Junebug & Joel

Update, as of last night, two of the 1st Street babies opened their eyes.  And they 8 days old!  Its time to name Ariel's babies now.  

I will converse with Foster Mom Sue and give those babies a name!!!  

Update on Junebug - I have had several inquiries of adoption for her, but she is having issues since she was rescued.  If you will recall, she had worms literally pouring out of her hind end when I got her.  She was brought to emergency vet where she was given all sorts of stuff, including ointment to ease her raw behind.  Today, I will bring her to her third vet appointment to see what is next.  She was prescribed metrodazol or something like that to be given every 12 hours on April 12th when she was seen last.  Nothing has changed.  She is leaving droplets of poop all over the house.  And her behind is very inflamed.  I just don't know what to do next.  

I am grateful and humbled by folks that donate to me and other rescues - those outside of rescue sometimes don't realize the cost of caring for these animals in need.  And then we adopt them out for a mere pittance of what they cost us.  

This story by Joel is when he tried trapping kitties for me, including Big Red.  Enjoy!


Story by Joel Schmid!  

     Its 4:00 AM - and I'm a little nervous.

Today I am trapping solo for Janine. That means I am attempting to trap a cat by myself with no more help from a more experienced T and R volunteer. There is a big old orange striped cat named Big Red who lives on Short street in the city of Rochester. Janine and the volunteers who help her care for more than 100 cats in the Beechwood section of the city have reported that this cat looked very ill and was drooling heavily from his mouth the last time he was seen a few days ago. Janine wants to try and bring him in to the clinic to see if he can be treated.

This should be easy right ? (HA - I can hear Janine laughing even now) I've volunteered before on TnR Tuesdays to help her with trapping cats that need to be spayed and neutered from one of the dozens of locations she cares for. I've watched how she places the newspaper inside, and puts the bait (tuna or stinky mackerel fish) on the paper to draw the wary and wild feral cats into the have-a-heart trap to allow them to be safely transported to the clinic.

Now I have one of her traps in the back of my car softly rattling as I make my way down Goodman street, past the village gate mall (wow ! when did all the fancy sculptures and art displays go up ? ) - a quick jaunt on main street, and back to Goodman again. A few more lights and there it is - good old Short street. I kind of like Short street. The houses are not jammed together too badly here, and the street and gutter does not have a thick layer of glittering broken glass lying in the crease where the pavement meets the curbs like some of the other city streets.

I pull up in front of the rambling brick house with the huge porch where she feeds a few of Short streets feline residents and shut off the cars lights. Its cold and frosty on this early March morning so I leave the engine running and the heater on low. I remember to kill the dome lights with the little switch next to the light so I don’t draw too much attention to myself while I get set up. I step out into an alien world bathed in the dull yellow glow from the overhead streetlights. I never cease to marvel at how odd the lighting feels at this hour of the day in the city. I'm a country boy I guess - I love looking up at a sky full of glittering stars on a velvet black background like I see from my cozy home in Rush. Here on Short street all is yellowish gold.

As I step out and gently push the door closed (I NEVER let it slam - the habit of keeping quiet is now deeply ingrained after many ride-alongs with Janine ) I spot a few of the local denizens of Short street. A couple of black and tan striped tabby's, a black and white tuxedo patterned cat with a tattered and faded pink bell collar (a cat with whom I will get to know MUCH better in the next few hours) and a smaller, young looking red striped tabby. No sign of "Big Red" yet. Janine says he hangs out along the fence at the back of the empty lot directly across the street from the big brick house. That's where I will set up the trap. I open up the hatch on my car and push up the door of the big have-a-heart trap. I don’t have newspaper (I don’t read the paper at home) but I have something just as good. A big pad of newsprint artist paper left over from my workshop which I use while mounting and framing my photography enlargements. The newsprint makes a nice clean disposable work surface. I tear off a sheet and fold it so it fits the bottom of the trap. I open my tupper ware container of tuna (the cheapest corner grocery store stuff I could get) and sprinkle it out on the paper. I try to guess how much to put down, trying to remember while I was watching her do it last year.

When I think I've got enough I hook the traps trip rod under the slot in the spring-loaded door and carry the trap to the back fence of the empty lot. A few of the cats I spotted on arrival follow along behind me like the pied piper. I can see them out of the corner of my eyes as I peer carefully through the gloom - trying to see a big red tabby cat. I walk around behind the feral cat shelter under a few scrawny trees and set the trap down. I grab the board leaning up against the front of the shelter and lay it down flat in front of the shelter for the trap to sit on. I hear the soft scrabble and thump of cats paws as the ones following me from across the street scramble inside the shelter. They are expecting to be fed, and eagerly await the 'plop' of the wet food hitting the mound of dry kibble she normally leaves on the plastic plates inside the shelter. But today they will be temporarily disappointed. I cannot feed them until I have finished trapping the cat I am trying to get. Chow-time will have to wait for a bit. As I set the trap down on the dirty plywood that forms the protective front of the shelter I have unknowingly made my first rookie mistake - one of many. I have BOTH trap doors open and latched. I will learn later that this is a costly error. But for now, I turn and walk back toward the car, satisfied that I have done everything right and will soon be trumpeting my success to Janine. I climb back into the toasty warm car to wait, once again carefully pulling the door closed with just a soft 'snick' of the latch.

I text "The Boss" (Janine) and inform her I'm all set up and now waiting for my prize to show up so he can be trapped. She texts back "Good luck" and then I am left to kill some time, sipping coffee and watching the cats mill around on the porch steps of the big brick house. After half an hour I ease out of the drivers seat and stroll back to the fence to see if I have anything in the trap yet. As I clear the corner of the shelter so the trap is in view my heart rate picks up a little - the doors on the trap are down ! Plus I can hear a bit of metallic sounding panicked scrabbling coming from inside.

Got one !

I grab the headlamp hanging around my neck and mash the button so I can get some light into the side of the trap to see what I have.

Is it Big Red ?

No - in the red circle of light thrown from my headlamp (I use a red LED lamp to preserve my night vision - an old trick learned from my astronomy hobby) I can see it’s the black and white tuxedo pattern cat with the faded pink bell collar staring back at me. Dammit.

Well at least I know the trap worked. I raise the door on one end of the trap while she meows noisily at me and then once she realizes she can escape she bolts out like a rocket. Well that’s the last time I will get her I think.

Wrong.

I set the trap down in the back of the car, sprinkle a fresh supply of tuna onto the folded newsprint paper, and stroll back to the shelter again. I set the trap down with both doors propped open and hoping to see Big Red. Still no sign of him.  I go back to the car to inform Janine about my first catch. She tells me in the text that the bell cat is a girl and has been around that location for a couple of years. I wait another half hour to give the trap a chance to catch its next victim. When I walk back to check on it I feel disappointment. Both trap doors are still up. I shine my red light inside and all the tuna is gone. Dammit ! (I find out later that you have to open only ONE side and put the tuna way back at the opposite end that’s closed so the cat will have to come all way inside to get the tuna) I jog back to car, grab the tuna, and put more down on the paper.

Back to the car to wait some more.

Another half hour crawls by. Now I'm getting antsy. I want to be successful trapping Big Red. I don’t want to disappoint Janine. Plus my male competitive spirit is pushing me a little to be the man and get the job done. I go back toward the shelter again and I see the doors are down ! Good ! I can hear something scuffling around in the trap, and then an annoyed MEOW from inside. Uh-oh - that meow sounds a little familiar. My heart sinks a as I get around the side of the shelter so I can what's inside and I learn my suspicions are true.

Its bell collar cat again !

I let her out, scolding her a little to stay the hell out of my trap you silly cat and I carry the trap back to the car. It's almost 5:30 now and I'm out of time. I pull out the news print and shake the tuna out onto the ground so it doesn't stink up the car and get back into the drivers seat to text Janine. I tell her that I caught bell kitty twice and send her a LOL emoji. She replies no problem and just try again next week. I pull away from the curb to go get breakfast at good old Wegmans and vow to do better next time …

Have a great day!