TNR, Part the Last

Okay, so, scroll down to read Parts I and II.



Saturday evening, after an afternoon of grocery shopping and mowing and cleaning the foster room, I headed back over to Susan's.  We left for the clinic, making it there a little after seven.

All seven cats came through surgery just fine.  Turns out there were five males, two females.  The neck wound cat had his wound cleaned and was given a shot of long-lasting antibiotics.  One of the females had recently given birth; we had tried to determine the night before if any of the trapped cats were potentially nursing, but it's hard to do when they're thrashing around.  Spayed cats can still nurse; we just had to get mama back home so she could get back to her kittens, wherever she had them stashed.

The cats had been placed into carriers we had taken up that morning; now we just had to jenga the empty traps, the feral cats in the carriers, and the family cat into the back of the truck for the return home.  Susan had brought four more kittens up to be vaccinated, so it was after eight by the time we were finally on the road.  I now know the route between here and the clinic, all fifty-flipping-miles of it, very well.

We stopped to drop off the family cat first; then it was time to release the ferals.  We headed over to Mr. IBM's house.  The neck wound cat and the female who wasn't nursing needed to be kept inside as long as
possible;  the female for her spay surgery to heal, the male for his neck wound to scab over.  The man agreed to keep them on one of his porches as long as they would tolerate it.   The nursing female and the rest of the males could be released right away.

We asked Mr. IBM to set up the outdoor food and water bowls in their usual places before we got started.

We bushwhacked to the back of the house (and may I say that Jillian Michaels knew what she was doing when she made duck-walking part of her brutal workouts), set down the carriers, and carefully opened them up.  Some of the cats sprang out and ran off.  A couple lingered in the carriers before finally moving on.  We said our goodbyes, made plans to come back in August for more trapping, and went back to Susan's, where I picked up my car and finally, finally got home, a little before eleven.

Seven a.m. to eleven p.m., plus the trapping the night before.  I have NO IDEA how Susan does this, twice a month, month after month.  I have no idea if we're making any headway in the tide of homeless cats.

I just keeping reminding myself of the starfish story.

And there are seven feral cats out there who won't be making any more junior ferals.  Hooray!