After 7 weeks of trapping, persistence pays off!
In February, we received a call for help from a daughter of a family in Circle D. She told us that she thought they had about 30 cats; however, after time spent there, we realized there were actually 34. This “porch cat” colony had started from two unfixed kittens that another daughter brought home in the summer of 2019.
With the family’s help, we were able to get the first 16 cats in traps on March 3rd for surgery the next day. The next 18 were a bit more difficult to catch. But on April 24th we fixed the 34th and final cat!
All the females were already in heat or early in pregnancy. Without our intervention, their colony would have grown to over 80 cats.
We utilized three of our partner clinics to get this colony spayed and neutered: Save an Angel, Austin Humane Society ,and Bastrop Veterinary Hospital. In addition AHS took five of the friendliest cats from the colony into their adoption program. The family now has 29 cats that they will continue to feed and care for.
The client had tears in her eyes after our first trapping day and said, “You saved my life!”
The key takeaways:
Almost all females over nine months old start to go into heat starting in late January. This is when efforts to TNR the free roaming cats should be stressed in order to avoid unwanted litters born in April.
Finder/client trapping involvement is key – they know the cat’s habits and hangouts and are “on site” to set the traps and keep an eye on them.
Don’t give up! Cat #34 was actually trapped earlier, but escaped the trap when the homeowner tried to feed him. Many trappers would have given up at this point thinking that he would not go back in a trap, but they were able to get him into a carrier then transfer him into a trap.
We are so glad that we were able to “rescue” this Circle D porch from the cat colony so that the family could go back to “doing that front porch thing” of sitting and enjoying the day without being ambushed by 80+ cats.
Fantastic job! Thanks to your trappers and the family.
You are all so very amazing! Thank you for making soooooo many cats happier and healthier, not to mention their caretakers! Bastrop County is so very lucky to have you all!