Wild Animal Kingdom

My husband says our son gets to see the wild animal kingdom right from our French doors that lead to the backyard patio.

I'm not sure how we got adopted by Smokey, named for her soft grey color.  She started coming to our back patio door and meowing for food.  We thought it was just one grey cat that was eating a LOT.  Come to find out it was TWO grey cats.  A Smokey He and a Smokey She.

And then.... there were three kittens.  Two all grey kittens and one striped kitten.  Cute as buttons.

But here's the problem.  We don't mind feeding the cats and kittens.  But they are all feral, running at the first step towards them. Plus, we have an indoor cat, Tigger, who doesn't get along well with other cats.  We also didn't want under our shed to become a cat population.

We called the SPCA.  It was interesting to find out that if we catch a cat, they will adopt it out.  That is.... ONLY if the cat isn't feral.  If the cat is feral, the cat is killed.  Not the option we wanted to go with.

SPCA told us that there are animal hospitals who are willing to fix the cats for free if the cats are feral.  One thing we didn't know is.. make the appointment ahead of time, because the animal hospitals get about 20 cats a day to fix!  And make sure you can pick up the cats the same day, because otherwise you pay for the boarding.

We didn't have any cat cages, but are very fortunate that Roberta, a good friend of my mom's, had a cage.  Plus she was able to borrow another cage from a friend.  She came over to show us how to set up the cages.  We put the food in them and set the cages out. 

Within minutes, the mommy cat was caught!  When I saw her desperately trying to claw her way out, it broke my heart.  She must have been terrified and worried about her kittens too.

That night, we caught the daddy cat.  And the next day, my husband brought them to the animal hospital, Pets R Our World, to get both fixed.  The same evening, we picked up the cats and brought them back home to be reunited with the kittens.

We are officially the cat catchers :)  We haven't caught the kittens yet or the other big tabby male cat that comes to our yard from time to time, but we will keep trying.