Catching stray kittens in the yard/forest

[ebinmaine 79,198]

Yesterday Trina was around the house and heard what she figured was a catbird. 

Being interested in birds as we all are here she went looking around for it out the windows. 

What she found wasn't a catbird. It was a little orange kitten. 

Obviously very timid and likely wild, it was not approachable. 

Trina left an open tin of my sardines out. The kitten enjoyed them. 

 

 

Trina and I both thought we oughtta try to catch it and then consider keep vs adopt out. We have several excellent shelters around and a great organization called Friends of Feral Felines. 

She went to town and bought a small animal trap and some food. 

We set the trap and left it out overnight near the last known kitten location.  

Side yard. 

 

 

Then.... this morning rolled around.  

 

You can see the silver of the trap kind of set behind that big rock there. Yesterday Trina set that hoping to catch the orange cat that we had seen and heard.

This morning we got up to find the trap had a dark animal in it!!

Obviously not an orange cat. So I went outside and discovered a black kitten. There was also several other cats around.

If you zoom in on that trap a little bit you can see a dark colored lump at the upper right and an orange colored lump right between the trap and the rock. They are having some breakfast that I put out after I discovered there were more cats out there.

 

Soooo...  this morning Trina set to making a kitten cage out of scraps we had laying around. 

Use what ya have!

This is built with old ballusters and some hardware cloth/wire mesh. 

See the former deck gate at picture left.  

 

 

Handles added for ease of humans. 

 

The hinge is a piece of black leather.  

 

 

Here's the black kitten resting in its temporary room. 

 

 

 

We've since added a piece of carpet to block our neurotic dog from seeing the cage occupants and also covered the whole kitten capturing set up with a pop up.  

 

We left the black kitten out in the forest because the other two (that we've seen) have been coming by to visit so we're hoping to catch all three.  

[WHX?? 56,916]

Send me one I could use another mouser. 

[ri702bill 12,274]

What? No WH parts in the build???  I expected to see a C 85 hood latch... or two. 

[ebinmaine 79,198]

[Beap52 2,312]

Feral cats are about as welcome as feral hogs.   Feral cats are hard on bird populations and feral hogs are hard on about everything. 

 

Some folks have no regards about the animals they dump off to defend for themselves.  

 

Without you and Trina, those kittens would have likely had a slow and painful demise. 

[Sparky-(Admin) 25,614]

Love hearing how your dealing with these kittens. 
  Have a soft spot for cats even since the first one came to live here maybe 18 years ago. He was the “family cat” but he became my cat and followed me everywhere. He passed 2 years ago at the age of 16 but it gave me a new appreciation for cats. 
  Our current cat “Bill” is about 8 years old and he’s been awesome! 
 

 

[WHX?? 56,916]

Hate to say this but Beaps is right. Now truth be told I am not a cat lover but I hate mice worse. Not that i don't have and feed a few barn cats. But absolutely no cats in the house. 

I'm weird... I absolutely adore the smell of cow$hit... can tolerate pig$hit but the smell of a cat box has me reeling. 

I've had literally thousands of cats come thru the ranch in the last 40 years. 

Some die naturally in old age some at the hands of owls and other natural predators. Some even at the hands of me. 

I cherish them all but the song birds think I am an a$$hole. 

What you are doing is a good thing EB. 

Sitting on porch tonite... cocktail in one hand Tom in the other. 

Then there's Pearl... pretty much worthless but does bring in a mole or a pine squirrel from time to time. Can't look at her without getting hair. 

Edited 6 hours ago by WHX??

[8ntruck 8,974]

@Sparkey your cat looks very similar to the cat we had when I was a kid.  His name was Colby - due to his fondness for Colby cheese as a kitten.  He used to sit on top of the TV and watch baseball games - occasionally taking a swipe at the players.

Edited 6 hours ago by 8ntruck

[Bill D 2,898]

1 hour ago, Sparky said:

Our current cat “Bill” is about 8 years old and he’s been awesome! 
 

Like the name!  😁

[kpinnc 18,521]

Our county has a feral program where they trap them, spay and neuter them, get their immunizations up, and adopt them out for free to farms and anyone who will take them. They notch one ear so they are easily identified if they return to the wild later. 

 

We adopted three and they were intended to be barn cats. Clearly these people never met my wife...  And these little turds can tell time too. Here they are waiting for dinner...