Conclusion

Lynne asked my to evaluate Project Purr as my final blog post. I’ll do my best.

Obviously they’re not perfect. Project Purr needs a big technology upgrade. First of all, Lynne needs a cell phone. The main Project Purr line needs an upgrade as well. They could convert a lot of their paper (like newsletters, surveys, and any other snail mail) to emails. The Facebook page is excellent, and Lynne does a great job keeping it going.
Lynne and Margaret both need to eat. They don’t seem to understand that food is what keeps them healthy, and without them, Project Purr wouldn’t exist. They need to take a scheduled break every day to eat lunch. If the Animal Shelter can take an hour off, Lynne and Margaret can take at least a half hour. Toast with peanut butter and bananas does not count as a full meal.

Speaking of breaks, sometimes the work can be really hard and very depressing. Putting a block on it can help, but hurts more when the block goes down. Talk about it, and stop for a little while for a break. Use the break to take a rest, pet a cat, or think about something that is not related at all to cats!

Lynne is afraid to tell the public about where the cat colonies in the county are. She’s afraid that those places will become dumping grounds. She needs to get over that fear. Dumpers are going to dump, and it’s better that the cat ends up in a colony that is well taken care of. And the positive publicity will bring the people in!

Lynne doesn’t want to give up control of anything, because she feels like other people won’t do things right (at least that’s how I’ve been interpreting her). She needs to realize that it’s okay if people don’t do things exactly right. After all, they don’t have the experience she has. She needs to accept it, and know that people will learn. And she needs to take advantage of the amazing people around her! Project Purr has so many great, willing volunteers who just want to help! Let them in! There’s no shame in asking for help!

I'm very lucky to have been allowed into Project Purr. By being an intern and spending a summer living and breathing cats, I've learned all the highs and lows of cat rescue. Running a non-profit is even more difficult than I thought, but is also an incredibly rewarding experience. It's not just about the cats either, it's also about the people. Meeting and interacting with like-minded people brings me hope for the world. If there are so many great people out there, then we must be going in the right direction.

Project Purr is an unsung hero of Santa Cruz County. It is made of people who have literally devoted the rest of their lives completely to cats. They live and breathe cats and never get tired of it. And the cats they work with are incredibly afraid of them. These are cats that, when given the chance, will bite and scratch out of fear, they are not cute and cuddly kittens. And yet, Project Purr loves these cats that everyone else overlooks. Are they crazy? Yes, but crazy in a good way. They are changing the way Santa Cruz views cats, and decreasing the amount of cats that go into the shelter. They are saving lives and preventing suffering. They are heroes!

Finding a New Intern

I had the honor of being Project Purr’s first intern. In the spring, I knew I needed to do an internship in the summer, and started brainstorming where I could go. I had trapped with Project Purr before (I did the trapping, Lynne did the rest) and I knew that I wanted to do TNR in the future as part of my career as a veterinarian. I emailed Lynne, very unsure that she would even consider an intern because I knew how busy she was, but luckily she was happy to have me and somehow made room in her schedule.

I guess I was a good slave, because now she wants another intern now. She asked me to find out how to get UCSC or Cabrillo interns, and I’ve been busy at work getting all of that set up. I’ve written out job descriptions, and filled out all of the paperwork. Hopefully a great person will answer the call! If you know anyone who would be willing to do an internship with Project Purr, tell them to call Lynne at (831) 423-MEOW or email at info@projectpurr.org.

Last Day of Trapping

Just because the mom cat is spayed doesn’t mean the Lighthouse Field colony is done. Those three kittens are still out there, and the unknown number of unaltered black cats are also still around. On Thursday I went out trapping again, for the last time. I wanted to see if I could get any of the black cats. I did my usual routine, but even after waiting a little while I still didn’t get any cats. I ended up leaving, because I had to go feed some goats, and then came back before it was dark. I had trapped a cat, but it was an older black and white one who already had an ear tip.

There are still cats at Lighthouse Field that need to be trapped. I had to go back to college, and Vermont is a little far away to trap from. I wish I could say that someone will continue trapping the colony, but right now no one has stepped up. Lynne and Margaret say they can trap after the next rummage sale, but they’re so busy I can’t realistically think that they’ll be able to devote the time necessary. After all, it’s much more important for them to keep Project Purr running than to work on one colony. I can only hope that someone else will be inspired to trap, or that Project Purr will get a new intern that wants to trap there. And who knows? When I’m back for Christmas, maybe I’ll start trapping there again.

Drop Trap at Lighthouse Field

After all of that trapping, I still had not gotten close to catching the mom cat. She was trap-savvy- there was no way she would ever go into a trap, no matter what I did. Lynne decided it was time to use the drop trap.

The drop trap is just like one of those traps you would set up as a kid. It’s essentially a box propped up by a stick. The stick has a string attached and when the cat goes into the trap, you pull the string, and the cat is trapped. Very basic concept, right? The actual drop trap is a little more complicated- the “box” has a wooden frame and is covered in mesh. There’s a door that fits the usual Have-A-Heart trap exactly, and piece of wood that counter-balances the trap. The stick has a bevel in it so it fits the wood of the trap perfectly, and the string is strong twine that is 80 ft long. The drop trap has the advantages of not looking or sounding like a regular trap, so the cat doesn’t suspect a thing, and gives the trapper the ability to choose which cat to trap. The disadvantages are you have to be there to pull the string, the drop trap has to be placed on a very flat surface so the cat can’t get underneath it, and if you don’t do it perfectly, then you’ve lost your cat and the cat will never go back in.

The Lighthouse Field cats are usually fed between 9 and 9:30am, so Lynne and I decided to get there a little before 8:30 so we could set up before mom cat got there. We set up on Giselle’s porch, a flat cement area where the mom cat is usually fed. We saw mom cat (a distinctive grey and white beauty) and her three kittens (a black one, a tabby, and a grey and white) as we were setting up, and it didn’t take long for mom cat to figure out that we had put delicious breakfast out early. As she was investigating the trap, another cat showed up. It was the skinny old black cat, and he was hungry. He went straight into the drop trap, and started eating. Lynne had put three large cans of cat food on a plate as bait inside the drop trap in anticipation of other cats eating first, but this old guy ate almost all of it! When he was finally done, Lynne had to refill with some tasty tuna. She made a lot of noise with the food dishes around, as if she was feeding, and called, and sure enough, mom cat went in!
That wasn’t the end of it though. Mom cat knew something was up, and she stood up as she ate her food. We were waiting for her to crouch (so she wouldn’t be able to turn around and escape) but she wasn’t going for it. Finally, Lynne gave the string a very hard yank, and mom cat was caught!

We ran over, secured the drop trap, and transferred mom cat into a regular trap. It was hard to get her into the trap, because she was slamming herself into the mesh trying to escape. Lynne called it “popcorning.” After years of experience and trial and error, Lynne knew to bring a metal rod to prod the cat into the trap. It was hard, but it was so good to finally get the mom cat.

Mom cat went immediately to surgery, and was released the next day. (Don’t worry- her kittens were already weaned, so they were fine.) When Ariel saw mom cat with her ear tip, she called me and told me it had almost brought her to tears with joy. This mom cat had been popping out two or three litters a year for a long time, and was the one no one could get. Having her spayed will hugely decrease the amount of cats born in Lighthouse Field, and she will finally have a life that doesn’t surround kittens.

The Case of the Missing Trap

When Lynne went to release the longhair kitten, she saw the mom cat. It was early in the morning, and she saw cats I hadn’t seen before. Specifically, she saw the mom cat with three tiny kittens. In a perfect world, everyone would be happy to see these new additions, but that’s just not true right now. After this summer, even hearing the phrase “feral kitten” gives me this awful sinking feeling. I know that these kittens are not probably going to find homes, and if someone doesn’t trap them, then they’ll end up having kittens of their own. The kittens that Lynne saw were about eight weeks old, which is too old to socialize, and too young to fix.

When I went out to trap the other day, I knew it wasn’t just the second black kitten and the random black cat I needed to catch. There were three kittens and who knows how many more cats. This problem was bigger than I thought.

Well I went about my business as usual, but didn’t catch any cats immediately. I wondered if the second black kitten had seen its siblings being trapped and was now trap-savvy. So I left the trap open just in case and went home to have dinner.

Around 7pm I biked back to check the trap. Except when I got there, it was gone!

Was it stolen? Sometimes that happens. Did someone see the cat in the trap, think the trap was inhumane, release the cat, and then take the trap with them? I had no idea, but I was freaked.
The first thing I did was call Lynne. She didn’t pick up, but she usually doesn’t, so while I was waiting for her to call back, I went and knocked on Giselle’s door to see if she knew anything. She didn’t know, but we both noticed two traps that had been left on her porch. I decided to call the number on the trap and see if that person knew anything.

The person who picked up was named "Melody" and was the daughter of the lady (Ariel) who feeds the cats. She had heard that Lynne and I were planning on going after the mom cat the next morning, and had thought we would need her two traps. She had noticed a cat in my trap, and had taken it home with her because she thought it would be left there overnight. They lived nearby, so I went to their house and picked up the second black kitten!
I had a long talk with Melody about the cats in the field. I tried to convince her and her mother to use one or two large terra-cotta pot plates as bowls for the cats, instead of a lot of shiny pie tins. I tried to convince them to stop feeding on Giselle’s porch (because she hates it), but both of those were mostly unsuccessful. I feel like the only way to possibly get them to change is to physically put the terra-cotta pot bottoms in the not-abandoned house’s yard and take away the pie tins. I also tried to find out how many cats in total and how many unaltered cats there were, but neither of them knew. I also explained my trapping tips, and encouraged them to trap. (They have trapped in the past, but were both too busy now.)

Anyway, I took the second black kitten back home with me and it spent the night in my shed before going to surgery the next morning.

Hauling Books

At the most recent rummage sale, a man had approached Lynne asking if she wanted a lot of books. Apparently he owned a storage unit company, and a used book dealer had left two entire storage units full of books. There were so many books, that Project Purr could only take half of them for that rummage sale and agreed to take the rest for the next sale. Over the course of the summer, Lynne and Margaret had taken trips to the storage unit to take loads of books to Project Purr’s storage area. On Thursday, Lynne and I took the last two loads.

It was exhausting work, putting heavy boxes of books into the truck, and then taking them off the truck. Luckily at the storage unit, the owner and his friend helped us quite a bit. They both seemed like pretty shady people, but they ended being really nice. It was funny though, because the friend thought I was married, and the owner thought I wasn’t in high school yet! I guess I look younger and older than my age at the same time! The owner had a purebred Rotweiller, who was a little less than a year old, and the sweetest thing ever. He needed some serious training (he didn’t know his own strength) but all he wanted was to play. I played with him for a little bit, and tried to do a little training too. I have to admit, though, he needed to be neutered!

Anyway, I don’t know if there’s much to be said about hauling books, except that you have to raise money if you want to do cat rescue, and it may involve manual labor.

Longhair Kitten Caught!

On Friday I went out to trap the second black kitten, the last in the litter. When I arrived I saw the kitten sitting there in his usual spot in the bushes. I did all of my usual things- picked up the food, called for the kitties, and set the trap in the regular spot. As I was picking up the food, I saw a black feral without an ear tip (which means he had not been trapped yet). This concerned me, because I had thought that the only cats I needed to trap still were the second black kitten and the mom. Then as I was setting the trap, I saw another kitten of the same size as the others. This one was a longhair tabby. I was shocked- how could I have not seen this one this whole time, and how could that mom cat raise a litter of five?! Well I ended up trapping that longhair kitten, and it did not take long at all. (I don’t have a picture, sorry, I forgot!)

Farmer’s Market: Compare and Contrast

At the beginning of the summer, Lynne gave me an assignment: find a way to reach out to young people. Somehow Project Purr is full of crazy cat ladies, but is missing the link to the younger generation. Project Purr on Facebook has helped, and this blog is also supposed to help, but really what needs to happen is a strong connection to kids and young adults. After a lot of thought, I came up with getting the high school environmental and community service clubs involved. However, I discovered that contacting them was more difficult than originally thought, and that even the environmentally and community-oriented kids don’t want to think about school during the summer.
One day I went to the Farmer’s Market downtown and realized this was where a large portion of the environmentally and community-oriented young people of Santa Cruz congregated! I got the idea that Project Purr could have a booth there, and then after two more people suggested the same thing, I was convinced. Lynne was very hesitant, but I insisted this would be a great way to reach out to the community.

We ended up going to the downtown Farmer’s Market twice- on August 17^th and 24^th. Instead of telling about each time individually, I’m going to compare and contrast the two.

Both times it was hot. A wind picked up both times at the end to cool us off a bit, but we were baking in the sun. The first time, Lynne had been concerned that we would be in the sun, but I had incorrectly remembered the area as being shady. The second time we brought an umbrella, and it helped a lot. Our setup included two small tables, three chairs, two tablecloths, a donation jar, lots of handouts, two of my kitty stuffed animals, the garden cat testimonial poster, and the poster with all of the feral cat pictures and the phrase, “we’re not all the same / some of us are less social than others.” On the first time, we also had a trap (with one of the stuffed animals inside) but the second time Lynne forgot it (but it was okay, because we were fine without it).

The first time was very slow, and barely anyone came to talk to us. It was probably because we didn’t have the umbrella, so people didn’t want to stand in the hot sun. The second time was much busier, although still not as busy as I had wanted. Both times Lynne and I both saw a lot of people we knew, including Margaret, Ella and Paddington, and Belle, who all stayed and chatted helped us run the booth for a little bit. I had been thinking that we were going to be able to find a lot of garden cat homes, because garden cats are so environmentally friendly. We ended up only finding one (which admittedly is better than none). A young couple came up and said, “we need some feral cats” and I responded, “you’ve come to the right place!”

I made a quick, simple “Volunteers Needed” sign, and it did actually bring in a couple potential good volunteers. Most of the people signed up for volunteering or donating for the next rummage sale, but some people wanted to trap too! One UCSC student was very interested in getting involved, and I let her know that she could intern.

Some of the conversations with people were very interesting. I had one long conversation with a lady who loved tortoiseshell cats more than anything. (Admittedly, I’m partial to them as well.) I explained what I knew about why only females can be torties and why they come out with completely unique coloring. I talked to a guy who was fantasizing about trapping raccoons, letting them live in an enclosure, and then raising their babies as pets until the babies were old enough to live in the wild (I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s Santa Cruz for you). One person thought the stuffed kitty in the trap was a live puppy stuck in a cage in the hot sun with no water! That was funny! And of course there were the usual, “my cat just had kittens, what do I do?” and “there’s a litter of feral kittens in the backyard, can you take them?” questions that Project Purr gets every day, all the time during kitten season. One story was particularly interesting- a girl had adopted a cat, and had taken it to the vet to be spayed or neutered, but the vet said that the cat was male and had already been neutered. Then the cat had kittens. Oops!

From both of the Farmer’s Markets, we learned several things: 1) bring an umbrella, 2) remember to check the list of needed things (like the trap), 3) bring pictures of the Project Purr kittens and cats up for adoption (like Princessa), 4) check the handouts when setting up, because sometimes they get buried in the pile, and 5) the more you come to the Farmer’s Market, the more people will know you are there.

I think the Farmer’s Market is a good place for Project Purr to be. There were so many people who came to the booth who had never even heard of Project Purr, so in the end it was great for just getting the word out. We advertised a lot for the rummage sale and let people know about the August and September’s free spay/neuter program. I feel like Project Purr may not need to be there every week- every other week, or once a month may be enough. I also don’t think Lynne or Margaret should be working the Farmer’s Market. There’s so much they could be doing that no one else can do, and there are a lot of willing volunteers that would be thrilled to do this. I hope the Farmer’s Market continues as a way of reaching out to the public!

Releasing Tabby Kitten at Lighthouse Field

Black Kitten Caught!

On Thursday last week I went out trapping as usual. When I first arrived at the not-actually-abandoned house, I noticed the little black kitten sleeping in the bushes. I started picking up the food from all of the feeding stations, and noticed an old black cat nearby. At first he was shy, but then he came up to me and let me pet him. He was very skinny because of his age, and I was a little concerned. I wasn't sure if he was a friendly feral, or a domestic who'd figured out where the food was. I checked his rear end to see if he was neutered, and as far as I could tell he was (although I haven't had much experience checking, and he was black which made it difficult to see). Then I checked him for fleas, and he didn't have any. I concluded that he was a domestic.

As soon as I'd picked up the food, I set the trap in the usual spot. I called for the kitties, and made a lot of noise with the food dishes as if I was feeding them instead of taking their food away. Then I turned, walked to my bike, glanced back at the trap, and watched as the black kitten walked right in! (Luckily I grabbed my camera and took a video of the whole thing!) (Please ignore the girl talking on the phone in the background.)

Princessa

One of the cats in Lynne's backyard is a sweet girl named Princessa. She is a gorgeous cat, and she knows it. She was on the kill list at the shelter, and Lynne rescued her thinking she was a feral. She soon showed her true colors- friendly, sweet, and lazy. She was supposed to go out as a garden cat, but she hates other cats and will "resource guard." She's been at Lynne's house in a hutch waiting for the right home now for a few months. She needs to be the only cat in the home, with someone who understands cats and will be her servant. Princessa is very happy in her hutch, and loves to lie around all day watching the world go by. She is affectionate, but only when she wants to be. Sometimes she'll turn around and whack your hand if you are displeasing her. Princessa needs to be served and her servants must know their place!

If you know anyone who could take Princessa, she would make a great indoor-outdoor or indoor only pet. She would most likely be fine with dogs and respectful older kids, but no other cats. It's likely that she would not be a hunter, because is lazy and prefers her food hand delivered.

Long Day Part 4: Little Monsters and the Animal Shelter

This post is for whatever didn't fit into the last three posts.

After trapping and before going to East Lake Animal Hospital, Lynne and I came back to Lynne's house and fed all of the foster ferals in the hutches. Right now she has two feral kittens she rescued from the shelter that have ringworm, so she dealt with those two, and two more that needed antibiotics while I did most of the rest. Everyone at that point was doing fine.

Then we both went upstairs to feed "the little monsters." Lynne is fostering three male black kittens that are too small to be neutered. The kittens were born under a shed, and their mom was injured and starving when she was found. She still hasn't been trapped, but someone is working on it. Lynne says it's likely that these kittens have been malnourished, because they fight over the food and are very small. When food is presented to them, they eat as if they are starving. They're covered in flea dirt, mud, and probably have worms, but are too small to treat, and too scared and aggressive to bathe. For now, Lynne has them in a quiet room upstairs. Three times a day, she feeds them canned food, using a chopstick to "hand" feed (these kittens bite hard!). She uses another chopstick to pet them a little while they're eating, so they get used to human contact. (I also got to feed and pet once too.) These kittens are unusually fearful and desperate for their age, and Lynne isn't sure if they'll ever be friendly enough to be adopted out. If they don't "go over the hump" and start trusting people, then they'll go back to the person who found them, where they will be fed and live happily as ferals.

After the kittens were taken care of, we went out to East Lake Animal Hospital. We dropped off the three ferals we had trapped that morning and the kitten I had trapped the night before. Surgeries weren't starting for a few hours, so we decided to explore around Watsonville while we waited. First we went to a store that had a back area where a mom cat and kittens had been abandoned. The owner of the store was not very friendly, but had loved the cat and kittens. A neighbor had been feeding the cats and had contacted Project Purr, and Lynne had been trying to convince the owner to let her relocate all the cats, but he was very reluctant. When we went to the store, the cats were gone and the owner said the neighbor had taken all the cats. She hasn't returned phone calls, but hopefully everyone will be spayed or neutered and found good homes.

After that, we went to the Watsonville Animal Shelter. I had never been there before, and Lynne wanted to get some fliers to put up around town. When we arrived, the shelter employees quickly explained what had happened the day before. Apparently, 23 cats had been brought in, 16 of which were nursing kittens. Thankfully, Animal Friends Rescue Project (AFRP) had taken the 16, but the shelter was strapped. They simply do not have the space for all of those cats. Unfortunately, the shelter had to make space by putting down some of the cats. Of course, the ferals were on the list first. There were four ferals, and Lynne had to decide whether or not to save them. They all had white noses (which means they could get skin cancer), but there was one of the four I liked. It was a big bruiser tom, a fighter with lots of scars on his face. Despite being mostly white, he was one who obviously could make it in the world- a survivor. Lynne spoke for him, which means after the mandatory hold period, he'll be neutered and then sent to Lynne to be a garden cat.

The other three were not as lucky. No one wants feral cats, and no one is going to rescue them. When the day comes, they'll be put down. It was hard looking at those cats knowing they had no hope. What was worse was another cat, a three year old tabby female, who had been sent to the shelter because her family wasn't allowed to have cats in their apartment. Looking at her, it was obvious that she was depressed. She was half hiding under her bed, and wouldn't let anyone touch her. She couldn't understand why she had been put in the cage away from her family. Apparently at home she had been a friendly, loving, domestic cat. The family probably figured she would have no problem finding a new home, but her depression was going to be the end of her. She was on the kill list too. The shelter was hoping that Project Purr would take her, but it was obvious that she was no garden cat. She was a chubby indoor pet, she wouldn't last two seconds outside. She needed love and attention, and a home where she would be spoiled. Instead, she was going to be put down.

As Lynne says, "this is the part of cat rescue that I hate."

Long Day Part 3: Sick Kitten

As soon as Lynne and I got back from East Lake Animal Hospital, we were onto the next job: moving in two cats whose owners was going away. (Lynne doesn't usually petsit, but she was doing a favor for a personal friend.) The cats were going in a hutch, so Lynne and her friend worked to get it all ready. Meanwhile, Margaret and I started checking the Project Purr messages. All of a sudden, Lynne rushed in saying that one of the kittens was really sick. Margaret and I rushed out to find one of the feral kittens lying on his side, dehydrated and barely conscious. Margaret and I immediately rushed him to the emergency vet.

The vet gave him fluids and tried to get him warm. His temperature was too low, and blood tests showed his liver was working too hard. The best guess the vet had was that he had been stung by a bee, and was too small to work through it on his own. The overnight vet eventually guessed that he may have eaten a bee, and the stinger had been caught somewhere in the digestive system, and that it was continuously pumping venom into the kitten. Whatever it was, it was the vets were not able to save the little guy, and he died during the night.

The kitten was feral, one of a litter of three tabby males. They had all been trapped and sent to the shelter, put on the kill list, but Lynne had rescued them. They had been joined by another male kitten of the same age, and were living in a hutch in Lynne's backyard while waiting for a home. Tomorrow the remaining kittens are supposed to go to their new home as garden cats, where they will be named and loved.

I fed all of those kittens that morning, and there was nothing wrong. It's not like there was anything that could have been done to stop that bee, but it hurts just the same. Loosing such a young cat with so much potential is hard. But it's something that happens with cat rescue. Not all of them make it, and sometimes there's nothing you can do.

Long Day Part 2: Watching Surgeries

No pictures for this one, folks! I don't want to make anyone faint!

At the beginning of summer, Lynne asked one of the vets at East Lake Animal Hospital in Watsonville if I could observe surgeries for a day. She was hoping that I could follow one of my own cats that I trapped through, so I could get a whole-picture view of the process. This day the timing worked out, so I was very excited. I love surgeries!

When Lynne dropped me off at the clinic, I could tell already that it was busy. It turned out that there were two emergencies- a young cat had been attacked by a dog, and a cocker spaniel had pneumonia. Both of those took up a lot of time, so the vet was very behind. I did get to see some neat stuff for the cocker spaniel, though, like the x-rays. The techs were all very concerned for the cocker spaniel, probably because it was so cute and sweet. When you spend most of your time working with feral cats and chihuahuas, a friendly and compliant animal is a refreshing break. (Nothing against chihuahuas, they're just notoriously difficult to work with at a vet.)

After the emergencies were done, everyone got started on the cat neuters. There were altogether eleven cats in for surgeries that day- four domestics, four Project Purr ferals (the three Lynne and I had trapped that morning, and my Lighthouse Field kitten from the night before), and the rest were ferals that had been trapped by members of the public. They started out with the two domestic cat neuters, because neuters are faster than spays, and domestics are easier to work with than ferals. With neuters, the prep done by the techs actually takes longer than the work done by the vet. The actual surgery takes less than five minutes (I could explain it in detail, but I know some people would not appreciate it.) The two female domestic spays were next, and took about fifteen minutes each. The vet was obviously well practiced, and I was very impressed with his skills. The last surgery I started to watch was the female feral we had caught that morning with the notch on her ear. I told the vet that we were not sure if she had already been spayed, and he looked for a spay scar and didn't find one. I had to leave right as he was opening her up, so I didn't get to see a full feral surgery.

There were some disappointing elements to my visit- I had seen one spay and one neuter a few years ago, so it wasn't as if this was all new to me. I had wanted to see a complete feral spay and feral neuter, complete with ear tip. I wanted to see how the techs were able to sedate the ferals, but they had already done that before I came. I also was not able to see the ferals getting vaccinations or flea meds, but that's not very new to me.

For the most part, though, it was a great visit. I learned a lot, and was able to spend a long time talking to the vet (while he was spaying cats) about becoming a vet, working at spay/neuter clinics, new technology, dissolvable stitches, and other things. I got to see a puppy being microchipped, and got to hold that same squirmy puppy as a tech attempted to vaccinate it. I got to see two two day-old Yorkie puppies with their mom.

I was very impressed with the efficiency of the clinic. There were a lot of techs (at least five, and two up front), and they knew what they were doing. They were fast and smart. I felt in the way sometimes because they would go whizzing by me all the time. They had the freedom not given to every tech to decide what to do on their own without asking the vet or manager. The vet was also very efficient, and surprisingly talkative and friendly (many vets don't want to talk during surgery). And boy was he fast at surgeries! I was also impressed with the technology. There was a flat screen TV in the main room with Pandora radio playing, so the mood was very calm and relaxed. The x-ray technology was amazing, allowing the vet to view the images on the computer, zoom in or out, change the contrast, and more. I felt like a country bumpkin in the midst of all this amazing technology!

Video 2 of Long Day Part 1: Mass Trapping

Trapping one of the mom cats (the one without the ear notch.) She walked right in after Lynne set the trap, so we were lucky enough to see her get trapped!

Video 1 of Long Day Part 1: Mass Trapping

Releasing the three that had been caught the day before.

Long Day Part 1: Mass Trapping

Tuesday was a long day of Project Purr hard work. Because it was so long and varied I'm going to do four posts- the first for the mass trapping, the second for watching surgeries, the third for dealing with a sick kitten, and the fourth for all of the rest.

I arrived at Lynne's house at 7am. We left immediately to go trapping. The place we were trapping is going to stay unnamed, but let's just say this place is up to it's ears in cats. On Monday morning, Lynne had trapped three kittens, and so this morning we were releasing them and hoping to trap three or four more. Unfortunately, Project Purr does not have access to a veterinarian who is equipped to do true mass spay/neuter, so doing three or four at a time is as big as it gets. Some feral cat groups can do twenty or thirty cats in one day for large colonies!

As soon as we got to the location, we released the three kittens (see video). Then we set the traps and caught three more, a male kitten and two adult females. (See video of one adult being trapped.) It was exciting to trap two females that were known moms, because mom cats are usually hard to trap, and when a colony is starting to be trapped, normally all you get is kittens.

One of the mom cats we trapped had a notch in her ear and was less feral than the others. Lynne and I thought that maybe someone had tamed her, then brought her over the hill to be spayed (because no one on this side of the hill does ear notches). We almost let her go, but decided to let her go through the program anyway, even if she was spayed. That way, she would get a clear ear tip, plus a deworming, flea, tick, and ear mite medicine, and vaccinations. As it turns out, she wasn't spayed. That ear notch must have been from an accident in the past. Good thing we decided not to release her!

Project Purr at the downtown Farmer's Market TODAY!!!

I have a lot to blog about, but I just want to announce that Lynne, "Ella," Patty (the service dog) and I will be at a booth at the Santa Cruz downtown Farmer's Market today from 1:30 to 6:30, so come say hi and support Project Purr!

Another Kitten Caught!!!!

I had quite a successful day today!

I started out by setting the trap in the same place as last time. I did exactly the same thing as before, taking all the food away from all of the feeding stations and dumping it. I made lots of noise with the food, and called the kitties as if I was actually feeding them instead of setting a trap. Then I left to go dump the food in a trash can, and when I came back I biked slowly by the trap, and noticed a cat about to go in. It was the black and white cat hiding in the bushes in the picture below. I decided to bike around a bit and come back so that if I did catch that cat, I could let it out. (It's already been trapped. You can't tell in the picture, but it has an ear tip.) As I was biking away, I saw another cat, one I'd seen before. He was out hunting. It's hard to see it in the picture below, but the white ear has an ear tip.

When I came back to the trap, the black and white cat was still there but had apparently remembered its previous experience with the trap, and was sitting nearby. (That's when I took the picture.) I also noticed two tabby kittens. I had thought that there was only one tabby kitten, but obviously there were two. (Lynne had noticed another tabby kitten when she released the first, but I had thought it was the mother.) I took a picture (see above) and then saw the second tabby kitten as it ran away from me. I'm guessing this was the one that I just trapped, but it was going too fast for me to see for an ear tip. So since there were kittens around, I decided to again bike around the field for a bit.

This time I had a kitten! The second tabby kitten was in the trap, and had not yet realized that it was trapped, poor thing. After it had calmed down, I strapped the trap onto my bike and we went back to my house. Lynne picked it up later that evening, and tomorrow morning I will hopefully get to watch the spay or neuter in person!

Moving Garden Kitties To Their New Home

Today I spent the day helping Lynne do a relocation and various other Project Purr daily tasks.

The first thing Lynne and I did this morning was head straight out to the animal shelter to meet up with "Ella" and Paddington (the Great Pyrenees service dog), because their two foster kittens were going through the spay/neuter clinic. It was good to see them again! (I also ran into my middle school Spanish teacher, who was coming in to pet the shelter cats!)

After talking with them for a while, we went into the shelter and picked up two 5 month old orange tabby sisters named Pumpkin and Nutmeg. These two had been put on the rescue list, because when they had come into the shelter, they were acting a little feral, but when we got them we could pick them up and they never stopped purring. Project Purr rarely takes domestic cats, and works almost exclusively with ferals, but the shelter was just so full that these two made the exception. When we went to get them, all of the cat cages were full. The feral room only had one true feral in it, and the rest of the cages were filled to the brim with domestics. It's such a sad thing to see, especially since it's something that could have been prevented if people had taken the time to spay or neuter their animals. It hurts to know that these two adorable, healthy, purring kittens could have been put down just because there wasn't enough space for them.

Luckily for Pumpkin and Nutmeg, there was someone in the world who really wanted them. After we took them from the shelter, we went back to Lynne's house to prepare these two for their new home. While Lynne took care of her fosters, I loaded the car with everything two kittens could need for a new home. The entire package for garden cats had all of this:

• a hutch
• sawhorses to keep the hutch off the ground
• blankets to cover the wire on the bottom of the hutch
• a quilt to cover the hutch for shade and warmth
• a towel for underneath the litterbox
• a litterbox
• a 50 lb bag of litter
• a scooper
• a clamp to keep the litterbox from flipping over
• a doorless cat carrier for the cats to hide in
• a blanket for the cat carrier to make it comfy
• a water bowl
• a food bowl
• a big bag of food
• a claw sharpener
• toys
• cats

And all of this is completely free! What a deal!

After all the chores were done, we took Pumpkin and Nutmeg (and above list of things) to their new home. Unlike most garden cats, these two went pretty much straight from the shelter to their relocation. Most garden cats spend a few days or weeks in Lynne's backyard in hutches before they can find a home. Pumpkin and Nutmeg were very lucky, especially for garden cats. The home they were going to had a lot of space, and even some indoor places for them to live in. There was an older cat and a dog who lived there and could show the kittens how to live away from predators, and the kittens would camouflage very well with the yellow grass. This was the perfect fit for them, because the guy who wanted them was very happy to have friendly cats. He was cooing over them and was already inviting his family over to meet them.

When the relocation was done, Lynne and I headed back to the shelter to load up the car with donations. The shelter lets Project Purr have a big garbage can in the lobby for people to donate cat and dog food and related items. The donated items go to Project Purr, and Project Purr in turn takes them to the food shelf so homeless people can feed their animals. Today the can was overflowing with cat kibble, dog kibble, a litter box, litter, canned food, even some organic baby food. It was nice to know that people think to donate what they can't use instead of throwing it out.

Then we had some lunch and went back to Lynne's house. We discussed how we were going to use the rest of my time here before I head back to Vermont, and decided on lots of fun stuff. One of the things we discussed is tabling at the Farmer's Market downtown on Wednesday, so if anyone read this long, first of all- thanks! and second, we will be tabling at the Farmer's Market this Wednesday and next Wednesday from 1:30 to 6:30, so stop by and say hello!

Kitten Caught!

Yesterday I went out trapping at my usual time, and set the trap up at the feeding station in front of the abandoned house. I noticed the litter of kittens in the yard, and two of them (the tabby and one black) ran off immediately, but the third (the other black) stayed and watched me set the trap up. I tried something different than before- this time I took all of the food from all of the feeding stations, and put it into one container. The sound of the food in the bowls got the kittens interested, and it also sparked the interest in the person who lived at the "abandoned" house. As it turns out, the guy who lives there is very nice, and uses the house as a summer home. He said he couldn't afford to keep up the house as well as he would have liked, but that it definitely was not abandoned. He said he had no problem with me trapping, or having the feeding stations in his front yard. He just wanted to come out and say hello.

After I finished setting the trap, I took all the extra food and rode it over to a trash can a little ways away. I also ran into a couple people I knew, so it was about 15 minutes before I started riding home. I decided to check the trap as I biked home, and low and behold! There was the tabby kitten in the trap!

I was thrilled, but also a little concerned. My phone had broken a few days before, so I didn't have any way of calling Lynne. (My grand plan had been to set the trap, then come back later in the evening to close it, this time bringing my mom's phone with me.) Eventually I decided that the kitten was small enough for me to turn the trap up and have it sit on the door. This way it would fit onto the back of my bike, and I could bike it home. The kitten wasn't very happy, but I covered the trap up with a towel so it couldn't see outside and felt safe. I biked slowly home, avoiding bumps and talking to the kitten about how much better life would be after that day. When I pulled up into my driveway the kitten gave me a present for all of my help by peeing all over my bike!

Anyway, later that day Lynne came to pick up the kitten and today hopefully the kitten went through surgery. Now I just have to catch the two little black kittens and the mom!

Video Part 2

A Little Video On How To Trap A Cat

Just something my brother and I decided to make one day. It's not very good, but it gets the point across.

Kitty Pictures!

The little black kitten!

The kitty John Smith and I trapped. I see her almost every time I'm in the field. We watch each other from a distance. I'm thinking about calling her "Stella" after a first cousin once removed who was just born. :)

One of Lighthouse Field's many kitties. Note the eartip on the left ear.

Free Spay/Neuter All August!

On Saturday I went over to Lynne’s house, or more specifically, the headquarters of Project Purr (a.k.a. her kitchen table). Lynne and Margaret had decided to send out notices to about 80 people about the free spay/neuter for August, and combine it with a survey. The people we were sending the notices to had used Project Purr’s spay/neuter program in the past year, and lived in Watsonville or Freedom. We were hoping that the people would be inspired by the free spay/neuter to trap more, and that they could give us some feedback about the process. Also, it gave them a chance to ask for help from Project Purr if they needed it. Lynne and Margaret very cleverly found a way to save paper and money- the paper was folded into thirds and taped, so it became it’s own envelope. I ended up taking 2/3 of the fliers home, to finish stamping and addressing.

When I was at Lynne’s house, we picked up four kitties from the animal shelter. There was a fairly calm, tuxedo male, and a family of a mom with two kittens. The mom was a very freaky tortie, one of the kittens was an orange and white male, and the other kitten was an adorable calico, who actually let me pet her through the cage. We transferred the kitties into hutches, and now they are awaiting new homes as garden cats.

Three More Days of Trapping and Still No Luck :(

The title pretty much says it all. Trapping cats is tough. Nevertheless, here are the highlights of my failed past three trapping days.

Wednesday: I saw a new cat I hadn't seen before, and I took a picture of him (all of the pictures will be up soon, after I figure out how to use the new camera). I put the trap in the bushes, in a very good spot, but it was only when I was closing it that I realized I had put it near an ant hill. Oops! No wonder no kitties touched the tuna! I also made a new friend- there's a grey longhair domestic cat that lives down the street from the field. He's very friendly, but he has an odd habit of darting across the street right in front of cars. He darts because he's afraid of the cars, but I don't understand why he won't stay on the field side of the street until the car is past him. I'm sort of afraid for his life.

Thursday: When I was setting the trap (at a feeding station away from any ant hills) I noticed two eartipped black shorthair cats hanging out near by. One of them was limping significantly, which caused him to walk slowly, but just fast enough to still be able to run away from me. Later, when I came back to check the trap, it had been set off, but no cat was inside. I reset it and came back 45 minutes later, and low and behold there was a black cat! It was eartipped, but I wondered if this was the limping one. I remembered Lynne telling me that sometimes cats who are very sick and need vet care will back into traps. So I called her, but then I saw the the limping cat (outside of the trap) so I let the cat in the trap go.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Lynne went out of town, so I didn't trap.

Monday: I saw the black kitten, and this time it was with what looked like a mom and sibling. Both were brown tabbies, and pretty well camouflaged. I wonder if the kitten had been separated from it's family for a while and had been reunited. In any case, the trap was still empty.

I won't be trapping again until the 11th, because I'm going on vacation. Hopefully when I get back the black kitten and family will change their minds about my trap!