Thank Goodness for Ear Tips

Yesterday I went out to Lighthouse Field again to start trapping cats again. While biking over to one of the feeding stations (yes I do strap a cat trap to the back of my bike) I noticed a little black kitten on the side of the field. So I slowed down and got off my bike. It looked at me and took off. I tried to catch it, but it was too fast.

I set the trap nearby, hoping to catch it, then continued up the field to check out more cat territory. A little ways away I noticed the female tortoiseshell John Smith and I had caught, and she seemed surprisingly less afraid of me. She just looked at me from a safe distance. She looks healthy and happy, and since she's so young I wonder if she'll eventually warm up to people. I actually saw her a couple more times yesterday and today, so I think I want to give her a name. (Plus I have a soft spot for torties.) The problem is, I'm a terrible namer.

Anyway, after cruising around the field for about ten minutes, I went back and glanced at the trap. There was a tabby cat going into it, so I quietly turned around and biked around for a little longer. Then I checked the trap again and sure enough, there was a brown tabby in the trap. He was a young male, with one mangled ear. I couldn't tell if the ear was tipped or not, because it seemed like a clean cut but the rest of the ear was also ripped. So first I called Lynne, but she wasn't home. Then I asked John Smith for help, and he said it was definitely ear tipped, although he had not personally caught the cat. So we released the cat.

On the way over to the trap with John Smith, I spotted the black kitten again in a different place. After releasing the cat I still had time, so I moved the trap to where I'd seen the kitten, and reset it. Then I went over to a house nearby where I've been hired to pet the (domestic) cat while the owner is out of town. (The husband is allergic, so he can feed, but I do the TLC.) I spent about an hour with the kitty and then when I noticed a tailless raccoon outside I decided it was time to go close the trap.

The trap this time had caught a black cat, but not the one I was after. This was another adolescent male with an ear tip! (I swear, adolescent males think they're invincible and they're suckers for tuna.) This cat took me a little longer to release, because he kept trying to attack me through the trap. I swear he wanted to kill me.

Today I went out trapping again. This time I took my brother with me, because he was interested and I figured the more he knows about feral cats, the more he can tell his friends. We biked over and set the trap at a feeding station. The only cat we saw was the tortie who needs a name, so we hoped that a kitty would come to get dinner and decide tuna in a trap was more delicious. After that we went over to the house nearby to pet the kitty for about an hour.

When we had finished petting the kitty, we went back and checked the trap. Nothing. As we were packing up, a lady walking by pointed out the black kitten, who was drinking water from a gutter. We went over and the kitten moved into a front yard of a house, so we set up the trap in the field across the street. Then I grabbed the towel and tried to capture the kitten by hand, but only succeeded in chasing it back into the field and into a bush. I moved the trap to right outside of the bush and then my brother and I biked around for about ten minutes before closing the trap and going home, as it was getting too dark to bike safely.

I really want to trap that little kitten. It looks about six weeks old, and obviously is taking care of itself. I haven't seen any sign of a mom or any littermates. If it sits in one place for a while, it starts crying as if it's lost. I just hope I can trap the poor thing so that its life can improve.

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Macavity's not there!

Here's some quick background: The reason I got involved with Project Purr a few years ago was to trap a feral colony in my neighborhood. I trapped all of the cats except one. The one who got away was an aggressive black tom I named Macavity, after the antagonist cat from the musical Cats. (Best musical ever, by the way.)

It turns out that for once my naming skills were actually good, because he sure lived up to his name. The song (and poem by T.S. Elliot) goes,

"Macavity's the mystery cat, he's called the Hidden Paw.

For he's the master criminal who can defy the law.

He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair;

for when they reach the scene of crime- Macavity's not there!"

The cat I named Macavity is a scruffy, muscular tom with only one functioning eye. It's easy to see that he's a fighter, but he's also the father of most of the cats in the colony. In fact, he's the father of four of my cats. After I trapped all of the other cats in the colony, he took off. After all, with no more females in heat around, why stay? This summer I noticed him around the neighborhood again. I guessed the free food brought him back.

Yesterday I went to talk to my neighbor, Edgar, who owns the property the colony is lives in. He lives in a little house with a big front yard and a huge backyard full of blackberry brambles. He feeds the cats throughout the day, and always leaves fresh water out for them. The cats are his one true love, and he watches them closely, taking very good care of them.

I asked Edgar about Macavity, whether or not he was coming to eat, how often he was seen, how his health was, etc. It turns out "Macavity's not there!" Edgar sees Macavity very rarely, and only ever on the roof. Sometimes he hears Macavity fighting with other cats on the roof. Macavity never comes for food, and seems to wander around the neighborhood grabbing food from other cats' bowls. Meanwhile, Macavity has evicted all but one of his sons from the colony, even though his sons are all neutered and pose no threat. (One of his evicted sons, Zuko, actually moved over to my house.)

In order to trap a cat, the trap must be placed at the cat's regular feeding station. Since Macavity apparently has no regular place, trapping him would be very difficult. Furthermore, he's at least seven years old and apparently not going anywhere. While I hate to leave an unaltered cat, I think the effort is not worth it on this one. I'm going to leave him as he is. However, if he does start feeding regularly, I'll go after him again.

In other news, the colony has gone down to about 8 cats. All of the cats are healthy, and there have been no litters for three years now. :)

Meow Luau Pictures and Stats

1. Manning Project Purr's booth.

2. Some little girls meeting Tristan, the adorable deaf kitten.

3. Two girls meet Tristan's littermate, a little tuxedo female.

4. Paddington got his face painted!

Lynne emailed me with these stats:

"Total of 33 cats + 6 dogs at the shelter, equals 39, which is a new

shelter adoption record for one day! It broke the old adoption record
of 28 that was from when the shelter was in Scotts Valley.

Plus ASR did 5 (I think) and AFRP did 8 for a GRAND TOTAL of 52 adoptions at the Meow Luau!!! WOW!!!"

:D

I'm Back with the Meow Luau!

I had a great vacation, and now I'm back and ready to work... that is, play with kittens.

Yesterday Project Purr had a booth at the Meow Luau, an event put on by the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter. Lynne, my friend from the rummage sale, and I all ran the booth. The event brought several local non-profit animal rescue groups together to try to adopt out as many cats and kittens as possible. Adoption fees were half-off- kittens for $75 and adults for $50. The event attracted a lot of people, especially families with little kids, may looking to adopt. The theme was Hawaiian, so all the volunteers had leis and the whole shelter was decorated. (It was funny because in a cats-only event the decorations were all colorful bird pictures. Also, none of the birds were from Hawaii.)

The event was set up with the food and silent auction in front, one non-profit with cats and kittens outside, all of the cat rooms in the shelter open, and then way back in a small room another non-profit with kittens, sharing the space with Project Purr. Since we were so far back and hidden, very few people even found the room. The event itself was very well attended and quite crowded, so it was disappointing to miss out on educating or finding potential homes with all of those people. The event was not a waste of time though, because we got to educate several shelter volunteers who were not sure of what Project Purr does.

Most of the time my friend and I spent helping the other rescue group in the room with us. The group, Animal Friends Rescue Project (AFRP), had 13 kittens up for adoption. There was a 10-week old litter of 5, and the rest were all about 8-weeks old from various litters. We played with the kittens, and held them for people who were interested in adopting them. Although there were only a few people who made it into our little room, almost all of them adopted kittens. All of the litter of 5 (plus their mom, who was in another room) were adopted, and 4 of the remaining kittens were adopted! It was a huge success for AFRP!

There was one kitten who I especially was hoping to find a home for. His name was Tristan, and he was an all white, deaf, adorable, friendly, energetic little guy. I spent quite a while holding him, and having people (especially kids) pet him, but sadly his forever-home was never found. Luckily, directly from the event he went to Petsmart. I hope by now he's been adopted.

This was the first Meow Luau put on, and I hope next year will be better. This year, the rescue group that was outside only adopted out 4 or 6, even though they had many more cats and kittens than AFRP. Their cats were obviously not as happy as the AFRP kittens, and since they were outside, it was not very smart to take them out for people to hold them (because mistakes happen, cats spook, etc.). Next year, the two rescue groups with live animals should be in the small room, with better access for the public. Project Purr should be outside, where people who aren't just looking for kittens will be able to stop by easily.

Happy 4th of July!! A Post About Violet

Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to visit my grandmother on Cape Cod, MA!! While I'm gone, I'll still be doing Project Purr work, but only the computer stuff (it's kind of hard to trap cats from the other side of the country). Anyway, I was thinking about how much I'm going to miss my kitty Violet, and how in about a year, she'll be flying to the east coast with me, so I decided to write a little about her.

When I was 10, my family only had two cats. One was a completely unapproachable feral, and the other was a big, beautiful black boy named Davenport. My parents got Davenport before I was born, and when I was 10, he was about 14. In the early summer, Dav was diagnosed with kidney failure. We knew he didn't have a lot of time left.

I read articles and did some research, and discovered that when you have an older cat (or dog), it's a very good idea to get a kitten (or puppy) of the opposite gender. The younger animal will invigorate the older animal, and even if they don't end up getting along, the older one will still muster up some energy to boss the younger one around. In other words, it can prolong the older animal's life.

I talked to Dav's veterinarian about what I had discovered, and he agreed completely. He told my mom that we should get a female kitten immediately. Of course, I was thrilled!

I didn't want just any kitten though. I had all of these specifications, so I took about two weeks to "kitten shop." I used Petfinder.com, and the Santa Cruz SPCA website to search for the kitten of my dreams. I think I must have checked those websites at least twice a day.

Eventually, I found I found a little orange and white girl who fit all of my qualifications, and that very day went out to the SPCA to look at her. But when I arrived, I found out that she had already been adopted! Since I was there, I decided to take a look at the kitties already there. I discovered two kittens who hadn't been put on the website yet. They were siblings, a boy named Biglet, and a girl named Face. My mom wanted to take both of them, but we couldn't, because Biglet had a medical condition that wouldn't allow him to go outside. Face, however was perfect.

I remember I didn't want to adopt her right away. I wanted to wait a night to make sure everything was set for her to come to the house.

The next day my whole family went to the SPCA to adopt her. I renamed her Violet, after the flower (not the color, despite my pattern of naming cats after colors). Also, at the time she was a "shy violet." I spent the next two weeks exclusively with her. She was my kitten, no one else's. After two weeks with her, my family tried to take me out to dinner, but I cried, because I didn't want to leave her.

She has been my best friend and constant companion ever since. Of all of my cats, she is the one who is actually mine, not the family's. She only really likes me, although recently she's been allowing my sister and mom to pet her a little. I love college, and I love Vermont, but being away from her is hard. And for her, being away from me is hard too. Cats can't live in the dorms, but Junior and Senior year I'll be hopefully in a cat friendly apartment, and then she'll come out to Vermont to live with me.

At nine years old, she's a very smart cat. In the past couple months, she has figured out how to get her collar off. I thought at first that her usual purple collar was broken, so I got her a new collar (the one in the picture), but she's already taken it off three times. I'm going to have to do some brainstorming if she won't just leave it on.

Even though Violet's not a Project Purr kitty, or even an ex-feral, I wanted to share her story because of what I told my parents when I was 10. I said, "I know there are a lot of cats out there that need homes, and that kittens find homes easily. I know that any kitten at the SPCA will find a home no problem, but older cats might be put down. But I'm a kid, and I want the experience of raising kitten and keeping her for her whole life. I want to be able to grow up with a kitten. However, I promise that this will be the only kitten I will ever adopt from the SPCA or any animal shelter. The next cat I get will be one I rescue myself or will be a special needs, elderly, or feral cat from a shelter. I promise to save all of the other cats I ever own."