The kitty problem revisited...

Ohhhh, I feel sooooo bad!

We talked about it and decided it was best to not let the cat colony continue to grow. So, after calling Animal Control to see how we had to go about it, Lew went to their facility and rented a humane trap. After baiting it with some cat tuna and water, he set it outside by the lilacs where they all hang out.

Within 5 minutes or so, Mama cat came poking around to check things out.The babies (all four of them) soon followed. Mama looked at the trap, walked around it a bit, and sez, "naaaah, I ain't falling for that trick" and casually sauntered on by. The little ones, being more curious, sniffed and played around it for awhile and then the little gray one went in. Snap! (Mama, by the way, is a calico - there are two orange kittens, one gray, and one black.)

While the gray one is inside the trap munching, Mama, seemingly unfazed by the whole thing, plopped herself down and starting nursing one of the orange ones. The others continued to play around the trap, trying to figure out how to get in (or maybe, how to get their sibling out.)

We were worried about what we would do if we caught the mama first, but now that we know they're old enough to eat solids, the order we catch them in won't be as much of an issue. Anyway, Lew took the one to Animal Control and we'll try again, even if it's one at a time.

But I really feel bad about catching them. As I type, they've come back out and Mama is looking all around for her baby. *sigh* The kittens will probably easily adopt out, but not too many people want mama cats ... even though she's not much older than a kitten herself. She's not much more than 8 or 9 months old. Why do these things have to be so hard? :(