TNR | Savannah's Paw Tracks

Archive for the category “TNR”

07 Feb 2022

What a way to start February!

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

This was one crazy pants week last week!! At least in the world of rescue and humane management of abandoned community cats. Pardon me if I bore you with a long post, but oh well! It’s my bloggy, right?? MOL!!

We started the week with what we thought was a “new” cat that was dumped at our park colony. The cat is friendly for sure. But, when Mom L got a microchip check, that kitty was chipped to HER!!! Back in 2018!!! From the park!!! Mom L finally (*smacking hand to forehead) figured out that this cat was one she thought was friendly and could be adopted so she took it to our “back then” partners at our county animal shelter. The cat was pronounced “feral” and Mom L had to return it to the colony. She disappeared until NOW!!!

Talk about us cats having nine lives! This cat is about 5 years old. No telling where she has been. We fostered her for a short time and now she has been with the best kitty foster ever, Miss Yasmin! Because of Miss Yasmin’s way with scared, abandoned cats, Senorita is on her way to adoptions this coming weekend!! Her foster adores her! You can see her eating when she returned to the park and now look at her looking at her foster with such adoration in her eyes!! Her name is “Señorita”. Please send her purrs of encouragement for her first time at the adoption even this coming Saturday!!

And not a day past by before my kitty sitter Miss Kandi called for help with one of her colony cats, Sweet Pea, that was walking like a tripod! This darling boy has been in Miss Kandi’s care for twelve years!! He gets fed mid-day and Miss Kandi sits with him in her van for about an hour so he can eat and then spend time in her lap getting and giving nose kisses! So Sweet Pea came to my castle over night and then Mom L took him for medical treatment from our county shelter. They were kind to him but nonetheless, Sweet Pea turned “feral” acting and any exam took sedation. Long story short, he is a senior mancat and likely has arthritis.

But check him out as he transitions behavior from being in a trap to being in Miss Kandi’s arms within thirty seconds of leaving that trap at my castle garage!

Out of the trap and out of the shelter!

Sweet Pea wanted to be back outside and that is where he will live out his life. My nonprofit, Delta View Cats, will make sure that Sweet Pea has a heated shelter where he normally sleeps. The resident at that home offered to run an electric cord for power out his window! And Sweet Pea will live out his nine lives loved and cherished by Miss Kandi and Delta View Cats.

I know you think that was enough for one week—but not in the world of community cat TNR and rescue. Remember, this is all happening in just one week!

A couple of our volunteers have been trying to trap a mom cat at their apartment complex for months and months! She has had four litters in three years! They have fostered the kittens from two of those litters. Finally, they trapped her!!! WOO HOO!!! And they also trapped another young female, less than a year old. Mom L and Dad P offered to recover the two girls as they need to be kept for a minimum of four to six nights. The black mom cat was in heat and the gray juvenile girl was pregnant with six kittens!

You can see mom cat outside the apartment complex, and then both of them as they are being transported to their “freedom” called SPAY surgeries, and then recovering in my castle garage.

The mom cat will likely be released in another 5 days, but the gray girl, named in the Nahuatl language as Tozi (Aztec goddess of healing and sweet water) will be going to Miss Yasmin for foster and then on to adoptions. If you are not in a hurry, please view Tozi’s first video the afternoon of her spay surgery. Would you adopt this kitty? Please do tell me in comments ‘cuz we think she is gonna be crazy adoptable!!

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Adult Cat Rescue, Community Cats, paw it forward, TNR and tagged adopt adult cat, cat recovery, Community Cats, feral cat rescue, paw it forward, scared cat

31 Mar 2021

12 Comments

We can’t bring them all inside

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

I am hoping I can get a bloggy posted with this lousy new editor! I have a really good story to share and I hope Mr Gutenberg editor lets me do it. Here goes—

Mom L and Dad P, through our nonprofit Delta View Cats, helped a feeder who has about 15 cats to feed everyday. We helped get all of them spayed and neutered in 2018. Miss Elaine let us know that she had 3 new cats, a male tuxedo and a mom cat with her daughter—both calicoes. Dad P worked with one of our Delta View Cats’ volunteers to attempt trapping ALL THREE at the same time! Hah! I said!

But then there was Dad P with three trapped cats in our garage and he was setting up a place to hold them overnight before their surgeries!! Yay for Dad P and our trapper volunteer Miss Sue!

Dad P transported them to the cat clinic for their surgeries next morning. Mom cat, named Peaches is on the right with a trap bump on her white nose, and year old daughter is on the left with the brown nose.

When he went to collect them same day, the clinic staff asked if they could keep the handsome and apparently friendly tuxedo male to place him in a foster home and get him onto an adoption path! Great news! And he is now on his way to being adopted! The clinic suggested we try to foster the two calico girls as they also seemed like they might be able to get socialized. Mom L and Dad P agreed to work with them.

First Mom L and Dad P set up two cages, one 36 inch and one 42 inch and placed Peaches in the larger cage as she was apparently more friendly and baby Sunshine went in the 36 inch cage. They were so very afraid.

They really wanted to be together. We did not learn until later how very bonded Mom and daughter are.

Dad P wrapped a towel around his hand to reach into the cages and try to lightly stroke each cat. Mom L did the same several times a day, always both of them talking very quietly and soothingly.

The feeder who has known them the longest was eager to be with them again and quickly agreed to come for a visit. Look how much more at ease BOTH are with Miss Elaine!

After several days of being separated, but always pressed against each other through the cage wire, Mom L and Dad P decided to put them together in a large cage. And they immediately snuggled together. Unfortunately, instead of the daughter, Sunshine, becoming more social like her Mom, it was Peaches, the mom, who dropped back to acting more feral! So very disappointing. We invited Miss Elaine to visit with them again and they were better with her, but still not enough to encourage us to stress them more by trying to help them become social enough to get adopted.

After another several days, the decision was made to return Peaches and Sunshine to the care of their feeder, Miss Elaine. She will continue to work with both of them and who knows—one day they may decide they trust humans enough to come inside a home. But for now, they are safe on an eight acre site where Miss Elaine feeds them and nine plus other cats. There is amply shelter from heat and rain and cold for them and there is no auto traffic.

Enjoy watching their release day and their dance together the following day as they lead Miss Elaine to their food dishes.

We learned not every abandoned community cat that likes pets from its feeder is ready to come inside and live with humans. Peaches and Sunshine taught us a lot.

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

Posted in Adult Cat Rescue, Community Cats, Project Delta View Cats, TNR and tagged abandoned community cat, community cat colony, socializing community cats

15 Feb 2021

16 Comments

Trap a cat? Not easy!

HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

So Mom L is trying to trap this bootiful long hair dainty feisty calico gal at a colony we just started to manage. Her name is Baby and she is a kitty cat bully!! Yep! Sorry to say, there is often one in every colony no matter how big or small that colony is. And Baby is all fluffy furs and probably weighs in at about five pounds tops!! But she sure is the queen of this little six kitty colony.

Mom L set the trap and waited to see how Baby would react.

You can see that Baby gave that trap a very wide birth! She wasn’t so sure about why the heck it was placed near her treasured food bowl! You see Baby is not only a bully to a couple of the other cats, she is also a TOTAL FOODIE!! Mom L thought for sure she would dive right after that yummy sardine bait. HAH!!

Baby checked out that trap, all around and then did one of those “See ya, wouldn’t wanna be Ya!!” moves!!!

Mom L is gonna go back and hopes that she can trap Baby and find a foster to help assess her ability to be socialized. She is such a lovely cat, and she truly isn’t feral. Let’s hope Baby realizes that we are tryin’ to give her an opportunity for a forever indoor home!

Do you trap for TNR? Or also trap to try to bring some potential friendlies inside? Let us know what your experiences are in comments.

Hope everyone’s Valentines Day was filled with the love our park colony boys showed us with their little “taileo message”!! You can show some love to our colony cats by visiting our Amazon Wish List. We are very desperate for wet food and for a couple of shelters for our colony cats at a local waterfront park.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/34J9Z5QLZ1HIG?ref_=wl_share