11/16/2022
Meet little Casino, so named because I turned down an all expenses paid trip to the casino because I knew I had to trap this little girl before the coyotes found her. I'm pretty good at trapping and I know a lot of tricks, but it still took me three days to catch her and she was just a tiny baby!
I was sitting here looking out my bedroom window just about this time of year, when I suddenly saw a little flash of white go speeding by. Yep, it was her.
I live in the country with no close neighbors nearby, so I immediately started wondering where she could've possibly come from?! When I got a better look at her, I figured she was probably about ten weeks old and small for her age from malnutrition. She was very definitely completely feral, which took no time to discern. If she hadn't also been definitely completely hungry, I might not have ever seen her again, she was that feral. I took a few bites of tuna out as quickly as I could possibly get it there, and backed off to wait, but although it was plain to see she really wanted to, she was not gonna budge from hiding in the bushes as long as I was anywhere near. So I came back inside to watch and think about this one. I knew as young as she was, white and shining in the woods, she would probably not last a single night out there on her own. And I was afraid if I scared her off, I'd never see her again, so this was gonna require some careful thought.
First, I decided to use Batman and Petey sorta like ambassador cats, one at a time. I took Batman outside with me to put a couple more bites of tuna out because he is such a lover! He has this thing he does where he crawls up in my arms and I'll hold him to my shoulder and rock him, and after a few seconds he switches to the other shoulder, and back and forth. So I walked out to where she could just catch sight of us, and gave him a bite of tuna while he climbed all over me, hopefully showing her that he was not afraid.
Next was Petey, because Petey is ever curious and friendly and always wanting to play, play, play, hoping he might sort of make friends with her, which he did. This time she allowed me to get a few feet closer to her before she retreated.
I spent the whole afternoon like this, alternating between my two ambassadors while she looked on at their antics, nibbling bites of tuna and mackerel. As evening was approaching I knew time was running out, so I hopped in my van and went to borrow a trap from someone, hoping I had not fed her so much that she'd lose interest while I was gone.
When I got back it was almost dark and I was so worried that I would never see her again, cause now she was nowhere to be seen! I set the trap up outside my bedroom window where I had first caught a glimpse of her, and where I could easily keep an eye on it. And then I waited... and waited... and waited, but no tiny kitty. I was beginning to despair.
I wondered if I had set the trap too close to the house and decided to go look around with a flashlight when I shut the hen house up for the night to see if I could find any eyes shining back at me.
Finally, just as I had about given up after searching all over the entire place, just feeling sick with disappointment that I had failed her, there she was right in front of me in the safest spot she could be, inside the hen house, curled up in a nesting box!
I quickly shut and locked the doors and returned to the house.
