Monday, May 12, 2014

April/May 2014


April and May 2014 have been very busy months! I do not think I have ever had to handle so many litters. I think my theory is correct - the more free-roaming cats we sterilize, the fast the remaining cats breed to keep the number in tact. Even Dr. Anderson says he believes he is seeing more fetuses in the pregnant females.

I TNR'd 149 cats in April and May is off to a good start. Last week, I TNR'd 76 cats. This was not quite a record but close. The last week of April was trying as I trapped in Maricopa, a rural town 60 miles from my home. This required three round trips to Maricopa. It would have been four trips but I got sick the day the first group had to go to the vet and the caregivers had to hold the five that they trapped the second night. Over the three nights I caught and fixed 24 cats from this location - a wonder as the wind was the worst I'd seen! Below is a photo of the release.



Release in Maricopa

"Hangman"
In March I drove 60 miles each way to Tonopah to trap two cats. One was a full-term pregnant female and the other her "boyfriend". Had them within five minutes! The lady was in a wheelchair and really needed help. These are the special moments that make this often thankless job worthwhile. 

The first week of May was trapping "nirvana". A couple of weeks ago I had stopped by a mobile home park where I had trapped about 60 cats in 2011 and guess what - I saw LOTs more cats. I could not get this one out of my mind so I solicited Suzie to help trap. 

We were going to help one caregiver the first night then another the second night. Well, fortunately we brought extra traps and ended up at four different places and caught 23 cats! The second night we caught 25 cats which included three pet cats belonging to several of the feeders. This resulted in having to go to two vet clinics. Thank you Arizona Spay Neuter Clinic for taking the overflow without an appointment! 

When I did the release on Thursday morning I caught three more cats on the other side of the oleanders E. of the MHP. But it did not stop there! the next morning I caught 10 more cats there when releasing the three from the day before. So what started Monday night was finished the following Saturday morning. Both of us trapped at several other spots during the week as well and I ended up doing a total of 76 cats!

This photo shows what I saw when I drove up the first night to trap at this MHP. Unfortunately we did not get ALL the cats and will need to go back to finish up. Thank god for the drop-trap...                           
Waiting to be fixed

What was interesting is how few of the original cats I'd trapped in 2011 were still there. The cats we trapped were all new, young cats. In addition there were at least three litters. One litter, found behind the driver in the photo, went directly to a rescue group. Two other litters had to go back un-sterilized as there were way too young to fix. The last photo shows the mom cat at the vet with her kittens in the trap. At least mom is fixed and if the kittens survive we will go back and snag them. All liver under the trailers and conditions are not the best. All had lots of fleas! I hate putting litters back out there but we just do not have any choice when there are so many and not enough fosters and rescue groups willing to take them - especially this far in to kitten season.

If you are feeding feral cats and need help getting them fixed, please call me @: 602-717-2287 or email me @: pekalish@gmail.com

The Spay Neuter Hotline provides traps and a vet appointment for a tax-deductible donation. Trapping assistance is available for those in need.


Mom and Kittens