Happy as a pig in muck!

EGAR

EGAR has branched out and today I had the first major TNR although it turned into a TN only .

A total of 9 feral cats trapped and safe. They will be neutered/spayed tomorrow! It was the entire colony and I daresay that is not bad for the first time on such a scale (did the odd one around here before).



I am delighted with myself tonight !

TooManyDogs

Fair play to you.

Must say, I'm admiring the cat who thought enough in advance to bring an Toy Story overnight bag

EGAR

It's a 2 legged 6 yro tomcat . Wild horses couldn't keep him home so he tagged along to learn the trade from the auld one .

TooManyDogs

Start 'em young I say!

joyce2009

fair play getting so many:D

Whispered

Oh sarah you wont have to buy dog food for aaaages

Well done. Are they with you overnight? How are they getting along? Totally feral, or long time strays do you think?

Asphyxia

Well done

The Sweeper

Well done. Some of them look like they're in cages, some in carry crates - how'd you go transferring them from the cage to the crate?

Just wondering - 'vetiquette' on ferals here is trap it in a cage, leave it in the cage, take it to the vet in the cage, vet sedates it in the cage, and it only gets out of the cage when it's unconscious. Have known a few TNR peeps to lose a feral when trying to move it from cage to crate - and at least one case of TNR peep and vet trying to net a feral cat who thought he was a wild bird and was doing 'wall of death' gravity defying circuits of the top of the exam room walls after escaping past the vet when he opened the crate door to try and sedate him...

Irish-Lass

Oh EGAR what have I started with you - thats what you get for saying you would adopt your first cats off me

But all joking aside that is fantastic and fair play to you. I am currently working my way throught the rest of the feral cats in the business park I work in - no one comments now at the mad woman crawling through bushes anymore

Hope my 2 boys are being good and her ladyship hope she is still hanging around....must pop down again to see them all.

Angelmangle

Well done

EGAR

You don't lose them if you transfer them indoors or if need be in the back of the van. Brought them to the vet first thing in the morning, they have been tested (all are negative hallelujah!), neutered/spayed, de-wormed, de-flead etc.

Irish_Lass: The boys and her Ladyship are doing great although I see the latter only at feeding times . I only started with cats a year ago when I moved, I simply could not accomodate cats at the old place...

I am dead chuffed with myself!

And: I haven't got a single scratch or bite and I didn't use gloves (hate them!). Good cats .

But my volunteer got it - amateurs pah :eek:

The Sweeper

Excellent on the no scratches.

On the not losing them if you transfer them in van or indoors - if you're going to keep doing this, you should amend that to 'I haven't lost one yet transferring them indoors or in the van'

To be fair many ferals are quite frightened when caged and will keep very still if handled firmly and quickly out of fear - but some can be really feisty and if you're at all tentative or unsure in your grip and your touch they can turn in a blink. Some nimble guys, when scruffed, if you don't have a hold of the base of their tail with the other hand, they can turn right over in your hand and wrap themselves around your arm and they'll just hook in and bite on whatever they can reach. To be honest you're at far more risk of injury from the work you do with feral cats than the work you do with bull breed dogs!!

If you ever DO get bitten, please take it very seriously - cat bites are filthy and serious infection can set in very quickly - especially on deep puncture bites to the hands and arms. If you get a puncture bite you need to see your GP or go to the emergency department for antibiotics.

The shelter move we did in January - 130 cats - had a few volunteers injured from cat bites. We were trying to round up some frightened ferals in a pen with a net. (Some ferals, after being trapped once, will never enter a trap again, even if half starved. So some of these guys had been trapped, released into communal pens at the shelter, never rehomed, got used to people but remained untouchable, and then had to be caught within the pens to be moved.) One guy was bitten at noon on a Saturday and I begged him to go to emergency on his way home. He laughed it off first, but by 5pm when he was leaving the property both hands had swollen and he couldn't flex his thumbs. He went to emergency and had tetanus and antibiotics but didn't regain full use of both hands until Wednesday the following week.

EGAR

I got bitten by one of my own cats once and BOY that got infected although I cleaned etc is straight away! One thing I am always vigilant about is to keep my Tetanus injections up to date. I got bitten by a dog last year and was glad I had the Tetanus! But that healed quite nicely.

Don't look if you are squeamish:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/30158_129905377033599_100000424117521_257194_6368539_n.jpg



Worst bite I ever got was off a horse!

Irish-Lass

At this stage I must have built up an immune to whatever bacteria is in cats claws and teeth cause I have been scratched so many times and biten so many times and not once have I got an infection from it.

I love feral cats when they start to come around to being semi pets - we have a feral cat that lives in our house and we have him 4 1/2 years - he adores the dogs and the other cats - humans pppffffttt hides from them but every now and again he will jump up for a snuggle and a tummy rub and after 5 minutes jumps up like something has biten him stares at you then run - its like he had a thought "sh*t I'm suppose to be feral and was enjoying that cuddle way too much"