Success!

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We finally trapped Sparky, the last of our feral kittens that needed a trip to the vet to be either neutered or spayed. We do not know yet which, but we will learn soon.

This cute little kitty has been very elusive and trap-shy. Buck set the trap out a few days ago. S/he kept nosing about the cage, but did not venture in, at least while we were watching. We noticed this morning that someone had gotten in and eaten the cat food we left as bait without tripping the door. But, this morning, I no sooner turned my back after watching the cats eat from the food bowl on our back stoop, than I heard the sound of the trap door slam shut. Sure enough, if was our Sparky. Success!

Mama Gidget went to the vet in December. We knew she was a female, and with weaned kittens, we did not want to chance her having another litter.

We waited until the end of January before we tried to catch the kittens. We know that they need to be about six months old to be neutered if they are males, or the vet will send them back home. Our first success was little Scamper. At first he was hissing mad, but then he settled down.

Since his surgery, he has become very friendly with the "old man", CeeCee, Bootsie's brother and litter-mate. Actually, CeeCee's name is spelled CC:, since it reflects that he was a carbon copy of his father and uncle and a few other cats born in our yard. CC: has become tame, and he lets us pet and hold him all the time.

Scamper has almost become friendly to humans. Although still cautious, in order to eat, he will come within two feet of us while we are petting CC:.

Next we put out the trap for Sparky. Much to our surprise, we caught Jeffie. Jeffie is a male we have had for years. He has always been very trap-wise, and we never were able to catch him. Even though we were after Sparky, we did not look a gift-cat in the mouth, so to speak. Jeffie went to the vet.

The vet wanted to know how old he is. Buck had no idea, but told him to look up Bootsie to see how old she is. They were not born in the same litter, but they were born within a few months of each other from different mothers back when we had 21 cats in our yard, all related. Bootsie and Jeffie are something like 3rd cousins, twice removed. They are six years old.


So, today Buck posed with little Sparky before taking him/her to the vet. But, if we thought that adorable kitten was going to look at us so we could get a shot of his/her cute little face, we had another think coming.
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2:30p.m. update: Sparky is a she. She is doing fine and will be ready to come home tomorrow morning.