Our group is having a lot of firsts (mostly because we’re new), but today was our first official TNR — Trap, Neuter, Return. One of our first responders on our Cameron Feral Cat Census query has two feral cats they are caring for, so we used them as our “guinea pigs” for the process.
After we took this picture, both the cat community monitor and I realized it looks like a funeral but only for the kitty’s reproductive capability.
On Wednesday evening, we trapped Hebert (a female) and Tuxedo (a male). On Thursday morning, we dropped them off with Dr. Amy at The A Team in Cameron. Dr. Amy wasted no time, and Tuxedo is now happily neutered (yes, he is, we insist it’s true!), ear-tipped, and vaccinated against rabies. Herbert, happily, was already spayed. Fortunately, she had a tattoo on her belly, so Dr. Amy didn’t have to cut into her, but since she was NOT happy to be in the trap, she had to be anesthesized to find that out, so it cost almost as much as the spay to get her ear-tipped and vaccinated against rabies (but at least Herbert doesn’t have to recover from a surgery she didn’t need, and the ear-tip should protect her from having to go through this again). Maybe Herbert knew she didn’t need this and that was why she protested so much after she was trapped? We humans need to develop out understanding of cat.
Herbert and Tuxedo rested in their traps yesterday afternoon and overnight, and were released this morning to enjoy their day.