Heidi Chronicles - Almost Spring 2010

Cheryl... good job well done though... at least he now can not 'reproduce'.

ROFL.... That is funny. And probably could happen to you, but glad it turned out to be a boy. I know folks are trying to get the girls all fixed, but why not the boys too? Is there a reason for this?

I forget, other than Precious have you given names to all the other yearlings yet?

Ruth,

About the feral situation, I guess for now my community is lucky. Kitty and her 2 kittens along with Tom are the only homeless cats I've ever seen or heard about in our area. Years ago there was one male stray who lived here. He was very popular among the residents and fed by many. Eventually, he disappeared never to be seen again. When I see people bringing them in by the carload and hear them talking about having done a dozen or more already and seeing new ones show up daily, wow, I sure am glad for the situation we have. And these incredible people I meet on my forays to the SPCA are actually feeding the massive hoards of stray cats in their areas. Our 4 are easily manageable by comparison.

I say '4' including Kitty in our homeless count still because I imagine there are probably still people in the neighborhood who feed her if she stops by, people who fed her when she was homeless and still believe she is, and even people who may have heard through Gladys that I've adopted Kitty but still offer her the occasional treat for old times sake when they see her. I don't mind Kitty having other friends in the neighborhood.

That said, she is starting to live here more and more. In the very beginning she only came by for dinner. Then for a while I saw her for breakfast and not again until sundown when she and the kittens spent the night sleeping on the front porch. Lately, she has been here more and more during the day. I fed her breakfast before I left to pick up the kitten. In the past that would have been her cue to take off, but when I returned with the kitten she was still on the porch (and I saw the black kitten in the backyard).

So, do you think we have any hope of getting the feral situation under control? It sounds impossible really, but slowing reproduction through the TNR program will have to help with time. Of course, it's a bit like trying to control a flood w/o fixing the leak in the that started it. The faucet is still dripping.

Hi starlight,

Bottom line it's a matter of mathematics. If you have one female who isn't spayed, you can get a dozen or more males neutered but others will come. At least one male is sure to find her, and you'll end up with a litter. Basically, if there is a tom cat left on the planet, I mean one in China, he'll manage to find her. On the other hand, if you get that one female fixed, the immediate problem is solved. You won't have any kittens.

We do care about getting the males fixed too, it's just that the females are a bigger priority for obvious reasons because they are the ones who will bring home that litter we are trying to avoid. Still, I did drag myself out of bed with little or no sleep to take the black kitten to/from the vet, also.

Another reason for the focus on females at this time is that females reach sexual maturity well ahead of males. Right now it's the female kittens who are coming into heat and at risk. I don't know the age at which male cats mature, but in raccoons, for instance, the females reach sexual maturity around 6mo while the males may do so until age 2yrs. Big difference.

I did name some of the kits last year - other than Precious - but I don't recall the names. That's a 1st for me - not remembering the names. I don't know if it's because last year was the year I reached my limit for names that fit each one by personality or other trait and finally succumbed to names chosen at random, names which are therefore less easy to recall. Or it may be like in that game Simon, the one where you have to recall ever more lengthy and complex patterns until you finally reach your limit. Last year may just have been my limit in the Simon game, the point at which I reached my brain's capacity to recall the ever burgeoning list of raccoon names and faces, a list which grows exponentially each successive year.

I'm going to have to look back at last year's posts to retrieve that info. Honestly, though I don't usually put a lot of emphasis on naming the kits until they are grown. Except for the rare ones like Precious, the changes they undergo during the winter of that 1st year when they grow so rapidly from 'children' to adults make it largely impossible for me to recognize most of them when they return the following spring (i.e., now) when many of the things that differentiated them (like siblings and mothers) are no longer apparent.

What makes things worse is that people who have either a stray or feral around or need to give their own cat away call around and...there is nowhere to turn to...no organization will accept a cat or cats. That is what I've faced. Even if the cats next door were tame and well-behaved, there is no place. Residents of the city nearby can bring in their owned cat or dog (with appointment) and the city ACS will accept it IF they are not full...it's still not no-kill, but supposedly going toward that. No strays or ferals accepted. But with the big push toward no-kill here, ironically the city shelter is often full. The other shelters are always full, seems like. So then you have the predicament. Most people have only two choices, either keep the animals or dump them somewhere else. Meantime, the reproduction of animals skyrocket. My own fairly rural county is one of the poorest counties around as far as budget. They will pick up cats and dogs if you trap them yourself in your own trap (or confine dogs somewhere) but no TNR and they can't keep them long, so that's not a choice. I've been on the big city's TNR site and read the flyer...sounds like a private group and no mention of any help other than just info.

This message was edited Mar 18, 2010 10:26 AM

It took my last ounce of discipline to drag my carcass out of bed to go for that kitten this morning. I kept turning over, hitting the snooze thinking, "I'll just get 'her' tomorrow."

I could hear the kitten screaming from far down the hall long before I saw him. From that moment until I open the trap to free him, the kitten didn't stop screaming all the way home. When we stopped in the driveway, I called Kitty who walked out from the porch onto the walkway to greet us. I took the trap out of the car hoping to enjoy the reunion.

The kitten continued scream. Kitty looked at the both of us a bit quizzically no doubt wondering what the heck was going on, me walking up to the door carrying the trap with her screaming and formerly missing youngster inside. When I opened the trap door, unlike all the other animals I had released who walked out slowly looking around to get their bearings, the tabby kitten burst out the cage as though shot from a cannot. Completely ignoring his mother sitting there beside the cage, he shot out of the trap and ran at top speed around the corner of the house heading for the forest at the back of the yard. Kitty, still looking a bit confused, loped more slowly after him until she reached the corner of the house where she stopped, looked around for a moment, and then came back to me apparently deciding the kitten was fine and her time would be better spent trying to hit the human up for some yummy after breakfast treats. With most of my trapping now done, I gave her a bit of tuna from my trapping stash.

Linda,

Wow, that is incredible. I can't imagine the city being unwilling to pick up or receive strays. Around here, that's there job. The TNR program under which I've been able to get all of this done so efficiently, painlessly, and at no cost is a very new program for us. Perhaps similar programs will show up in other areas with time - although from what I hear ours is going so 'well' as to potentially bankrupt itself in its 1st year.

Just to clarify, when I refer to people as the root of the problem, I'm referring to those at the beginning of the whole process, the ones who acquire a cute and seemingly harmless kitten, neglect their responsibility to have it spayed or neutered, then allow the family tom cat to prowl the neighborhood fathering kittens all over town, toss female pets out along the road somewhere when they show up pregnant, leave unwanted pets behind when they move, etc.

These people, not those of you trying to figure out what to do with the resultant feral populations, are at the origin of the problem. If people didn't treat kittens and puppies like free and disposable goods this problem wouldn't have to exist. And I totally don't understand people like the ones who tossed Kitty out when she got pregnant. It's not as though the unspayed female getting pregnant wasn't totally foreseeable from the moment they acquired her as a cute little kitten and chose to ignore their responsibility for having her spayed.

You, on the other hand, are like the people I talk to at the SPCA, the ones who are investing their own resources (time, money, energy, etc) to try to resolve as much of the problem as they can. I respect, commend, and admire your actions esp in view of the fact that your municipality offers so few resources to help you. (Realize, however, that while my city offers considerable support for the TNR problem, as residents of this city we pay for those services in the form of taxes, so it really isn't free. Then again, when the city includes this sort of thing in taxes, at least the problem people are forced to pay along with the rest of us.)

Linda,

Just curious. If your town/city won't take the strays, what do they expect you to do with them? Let them starve on the street? Kill them? Isn't it illegal for you to kill them? It is here. That would be animal abuse. Is it abuse to kill them but ok to let them starve? Interesting dilemmas.

Ruth,

You mentioned the problem of feral cats eating birds and such. I know you know this, so I'm just curious where you stand on the problem, but the TNR program doesn't do much to help the birds. Except in possibly slowing their numbers, it doesn't otherwise prevent the feral cats from killing birds and other wildlife. I'm curious your take on this. Some people, the Audubon Society among them, want to see feral cats eliminated for this reason. Curious where you stand.

I don't want to see the feral cats kill birds, and they have already killed some leaving feathers and other parts on the lawn. On the other hand I like the idea that they may help to control mice and rats and keep snakes away from the house. As for the birds, I used to feel free to scatter bird seed on the back lawn for the birds. Now I have to avoid doing things like that which put the birds at further risk. Luckily, the handful of birds, frogs, salamanders and such in the area that are endangered are listed as endangered locally not globally - I'd hate to think of Kitty eating the world's last pair of species X.

I quit putting out bird seed for that reason, too, Cheryl, although the cats I was attracting actually belong to my neighbors. They let their cats go outside, and they poop in my garden and stalk the birds at our feeders. grrrrrr....

Oh...that was the large city in the next closest county where the city only takes the "owned by county residents" pets, when they aren't full up! I'm in a corner of another county, no incorporated towns very close, but...that city is not far off from us and what it does has a ripple effects over all counties in the area anyway. The city does have what seems to me to be a TNR program.. as far as I can tell they are volunteers who just do that. And other city animal organizations that seem to be totally overwhelmed by the excess animal population. My own rural county doesn't keep animals long when they are turned in and doesn't put funds into other efforts to keep the stray or feral cat and dog population down. I take the cats to a 3rd county where a town has a spay/neuter clinic. They are a great bunch of people who are doing what they can and I admire them! I had called my vet and she referred me to them, since she knew there was nothing in my county that was low cost.

Ok, now I'm so annoyed.

There's this new program on A&E called "Billy, The Exterminator". Anybody see it? I like some 'animal' shows, so I set the DVR to record a few episodes.

"Billy" turned out to be the "Dog, the Bounty Hunter" of exterminators. A young guy, long, spiky, blond hair, dressed head to toe in black leather with lots of silver studs, black leather gloves with open fingers, even drives a large, black truck - isn't that what Dog drives? Nothing wrong with the look, just not what I'd expect to see at my front door if I called an exterminator. Maybe if I called for a late 80's, heavy metal singer. The show is about a 50:50 mix of red-neck, family drama and actual exterminating.

I was tempted to just delete the whole batch of recordings, but then I decided to look through the info about the episodes. Several episodes were about raccoons, so I started watching a few of those. This guy (Billy) who doesn't look particularly educated spouts insect and animal 'facts' as though he's an expert on the subject, and one can only imagine that many viewers will actually believe him.

So why do I care when I can just change the channel? I care because I've learned to like raccoons and to see that they are very much the victim of misinformation. I started out believing that misinformation as do most people. I just hate to see people pile any more erroneous 'facts' on the poor creatures.

The 1st raccoon show was annoying enough, a raccoon in an attic. He trapped the raccoon. Since the homeowner lived in an upscale community adjacent to a golf course, he explains that he's baiting his trap with a club s/w because he figures the raccoon living in this area has upscale taste. Oh, right!

When he gets the raccoon in the cage, he explains that raccoons are vicious and he needs to relocate it because the homeowner has small children who might be attacked. He pokes the cage a few times with his finger, and when the raccoon reacts by hissing at him, he launches into a discussion of (paraphrased) "See how vicious...this thing would really hurt a small child..." Then he pokes the cage a few more times until he finally gets the poor, frightened, trapped animal to lunge at him. Then he launches into more, "See. See. Vicious...They're mean"

I was very annoyed by the way he was treating the raccoon. He was doing things to provoke the [poor, frightened] raccoon into reacting in a mildly aggressive manner and then using that behavior as evidence in support of his discussion of how mean raccoons are. Grrrr! I should have stopped there, but after that it became like a train wreck, and I had to keep watching no matter how awful...

So he takes the raccoon to some idyllic spot in the country and says he's relocating it to a nice place away from people - like he's doing such a nice thing, but there's no mention of the important things like the risks involved in relocating a raccoon in spring and summer when it might be a mother whose babies will be left alone to die. No mention of the fact that this new spot, no matter how idyllic will surely already have lots of resident raccoons who won't appreciate the [now homeless] intruder.

Poor misrepresented raccoons just can't seem to catch a break. The last thing they need is another source of misinformation especially one that's setup to look legitimate. They definitely don't need more erroneous 'facts'.

As if my 1st raccoon episode weren't sufficiently annoying, the next one made me so mad I was tempted to write the station or the producers or somebody - because they present this guy as an expert and virtually everything he has said so far about raccoons is the same old incorrect bunk that's been circulating forever.

Another raccoon in an attic. This one has babies. He climbs up there finds the mother and babies between some joists, pokes a stick in there at them while showing close ups of the mother's 'aggressive' behavior (actually defending her babies). He keeps poking her until he gets the mother to leave the nest. She doesn't go anywhere, just runs a short distance away and watches.

So then, and this is where I just got furious, he takes the babies and gives them to the homeowner who says she will raise them. He tells the audience that this is necessary, again as though they are doing the raccoons a favor, because now that the babies have been moved and handled by humans the mother won't have anything else to do with them. Scream! If they created a show with the intention of doing everything wrong, they couldn't do it any better.

Then he takes the mother out to that idyllic place where he lets her go. He says when the babies are grown the homeowner will call him and he'll go get them and take them to this place to set them free for a reunion with mom. Argh! The name of that episode, BTW, is "Killer Coon".

I watched a few minutes of one last episode before hitting the delete button on the whole batch. That one started with a call about a skunk that was seen out in daytime, so naturally he told the audience it was probably rabid ... No more Billy for me.

Gosh, I bet he would react a bit more viciously if he was in a cage being poked.

Edit: Cross-posted ^_^

This message was edited Mar 19, 2010 9:04 AM

If ignorance were bliss...ah, what a happy world we'd have!
You could suggest this episode. Suppose Billy gets doused with canned tuna juice, then he's put in a cage in prime raccoon territory. Let's see whether he sounds vicious late at night when the coons gather round and start reaching into the cage with their paws!

OH boy... I'd write a nice nasty gram to that 'show' about how he is so full of incorrect information.
Why in the world would ANYONE allow a family to raise babies to be pets!! after he just said how viscous they are.

l would have to write that letter if I were you!

So true, June,

I felt sorry for the poor raccoon in the cage the whole time. He wasn't being extremely mean. I mean I've certainly seen worse behavior from people taunting raccoons in cages, but the animal trapped in the cage is already frightened for its life. It doesn't take much to terrorize them. I always talk to them in my most soothing voice in hopes of letting them know I mean them no harm and cover them as Ruth told me long ago because that helps them feel a little safer like they are hiding in a little hole or cave. He didn't do any of those things, just poked them until they acted aggressively and then called attention to their viciousness. I thought he was the vicious one.

Linda,

Wow. Good one. Then we could shove the camera up close and say, "See how vicious Billy is?"

LOL, Terese!

Good catch!

He didn't actually give them to the homeowner as pets though. He just said she would raise them - you know, as a kind service to wildlife - and when they are grown he'll go back and get them and take them out to the forest where he let the mom go. He actually said "so they can have a reunion". Which was also stupid, "If the mom wouldn't have anything else to do with the helpless newborns (whose eyes were still closed according to him) because they had been handled by humans for a few minutes, why would we think she would want to have a reunion with them as adults after they've lived with humans for months? Actually, it's the other way around. If they would have put the babies somewhere safe for the mother to find them, she would have come back for them. She may not be so happy to see them in a year after they've been raised by humans. Of course, I don't know that last part for sure as raccoons keep amazing me.

Good catch on the inconsistency of the information presented. I think I'll add that to my letter if you don't mind. There was so much wrong with his information and decisions. Giving the babies to the homeowner just because she offered to raise them was stupid. She probably has no idea how to do so properly much less how to teach them the things they need to know to live successfully in the wild.

And there was the mother, the one best equipped to raise them, just a short distance away watching as he took the babies from the nest and handed them to the homeowner to put in a box like a litter of puppies. I felt so sorry for the mother. They kept showing her on camera. If she was so unwilling to take the babies back after he handled them, why was she even hanging around? So many inconsistencies. In one of the episodes he also caught a bobcat that was bothering someone's Llamas. The bobcat, in the trap, had a collar on, and he complained that he couldn't relocate the bobcat to a safe area away from the homes because, after being raised by humans, it wouldn't know how to survive in the wild. Huh? Then how about the baby raccoons being raised by humans, the ones he will be letting go when they are grown? Stupid show. Stupid, stupid show, A&D!

Edited to fix an error. Then got carried away and added stuff.

This message was edited Mar 18, 2010 9:58 PM

KyWoods,

I think I will do that!

One thing I forgot to mention earlier today:

Earlier this morning when I let the tabby kitten go, he took off. He's back now, and like the brown one before him is now noticeably more comfortable around me. I noticed this when I brought the brown one back, too, but decided not to mention it thinking maybe it was a coincidence. Now I notice it with the tabby. They are both out playing on the porch and walkway in the day now and coming close to me. Ever since I tried to hold on to the tabby one a while back and he scratched me up so, he's been exceedingly wary of me, staying clear of me as much as possible and looking at me like he hates me.

Today I sat on the bench in the front yard for a few minutes looking over the mail after walking Widget. Kitty sat on the ground beside me, and the tabby kitten sat about 2ft away - in daylight. He was never that friendly.

Is it possible that they somehow credit me with bringing them back home from their ordeal and setting them free, therefore, helping them (as apposed to capturing them and taking them away in the 1st place)? Do they possibly think me a little less scary now because I 'helped' them get free? Don't know the reason, but they were both noticeably more comfortable with me as soon as they got home.

Here is Billy's website. He has some raccoon footage on the home page, him terrorizing a raccoon stuck in a dumpster. Not certain yet, but I think this may be an actual 'exterminator' that they are following around with cameras, meaning he really is doing this stuff.

I forgot to mention...When discussing how vicious raccoons are in that one show, he said there are numerous cases of them ripping the jugular out of humans. What? Even the ones that 'beat up' that 'old woman' in Florida a while back sending her to the hospital didn't go that far. That sounds like a tall tale to me. Otherwise, I would expect authorities to warn us much more about staying away from the raccoons.

Oh, the site: http://www.aetv.com/billy-the-exterminator/

>>meaning he really is doing this stuff.

Yes, he does. DH and the one on the other night, with the dumpster... and DH said... oh, that idiot that Mike Rowe [Dirty Jobs] followed around for a while.

>>ripping the jugular out of humans.

Oh yea... the guy in the car with his 10yr old "pet" raccoon.

Terese,

Oh, I didn't realize "Dirty Jobs" Mike had done an episode following him around. After I wrote that I read the web page and it indicated they are a real exterminator group. They call the show a docusoap. Did your DH like the show? If he called the guy an idiot that might be an answer. I watched a few episodes (while doing other stuff), so I can't say anything. Like I said, it's a little like gawking at a train wreck. It's awful, but you can't seem to turn away immediately.

What is this about "...the guy in the car...". Are you saying someone was killed by a pet raccoon? How awful is that? I had no idea pet raccoon turned on owners. I thought the worst they did was shred the furniture, eat the cabinets, and destroy the house.

I can't bring myself to look at that website--it would just make me mad!
You might want to include in your letter that it is illegal to keep native wildlife unless you are a licensed rehabber....another stooqiditity on his part. (that's a back'ards 'p' in 'stoopid', lol)

Darn it! I meant to take my camera out tonight esp to get a pic for the next thread which I need to make very soon - like last week. I had the camera with me and still managed to set it down and forget it.

Heidi and 2 others were at the back door when I got there. Tonight I took out 2 eggs from a carton that's getting a little old now. Heidi was right down at my feet, maybe 1ft from my toes. I reached down to hand her the egg. She looked up at me, said a word or two, but didn't take it. I 'knew' she wanted it, so I put it down and gave it a tiny push. It rolled over toward her, and then at the very last instant hit the edge of a dip in the soil and took a 90 degree turn to roll almost 1/2 way between her and the kit on her right. As soon as the egg came to rest there between them, the yearling eyed the egg and, simultaneously, Heidi turned her head toward the yearling just like a person would do and then said a few 'words'. I don't speak raccoon, but I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines of, "That's MY egg. Don't even think of touching it."

Heidi always, always eats her egg(s) last. I don't know why. I've always wondered. As we often equate things to human behavior, I had somehow thought it was analogous to our eating dessert last. Whatever the reason, Heidi is quite disciplined and thus predictable in her routines, and this is one of them. Tonight as I lifted the frosty cold egg from the bag to give it to her, I wondered for the 1st time if her reason might be that she prefers to give the egg as much time as possible to move closer to room temperature. Heidi is very smart and very practical in her behavior, so this seems like a plausible explanation.

Because Heidi eats the egg last and because she is hungry these days and eats a lot, that egg sat there for quite a while. As she was nearing the end of her meal, Heidi began wandering about the area sampling kibble here and there from areas left by others. In the process she wandered far from the egg, enough so that I even began to doubt that she would return for it. At one point when Heidi was just maybe 2ft from the egg, the yearling got within a ft of it and looked as though she might grab it. Heidi raised her head, spoke harshly to the yearling, and that was the end of that. The yearling continued to move about nibbling as did Heidi, but no matter how close the yearling got to the egg - and she seemed constantly attracted to it - she did not try to eat it. The yearling did at times look like the starving urchin eying food through a store window.

I wished I had another egg to give to the yearling, but by that time I was out of eggs. I started out with 2 but somewhere between the time Heidi originally told yearling 1 to leave the egg alone and 'now', a 2nd yearling, one which I think probably wasn't Heidi's, ran over and grabbed it while Heidi was some distance away nibbling. Interestingly, Heidi didn't say anything to this 2nd yearling or try to stop her from taking the egg. I was holding the 2nd egg in my hands where it was clearly visible at the time, so she may have realized she would get that one and thus it wasn't worth the fight over the 1st one. At any rate, once the 1st egg was stolen, I gave Heidi the 2nd one tossing it over to the spot where the 1st one had been.

Heidi continued wandering and nibbling getting farther and farther from the egg. The egg was at my feet, and eventually Heidi was over in the pool getting a drink some 6-7 feet away - while the yearling who wanted the egg continued to nibble while circling close to the egg. At this point, I really thought Heidi was leaving. Apparently, the yearling thought so, too. When Heidi got out of the pool with her back to the buffet she looked for all the world like she was leaving. The yearling reached over to one side and reached out to put one hand on the egg. At that very moment, Heidi turned around and walked back a short distance toward us. Immediately, the kit snatched her hand away from the egg and continued nibbling kibble nearby.

Heidi nibble a bit more still quite some distance from the egg. I had really begun to fear that both Heidi and the yearling would end up leaving w/o anyone ever eating the egg. I just hate for things to be wasted. I knew some creature would eat it, another raccoon or maybe a lucky opossum, but I had wanted to give it to Heidi or one of the kits.

After what seemed an eternity, Heidi finally stopped nibbling, walked back over to the egg at my feet, and claimed it. She even had to walk around the yearling who stood between her and the egg, but it was quite clear that this was Heidi's egg, and she did return to eat it - last thing before she left and after walking far from it tempting the yearling considerably whether intentionally or not.

While Heidi was eating the egg, I recalled that I had the cookies with me. As a consolation prize, I offered the yearling a cookie which she happily took. This is the same yearling who came to me last night for the cookie without being asked. When Heidi finished her egg and left, the yearling went over to the bowl-like, upturned shell and ate for a minute or two. Heidi had apparently left part of the egg for the yearling as they were the only 2 left at that time. Normally, they lick those eggs dry leaving nothing for others. I had to wonder if Heidi had left this portion of egg intentionally knowing how very much the 'child' had wanted the egg, too. After all, I'm sure during the early months of raising kits she gets quite accustomed to sharing her food with them. Since the yearling went directly to the egg and started eating as soon as Heidi left, it seemed as though she knew Heidi had left it [for her?].

By this time only the yearling and I remained. I had enjoyed the evening but was now hoping she would hurry up and leave. Along with the camera I had also forgotten my coat. I was chilly and ready to go - but the yearling just would not leave. She wandered around nibbling, stood in the pool 'forever' looking at me with that "can I please just have one more cookie" look; came over to my feet to nibble at Heidi's site; wandered some more. When she finally headed for the fence, she stopped a few feet from the post to look back at me again for a few minutes - just in case I might change my mind about that cookie. It was just too comical, because I really, really wanted to go now.

When I failed to offer a cookie the yearling walked slowly the rest of the way to the large pots the gardener had put there by the fence. As she climbed up on the pot to reach the post, anticipation got the better of me, and I reached to pick up my bag ready, no past ready, to GO. Hearing the cookie package crinkle ever so slightly as I lifted it, the yearling stopped where she was there on top of the large flower pot, and looked back at me where she saw that I had my hand on the bag (where she knew the cookies were) and from this gained renewed hope that I might be getting her a cookie - and she surely didn't want to go now w/o that cookie. So she stopped and sat there on the pot by the fence post looking at me and waiting for that cookie now convinced by my movements that one was on the way. I thought she would never, ever leave, but I was determined not to give out more than the one cookie, so we sat the both of us waiting, she for a cookie and me for the chance to leave...

And after another eternity, the yearling finally gave up and left.

LOL, KyWoods,

I'll do that. In keeping with his total lack of continuity between animals and episodes, when discussing the issue of the trapped bobcat that was wearing a collar, he pointed out that someone had obviously raised the bobcat as a pet and that it is illegal to keep a wild animal.

Cheryl, too funny that the tabby kitten is also male. Oh well, as you said, the impetus to finish the trapping job was probably useful; glad you're all done now.

Heidi is too funny with her eggs, and so consistent. I always love how she's able to control the others' behavior with just a "word" or two, even when they're grown.

Like most subjects in the field of animal sheltering/control, that of feral cats and wildlife is quite controversial. When I was doing animal control, I honestly was not a fan of TNR at first, for several reasons. One, it does not solve or even help with the problem of the cats preying on wildlife. Like you, I didn't worry overmuch about the rodents taken by feral cats; they have their own overpopulation issues, and frankly death by feral cat is a lot kinder/quicker than death by the poisons/glue traps people use to deal with them. But the damage to songbird populations really upset me. Native songbirds have long been losing their hold on their native habitats thanks to the invasive species like starlings and English house sparrows (introduced intentionally to this country by humans, thank you very much). And human population density takes its toll in loss of habitat, especially for species like the bluebird who need open space for nesting. Adding non-native predators like feral cats to the picture really tips the scale against the native songbirds.

Second, I saw too many feral colonies that lived in horrible situations, like the one in the parking garage where the cats spent their entire lives without open sunlight, grass, or any other amenities of nature. To return neutered/spayed cats to an environment like that did not strike me as a kindness. And I saw other colonies where the venerable stud male had become infected with FeLV or FIV, probably in fighting with other males; he then infected the females while mating, and soon the entire colony was visibly ill and suffering. Neutering/spaying the cats prior to release would, of course, reduce the likelihood of similar infection in the future; but releasing the cats in a sick colony would not be a kindness.

Third, I was all too familiar with one of the saddest realities of shelter work: the number of cats/kittens received far, far exceeds the number of cats adopted. This is true of every shelter I've ever known of, be it urban, suburban, rural, whatever. If the shelter is open-admission, as ours was - meaning we could never refuse to accept an animal, be it stray or owned - the result was that large numbers of perfectly tame, friendly, healthy cats and kittens were euthanized for no other reason than that there were far too many of them. These were the cats who broke my heart on a daily basis, as did the formerly owned dogs and tame strays of both species. They had known a home, relationships with people, security; they knew exactly what they had lost, and you saw this in their eyes and their behavior every day as they tried to cope with life in a small cage; honestly, by comparison the euthanasia of feral cats was less difficult to accept, though certainly never easy.

That said, over time the subject became more gray than black & white for me. I saw first-hand that when we successfully removed a feral colony, over time other cats would move in to take their place; we had not solved the problem, only provided a firebreak, as it were. And I was fortunate to see an early example of TNR in the hands of some quite remarkable caretakers: a couple who personally trapped the feral colony in their little urban neighborhood, had them tested, vaccinated, ears clipped, etc. They then provided shelter (heated doghouses in their yard) and a reliable daily source of good food and water. They knew each cat perfectly, could describe their appearance and behavior in detail, and noticed immediately if they were missing and called the shelter to report them lost. Prior to meeting them, my experience with TNR had been with well-intentioned folks who would trap the cats, then expect the city to do the rest, including paying for their testing and surgery; we had no program for this, since our non-profit budget was barely adequate to care for the in-shelter animals. If the ferals were returned to their neighborhoods, these folks would feed them at first; but they'd get busy, or bored, or move to a different neighborhood, and the cats would be left to fend for themselves. This version of TNR seemed to me little better than the disposable attitude shown by abandoning pets; once you take responsibility for an animal, I believe that responsibility lasts for the life of the animal. It is not something to be taken on as a whim or fad; it is someone's life, and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

So, at this point I can argue the merits of both the pro and con view of TNR. I do believe that it is the best, and certainly most humane, approach to the problem that is currently available. However, I have real problems accepting the widespread slaughter of native wildlife that TNR does nothing to address. And TNR does not resolve the problem of feral cats, because people continue to abandon their cats; and each new dumped intact female creates a new feral population explosion single-pawedly. Like the supply of owned, tame cats in shelters, each new day brings many new additions to the feral population. The problem will not end until people learn to respect their fellow creatures on our shared planet, or at least learn to accept responsibility for the lives they have chosen to care for; and the person who can figure out how to make that happen will be a saint with the wisdom of the ages.

>>Oh, I didn't realize "Dirty Jobs" Mike had done an episode following him around

Jim said he did a few. I only recall one that had Bees under a little church.
I dont watch as much TV as Jim... he uses it as "back ground noise" where i prefer the radio.
[so many times i walk around with my mp3 player on]

Too funny about the egg.

Terese,

I don't watch much TV. There really is almost nothing on TV that I care to see. There is only 1 weekly show that I even like at all. I record Science and Animal shows that look interesting to me now and then and the very rare movie, all saved for that 'rainy' day when I need a break from work and just want to veg out and be entertained w/o doing anything. When I was so sick and unbearably miserable with swine flu, there were times when I would be awake and would look for something on the TV (in my bedroom) because I needed something to distract me from the misery. It was during that time that I found the 1 TV show I like, and when it was on it would help to distract me enough to make the pain a little more bearable. I saw how much difference it made to have a good TV show to distract me during that time, so that's why now I record things I might be interested in watching (someday).

Like your DH I often leave the TV on for background noise while I'm doing housework and such. I leave it on a news channel a lot, but sometimes when they get on a single topic and I get tired of that topic over and over, I turn my background noise to Animal Planet or NatGeo or Science or playback recorded stuff like that Billy, the Exterminator show. I deleted the rest of my Billy shows. Knowing that he's giving incorrect information about raccoons would make me doubt anything else he had to say. Right now I prefer TV noise because the music tends to remind me of things I'd prefer to forget.

It can be very interesting to observe the personal interactions between the raccoons. I'm sure there is a lot of communication between them that goes right over my head, but the egg thing was crystal clear. Their behavior with the egg was not unlike that of humans.

If we all responded to incorrect information like that, this country would be in better condition!

Ruth,

I'm not too optimistic for getting all people to do the right thing w/respect to animals - or anything else. Since, as you mention, it only takes 1 female cat to create a colony, then it only takes 1 human to keep the problem going. There will always be that 1 human, and then some.

As to the mix up with the gender of the tabby, I am SO glad I didn't know the truth, because that's the only reason I'm DONE now. If I'd known they were all males, I would surely have procrastinated. I did not enjoy getting up early each morning to chauffeur cats around.

The citizens I spoke with on my visits to the SPCA really impressed me with their commitment to the animals. The one man said he was out of work and on Food Stamps but still buying food for all those feral cats (and trapping and transporting them for neutering). I feel like the ones here will fare well whether I am here or not. I say that because a number of residents had been feeding Kitty long before I got involved. There are enough permanent residents here who want those few ferals, the 2 kittens and Tom, to stay and are willing to feed them. I feel like the few strays we have here have a very good life all things considered. Heck, the kittens even have Spicy Micey toys. Even Tom, the most feral of them all, the one who won't get close to anyone, looks well fed and healthy. He has scars from fighting other males but otherwise looks to be in good health. Since Kitty tested negative for feline leukemia and feline aids, I gather he is probably negative, too.

Oh, another thing with our program. When I took the 1st kitten in, they told me they would test him for various things 1st. They didn't specify, but they said if he tested positive for any of these conditions they would not neuter and return him as a TNR. They would put him down.

About the cats in the parking garage, I don't understand. If that place was so bad, what kept them from 'just' leaving, just walking out of the structure into daylight, grass, dirt, the world. I don't mean to sound silly. It sounds easy to me, but I'm sure I'm missing something. Understand that I've never lived in a big city with lots of concrete. Parking garages here have an open top level with lots of sunshine, and one can easily walk out from the ground floor to find plenty of alleys (with restaurants, hotels, and dumpsters), yards with grassy lawns. There are also a number of churches downtown (where the parking garages are), historic and modern, with grassy lawns and old cemeteries, grass everywhere. Here I would think such cats would just leave the parking garage when they wanted to go for a walk in the grass. What am I missing?

This thread is getting a bit long, so I'm moving us to a new thread here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1082307/

Hope to see everyone 'over there' on the new thread! : )

Please don't forget to watch the new thread.