Snowy Saturday Cats

Today was the NYS Wildlife Management Association yearly conference at the Treadway Inn in Owego, which is only 1/2 hour from me. Although I'm no longer involved in wildlife control, I have a soft place in my heart for the NYSWMA guys (the core group and I were all founding members back in 1992 or so) so every year I sit registration so they can do the "meet and greet" thing without being tied to the table.

Alan Huot from Wildlife Control Supplies in CT was there, so I asked him if he had brought any Safeguard traps with sliding back doors, and indeed he had. He also had one-way squirrel eviction doors, so I picked up a trap and a one-way door. Jack's mom Holly has squirrels, and I promised her when she adopted Jack we would help her ease them on out of her house before squirrel-baby season arrived. So I came home with a shiny new trap and squirrel door with no shipping costs.

Should you ever attend conferences with exhibitors, remember that, unless they have more shows in the same region, they don't want to ship all that equipment home, and they'll often sell it at a discount or without shipping.

While I was there I had a great conversation with Jim Pace of Christian-Baker Company, who had lots of information about liability and other insurance coverage for Wildrun. I previously had wildlife control insurance, but had dropped it once it seemed clear my current activities did not meet standard wildlife control practices. But he pointed out that the dedicated "cat lady" wasn't much different from the wildlife rehabber (who also often have a separate facility and volunteers), and he felt he could cover my insurance needs. So hopefully this spring he'll be able to create a policy for us that specifically fits what we do here. I have to say, it was the first time I'd spoken with an insurance agent who seemed to have any respect for the fact that a cat person might want and need insurance. I was very impressed.

Then it began to snow, and I had our one vehicle that is good in snow, and I knew Mark had to drive into Ithaca. So once registration seemed to be over around 10:30, I headed home and tagged along to Ithaca with Mark. He ran his errands, and I ran mine, which mostly involved loading up the car with cat litter at Walmart (with my husband, we could push TWO carts of litter -- luckily no one made any smart comments).

We also stopped by to feed the Fast Food Ferals and was rewarded with a glimpse of Vannie (photo at top), one of the original colony. Then I looked again, and a head was peeking out of one of the shelters!



It was One-Ear. He is a periodic visitor who has not yet been captured and fixed, so it's obviously time to get him. I approached more closely to see if he might be tame, but he decided it was time to leave, so I stopped pressing him. I didn't want to chase him away from the food.



I always feel so privileged when I get to see the remaining Fast Food Ferals. It's incredible to think that they are all that are left of the swarms of cats and kittens that once haunted the north side of Route 13 in Ithaca.

And of course I'm glad to see they are using the shelters.

About a week ago, I went grocery shopping at Wegmans. Anyone who know me well knows I was not happy to be assigned this task. I hate big stores. I have a hard time buttoning my sarcastic lip at people who charge out of side aisles without looking, or who stop and block the whole aisle, oblivious to the fact that there are people behind them. I also hate that the market is so large that if you forget something, its a major trek to fetch back to the other side of the store.

But what redeemed this visit was that I ran first into Alden (and we arranged his fostering of Ben) and then into Sara K., the very kind and sweet woman who was once feeding 25 cats in her back yard on Cascadilla Street in 2001. She was our very first TNR colony. She was not the creator of the colony. Another feeder was feeding cats on a nearby vacant lot and stopped. I was called in by a Cornell University police officer (a cat lover) who requested help with a shed full of sick kittens, and I found Sara by walking the neighborhood until I saw her methodically feeding all the cats on paper plates, which she then picked up and threw neatly away. At the time, she was taking care of her ill husband (who I have learned, sadly, has since passed away). Adding a quarter-hundred cats to her life was not something needed at that time. Who does?

She did not deserve to be placed in the position of caretaker for a growing colony of cats, but like many responsible older citizens, she was not going to turn away a human or animal in need. We discovered that majority of the cats were kittens who could be placed in home. We returned only seven cats.

She didn't really want seven cats, either, but I pointed out that seven nonbreeding cats was a heck of a lot better than a steady progression of 25, living, breeding, and dying, breaking her heart.

As we talked in Wegmans, I asked her about the two cats who were left. Sadly, the grey long hair disappeared last year. She now had only one tiger cat, who lives in the shelter we left her, and pads up to her second floor porch, and sometimes even accepts an invitation into her kitchen...but refuses to be petted. She seemed very happy. Her eyes were sparkling, and it was a joy to speak to her.

She mentioned that she had gotten our Christmas card to her, which made me all the more dedicated to send them ALL out next year (I sadly admit I only got half out this year).

The shabby nearby property where the cats and kittens all hung out is now cleaned up. She said "Can you believe there isn't a single stray cat in that whole neighborhood now?"

Not a single stray cat in that whole neighborhood!

It was a lovely conversation, and seeing her and Alden made the visit to Wegman's worth it.