When we first moved into this house, in May of 2011, within a few days, there appeared on our front porch a beautiful siamese mix cat and her little black kitten.
They were clearly wild, but also clearly dependent on the woman who had lived here, because they sat right on the porch and meowed up at the door and windows. There had been food provided at this door before!
I put my foot down and said no, we will not feed them. I couldn't risk my Jack being exposed to wild cats, even though his shots were up to date.
Over time, they stopped coming to our door, but they were still in the neighborhood, and were seen running here and there and sitting under cars, and on porches.
Someone was feeding them.
There were also a few big males wandering the streets, one that was all white, long haired, and VERY scrappy looking, with constant evidence of street fights and a rough life. We named him Scraps. Another is a pet from across the street who is allowed to run free, and in-tact. We call him Big Blackie. And there is also a roving tuxedo we call Big Daddy. There was another one for a while, too, who was a striped tabby with one ear chewed off. We called him One Ear.
Scraps must have died this past summer, One Ear left town, or died or something....but Big Blackie and Big Daddy are still around.
Anyway...where was I? Oh yeah... on the morning of my birthday the next year, Dave frantically called to me from the laundry room. I panicked and ran back there, only to see outside that same siamese momma cat and a batch of fresh kittens, whom she was sheltering under our air conditioning/heating unit out back.
There were 4, and they were tiny. Barely had their eyes and ears open.
Of course, we fell in love, and Dave, being the big softie that he is under his gruff exterior, insisted that we provide food and water.
The black kitten from the year before had matured and had a litter of two kittens of her own, even though she was still firmly bonded with her momma. She carried them into our neighbor's yard and tried to keep them there, but they were so tiny, and it had grown very cold and wet out.
We started calling the siamese momma China (as in China Cat Sunflower). We named her black daughter Star, due to the tiny blaze of white on her chest.
There may have been another litter the fall before, but we never saw or knew of them.
So, with the food and water and shelter all available in our fenced back yard, China's clan settled in, still going to the house down the street for some meals.
Star's kittens both died right away, one in the flower bed (which I think may have been in the engine compartment of my car, so I may have actually been unwittingly responsible for that one's death), and the other vanished, probably eaten by a predator, because they were very, VERY tiny. They did not even have their eyes open yet.
Eventually, China's new black kitten, Jet, died, also in our flower bed, and her striped one (Stripe) vanished. Taken by a predator, or maybe killed by a car. We buried Jet with the other kitten in back.
The only two left from my birthday litter were the little tuxedo girl and the pale siamese boy, whom we named Mitzie and Ghost.
Mitzie and Ghost grew to maturity, but Mitzie eventually disappeared. We hope she was captured and adopted. She was ADORABLE with a white triangle in the middle of her face, and a black button nose in the middle of the triangle, and white mittens.
Ghost found a family on the street behind us, and he still comes around now and then. He is clearly being fed well, and has shelter. He is stunningly gorgeous, same markings as his mother, but very light, with pretty blue eyes.....but very feral.
Anyway, time passed, the stress these outside colonists were causing to our newly-adopted Louie (who joined our family during this summer, in Aug. of 2012) was palpable, so I demanded that we stop putting out food and water, and they scattered and did not come around anymore. For a while, anyway.
We could still see them in the neighborhood, though, and watch their comings and goings.
Eventually, China tried to bring her next litter to the previous A/C unit shelter, but we had blocked it, so she discovered the side shed, and the next batch moved in.
Even without us feeding them, she was determined to stay. The fenced yard was safe.
This time, there was a little pale gray stripe I named Tigre`, and an almost all white boy with tiny markings on just the top of his head, that I named Casper.
Dave, of course, started feeding them.
Eventually, though, I asked him to stop, and when they grew up, Tigre and Casper joined Ghost on the street behind us, and they are all still seen from time to time. We don't know the people whose house they all seem to live around, but they all seem very happy and healthy. We HOPE that they have been to the vet and maybe have been fixed.
Then, China had another litter, but only one survived. The lost one, another stripe, but with white feet, was killed by a roving dog, and I, unfortunately, saw it happen. She is buried with the others in the back yard.
The survivor is another tuxedo, which has a big black patch on her face, covering her nose, so we named her Nose.
Nose was raised mainly at the house two doors down, where the people were also feeding the clan. I insisted that we NOT put out food because I didn't want wild cats in my yard anymore.
One day, I saw the woman on the porch with Nose ON HER LAP! I had hoped she was going to take Nose in, but she did not.
Through all of this, we heard from one of the neighbors that a couple of China's kittens HAD actually been captured and made into indoor pets over the past few years, so it was clear that she had been making two batches of kittens every year here for a while.
We got it into our heads that gee, it would sure be nice to try to trap her and put a stop to this...SOMEONE should do it, why not us???
So for a while there, we did some pretty intensive research and checking in to various programs. All we found , though, was that it would cost us a lot of money we didn't have to get these cats "fixed" and released.
Time passed, and this fall....another batch of kittens was being nurseried under our side shed.
Hesitatingly, because Louie is gone now, since Feb., Dave started feeding, and we started talking to people again.
This time, there were two blacks that looked like twins, we called them Jake and Elwood to start with, but Elwood vanished early on, and we changed Jake's name to Smoke.
I chose Smoke because, as she grew, we discovered that her fur was black guard hairs, but gray under-fur. She also developed GOLD eyes....she is so, SO pretty...I really wanted to adopt her, but we have two already.
But....She sat on my foot and looked up into my eyes once when she was tiny, and I fell in love.
(keep in mind that we have no idea if she is a she or a he).
There was also yet another tuxedo in this batch, with markings EXACTLY like Nose's, only a perfect mirror image! We call that one Sox.
As China raised her new babies in our yard, Nose re-joined her, and the back yard clan became a steady population of four, with occasional visits from Star, Ghost, Tigre`, and Casper.
Annabel, whom we adopted a month after Louie's tragic death, is now the one that is being stressed by outside cats, though, and it's a good thing that we found a solution for the feral problem. Jack doesn't really seem to mind them too much, but, like our late Louie did, Annabel was very distressed by them.
For some reason, some of the same people we had talked to before suddenly knew things they hadn't known, or told us about, before....like that the City of OKC has a once a month spay/neuter clinic that is free....if you can bring the animals in, they will fix them and clip an ear (an outward sign that a feral cat has been neutered or spayed), and give shots for REALLY cheap prices.
Free spay/neuter? How is it that no one knew about this before.... and oh so many kittens ago?? How is it that we felt our hands were tied all this time, and now we find out WE CAN DO THIS THING?!
Maybe this program is new? Not sure....but I am just grateful that we finally got information we could use.
So...armed with this new-to-us information, we decided that now is the time, and Dave made it his project to make this capturing happen.
Our friend Rita is a huge animal protection advocate, and her friend Betsy (a compulsive rescuer) is the one who got us in touch with a woman who will take the cats after their procedures are done. They both knew about the free spay/neuter clinic, and got us the info.
Dave and I discussed our various options for trying to "fake out" the cats, and get them captured and taken for the free surgery, and possibly rabies vaccines at least.
He ultimately devised a plan to gradually accustom the clan to being fed inside the main shed, with the idea that on THE DAY, he would merely shut the door behind them, and catch them.
I agreed that this was the best possible plan, but that it could go wrong in SO many ways...but we could not think of any alternatives that would be better. I had horrific visions of blood and destruction, but that's just my adrenals talking.
Weeks of conditioning went by, and gradually, the cats grew to trust him to not only be IN the shed with them, but he was able to pet the babies with every meal, China looking on, but not interfering.
On some days, the cats were clustered so close to our back door, that when Dave would go out to feed them, they'd try to come inside the house. Once or twice, they made it, but didn't stay long!
Dave found out that the next available free surgery day was today, 1/4/14. He made us an appointment for 4 feral felines, and we made finalized plans regarding borrowing carriers, and implementing the plan.
We arranged to borrow some carriers, since renting traps was still $100 each, and we didn't want to have to do that.
In the interim, he knocked on the door of the other house where the cats were hanging out and being fed. The house where Nose was seen on the lady's lap.
Their names are, interestingly, Paula and Mike. Paula said that she had been able to pet China in the past, and that she had treated an ugly eye infection for Nose with twice daily eye medications!! Since Nose was already pretty much comfortable with her, sitting in her lap, and all, she was able to successfully do that....but, for some reason, left Nose on the street. From what that other neighbor said, they adopted one of China's previous kittens a couple of years back. Maybe their house is full.
It was funny, though....we had wondered how in the world Nose had survived that infection, because when we saw her with it, her eye was about to be expelled from its socket. It was very, very nasty. And then there she was, healed, but blind. But HEALED!! It had to have been a miracle....but. It wasn't. *giggle*
Anyway, he let them know what we were doing, and they were really happy and excited to hear it. We asked them not to feed or shelter the cats the night before so that they would all show up at our house at the required time, very hungry for breakfast.
Which was this morning.
The extra carriers were brought to us last night. We got up before 6 this morning, did not make coffee or breakfast, with the plan being that we would need that time to capture the cats and get them to the clinic before 7:30 this morning.
The plan looked good in theory....but the one thing Dave didn't take into consideration was that these cats had never, ever been behind a closed door.
The moment he was in the shed with them, all hell broke loose. I went in to help.
Have you ever seen a cat literally climb the walls and hang on? We have now. They can fly through the air, too.
It took us a pretty long time to get them all, but we finally did. I only had one panic attack, and Dave got bitten by China, but it was more of a scrape than a puncture.
(Aside: We came inside and doused it with 90% rubbing alcohol the moment it happened, and then put antibiotic ointment on it later.
He asked about it at the clinic, and the vet tech looked at it, said it was nothing to worry about, and told us what to do. She said it's fine....the cat probably doesn't have rabies, it's a superficial wound, not a puncture, but legal requirements are that Dave go to a doctor on Monday and file a report. )
Anyway....I managed to be the one to capture my little Smoke with a towel, which was also how Dave got Sox.... and Nose caught herself by unwittingly jumping into an empty box in her panic. Dave was able to grab another box that fit into the top of the first one just right...it was like it was planned!
We both got China by tricking her into thinking the carrier was a place to hide. She went part way into it, and we forced her the rest of the way.
I think the only reason we were able to get them at all was that they had exhausted themselves with their total freak out (although Sox was captured right away, probably just dumb luck!).
It's a miracle only one of us was injured, and that only slightly.
They were pretty quiet in the car, probably completely terrified. We got them into the center (Nose in the box went inside first!), got them registered, and paid for their rabies shots.
Dave made contact with the lady who is taking them, and she will meet us back up at the clinic to pick them up when they're all done, some time later this afternoon.
She is a friend of Betsy, and has a rescue. She hopes to adopt out the youngest ones, and maybe Nose, too, since she is somewhat socialized.
China, on the other hand, will probably just live out her life there, in peace, with no more pregnancies, and no danger from the streets.
Maybe we can get Star one day, too, and completely remove the breeding females from our street.
We done good. Now, I need a xanax and a nap!
ADDENDUM: Okay....we picked them up around 3:15. Nose was a girl, but both little ones were boys. They all came through okay, but China was not reacting well to either the anesthesia or the rabies shot. We went out to per place in the country with the rescue lady, so we could see where they'll be, as well as come away with the carriers, instead of trying to figure out how to get them back from her.
She said she would monitor China through the night, and let us know tomorrow if she eventually came around.
We feel pretty good about leaving them with her. They have a converted barn to stay in, that has a fence around it to protect them from her dozen dogs that would kill them in a heart beat, so she says. Yipe.
Transferring them from the carriers to their temporary cages was an adventure, with a triple escape. We apprehended them all, though, and she put them in a cage with smaller spaces between the bars. They were all curled up together by the time we left.
China was left alone in a cage, because she was still so groggy.
We are invited to come visit in about a month, and she said she'd let us know if and when any of our babies are adopted. It's all good.
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