Bergen Babies

Snip Snip Day

I'm so not a morning person. I had to get up at 7 in order to bring two cats to the ASPCA mobile clinic this morning. I grabbed three, just in case they had room -- Mr. Chin, Chatty Cathy, and Mr. Eye.

On the way to the clinic, Mr. Eye pooped and puked in the car. Thank god I had plastic sheeting in the car! Too bad I didn't have a SARS mask on. P-U!

At the van, Mr. Eye was rejected because of space, but I knew I would get him on the van tomorrow so I didn't sweat it. I brought Mr. Eye back to our holding space and set the kittens up in a kitty condo, which is really just a dog crate.

Can you even handle it? How cute are they!?

I then drove home for a quick one-hour nap before setting out to the lot to set up three more traps. On my way back to the ASPCA van to pick up Mr. Chin and Chatty Cathy, I dropped by Acme Pet Food to pick up some cat food and another kitty condo. I decided to transfer the kittens into a smaller condo, and put Chatty Cathy in the larger one so she could have a litterbox. She's got the runs, and litter is easier to clean than newspaper.

When I got to the ASPCA van I found out that Mr. Chin should maybe be called Mr. Chest. He has a huge bite wound on his chest, which is infected and caused an abscess all the way to his chin! He's also got scars all over his body and nubs for teeth! That said, he tested negative for both leukemia and FIV, which is great. The docs drained his abscess and gave him an antibiotic injection. We'll be holding him for a week to give him antibiotics for his infection. I think he'll pull through and live a more comfortable (and hopefully) fight free life in the Bergen lot now that he doesn't have any cahonas.

After dropping off the two post-ops, I returned to the lots to check on my traps. One of 'em was filled with a gray guy I've been wanting to catch.

Gray Guy scares me. As I prepared his cage he tried to lunge at me several times through the wired walls. I screamed once, because he caught me off guard.

This is what a full house looks like.

The Motherload

I decided to start early today since the weather had let up and the sun was shining. At 3PM I asked the hardware store who uses the lot across from where we'd been trapping the night before if they could open the gate and let me set some traps. Once I did that I turned around to see three black and white kittens (probably around 10 weeks old) darting back and forth under the fence of the demo site. I quickly grabbed a trap, set it, and placed it near them with plenty of sardine juice nearby to entice them to come out.

I decided to head across the street to our original lot to set up some traps. Some of the construction workers working on the building next door asked what I was doing, so I gave them the lowdown on the project. They wished me luck, with flirtatious commentary sprinkled in, "You can trap me if you want," and watched as I set up the traps.

Finished with those, I went to check my kitten trap and low and behold I had one.

Kitten numero uno

I quickly ran her to the car and set another in the same spot. Suddenly one of the construction workers yelled that I had caught and adult across the street. I ran over to pick her up, high fiving the workers on my way in.

Mr. Eye has some type of eye infection, which you can kinda see in this photo (it's the left eye). It'll be checked out on the van.

I set up another trap only to look and see my second kitten trap was full with another kitty! Phew!

Kitten Numero dos

I started to panic, as I was out trapping on my own. I was running out of traps, and I didn't bring a divider  that would allow me to transfer all the kittens into one trap. I wanted to get them all in one in order to free up two traps for cats that need to get on the mobile clinic (the kittens are too young, in my opinion, to get fixed).

Luckily Andrea had just got out of work and was going to come by to help me. In the meantime, I ran to the bodega to get the traps I had left there, so that I could set another up in kitten sweet spot (KSS).

With all the traps set, I sat back and waited. I was desperate to get the last kitten as I really didn't want to leave him out there on his own. After much waiting, I finally saw the trap door closed. Bam!

Kitten numero tres

I ran the little sucker into the car and brought a trap from the lot to my KSS, which proved to be diabetically sweet as I soon caught another guy.

Lost Boy, named after the fact that I believe he's part of a litter of kittens that I trapped and adopted out, but he was too elusive for me and hence has become a feral.

All that activity in a single hour, and then nothing. And more nothing. Finally Andrea came with the extra traps and we set them up. As we waited for our relief, Emily to come, we watched a calico walk into the trap at KSS and bam the trap door closed.

This is Wonton. I believe she's sisters with my cat, Dim Sum.

When Emily arrived, Andrea and I drove my six catches to our holding space and set them all up. We transferred the kittens to one trap, which I think made them happy as they could huddle together. They're big hissers, but I think they can be broken down and adopted out. They've got big mouths, but you can tell they want to be loved.

Back at the lots, Andrea left Emily and me on our own for the stakeout. It was a pretty quiet night, and at 9:30 we decided to pack up. All the traps were empty, until we got to KSS. We had trapped one without even realizing it.

And Black Sheep, who's a bit of a meany. He hissed and spit on Emily when she picked up his trap. Eek!

Too tired to bring Black Sheep to the holding space, I brought him home and stored him in my bathroom until the morning. I never thought I could feel so exhausted, but seven hours of non-stop trapping will do that to you.

We've got eight adults ready to be fixed and three kittens ready for a foster or forever home. Pretty good work so far.

The Back Story

While walking my dog I saw that despite our flyers asking people not to feed the colony while we were trapping, there were six cans of newly opened food in an abandoned demo site near the lots we were trapping in. I shooed a cat away from them and collected all the cans. Luckily I think I got there just in time as only one can was partially eaten.

Then at 1PM, on my way to lunch I plastered the area with flyers again. While posting the flyers I met the owner of the lots who so kindly has given us access to trap in. He's such a nice guy. It's rare to have the type of cooperation we've had on this project. Many people object to having the cats returned, thinking getting rid of them is the best solution. Unfortunately it's not. Cats are going to come to an area that's suitable for them to live in no matter what, so it’s better to have a colony that is sterilized than one which will continue to grow. The current sterilized colony will keep other cats away, as cats are incredibly territorial and now you can better control the number of cats in the area.

Anyway, the owner of the lot gave me the back story on the kitties, which goes a little like this:
In the demo site where I found the cans there used to be a house lived in by an old lady and her tenant(?). The tenant, Eddie, had tons of cats in the house and for years let strays in the neighborhood come to his home. Recently, the old lady was sent to a senior center and Eddie moved. When the house was vacated, the cats were simply kicked out into the streets. Of course none of them were fixed, so they set up shop in the lots and started making babies. The house has since been demolished, but an abandoned yard is still there where a lot of the cats spend their time.

I actually found one of my cats after the house was demolished. She was completely emaciated, with her ribs and spine popping out of her torso. She was so weak I could just pick her up. She passed out at my house, which really freaked me out. When she came to she ate, but then quickly threw up the food, as well as rubber bands she had eaten. She passed out a few times after that, but slowly regained her strength. She's now the sweetest little lady.

It's unfortunate that people a) don't sterilize their cats, and b) dump their cats. 

4 down; 3 to go

Day 2: December 14th.
Despite a mix of rain, hail, and snow, Andrea and I met at the Bergen lot at 5PM -- earlier than the night before in the hopes of catching the early birds.

We set up nine traps throughout the lot and took off for an hour to let the cats feel comfortable enough to look for food.

This is what a set trap looks like. There's food on one end, with a metal plate in front of it. The door on the other end is raise up and held in place by a small metal rod that simultaneously lifts the metal plate. When the cat goes in for the food, he/she has to step on the plate to get to the bait. Once enough weight is put on the plate, the trap door slams shuts.

When we returned we found our second cat of the project trapped near the front of the lot and next to a construction site I believe the cats have been using for shelter.

This is Mr. Big. He's been drooling non-stop, so the vets on the mobile van will be checking out his teeth when they have him under. Most likely, he just has some bad teeth.

We immediately placed another trap in the spot we trapped Mr. Big and took a short walk. When we returned there was another cat in the trap! This was our sweet spot!

Say hello to Mr. Chin. He's named this because we saw that he had a gnarly abscess on his chin. As such, he's going on the van on Saturday to get neutered and have his chin checked out. 

With a sweet spot found we set another trap and got ourselves a pair of great lattés and a brownie at Old Brooklyn Parlor. After getting toasty we set out into the cold to check out traps and our sweet spot proved to be as sweet as the brownie we just ate.

This is Baby's Mama. I believe she's the slutty kitty the bodega owner told us about. The night before, when we met him as we were trapping, he said, "If you catch the black and white one, you've got the mother of all mothers." Crossing my fingers that it is a she, because then we've sterilized one of the big culprits to this growing colony.

With our adrenaline pumping we set up another trap in our sweet spot and made a run with our three kitties to our holding spot. We have an amazing set-up thanks to two generous sisters. They've donated their basement as a holding space for the cats and our even taking the time to care for the cats cages by cleaning the soiled newspaper and feeding them twice a day. These two are my saviors. I really don't know how I would do this without them. It's a huge deal to offer up your home to ferals, who tend to be stinky as they eat, poop, and pee in small traps for three to five days. These sisters should be given awards by the city for their community service.

Andrea and I returned to the lot to find all the traps empty. We waited until about 10 and then packed it up. We were thrilled with our three catches. Now we had a total of four cats, including the calico we caught the night before.

Speaking of the Calico, she's been renamed Chatty Cathy as she's the most vocal little lady I've ever met. She's also incredibly friendly, purring when she's pet and pushing her head into your hand asking for more. That said, we've got a cat that needs a forever home as we won't be putting her on the streets. She's too sweet not to make someone a wonderful friend. Please email bergenbabies [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested in adopting or fostering her. She's getting vetted and spayed on Saturday.

1 Down; 6 to Go...

Last night feels like it was a bit of a failure, but Andrea keeps telling me it wasn't. We were only able to catch one cat, using the drop trap. I'm calling her Robin, after my very helpful co-catcher. They have similar hair color.

We set up ten steel traps like the ones pictured below, but no one bit the bait. The traps were kindly donated by a volunteer at Urban Cat League along with generous Slope Street Cat volunteers

It was freezing (27 degrees) which kept a lot of the cats away. Plus, we discovered that despite our posters asking people to refrain from feeding, someone was still feeding these punks. Why go into a trap for food, when you're already filled up? We put up more posters and plan on starting earlier today since we think these guys are going out to feed before it gets too cold and then finding shelter.

One of the great things that happened last night though, is that we met the owner of a Bodega on Vanderbilt who has a yard facing the lot we're trapping in. He said that a ton of the cats live in his yard and gave us his blessing to bring our traps there whenever we want. He also told us a very sad story, which confirmed that we're doing the right thing. He's seem two litters born this year, and in both litters three out of the four kittens died. He hates going out into the yard to collect the bodies, and I hate thinking about it so I'm even more determined to get this colony sterilized.

So the plan tonight is to start at 5, set up traps in the bodega yard, get access to the other lot across the street that Daffodil Hardware parks in, and catch us some kitties! Keep your fingers and paws crossed.

Tonight's the Night

Maria, Robin, and I are headed out to the lots on Bergen street to trap us some kitties. We have seven slots ready for us this weekend on the ASPCA mobile spay/neuter clinic, which is a great start to getting this colony under control. I've trapped, neutered, and adopted four kittens from Bergen street and I'm tired of it. Time to sterilize these pussies! (was that TMI?)

Anyway, I'll be chronicling our progress on this site, along with posting photos of our newly fixed kitties. Come back for more info on the cats' back story, our daily progress, and future TNR plans for the colony.