Well,
May as well keep a running total in the Thread Title.
So far, we have 1 Kitten Dead, 1 Cat Impounded & 1 Raccoon Relocated.
Last week, we bought the Live Animal Trap & set it out Wed Night. That morning we had a 4-6 Month white kitten with brown spot cowering in the corner. It was very scarred & tried to smush itself into the smallest area possible in the cage. My wife felt very sorry for it, but I assured her that Kittens are pretty easy to adopt. Sure it was wild, but I felt the Animal Control Lady (her name is Pam) who really loves animals would do everything she could for it.
Then while at work, I got this e-mail....
Wife said:
I called the shelter to see about the cat. See what sex it was. It was male. Our neighbor was there when she transfered it to another cage. Our neighbor was
talking to her and asking her what she's going to do about the other cats. We'll just have to reset our trap so the mom doesn't have anymore litters.
Anyway, she said she left it outside so it didn't have to walk past the dogs to the office, and it could calm down for a bit before she tried to take it out of
the cage. She didn't have anymore room for it, but was hoping it was tame since it was a kitten. It was scrunched up against the cage so much that it's nose
was bloody. It wouldn't let her come near it and was so scared that she had to put it down. She was crying when she was telling me she had to put it down.
She said he was a cute little cat. She hates to do that because it's her that puts them down. She said she just can't try to tame a cat like that when she's
got so many that are already tame and her kennel was full. She said, "I'm not going to do that to him. Let him be scared like that and try to put him through
all that. I'm not going to do that to the little guy." Hopefully, we'll be able to catch the momma cat so there's no more litters.
In other words, she had to Kill the Kitten. I'm not a big fan of now having Kitten-Killer on my resume. And, at some point some individul decided that either that kitten (or one of its direct ancestors) was too much trouble & tossed it out. My feelings about how Karma should treat whomever that person was aren't really printable here.
Anyway, after Dead Kitten (we were worried we might have an entire litter of feral cats running around), we re-set the Trap on Thursday.
Thursday Morning we had a really annoyed Raccoon. Not angry, just annoyed. Gave us that "You better let me out of this thing" Look. Called Pam at AC. She laughed & said they have a remote Animal Sanctuary where where they take things like Skunks, Raccoons, Possums & Such. So the Raccoon has a new home devoid of Transfat, Potato Chips & Old Hot Dogs. I'm sure he's thrilled.
Then we set out the Trap again yesterday. This moring we had a small orange tabby mewling in the cage. We we got close to it, we saw it had a collar & a white belly (as it rolled over, trying to look cute & have us let it out). It was very friendly & clearly somebody's pet (though the collar had no tags).
We called Pam at AC. She picked the little guy up. We've even gone to the difficulty of going door-to-door asking neighbors if they lost a cat. Anyway, at least this little guy won't be killed. AC just had a couple of Kittens adopted, so there is a empty cage. Policy is to keep it 5 days, waiting for an owner to claim it. It the owner shows up, she can take it home... if she has registered it with the city. If not, its a $50 Dollar fine & $25 Dollar Registration Fee, provided you can prove its had all its shots. Do that, they can take it home, with the warning that a 2nd trip to AC carries a $25 Impound Fee (Pam at AC did NOT have nice words to use about people who let their cats run free; then again she's the one in charge of Road-Kill Disposal).
If no one comes forward, the Cat goes up for Adoption. Its a cute little thing, very tame, and around a year old. Pam is sure she'll be able to find it a good home.
We still have at least one more stray around here, so the cage will go back out Mon (AC doesn't work the weekends).
I figure I'll just keep a running total. But to those who let their cats out, a warning (direct from a 15 yr Animal Control professional) not everyone goes to the lengths we do to ensure the animals are not harmed, in fact most people around here treat them like Moles, Rats & other vermin.
