Herding CATS!

Wow - this week has been a very busy week dealing with cats. I love cats. I always have. So that helps me get through weeks like the last two. Ever since we moved into our new house, it has been an ongoing event with cats. Either cats outdoors, or the cats inside, or the momma cats, pregnant cats, kittens (so many kittens), neighborhood cats, stray cats, cats on social media in the area, and it just goes on. We bought a house in an area of Pennsylvania that has a huge cat population problem.

Since October of last year, when we officially got the keys to the house, we had the cutest kitten come up to us on a very cold morning wanting some love. This particular kitten followed us up to our door (at this time we were still living in the RV because the house needed to be disinfected badly) and walked right inside. This particular kitten has never stepped back outside. He is forever ours an his name is Cosmo. It was great having him, he was so much fun and it was great to have a second cat to help with the loss of Flicker (that is whole other story). Our orange tabby, Tang, who traveled with us from Washington, took to Cosmo quickly. This was surprising as Tang has always been a little spicy around newcomers.

As the months got colder, we noticed other resident cats started coming up to the back porch. We began naming them all and snapping photos of each new cat as we saw them. Chatting with our neighbor next to us, she has noticed more cats than usual, and she too was trying to feed them, and giving them warm places to sleep on her porch. Cosmo’s siblings started to come around to get food as the snow started so we decided we needed to trap these four first to work on getting them spayed/neutered. We trapped four kittens (3 male and 1 female) and our daughter Jessica (we call her the cat whisperer) sat with these four very untamed kittens everyday for hours getting them use to human contact. I am so grateful to Jessica because these four siblings are doing great and have become forever ours. We named them “The Rat Pack”, and they are Alfie (M), Juno (M), Loki (F, named before we knew anything), and Comet (M).

Once we started trapping, we were on a mission to start taking on these cats to get them altered for their well being. Winter hit and apparently two of our outdoor residents went into heat and there was so much *@#bleep@#$* for a week. With a little google search we started counting days on when they would be giving birth. Within that time frame we worked our hardest to get those two girls trapped. Our goal was to get them inside safe and warm so they could give birth to their kittens indoors. We could then work the kittens, get them socialized, and easier to adopt out. This was a huge journey for us since we have never taken on such things before. Jessica was over the moon thinking we would have itty-bitty kittens in the house, something she has always wanted to be around and experience. Finally, the first momma (Scruffy) walked right into our sun room to get some food and he had her. She was not happy at all but eventually settled down and found her place amongst the other four kittens, “The Rat Pack”. Next was momma number two (Licorice), so we set up a trap and got her. Next step was a trip for both of them up to the local vet to see what we were looking at. Both momma’s were right around the same due time. Scuffy has two babies (Bee (F) and Cricket (F)) and Licorice has four babies (Coconut (M), Socks (M) Patches (F) and Papaya (F). Now it was just waiting and setting up a place where they would be comfortable.

Babies arrived within two days of each other and everyone did great. We started getting everyone spayed/neutered through our local vet (whom I adore!). Rat pack first, all four of them went in together, then Cosmo and Clover. Clover was another outdoor stray who just walked right in and has never left. She is a hilarious cat and is forever ours. Is anyone keeping track and counting cats? This is like a big math word problem that you could give your kids to see if they can come up with the answers. As spring came our other two local residence outside (Nutmeg and Taffy) looked and sounded like they were going into heat as well. We needed to get them trapped and taken care of. Plus we have a neighbor male cat (Paulie) who was a huge instigator for a lot of these kittens. Paulie’s family across the street took him in after his owner passed away. We were told Paulie’s name is “Kitty” but we still call him Paulie. They’re great neighbors and they were willing to go and get him neutered but it was hard for them to find the time to go and have it done.

At this time, we were running up quite a lot of expenses with feeding, caring, vet bills, and oh my gosh litter. We were going through our funds that we were supposed to be living on while we made the transitions on businesses in our new town. We were so glad when a local organization reached out to us and was willing to start helping us spay and neuter of all these cats. What a huge help they have been. Once we trapped Nutmeg and Taffy (two more outdoor female strays, for those still counting), they helped us get them spayed and we were able to take Paulie in to get neutered too. Nutmeg was early pregnant (which they terminated) and Taffy was all clear and all three were in good heath. Nutmeg and Taffy stayed inside while they healed and were then released back outside.

In the meantime, while all this was going on, we took in another mother with four kittens and called them “the Fermented Pack” - Kimchi (Mom), Sauerkraut (M), Pickles (F), Beets (F) and Miso (M). We all said this is the last! We can not house any more cats/kittens! Just as we said that, we got news that a new momma was moving her kittens closer to use so they would be near a good food source. So Jessica and I go in search for baby kittens, we knew momma moved them near us in a very good hiding place. Sure enough, just as the rain started to pour down, we found them in a tight bundle at the corner of our garage, under some vines. They were packed in there tight, but we were able to go in and grab them. The chore now was to trap momma. We knew she would be back to check on them and to get food around dinner time. We used the kittens as bait with a trap right next to them (they were cuddled in a nice cage with a blanket). We got her, first try. So proud of us. This group we named “The Lunar Pack” - Luna (Mom), Orbit (M), Apollo (M), Neptune (M) and Rocket M)”. Does anyone have a current cat count? Kitten count? Yes all of these cats and kittens were in our house.

Once we got on a roll with the local organization that was helping us, we started spaying momma cats first. Fun fact: You can spay a nursing female cat and they will still lactate for their kittens. I was thrilled about that but it isn’t highly recommended by our local vet because they say, a nursing female cat will take longer to heal and kittens can pull on the incision which can cause problems. I figured since we had them all inside, we would be safe to watch them all. I had one more mom cat outside my neighbor notified me of that had three kittens. I wanted to trap her and her kittens to get them in next so I could release them back outside super fast. I talked with my neighbor and we came up with a plan, we borrowed extra traps from the local organization to get all four of them. In theory the plan should have worked without a problem. Over the next two nights, I trapped two kittens (Mini Mew (Ma) and Austin (M)), and five other cats that I have never seen before. What the heck do you do now? In my training, you don’t let cats go especially ones you don’t know who they are. With some research, the neighbor two houses down have huge cat population. Some are theirs live inside the abandoned house, and some are strays live in their garage. Ugh, here I thought I was getting somewhere. One of cats I trapped was theirs who was already altered. Easy, let him go. Thankfully we had appointments set up for Tuesday so in I take four very unhappy cats that I trapped. Phew, that felt good to get those four guys done. I had trapped two male cats (check - two less males done) and two nursing females (check, done). What? Two nursing females?!?! That mean kittens, how old, I had no idea. I was beside myself because I didn’t know where they were or how old and their mom was gone for like 2 to 3 days. I released them all the next day. The females, I would have kept a little longer to make sure they healed OK, but with kittens? We thought it best to let them get back to their kittens. We will come back to these other cats a bit later.

Next up were the kittens starting with Scruffy and Licorice’s first since they were the oldest (and we wanted to start with the females first). NO MORE KITTENS! Then we moved onto the fermented pack spaying all the females first. This was every week on Tuesdays. We had spay appointment for only so many cats and went on for a month. Some weeks we would have appointments at one place and then another place, two and up to 5 at one time depending on other peoples needs. Pregnant cats would always have priority. Finally, the humane society stepped up and said, would it help if we could do 20 to 25 cats on a Wednesday? YES was the answer. This week Tuesday we took Pickles in for our Tuesday appointment, she was our last female in the house. Wednesday was a big day, we took in the last of the kittens who were all males. We took in a total of 8 male kittens and another lady who also has a huge colony trapped 12 and I believe there was another couple females brought in as well. Wow, it was a huge day for us all. Just to think that all of the cats we had in the house are all altered. That is the feeling of relief.

While 8 kittens were out of the house, we finally had the chance to clear out the sunroom where they were staying. Except for Luna and Licorice, who were clearly ready to leave. We opened the door for them to walk out freely. This was a hard day for us but we knew we needed to do it. Had they stayed, we would gladly keep them, and the door is always open. Since they walked out, there is a weird peace in the house and they do come back to eat with the others. Luna seems to be a bit of an outcast to the other ladies but I think she will find her spot amongst the outside girls. Fingers crossed. They all seem so happy to be back together and its like a little ladies club on our back porch.

Since our house is at peace for the moment, we will not be adding anyone else. We do have kittens up on our website for adoption. Thankfully Bee and Cricket have found their forever family who loves them and sends us photos. Coconut was adopted a couple weeks ago but was waiting be neutered. He goes home to his forever home on Sunday where he has two girls who are going to play and love on him and them him sleep with them. He is going to love his new family. Kimchi was adopted out a while ago to a couple out on a lot of land/farm. She is in heaven out there and enjoying every minute of her indoor outdoor life on the farm hunting for her new owners.

What next you may ask? Well, our mission is still the same and we have many other cats in our neighborhood colony we need to work on trapping. There is the house two doors down with the garage where the cats are living and breeding. The mission will continue and I am in full force to help this area and the local organization that helped us. I was sitting with my neighbor this last week, talking to her about our next steps for trapping cats. As I was talking with her, she was telling me a story of the lady “Ruth” who lived in our house. Ruth was very much a cat lady too, and loved all animals. Ruth felt that the house with the garage is going to cause a lot of problems with cats. Ruth has since passed away, and now that we live here, I feel this is fate. I am here to help these poor cats/kittens. By helping these cats/kittens, I will be helping the neighborhood, the community and the environment. The more cats/kittens we can alter it is going to help everyone.

Remember: please spay and neuter your animals. It helps their health, prolongs their lives, and ends the cycle. If you are looking to adopt an animal, please go to the shelters to adopt. Shelters are so full and there are so many animals that are looking for their forever homes. Even the older animals need their forever homes too. Please consider looking into your local shelter to adopt and help these poor souls!

Quiz time: What was our total number of cats/kittens when we had them all in the house? How many kittens in total did we have in the house? How many cats were adopted? How many cats/kittens in total have we altered to date? How many males? How many females?

Love you all, I am completely exhausted after the last few weeks.