The inevitable occurs

Thursday evening I happened to be in Ithaca to attend an Ithaca College event with Mark, and I stopped by the downtown trailer to feed the two cats who insist on living there (instead of in the cat shelters two lots down where they are fed every day). I tried to fix the skirting two years ago so they couldn't get underneath, but there were gaps under the porches I could not reach. Most of the cats relocated on their own to nearby cat shelters, but Annie and Pichou remained.

About once a week we feed the cats at the trailer even though they already get food daily at nearby sites. This is mostly so the nearby businesses will see my truck and know that the cats are being cared for. Then they won't start feeding on their own. If other people start feeding, they sometimes can make a noticeable mess, not realizing that messes can make other people very upset.

When I stopped by and walked over through the darkness, I noticed that...the skirting was missing from the trailer and it was being disassembled.

Now I've known for a long while that sooner or later, the trailer would disappear. Everytime I drive down this highway, I worry that there will be a big gap where the building once was.

Thankfully, the workmen did exactly as I hoped. They pulled off the skirting before moving the trailer, so critters living beneath it would move on before the entire building was removed. I picked up my bowl and did NOT leave food, because I didn't want to encourage Annie and Pichou to return to hang out there. The last thing I wanted was for them to jump up into the undercarriage of this thing and get hauled off somewhere.

But all night long I worried. I see Pichou regularly at the other feeding station, but I've never seen Annie anywhere other than the trailer. Today (Saturday) I went over with traps. I talked to the business next door so they wouldn't be alarmed. Annie and Pichou, I assured them, would go to a good barn home I have lined up for them. Any other resident cats I happened to catch I would hold until the trailer was removed, and then return them, since they didn't live on this lot. Anyone I caught would get their booster shots and be treated for parasites. New cats would be neutered and vaccinated. Friendly cats, if there were any, would be put up for adoption.

I was hoping I would catch Annie, at least, and that everyone else would be too alarmed by the changes to come back, and would hang out on properties nearby where they have shelters and are welcome.


And I did catch Annie. I set the traps around 3:00 pm under the trailer, left my card with the staff next door, drove all the way home to pick up more traps, and returned to set them. By then, it was dark. I ran errands (cat litter at Walmart--more on THAT later) and tried to get dinner, but the nearest chain restaurant had people waiting in a line outside the door.

So instead I sat and had a relaxing dinner and a beer at The Royal Court, reading my copy of Non-Profit Kit for Dummies. It was lovely. The atmosphere and the people are great when you just want to have food and a drink and listen to good talk around you. Around 8:30 I ran a few more errands and checked the traps.

And there was Annie. As I suspected, she wasn't abandoning her only known home, even if it was being pulled apart around her. So she's at my place now in a feral cat den, and I'm afraid she has "issues." Check out the left eye, which is larger than her right eye. The pupil is also fully dilated. This isn't good. I'm hoping it's just an ear infection from ear mites and not a polyp or some more serious problem. I'll have her put under anesthesia by the vet and checked out from nose to tail. She such a sweetie. She came out of the box and had a quick look around. She's totally feral, but not an aggressive cat at all. Her coat is nice and she's of good weight.

It's odd. I caught Annie almost three years ago, had her spayed and vaccinated, put her back out on a four-lane highway business district with 12 colony mates (with the cooperation of local businesses), against my better judgement. I have watched her play and sun herself in a barren habitat, bulldozed for big box stores, and here she is again, plump and healthy. She's my own cat, but she lives in the city a half hour away.

Healthy except for that eye. Damn.


I wonder what a city cat will think of the country? I wish she could stay here, but I think with her own home gone, and about eight cats already settled in at the nearby site, she'll be lost, trying to fit in with cats who are already established in the shelters. I'll add more shelters, but with winter coming on, I don't want to take a risk with Annie.

I know she's buddies with both Pichou and Wings Sr., so I'll start trapping over at the feeding stations to revaccinate everyone who needs it. If I get one of these two, I'll relocate them to the farm with Annie so she isn't alone. Right now the farm has no cats at all.

I can't thank the trailer owner enough for tolerating them for all these years. There is no way the trailer could stay forever. All the businesses along here have been wonderful. Just wonderful people to a handful of cats and crazy trapper. I hope that the lack of kittens for almost three years, and no more shivering cats under the local dumpsters, has made it all worth it for them.

Other tasks today:

Drove to Dryden to help another feral rescuer get an aggressive feral from his cage into a carrier for a vet appointment.

Delivered 12 bags to food to a T-Burg colony caretaker.

Talked a lot.. Feral management seems to be more talking with humans than working with cats!