Kitty in the crate as he spent the night peacefully in the dog crate. I've been anxious to let him out so he can get some exercise plus fresh air and return to his life of freedom. Mid afternoon I decided to let him try leaving by our dining room side door. Once he cleared the doorway, he was off n running. My next couple hours brought me thoughts of if he would encounter the big Tabby, and get into any fights with him or my 5 yr old feral. And. If he would return to our driveway and kitchen door area. The 2nd question was answered a few minutes after we got home. He was a little shyer back in the wild than before I trapped him for surgery at first. I attribute this to his survival instincts in knowing he had to compete for space/ food etc. But as I've seen and mentioned, he ventured into the house under his own power B4 bed. He was perched on our landing outside, so I put the towel that he slept with in his crate, down for him to sleep on. He was still there morning. I put our 5 year old out along with 2 bowls of food. Breakfast was a cordial meal side by side with my guidance and comforting them to be in each other's proximity and to coexist peacefully. It seems that the 2 of them are making great strides in this area over the last month or so, and this is very reassuring to me. Having seen the ways that my 5 year old started life as 100% feral, to coming to our door to eat, and by 3 years old he began bonding with me to the extent that this 3 year old is now developing, right down to his first meals just inside the door. Before I knew it, my 5 year old got comfortable enough to explore my lap, eat with the door closed, explore the upstairs to our house, and then his first night sleeping in our bed. In case you guys don't realize it, I am totally mind blown at having what amounts to wild animals becoming able to trust humans and then have a chance at long and healthy lives.
 
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Oops, not the end of story.

As of today, I continued WORKING WITH my little guy and my big guy. White Spot and Blackie. They ate nicely for breakfast and Blackie sat on my lap outside. WS got his rubs and petting and still has his flight or fright reactions where it comes to feeding and stopping to back away a few feet to protect himself.

By afternoon, I went to call the 2 cats in, and only WS came. As I was feeding him, I managed to pet him a bit more and actually pet with both hands on his sides. This led me to trying to lift him. He let me get him up maybe 6 inches of so and he remained calm. So I lowered him back down near his food dish.

After he finished eating and wandering back to the gravel drive, I spotted the large Gray Tabby up under my Step Van. Of course this led me to accelerate White Spot's first lifting and carrying experience, as I wanted to get him back in the house and back into the large wire crate, so I could attempt to capture the Tabby before WS got any more torn up in fights. With WS in the crate, this left me with trying to accomplish the 2nd half of the challenge where it comes to trapping Tabby. How to set and bait the trap and not capture my 5 yr old tuxedo, Blackie.
Well, Blackie made it easy as he came right to me and into the house for feeding.

Now, if only Tabby will be hungry enough, brave enough, and small enough to fit through the trap door and onto the trip plate so I can capture him and get him fixed, shots etc.

Wish me luck, I will need it.
 
Well, I managed to strike out on capturing the Tabby by the time our 5 year old tux was antsy to go back out to his happy place.

Since I am not a mean dad to my cat, I figured I would let him out for awhile, shut the 2 traps' doors. Don't want to trap my boy of course. I'll let him have his time outdoors till bed time then hopefully bring him in to sleep with us. I am figuring to try again tomorrow after I feed White Spot and Blackie their breakfast. I'll head out for my day of lawn mowing, and attic cleanout at my dad's house while our temps aren't 10000 degrees, and hopefully get the news from my wife that Tabby found one of the 2 traps and is good to go for me to make a TNR surgery appointment on Wednesday or Thursday if I can arrange it with Baltimore County.
 
Dangit @ the elusive grey Tabby.

I put 2 traps out for it all and into the night yesterday while containing our other 2 cats inside the house. Finally around maybe 11 PM I let out big Tux out, and shut the doors on the traps. Our Tux stayed out all night.

I woke this AM and fed our little White Spot in the crate around 7, then at around 8 I went out to get the water dish and saw that a half full container of Temptations cat treats had been knocked off the top of an old electric heater and the one trap it fell near, had been turned over sideways. The critter that got to the cat treats somehow got the flip up triangular lid open without getting the main lid off. No kibbles were on the bricks it sat on, but a huge portion of the treats had been eaten. I presume the cat or raccoon was reaching inside and pulling the treats out with it's paws. That is the only way I can see that the amount of treats missing could have gotten out of that flap hole.

Now for the frustrating part. I prepped a bowl of food for our Tux and put it down on our brick landing for him. Soon after I went back in the house and behind the mostly closed door, I hear yowling, and got a good visual on the Tux guarding his food as the Tabby approached within 5 feet from him. I had to scoop my boy up and take his food in the house and then get ready to try to bait and re-set the traps to try to catch the Tabby. When I shut the door to get the food, I saw him sitting on the landing looking out toward the driveway. I went upstairs to get my cell phone to maybe get a picture of him, but by the time I got back downstairs, he was gone. All this happened within about a 2 minute period.

Since he was probably gone gone, I decided to set the traps and see what happens. It is now almost 2.5 hours later and I doubt the cat has returned to eat and eat inside the traps. WHICH is Frustrating, because, HE only seems to appear and stay and eat, WHEN at least 1 or both of the other cats are outside. AND of course I can't have that because one of ours may try to eat inside the traps and not the TABBY that is myintended target, plus he and the other 2 cats fight,,,,,,,,,,,,,and I am trying all this trapping so that none of the cats will continue to inflict serious wounds on the others.

It sucks to strike out in trapping him because the longer it takes, the less freedom my other ferals have, and have without mortal combat taking place. That, and my time limit for borrowing the traps is also limited ( 2 weeks) and I am soon almost to that time passing.,
 
It’s really frustrating.
Who do you borrow the traps from?
We had problems borrowing a trap too, I ended up just buying one . Whoever I was supposed to borrow it from, took it from me after I used it and gave me a receipt for a charity donation
 
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Hi Boubou,
Hope you are doing well and thanks for reading and commenting.

I live in Baltimore County Maryland in the southern area below Baltimore City. Our Animal Services dept of the county will loan traps for TNR. However, they have odd hours, my contact person was out all last week, etc.

So, the outfit that I borrowed traps from is in another county just a bit south of us. They are not part of their county services but are a cat advocate type organization.

It is called www.laurelcats.org
The man I dealt with is very nice and probably didn't have to loan me traps since I am doing the TNR in a different county than he is in. However he did, and the For PAY vet surgery clinic I went to with my other feral of unknown origin, sex, vet status etc. did great for us. They aren't free like Baltimore County is, but they also will take in a wounded cat of unknown rabies vaccination status, and won't do like Baltimore County if you do bring in a wounded animal. They make you submit to passing an inspection and agreeing to quarantine the cat for 120 days before they can Vax, Spay/Neuter etc. it, otherwise if not, they put them down.
 
Sorry to blabber on about my misadventures with the cats. But, from the beginning of today and then as day turned to night, I had what I believe was a different unwanted visitor.

I got home around 8:30 PM and took my Tux inside to make him and White Spot in the house. As I got their bowls ready, I thought I heard some rattles outside. I was suspecting that Tabby was out there trying to get at the food that was in the 2 traps with the doors closed.
When I looked out through the storm door window, I saw a different gray type animal that I almost suspected was who knocked over the Temptations container, and toppled the one trap on its side.

Instead of Tabby, it turned out to be Mr or Ms Raccoon who was trying to access the cat food and sardines in the locked traps.
Needless to say, I put the traps, food and all, in an enclosed trailer I have in the driveway. He came back and overturned a box with some empty cat food cans that I had up on a box we use for parcel deliveries.

Now I am at a quandry place where I am 100% needing to build our cats an enclosure so they can be safe day or night. Safe from attack cats, raccoons, or other predators.

Glad I salvaged an old shed off a couple across town a couple years ago. My memory popped into gear the other night to tell myself, HEY, you can rebuild that shed and add wire enclosure stuff to customize it for the cats. This way. most of my materials will be close to free and the cats will have good shelter and all.
 
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