Friday, March 29, 2024
cat behaviorcommunity catsDaily Featureferal catsMondayTNRTNR Seriestrap neuter return

A 12-cat TNR Project This Weekend

Four of the cats in the colony.

I’m working on a big TNR this weekend involving 10 to 12 cats, and the R is “remove”, not “return.” I’ll be trapping over three days for clinic appointments both Saturday and Sunday, then Monday I drive them out to my friend Birgitta’s farm in Meyersdale where we set them up for their new home in a barn in the country.

six cats waiting
Six cats waiting for dinner.

I’ve been planning this since January, but the caretaker’s wife developed Covid before the February clinic and they were all quarantined, then in March we had a polar vortex, and in April the caretaker had Covid, though vaccinated. It started out as a regular TNR, but in the meantime it was clear caring for the cats had been becoming more difficult for him, older with COPD and heart disease, and then the property owner who lived next door complained about them and demanded they be removed. Once the cats have been removed, his family will not permit him to start feeding again.

A very pretty tux.

The sad thing is he’s been feeding cats there for 20 years, never spayed or neutered any of them, and there are only 12 cats. There should be hundreds, but how many died from disease, how many from predators, we’ll never know. I learned about them from a neighbor who I’m also helping TNR ferals they know came from that colony. Coyotes have been in the area for years, and owls in the woods. It might also be that other people trapped them. He would see kittens and try to keep their eyes and noses clean when they were small enough to handle, and then they’d disappear. He saw a litter of kittens earlier this spring, though it’s not really clear when, but hasn’t seen them recently. So much suffering.

Confused cats missing their dinner.

The cats live in a detached garage and breezeway. I have eight clinic appointments on Saturday and four on Sunday. I tried to plan for keeping their routine as close as possible to normal, and keeping me out of it as much as possible to keep from spooking them.

I asked him to feed the cats breakfast Thursday, then shoo them out of the garage and close it up, and not feed on Thursday night. I went over late Thursday night to set up eight traps in the garage so that he can open the garage door for breakfast Friday morning and though the traps will be weird for the cats, hopefully some cats will go into them because it’s a familiar routine and they are very hungry. He can cover the traps as they go in. When they seem to slow down in appearing I’ll go over and stash the ones trapped in the garage and close that up again, then I’ll set traps in the breezeway that he can watch through the day, and reset at sunset, hoping to catch eight for my Saturday Homeless Cat Management Team clinic appointments. Then I’ll drive them out to the clinic Saturday and come back to set four more traps for my Sunday appointments and take those to a shelter clinic HCMT works with between our own appointments. We’ll care for them all overnight in his garage, then I’ll drive them to Meyersdale on Monday. If I don’t trap them all I’ll go back for the others next month.

The scene in my back seat and the way back in my car. It’s another reason I got the car I did—lots of space for cats in traps as well as my vendor show display and my handmade merchandise.

I’ve always appreciated others’ generosity in the past when I was trapping. He will be helping me with gas money, but if you’d like to contribute money for gas or materials, you can do that by visiting www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net and purchasing one of the things I make. Also, my Paypal address is [email protected] and my Venmo is @Bernadette-Kazmarski. The money we are collecting for Cubbage Hill Cats does not go for this TNR because these cats live in another community. And thank you!

And thanks to Margo for scheduling the surgeries and dropping off some traps! I’m so grateful to be able to turn to her for this support, and grateful that HCMT provides the framework we can all rely on for rescuing cats.


Read more articles about Health and Safety and TNR.


Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy

Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork

Tote Bags and more from Portraits of Animals!

My new designs for hand-printed, handmade tote bags! You can find them all on Portraits of Animals on the page for Totes, Accessories and Purses.



Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:

Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life

Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters

Tuesday: Rescue Stories

Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

Thursday: New Merchandise

Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

 
PORTRAITS OF ANIMALS WEBSITE
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST | TUMBLR | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE| EMAIL | PATREON

HOME

Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

One thought on “A 12-cat TNR Project This Weekend

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:
Verified by ExactMetrics