A sneaky fellow

'Tis the season for female kitties to be led astray. I know this because unknown tomcats have begun to arrive on our property. I've been feeding three near-feral females, a mother and her two half-grown daughters, for several months now. I've known this time is coming when I'd have to get serious about taking them to the vet and it has arrived.

Mother cat, Sister I call her, has now disappeared. She is, no doubt, being bad (or doing what comes natural to a cat, my husband reminds me) with the neighborhood boys who have also disappeared. Of her two daughters, I can pet one and she, unsuspecting darling, let me pick her up yesterday and put her in a carrier. She is now awaiting her surgery so she can become a responsible member of the kitty community: all sleep and rodent-catching, no procreation. She will, however, probably never allow me near her again. It is a price we will both pay.

The other daughter is skittish and I will have to trap her, as I will her mother. Which bring us to the subject at hand, my latest trapping adventure.

So far, I've caught my own outdoor, neutered, sweet as they come, but not particularly bright, yellow cat. I've lost track of how many times he's wandered into my traps. One of these days, Sam may make a more fatal error and get caught in someone else's. He just needs to learn to stay on property.

Sam, though, is not the problem. The problem is whoever is going into the trap, eating the cat food, and getting out without being caught! He's done it three times! My husband thinks this is quite funny. (And so he can keep thinking until we have another batch of kittens.) Therefore, I've gone into the trapping archives and pulled out the trick which I used to catch my first raccoon: a pork rib tied top and bottom to the trap.

It's out there now. I'll let you know who the sneaky fellow is.