...to keep warm while trapping cats in the winter. I'm trying to thaw out from sitting in the cold for about 7 hours trying to trap two cats to relocate them from their current location (the beach) to their caregiver's house in Raleigh. The cats are not welcome where they are and there is no regular caregiver now. Amy, the caregiver, moved from the beach to Raleigh and has been trying to get them for some time. I went with her today and brrrrrrrrrrr, it was cold! The cats were previously TNR'd and are very trap savvy so I brought my awesome folding drop trap. But that means you have to be within eye sight of the trap (I think the rope is about 100-150 feet) so when the cats go in, you trip the trap. So I laid on the ground slightly downhill and almost out of sight of the cats so they hopefully wouldn't see me and would go under the drop trap. I think I need a ghillie suit for camoflauge. It would help me blend in more.
Well, we caught mama, but papa is still out there. We stayed for hours trying to catch him, but to no avail. It was getting too dark for us to have any success so we made the almost two hour drive back.
While we were there, we were all but harrassed by the North Carolina Wildlife Control. As we're trapping the cats, we get yelled at to stop feeding the cats. I come down after hearing that thinking it was one of the fisherman and was surprised to see it was a NC Wildlife Control Officer. I am dismayed to say that our wildlife control officers are quite uneducated about feral cats. The cats will surely bite someone or get too close to a human and give them some disease. Whoa, seriously? Wow, kind of scary that these guys know diddly. And then we were informed that the ramp is for boating only. We weren't on the ramp, we were in the park side. But the officer was fine with all the other non-boaters there. At which point I was asked for my ID and to come with the officer. I thought he was going to write me a ticket or haul me off in handcuffs (too bad, that would've made a great picture!!). I did get the officer's name and his supervisor's name and contact information. I'll be writing "strongly worded" letters this week.
Amy has to work tomorrow and I have to trap some ferals some place local, but Amy is heading back down there Monday with her sister and sure do hope she can catch papa. I hate the thought of him there without mama, they are used to snuggling together. But he does have a very well concealed shelter. I sure do hope she can get him Mondayy. Between work and adoption events, I can't go back down there for a few weeks.
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2 comments:
Great job catching mama cat! We are praying and purring that papa will quickly follow suit. What a pity that the wildlife control officers seem to have so little knowledge about feral cats.
I feel your (cold) pain, and there IS a better way. With a radio controlled trap you could be (warm) in your car or house. I build trap radio control systems primarily for CARE TNR of Orlando, but they are available for others as well. They’re most useful for bad weather or long string run situations. The radios were designed primarily for live traps, but an adapter for drop traps is available. If interested, pls see my blog. Questions? Contact tnrtech@aol.com.
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