Trapping day

Clinic day tomorrow, so today I went out with traps and allgedly irresistable bait in the form of warm KFC. And first crack out of the box, I got the Black! Big honkin' black tom; same size as Big John and probably a constant rival and combatant. I really wanted him, because I'm told he has a bad habit of spraying on A/C units, which carries the smell into the buildings! NOT the way to keep our little colony unobtrusive and unnoticed. So I'm glad to get him; now I can really stave off those silly employees who say he's "mean" (I keep insisting, "he's not 'mean', he's a dadgum feral and a TOM to boot; he's doing what feral toms do!" but most people don't get it.) Next one I caught was Billy Jack, who promptly got renamed Billie Jean when I got a good look at the undercarriage. Dammit, it looks like she's had a litter fairly recently, which may explain her excessive food aggression; she stands over the food dish and screams at anyone who approaches. Most of the rest of 'em can share a dish pretty peaceably, but since BJ showed up, I generally have to give the others a little palmful apiece to tide 'em over while she's bogarting the communal dish. With any luck a spay will take care of that too.
After that it got complicated; Yellow Fellow and Little Joe kept sneaking into the traps and eating the bait trail, even after I shooed 'em off several times. What do I need to do, bring extra traps and trap up those idiots just to keep 'em out of the way?? Arrrggg...

Dramatis Purrsonae - Yellow Fellow

Yellow-Fellow is about a year old (as of Apr 09) and noticeably friendlier on first acquaintance than the other colony members. He was bumping my leg and letting me tweak his tail after only a couple of visits, long before the others got that comfortable. He seems to be best friends with Big John; they often walk together and he'll head-bump the big guy as they go. They share the food dish with no problems either.

Dramatis Purrsonae - Little Joe

Little Joe appears to be Bonita's age and may be her brother. He's one of the more mistrustful members of the colony; at any unexpected noise he's the first to flee and the last to return. But return he does; I think he's decided that being TNR'd in Apr 09 was just a bad dream and I'm really just a nice person who dispenses kibble and tail tugs every day.

Dramatis Purrsonae - Flame

Flame is a lovely flame-point Siamese girl, looks a little over a year old. She doesn't eat with the main colony, but has her own feeding station elsewhere on the premises. Sometimes she's joined by Fancy's brother and (lately) a big black tom I haven't been able to get a good look at yet. I've tried trapping her once, but she looked it over and trotted off to cadge handouts from the employees instead!I'll try a box trap next time. I am the superior intelligence and I will prevail! (yeah, keep telling yourself that).

Dramatis Purrsonae - Bonita

Bonita is one of the few girls in this colony, and one of my main trapping targets. Probably 7-ish months old based on her apparent size. I haven't caught her yet because she chin-rubs all over the trap till she trips it and drops the door. So far she's shown little interest in any bait, even nice smelly sardines, so it may be time to bring in a drop trap.

Dramatis Purrsonae - Big John

Big John is the largest and, I believe, the oldest of this colony. He's about two (as of summer 2009) and weighs about 9 pounds. He has some facial scarring and both ears are cauliflowered from much fighting. The ears don't stand up, they kind of slump sideways like he's trying to pass for a Scottish Fold. His coat has lovely classic-tabby markings (the bullseye kind as opposed to the tiger-stripe kind); I'm told the classic type are more common in the UK and the tiger-stripe coat is more common in the US).

Got a better picture of his markings a few days later:

"I haz a handsom!"

The world of the shadow cats

This video pretty much says it all.

Feral cats live among us, in the shadow world between "wildlife" and "pets". Properly managed, a feral cat colony is an asset to any location, in terms of pest control (and therefore disease control) , public education, and the sheer elegance of a fed and vetted feline gracing a sunny spot on the lawn.

Herewith the tale of one such managed colony, located in Houston TX... perhaps, not so very far from you...