People & Animals Team-up Successfully Inc (PATS)

Sounds so simple.  Buy a trap, have a shed, a car and a vet.  Off we go to do TNR for ourselves or as a volunteer to assist others.  Hey, it is NOT SIMPLE.  Trapping can be physically hard and certainly can be emotionally draining, dealing with issues such as ill cats, "do not want cats in my yard" and just irritating folks.

FIRST:

You need a good trap.  The one door traps are NO GOOD.  You need TWO doors, and one should be a guillotine door (goes up and down).  The trap should not be rusty and held together with wire and string.  It needs to be safe for the cat, the vet staff and you.  And you also should have a trap divider (having two is best) to make life easy when cleaning the trap. 

The trap needs to fit into your vehicle without clumsy maneuvering.  Look for a trap with easy locking doors so the cat can not escape while trap is being moved around.  And you need a sheet or towel to cover the trap.  Should be conformed in size to the trap so no one trips all over the excess material.  And both items need to be washed with bleach after each cat.

The main cost for traps in the Long Island area is the shipping cost.  Seems to me that all the two door traps come from the midwest to the west coast.  You can often pick up dog crates and traps by advertising on craigs list or freecycle.org for your area or just searching the web for free ones. Folks also ask for donations of traps on facebook groups.

It is also helpful to have at least one more trap than you think you need.  Or else get a transport cage made by Safe Guard.  This is not a trap but has a top opening and a guillotine door that matches most traps and enables easy transporting and transferring a cat from a trap if you want to use it again at a trapping site or to assist in cleaning traps.  Vets love these as they do not take up much space but the cat can be forced to the side and needles stuck into the cat easily.

And once you get into trapping, you will need a string operated box trap and a drop trap!  And if you are tech savvy, maybe a smart phone and ap that will monitor your traps and call you with a picture when the trap is triggered!

SECOND:

You need a recuperation area.  Needs to be kept between 50 and 75 degrees and well-ventilated without gas and oil smells.  Needs to be clean, fairly uncluttered and secure as to no escape routes to the outdoors (good fitting doors, windows and roof).  Ideally, the trap(s) should be on a table or counter so you do not have to bend or stretch to clean trap. I believe the cat is more intimidated by the torso and head of a human than the feet.  Also, if the cat gets loose, a clean area will not afford much hiding space and you have room to set a trap to recatch the escapee. 

You need a garbage can or bag holder.  I use BAG BUDDY which is a two sided flexible metal rods around which you put a black plastic bag.  Takes up less space than a can and when not needed is easily stored away.

I also use whelping pads to cover the table area and the car trunk floor area.  The pads can be purchased quite large in size, are washable (line dry) and absorb but do not leak through (heavy soaking of urine and lots of washing does let urine through a bit).  When I first used plastic liners to cover the tables, the urine etc soaked through the papers, then rolled along the plastic onto the floor.

You also need a source of newspapers for trap and cage liners.  You can find papers at your neighborhood news store or your library or just driving around the neighborhood the night before recycling day.  Law offices often subscribe to several papers.

You also need an endless supply of paper towels and paper plates.  I feed with paper plates as I found the dishes always ended at the rear of the traps, hidden in newspaper.  I either accidentally pitched the dishes with the newspaper while cleaning or had difficulty in retrieving the dishes from the occupied trap.  And many cats seem to use the dishes as a toilet.  Great aim on their part, but a lot of cleaning by me. Hence the paper plates.  Folks also buy in bulk the hot dog/french fries paper holders you see at Nathens, Jones Beach etc.

For your house cats safety, it is NOT a good idea to recuperate in your house.  Germs and fleas can travel to your pet cats.  Talk to your TNR vet about flea med to be applied during sedation because this will help your state of mind during flea season or if you trap an infested colony.  Some flea meds such as revolution also assist with worm, ear mite and lice issues.

THIRD:

You need a network which will include an ADOPTION group, a feral oriented VETERINARIAN and other cat oriented FOLKS.  There will be times when you trap kittens, friendly adults and ill cats that need examination and/or treatment.  Unless you are SUPER PERSON, I suggest you not trap AND do adoptions.  You may end up instead with a houseful of former outside ferals.   You NEED an adoption group to handle the kittens.

And the friendly VET is needed to check out the ill feral, provide medication/surgery and/or euthanasia at an affordable cost.  And if the vet is willing to hold the cat during treatment, WOW.  And some sainted vets do adoptions for you!!!

Having FRIENDS who trap and deal with ferals are necessary.  It is great to be able to complain to others who understand about problems associated with trapping.

Fourth:

You need a tetnus shot, maybe even a rabies vaccination, depending on where you trap.  You will also need epsom salts and over-the-counter antibiotics, bandages, band-aids etc. because you will get scratched, even bitten by the ferals (and kittens) and stabbed and scraped by the metal traps.  And a cat-oriented people Doctor who will not freak at cat bites but will prescribe Keflex (et. al.) if a bite occurs near a joint or becomes infected.

Fifth:

You need a good washer and dryer and an outside hose, preferably one that can be hooked to hot water during the colder weather.  TNR involves a lot of sheets, blankets, and even kitty beds for the kittens.  All need to be washed and bleached between uses.  And those traps need to be washed and sterilized between trappings.  Power Washing is also helpful.  The blankets, sheets etc., can be obtained through freecycle.org for your area, craigs list and relatives. 

Sixth:

You need a computer or the old fashioned method of paper and pens for recordkeeping.  Ideally you should keep a record of the cats that are trapped, where trapped and where taken for s/n and what was done to them.  I have started taking pictures of the cats.   Pictures taken prior to going to surgery is good in the rare case of a mix-up at the surgery site.  I have the picture on the trap along with my info.  I have also started to put a dot of yellow tempora paint between the ears. 

I utilize the pictures to acquaint the colony feeders with the cats they are caring for and for ID'ing the individual cats.  I paste a picture on the cat's TNR records which I give to the caregiver.  Sadly, especially with the black cats, the picture misses the details that might tell one cat from another.  Try to impress the colony caretakers with the need for recordkeeping also.  Their records will show how TNR works and in some cases their tales may be used by Alley Cat Allies or other groups for grassroots tales of TNR.  Records are also useful to show you are not a crazy person torturing cats or a hoarder (if you have neighbors who complain).

Seventh:

You need MONEY!.  You will need money to pay for surgeries of broken legs, broken and infected tails, eye removals and abscess treatments and URI.  You will need funds for drugs for the cats, for trap repairs and replacements, and food and gas.  Most people you trap for will not think to cover your routine expenses of feeding the cat, gas to get to/from their house, the vet, the recuperation area.  And while some will promise to cover the vet expense, most do not follow through.  You will be lucky to get 50% and less the higher the bill. 

You need someone who will write grants, run garage sales and fundraise for you.

Eighth:

You need a BIG house/garage and lots of relatives/friends that like cats.  Cause you will be faced with kittens that do not socialize after many months, cats that are sick or declawed and should not go back out, cats that live in deplorable areas and tug at your heart while you are recuperating and cats that are dumped on you.  You will also get sick cats that have to be held until well enough for surgery.

Ninth:

You need TWO or more vehicles or access to such. My opinion, the car with the drop folding back seat is great.  Most seats are split 60/40 and you can fold either side or both for air, climate control and space.  Look for cars with the pass through area large enough for traps to fit through (12-14 inches high) and for a trunk floor that is smooth.  My ford fusion 2009 has two elevated areas just before the pass through area.  This makes pushing the trap a pain.  The 2002 Impala had a smooth floor and I could place the trap in the trunk and easily push it back to the pass through area.  SUVs are great as easy to load and unload as no lifting over the trunk back is needed.  The higher roof of an SUV can also accomodate to layers of traps (I place a whelping pad between the payers and cardboard).

You also need a remote temperature device so that you can determine easily from the front seat what the temperature is in the trunk or cargo area.  Note that a trunk interior is actually cooler in the summer heat in the morning as there is no glass for the sun to heat up the interior.  And with the back seat folded down the a/c flows through nicely ( and heat in winter).  You need sheet trap covers in the summer to keep the sun's rays from beating down on the poor cat through the SUV windows.  Remember the trapped cat has limited space to move in the trap to avoid the direct sun rays.

And, no matter how careful you are at covering the trunk floor and the back seats etc with pads and waterproof material and newspapers etc, the smell, the odor seems to permeate the car.  And embarrassingly, it seems the trapper gets used to the odor, but to the guest in the car or mechanic, STENCH!

And cats need to be trapped, taken for surgery and returned, even if your car has decided to stop working.  Sure a rental or borrowed car would work, but then you have to return the borrowed vehicle without any odors!

feralpats@yahoo.com

 516-223-6673