Two down, one to go

Well, I don't have the answer to the identity of my sneak thief, the animal clever and light-weight enough to get in the trap, eat the bait, and then not set said trap off upon exiting. But I do have Sister.

Sister, a mother kitty many times over, showed back up yesterday. She brought several suitors with her, so my time frame of trapping her became narrower with each kitty purr and growl. I loaded the trap with a half-broiled pork rib, moved the trap to where I could observe from the house, and watched.

First rattle out of the box, I found Sister, who does have access to all food passed out on the patio, sitting on top of the trap. She really, really wanted that pork rib. Several suitors were encouraging her in her pursuit of it. Note it was dangling from one string and tied by another to the bottom of the trap. It wasn't going anywhere without a lot of effort. Also note that two of these suitors had already been in the trap. No doubt they were giving her (good?) advice on how to stay out of it. That would be the only good advice they'd be giving her. And so, I went to bed last night with the trap empty, but Sister close by.

This morning, I shone the flashlight in that direction and found two pairs of eyes looking back at me. One pair skittered away and one did not. Just exactly who had fallen prey to the pork rib?

There she was. Very upset with circumstances. Mad at me, even. Really out of sorts by the time she rode in the back of the pick-up to the vet's. Serendipitously, I was able to retrieve her newly-spayed daughter Stripe and leave her. What an exchange!

Now to entice Socks into my scheme. She's a clever kitty, but then, so was her mother.