A few times in the past, stray cats have found their way to my house and made nice pets. Eventually they either died of old age or an accident of some sort. So I found myself without a cat. At about that time I saw a mouse. Putting two and two together I decided I needed a new cat.
I pondered this problem and supposed that a kitty would one day come calling, I would feed it, and it would decide to move in. One day a kitty did come calling. I fed it. It turned out to be feral. It did want to be fed though, so it lurked around outside. Well, hmmm. This wasn't what I thought would happen.
Soon two male cats showed up also. And another female that I only noticed when her kittens came running out at me and started hissing at me and arching their backs. Kitty Number One then had four kittens. So now I had eleven feral cats.
I quit feeding the cats and managed to convince several of them to leave. And one of them wasn't feral anyway. He just joined the party.
I was bound and determined not to feed the kitties, but I weakened and fed them anyway. Apparently a couple of the kittens died, and the rest weren't friendly, but they weren't belligerent. So I relented.
Fast forward about a year. The adult kitties are as feral as ever. Four surviving kittens are half grown, and the original kitty is expecting a new litter. I considered shooting them, but really, I didn't want to. I considered poison. Well, only as a last resort. I decided to take them all to the vet and have the whole bunch put to sleep.
So I got out my kitty kennel and saw that it was broken. Then I got out my dog kennel. It was much sturdier with a metal grate for a door. OK. I called the vet and told the office of my plan. "Would you like an appointment?" "I have to trap them first. I'm not sure when that will happen." "OK, bring them in when you trap them." And so I became a trapper.
All the kittens were perfectly fine with being trapped and walked right in. So I hauled the cute little dears to the vet expecting a dire fate for them. But the vet liked the kitties and decided to adopt them. He said they could live in the barn on his farm. He would give them procedures first, free of charge. Yay!
That still left a large gray male and the female that was expecting. She absolutely had to go, one way or the other. I spent my days trying to trap her and my nights studying methods of euthanasia at home. Not that I liked the gray male. He was a big evil meanie.
CAT TRAPPING
I set my trap by never feeding the remaining kitties except inside the kennel. But they were too smart for me and always managed to zoom out when I tried to close the door. I persisted in doing this for about half an hour a day for more than a week. The cats weren't getting enough food, but whose fault was that?
The situation was becoming more desperate as the speckled kitty became bigger and bigger, and I knew I would soon have a lot more cats. So today was the day. Either I managed to trap this kitty or I would have to think of some other less happy end. I had it all figured out. I had settled on feeding her a hard boiled egg with about 3 grams of Xylitol. I dreaded that idea.
I put food in my kitty trap and waited. Speck eventually went in, but each time I tried to close the door she was too quick and got out. And yet she kept going in, probably because she was very hungry by now. And then....boom! I caught her!! My goodness the craziness of that moment. All kitty hell broke loose, and for a moment the door wasn't actually fastened. I pressed on my side of the door with my hand while I tried to latch it. Claws were flying. Hissing and howling. I thought I was going to take a drubbing. My adrenaline was pouring out for several minutes. But I prevailed and hauled her off to the vet. She was a little beast in the waiting room despite being locked in a kennel. I'm sure glad she was in the sturdy dog kennel. She's going to have a procedure courtesy of the vet, and go be a barn cat on his farm.
The mean gray cat will just have to starve I guess. As for the other feral kitties, they are living happily ever after, and so am I.
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