Here she is, the kitten that has been keeping me up all hours worrying about her safety. Please excuse the very poor quality photos, all taken from the web cam, but I thought I would share a sneak peak, even if they are not all that clear.I am getting very discouraged. She is getting older, and the type of behavior she is exhibiting, she is already very feral. I have not seen her leave the shelter. She uses the litter box in there, and eats and drinks in there. I often see her chasing crickets. I have never seen her climb on the houses, and most times she is inside them.
She is very close to the Siamese, and he is very patient with her. I am worried my other ferals are going to hurt her. If they see her out, they chase her back into the houses, swatting at her through the entry ways. Last night one of my ferals had her cornered in another part of the shelter, I had to get the squirt bottle and chase my other feral away. I then got a really good look at the kitten. She has a cute little squished face, with a round apple head shape, just like my Mac, in my cat room. She does have orange tabby stripes on her face, but the rest of her is gray and white. She is really a cute little thing.
I have been keeping the trap set all the time, re baiting, but she is terrified of it. She hasn't gone near the trap. I can see her sneak out of the houses to eat, keeping her distance from the trap. The Siamese went halfway in the trap last night as I was watching, he got spooked, backed out and set it off. He and the kitten ran back into the houses. The kitten watched from a distance when the Siamese approached the trap. I do not want to trap the Siamese yet, as he seems to bring the kitten out of the houses, and she feels safe with him. But darn, I am at a loss.
Time is of the essence now, as she has already passed the age of easily taming. I have a cage in my garage all set up for her, so WHEN I catch her, hopefully I can spend some time working with her, only time will tell if she is workable.
This is a Tomcat that has been coming around peaking down at her. Not good.
This is her and the Siamese eating together.
I need a lot of luck to catch her. I just don't have any other ideas. She is by far, the hardest kitten I have ever tried to trap.
17 comments:
I doubt that I have any ideas that you haven't already tried, but have you tried covering the trap? Or spraying the trap with Feliway? Is there any way you can trap her inside one of the cat houses by partitioning off part, so that when you know she's in there, you can close it off?
I hope you are able to get her soon!
Feliway is a great idea. I have never tried spraying it on a trap before. I use the plug ins in my cat room all the time. Fantastic Idea, wouldn't hurt to try.
I do cover the trap. I am now thinking maybe uncover it and see if that will help her go investigate it.
I did block one of the entry ways to the house I knew she was in,, but she escaped past the trap and out of the shelter. The only way I can get into the house is to lift the roof, then she escapes through the bottom.
I know the best way to trap her is to get her to go into the trap on her own. I don't want to scare her enough to leave the shelter. We have a lot of loose dogs in my neighborhood, so right now as long as she is staying, she is safe.
I will be trying the feliway, I happen to have a spray bottle on hand, so i will go do that now.
Ok, this may sound complicated and since I don't know what the cat house looks like, bear with me. G
Do you have a small pet carrier that can be placed in the house? Let her get used to it and then carrier trap her? Maybe rig up a large crate with a smaller carrier inside, place over whatever exit works best (since the trap is obviously too small to prevent her escape), plug up all other exits and lure her into the carrier? The Feliway is also a good idea to use in this case too. You can carrier trap using a regular pet taxi and a long (strong) string or rope but you have to be watching. The tricky part is to keep the line taunt on the door until you can physically lock it.
All good ideas Katt. The little cat houses, nothing will fit inside those. I have tried a drop trap, which is similar to what you are saying with a string attached, she won't come out of the houses even if she hears me in the yard.
I think anything foreign to her in the shelter is too scary for her to investigate, which is why she isn't interested in the trap. I was considering just leaving the trap permanently in the shelter, but not set, just so she can get use to it being there, but again, I am running out of time. The siamese is a boy, if she is a female, and I am pretty sure she is, I have to get her asap.
You have given me another idea though. Thanks for all the ideas!
I don't know diddly about trapping feral cats; but, it sounds as though you've been given some interesting ideas to try. Hope you can catch her before the tom cat gets to her. I have my fingers crossed for you. She is really cute!
Patience is the best or a net, Im just kidding about the net:))) I bought my cats reindeer antlers today, I will post pictures tomorrow so come by and look:))
Good things sometimes come in tough skiddish squirmy cute packages!
Sending positive thoughts and encouragement!!
Thanks for visiting my blog. I see we share common interests. Alot of my clients trap feral cats and bring them into my clinic to be spayed. I know one trick that works is to open the trap, but not set it. Put some real smelly kitty food in their and she will get used to going in and out of the trap. This takes time, but eventually you can actually set the trap to catch her. If she gets used to going in the trap and not getting caught, this should work. I hope..Good luck and thank you for everything you do also.
ps..I just saw that you have Alley Cat Allies on your side bar. I am friends with several of the people on their board of Advisors. They are a really cool group. Go to our website..it's www.humanealliance.org
Have a blessed day
You are absolutely welcome to add Humane Alliance to your side bar. AFter all it is the only choice that saves lives.
Hi T. come by and look at my reindeer kitties
Oh, Im glad they are doing everything right, I just thought it was kind of quiet in there and last night someone was adjusting the camera and the babies looked so sad once the person left:( Im going to pick up another set of antlers, I only have one for now, the picture I took with my cell phone is so much cuter, I need to figure out how to get it to my blog:))
Okay, I posted the pics from my phone, go look at them please they are cute
Happy Thanksgiving!!! Have a wonderful day tomorrow:)))
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving T! Good luck with the pretty kitty :)
I'm sure you will catch the cat...
I took a look at your puppy cam and they are just the cutest little pups ever...they play so much!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving:)))
Post a Comment