They've been staying in the wood shed all day. I feed them in the morning. By evening the food is gone, so it doesn't attract pesky raccoons. Also, that gives them an incentive to chase mousies. We have lots of mousies around here.
This evening they were gathered 'round and on top of the chicken pen that's attached to the woodshed. I took their pictures through the screen on my bedroom window, which is why the quality isn't the best. They're so spooky this is the best I can do.
Here's the orange boy.
Here is his calico sister. She's the tamest, she'll come to the feed bowl when I'm standing fairly close to it.
These are the two grays. I think the one on the left is a female and the other one is a male.
There's one other kitten, it's black as night and spooky as a wraith. As soon as it heard the shutter snap, it was outta there.
I'm happy I've been able to keep these babies in pretty good shape. Their momma is not very big. The orange kitten is already bigger than she is. She's lean, but in good shape, too.
Anyone have a magic wand I could use to put a spell on these babies and catch them?
7 comments:
Betcha the county can catch them for you so you can have them fixed. They have several different type of net traps that they bait with food and trigger with a remote control when they are all busy eating. A net with a fine mesh and weighted edges falls over them, and wa-la, captured kitties. We used to try to catch the neighborhood cats with a cardboard box held up with a stick, and when the cat went into the box, we pulled a string that was attached to the stick, and down came the box. You would only catch the same cat a couple of times though, they were pretty smart at detecting after they had been caught once or twice.
Was curious how many chickens you smuggled home from Kauai? There sure are a lot of them running around over there.
I bet Robyn at http://www.love-and-hisses.com/ could give you good information. She is a nice person and very knowledgeable about cats.
I use a Havahart trap. You can only get one at a time unless they swarm it. You can open the trap into another cage until you get them all. Or, you can transport them all at one time. I would put the cage in a different place each time, but that is up to you.
Catching them should be quite an adventure, worthy of several bog posts.
KennyD (Do I know you? If not, welcome.) I haven't had great experiences with Sacramento County Animal Control, have you? I didn't bring any chickens home from Kauai, they inspect you with a microscope to make sure you're not taking any ag products off the island. Otherwise I would have had an extra suitcase stuffed with slips of plants to start, chickens, gekkos, seashells, fresh pineapples and coconuts, and nuts and seeds from every tree. Enough to contaminate the whole state of California.
Erin, I read Love and Hisses every day. I might ask Robyn.
PP the trap I have is big enough for Ratcoons, I'm afraid when the door slammed shut it might injure a kitten's leg or tail.
I have a cage that I've used to catch kittens before, it works like KennyD's box and stick. Maybe I'll try that. The cage is near the wood shed where the kittens hang out, so maybe they won't be afraid of it. (Ho ho, that's a laugh, this batch is afraid of everything.)
Jan,
The kittens will be so far past the part that falls down that the kitten tails will be past it. I have a raccoon size trap.
Live traps with yummy tins of tuna.
That is what we use to capture feral cats and small dogs at the shelter.
Do you have a way for me to subscribe by email to your blog posts? The atom at the bottom doesn't work for me.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Hi Linda! If you use Firefox while on the home page of a blog you can click on bookmarks>subscribe> to this page>choose Atom or rss. That will take you to where you can select your reader. There is also a rss for comments.
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