Family Matters

This story feels like a People for Animals' soap opera.
At the beginning of the summer, PFA was alerted by a community member about a white female cat in North Central Regina who was living in an abandoned garage and had just had four white kittens. This person was able to find homes for the four babies, but wasn't able to get near the mama cat (named Coconut) to scoop her.
Over the course of the summer, our dedicated feral team worked with Coconut. They spent hours watching her, figuring out her habits and where she lived, discovering who her feline friends were, and trying to gain her trust. They set up a feeding station in her area of the 'hood, and discovered that there was a real need for it, as there were many more hungry cats than Coconut living there.
The feral team tried desperately to trap Coconut before she became pregnant again, but she was too smart a cat to be easily trapped. Again and again she foiled their best laid plans.

In the meantime they began to build a relationship with a cat the team called "Coconut's boyfriend". He was a large, cream colored flame point siamese cross tomcat, who appeared to be missing one eye, and seemed quite wild. This male and Coconut were inseperable, and it was quickly concluded that he was the father of her last litter of babies.

Finally, it was apparent that Coconut was pregnant again. The team continued trying to trap her, with no success, and she had the babies in early September.

The feral team went exploring the garage that was Coconut's home, and found it to be crammed to the rafters with junk and garbage. It was next to impossible to locate anything in there, much less teeny tiny baby kittens! They set up a nesting box in the garage, in the hopes that Coconut would move her babies into the box, making them far easier to find. Thankfully, she did move them into the box, and the feral team was delighted to meet two white kittens and two orange ones on their next garage visit. The plan was made that Coconut and her babies would be left alone until the beginning of October, when they would be just old enough to leave their mom and be socialized in foster care, and we would then try ONCE AGAIN to trap Coconut the smart cat, have her spayed, and assess her for tameness.

In the meantime, the feral team succeeded in trapping Coconut's boyfriend, and the presumed father of her second litter of kittens as well! He was named Bugsy, and was quickly transported to the veterinary clinic, where he was neutered, treated for a case of ear mites so terrible that his ears were scabby and bleeding, and it was discovered that he did indeed have TWO eyes. One was just so badly infected that he couldn't open it.

BUGSY ON DAY TWO OF FOSTER CARE

At the Vet Clinic, Bugsy was incredibly calm and gentle. Despite worries that he would be too feral to be a tame cat, he was brought to my house for a few days of quiet and rest, and so that we could assess him. Bugsy thrived with a warm bed, ointment and pills for his eye infection, love and quiet, and regular food and water. The feral team were so attached to him by then that for the first week, I had to send out daily email updates about his progress to keep them all informed, and one member even stopped by with an amazing care package filled with the highest quality food and supplements to help our boy make a full recovery. Bugsy rapidly became so tame that I could easily open his mouth and pop pills in, and brush his coat to get all of the dirt and scabs out of it without a single complaint from him.

Bugsy is now a contented resident of my home, finishing up his treatment for his eye infection (which had to be extended because of the depth of the infection), at which point he will be available for adoption. He is a very special cat. Interestingly, I have a cat run attached to my home that the cats can enter and exit as they please. Many of my own cats and foster cats spend hours in the cat run, enjoying the outdoors. Bugsy has NO DESIRE to go back outside. I think he knows how lucky he is.

At the beginning of October, the feral team put into motion "OPERATION COCONUT". They had been training her to go into the trap to eat her meals and treats, without setting the trap, to try and encourage her to see it as a harmless thing. Despite some setbacks (Coconut figured out how to sit outside the trap and paw the treats out of it though the wiring) it had gone relatively well. We had foster homes in place for both Coconut and the four kittens, and the feral team met at the garage one Sunday to gather the little family and get them into safety. Imagine their shock and grief when they entered the garage and found only ONE white kitten. They searched the entire garage, and after many hours, were forced to conclude that the kittens had been killed, or taken by someone or something.

The single white kitten was brought to my next door neighbours for fostering. Bev, Desiree and Carey quickly fell headlong in love with little "Frost" and adopted her within two weeks of beginning to foster her. She is a diva, and at 7 weeks of age is already running the entire household. She is adored.

Coconut was spayed and sent to one of our most experienced foster homes for assessment and care. Ken has found that so far Coconut is very timid, but he is encouraged by small steps of progress, and we are hopeful that soon she will be enjoying all of the benefits of being off the street, and will be tame enough to be adoptable.

Is this the end of the story?

We thought so!

But no...

Two weeks later, Leanne, one of our feral team members, was driving by the garage and saw two little faces peek out from under the garage door. Orange and white faces.
The kittens were alive and they were there!!! Thankfully, the feral team had continued to leave food and water at the garage with the dim hope that perhaps the kittens would reappear. And lo and behold, they did. They had been living amongst the junk and garbage for weeks.

Quickly, a plan was made, and four of our team members met at the garage yesterday morning to try and trap these babies, who would by now be almost 7 weeks old and quite wild. It took all day, from 10 in the morning, until 6 at night. Each and every team member was covered in dirt and animal feces and dust by the time it was over, as they were crawling through the garage trying to find the babies. Eventually, they tried setting the trap, and one by one, they were able to catch all three.

The three kittens, two orange and one white, are happily ensconced in a foster home now, warm and safe.
Frost has already been adopted, and is firmly on the path to a contented and secure life.
Coconut is spayed and will never have another litter of kittens again.
Bugsy is warm, his eye is normal, and he loves being in a home with people who love him.

That's the end.


-Sarah