Four down…Four to go.

I ended up with four cats to bring to the ASPCA last Thursday morning – all boys.  Merv, General Sherman, Jinx, and Mush.

They ate like kings while recovering in the traps, but were very happy when they were finally released back into the yard, and they all headed for the hills.

I have not seen any of them since Friday until this morning, when the General paid a visit.  I’m not sure if they are still a little scared of me / wary of our yard, or if they simply aren’t being drive by their hormones to go wandering quite as far.  I would like them to come back so that I can rest assured they are okay.  The General seemed fine, and I have every reason to think the others are too – they all seemed well when I released them.

While they were out of commission, two females began hanging out in our yard…I guess they figured they were safe from the advances of most of the population now that a few of the guys were MIA…

Hopefully I will eventually be able to catch them, as well as another male or two I’ve seen around, in the next month or two.

Now that cat-trapping week is over, I can turn my attention back to the yard and garden a bit.  Bulbs and seeds will go in this week, and I’m researching how to take care of a city tree and plant in the tree well – I’d love to make the tree outside of our apartment look nice.  We have some more leftover bricks and concrete – not the most attractive, but free…and I need to make an enclosure of some kind around it so that dogs will stay out.

I don’t know what can be done to stop people from throwing litter into the tree well or from having their dogs pee there…I’ll put up signs, but I’m sure they will only do so much.

Last night as we took our trash out to the curb we discovered that someone had stepped up onto the concrete wall at our driveway, leaned over the wrought iron fence, and dropped their garbage bags of trash and recycling into our garbage cans.  ?????

At least it was in BAGS, but still – the recycling wasn’t done by the rules, and we don’t want to get fined.  I also don’t want anything that might tempt raccoons.  We have been keeping trash locked up tightly.

I hope we don’t have to put my leftover metal mesh hardware cloth (from the compost bin) up along the top of the fence to deter people from doing this again…this was the first time, and hopefully the last.  Just to be on the safe side, we moved garbage cans with lids further away from the fence.  We turned those without lids upside down and lined them along the fence, so that no one can put anything in them.

Welcome to New York.   Sigh.

Three so far!

Remember this guy?

Well, he was the first guy to wander into my traps early this morning.  Hooray!  I got back too late from a rehearsal last night to put traps out and decided to wait until early morning, when I’d have a bit more light to see and when the chances of the cats showing up would be greater – they seem to like our porch and yard in the early morning and afternoons.

It only took about 60 second from the time I set the trap, walked away, grabbed my cup of tea, and sat down.  I checked the time on my phone and as I did so heard the trap snap shut.  I couldn’t believe it – this is record time when it comes to trapping cats.

Minutes later I got an older cat who, sadly, has no tail.  We call him General Sherman.  He’s a regular in our yard, and who knows how he lost it, but he’s only got about a 4-inch stub of a tail left.  It must have happened a long time ago because it’s completely healed and he seems otherwise healthy.  I was happy to see that his eye was not infected after all – it had looked suspicious to me last week.

There were a couple of other cats who smelled the tuna and started coming around, but I only had one trap left.  I ended up catching a large, all black male.  (I think.)

They are now safely tucked away in their traps on a plastic-lined table in the garage.  Their traps are covered, which helps them to calm down and not be so frightened, and I have fresh layers of newspaper inside for their comfort and for absorption.

They have water dishes and bowls of canned and dry food, although they hadn’t touched any of it by the time I left for work.  This is completely normal.  They are too freaked out right now to eat, but after a few hours go by  they should relax a little more and I expect I’ll find empty bowls when I get home from work.

I’m hoping to catch another two or three cats tonight, and I’m so happy they will be able to get neutered, free of charge.  In addition to cutting down on the potential kitten-production, neutering them should also help to stop them from yowling, marking territory, and fighting with each other.

I’m so happy it didn’t rain and grateful that it was so quick and easy to get these three…sometimes it can take literally all night.

Updates tomorrow!