Thursday, January 2, 2014

Pam's TNR Blog - 10/4/2009

Pam's Feral Cat TNR Blog - Week of 10/4/09



10/4

Sunday was a busy day at the clinic. I transported 13 cats to the clinic for three different caregivers. Once again we had too many cats and 14 had to go to two different vets on Monday. This of course meant holding in my garage and feeding and watering them. I also had to drop off 12 cats to two caregivers I had transported on the way home. We fixed 74 cats in Tempe that day meaning there were a total of 88 cats trapped! There were 28 males and 46 females that will no longer be breeding. What a great feeling!
Many thanks to all the trappers, transporters and volunteers for making our weekend clinics so successful. And most of all thanks to Suzie for all the work she puts in to making the Tempe clinics a success every weekend. All the scheduling, reminder calls, making sure caregivers get traps, and most of all scheduling the right number of cats!

10/5

I delivered one cat back in the morning the morning, a male. This caregiver had not caught the cat she was after, the calico mother cat - why was I not surprised. So I brought my drop-trap along and had her within less than ten minutes. Took her off to the vet along with ten others from the day before - the rest Suzie took to another vet. Suzie also picked the ten up and delivered them to the caregiver for aftercare. Fortunately the caregiver was able to pick up the other four at the other vet. We are always juggling; be it traps or vet slots or transport or aftercare or ... all the things that make TNR successful.

I had a large trapping job that night for 12 cats which turned in to 15 cats. At least it was cool enough to keep the cats in the vehicle overnight.

10/6

I ended up at two vets again with the 15 cats. Since once vet requires pick-up at 1:00 PM and the other at 4:00 PM, one's day is about shot. I spent most of the day sterilizing spay packs, the instruments the vets use for spaying the cats at our high-volume spay days. Each one has to be sterilized between use and we had done a lot of females at the clinic on Sunday. I picked up the cats for aftercare and headed off to set traps again for the straggler I did not catch.

10/7

I caught the last cat overnight (except for one small kitten that was too young to fix). Suzie and Barbara had a successful night trapping and had ten cats to take to the vet. We split up the cats between two vets again. Then there was pick-up, aftercare and release again. Suzie helped a lot as I had yet another trapping job that night. This one was for six cats and turned in to 11 cats over two nights. It was fairly easy except for the caregiver complaining about not wanting the cats back and of course, having to do anything including donate.
He said, "But these are not my cats"! My response was: "But they are notmy cats"!

10/8

This was an interesting morning. It was Thursday and one of our vets only allows us ten cats on Thursdays. A last-minute scheduling conflict left me with no vet! After trapping a few stragglers overnight, I had more than the six I had planned, making matters worse. So I called another vet who told me to call back in half an hour and to see if they could take them. So I went to the clinic and sat in the parking lot, hoping. At 7:45 AM they said OK. I was relieved. It would require driving back there in rush hour traffic to pick them up in the afternoon. On the way home in the afternoon I'd set traps again for the stragglers. Then of course there was aftercare. I think I may have had some of Suzie's she had caught on the second night of trapping, but too much time has gone by now to remember. It all starts to blur after a while.

10/9

Caught one last cat overnight and brought him in. After many years of second night trapping I've concluded that one always catches male cats the second night. My theory is the males come around looking for the females who are not there - so they decide to look for a meal - and in the traps they go. I have no scientific proof of this but it does happen a lot. If not males, then it is the elusive calico mother cats that avoided the traps the night before.
10/10

I released the one last cat in the morning. The caregiver again asked me not to release them at his place and did not thank me for helping him nor did he offer to donate anything towards the surgeries. I did not even ask. I left, feeling rather dejected, but then thought to myself that at least I fixed all 11 of the cats and there would be no more kittens. One has to remind oneself often that despite the frustration with caregivers at times, we are still fixing a LOT of cats that would never have been fixed without our help.

Next week - More drop-trapping adventures!

Note: We are having a blow-out yard sale on 11/6 and 11/7 and are collecting donations of household items, books, clothing (good condition), and other items (no furniture). If you have items to donate please call us. The yard sales last Spring were a HUGE success and we hope this one will be even better - we will have lots of designer clothing and shoes for sale so please stop by. A formal announcement of time and location will be sent out later.

...and remember we need your financial support. To donate see ourwebsite. If you want to donate for a specific caregiver of trapping please specify. Thanks!

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