Kitty Korral
May 15, 2014
Having recently moved to an acreage just outside of Stony Plain, AB I have some kitty issues to deal with. It seems as though you cannot live in the country in Alberta without dealing with some sort of wild cat problem. If I can catch 'em, I fix 'em is my kitty motto. I have seen far too many cats running around recreating themselves.
When I viewed the property I am currently in, I noticed that there were about 5 cats that looked identical. Some inbreeding going on here however being the naive person that I am I thought they were tame and would be dealt with. And although the woman who previously owned the house left me a note saying she had trapped most of the cats, this was not true.
So I had a kitty problem. No big deal I thought. Well my Canadian horses killed one who had been trying to share their feed pans so I was down one. Then I thought that one that was having kittens miscarried so I thought I'd trap her and have her fixed. She was friendly but I couldn't touch her. She was obviously a mother many times over as she had the pouchy belly of an older mother cat. This was fine until my son heard her kittens mewing under the front deck. And although this cat told me, "I lost my kittens," I realized that she had lied! Really! She lied. Crazy cat. Anyway I thought I'd better deal with this situation so I phoned my county animal control centre to find out that there was no cat bylaw here. I was given a phone number for Little Cats Lost. I was given a plan to deal with this situation and felt like there was a solution to what seemed like a never-ending problem.
While talking to Virginia at Little Cats Lost, I had the idea I could build a kitty corral around the entrance to the deck where the mother cat comes in and out. Then when the kittens begin to emerge from under the deck they will be contained in the kitty corral. The mother cat will be able to come and go because she will be able to jump out of the enclosure while the kittens will not. Little Cats Lost will take the kittens once they are old enough to be weaned, they will fix the mother cat and return her to me. It is a win win situation. And interestingly enough when I was sitting outside and thought that I will have the mother cat fixed, I heard her say, "I am ready to be fixed." She was tired of constantly having kittens. I agree. So it seems as though a negative cat situation has turned into a positive.
Having recently moved to an acreage just outside of Stony Plain, AB I have some kitty issues to deal with. It seems as though you cannot live in the country in Alberta without dealing with some sort of wild cat problem. If I can catch 'em, I fix 'em is my kitty motto. I have seen far too many cats running around recreating themselves.
When I viewed the property I am currently in, I noticed that there were about 5 cats that looked identical. Some inbreeding going on here however being the naive person that I am I thought they were tame and would be dealt with. And although the woman who previously owned the house left me a note saying she had trapped most of the cats, this was not true.
So I had a kitty problem. No big deal I thought. Well my Canadian horses killed one who had been trying to share their feed pans so I was down one. Then I thought that one that was having kittens miscarried so I thought I'd trap her and have her fixed. She was friendly but I couldn't touch her. She was obviously a mother many times over as she had the pouchy belly of an older mother cat. This was fine until my son heard her kittens mewing under the front deck. And although this cat told me, "I lost my kittens," I realized that she had lied! Really! She lied. Crazy cat. Anyway I thought I'd better deal with this situation so I phoned my county animal control centre to find out that there was no cat bylaw here. I was given a phone number for Little Cats Lost. I was given a plan to deal with this situation and felt like there was a solution to what seemed like a never-ending problem.
While talking to Virginia at Little Cats Lost, I had the idea I could build a kitty corral around the entrance to the deck where the mother cat comes in and out. Then when the kittens begin to emerge from under the deck they will be contained in the kitty corral. The mother cat will be able to come and go because she will be able to jump out of the enclosure while the kittens will not. Little Cats Lost will take the kittens once they are old enough to be weaned, they will fix the mother cat and return her to me. It is a win win situation. And interestingly enough when I was sitting outside and thought that I will have the mother cat fixed, I heard her say, "I am ready to be fixed." She was tired of constantly having kittens. I agree. So it seems as though a negative cat situation has turned into a positive.