Woohooo!!! Finally caught the last neighborhood stray!

[Lyric]

YES! After three effing months of trying to catch him, we FINALLY caught the elusive tuxedo-pattern tomcat! We lured him up onto the porch with canned food after dark, and he's gotten "used to" me enough that he tolerated me being on the porch with him, so when he'd eaten his fill, I grabbed him. I brought him inside wrapped in a towel and gave him his vaccinations against Feline Panleukopenia (Distemper,) Feline Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, Chlamydia Psittaci, and Feline Leukemia, PLUS a dose of Drontal for worms, PLUS some Advantage for his fleas!!! Woohoo!!! He tried to bite me, but Rhythm had a firm grip on his head and he couldn't reach me. :)

I have now successfully vaccinated EVERY stray cat in this neighborhood for all major cat diseases except for rabies (because giving rabies shots at home is illegal in WV *sigh*.) We'll see if I can catch him again in 3 weeks to give him a booster--all of the other cats have had two rounds of shots so far. I've gotten to be pretty darned good at giving cats injections, I must say. :)

We have also managed to rehome three of the strays so far--one to a young couple in an apartment complex about four miles away (they sent me pictures from their recent vet visit--OMG so adorable! That cat is doing WELL in his new home) and two to a rural couple who paid me a $120 deposit and then reclaimed it when they brought me proof of neutering. Those two boycats are now happily killing all of the mice in their barn, while being fed and cuddled as much as they'll tolerate. They weren't very social cats to begin with, sadly, but they're doing great in their new home!

I'm just so happy I could burst. I intend to keep doing this as long as I can. I'm hoping to find homes for the other twelve strays around here in the next year or so, and ALL of them will go to their new homes as healthy as I can keep them.

Anyway, I just thought you guys would enjoy sharing this little victory with me. Yay!!! We've been trying to catch "Tux" for ages, lol.

:woohoo:

:bounce:

[emilyg]

1. You're an angel.

We caught 8, had them fixed, shots. Then we let them back out.

[Lyric]

2. I wish we could afford to have them fixed.

It's just not possible for us, financially. :( We're low-income and we live in a trailer park, which is primo "dumping" grounds for unwanted cats, unfortunately. We feed them, though, and I spent about $240 on 50 doses of vaccine (including feline leukemia) plus Drontal for worms and Advantage for fleas. We have 7 cats of our own, but we try hard to care for all of the ones around here. Someday I'll start an "official" rescue and start taking donations to pay for spay/neuter for them, but for now, we can at least keep them from suffering, ya know?

:hug:

[emilyg]

3. We did it as a neighborhood project. People

chipped in and they have become "our" pets - outside of course.

[hamsterjill]

6. Thank you and bless your heart!

Yours was one of the first posts I read this morning and so my DU world is starting off happy today!!!

Are you familiar with Alley Cat Allies?

[cwydro]

17. Don't they have any low cost clinics there?

Our local SPCA does free spaying/neutering periodically.

[Bertha Venation]

4. You rock out loud!

I am so proud of you!

:yourock:

[Vidar]

5. Wow, I'm impressed.

[raccoon]

7. Off to greatest! Kudos to you! nt

[Ikonoklast]

8. You are a follower of Bastet.

She will keep you in her prayers for your service to her children.

[TZ]

9. You are a good person

Thank you for taking care of the kitties.

[LynneSin]

10. You realize that in 6 months you'll have a whole new set of strays to contend with

they never really go away - they're like cute, fuzzy, adorable cockroaches.

I have a stray too and it's still stalking my cats.

[leftyclimber]

11. You and Rhythm are such sweet people.

(and LyricKid, too, of course!)

:loveya:

[Lyric]

13. Hey--you should come over and help us entertain the potential adopter

who's supposed to be coming over in about two hours. She's driving up from Clarksburg, and is supposed to be here sometime around 2:00. You busy today? She's interested in one of the kittens we saved from Mom's barn. :)

[leftyclimber]

14. I'm coming down with a cold and feel like shit.

I don't think that's the kind of entertainment you want for a potential adopter. x(

Sounds like a nice lady -- hope she leaves with a kitty. :hug:

[Lyric]

15. She just called and said that it's going to be a couple of days

before she gets here, anyway. Apparently her hubby got called into work early, and has to work early tomorrow too--bummer. But she begged us to hang on to the female kitten. Apparently they already have one female cat, and she gets along better with other females, so they want another girl.

:hug:

[Lyric]

12. Wish us luck--we have a potential new owner for yet another one coming over today!

She sounded very sweet on the phone, and older. She's cool with paying our modest adoption fee, and will get a refund as soon as she shows proof of spay (she specifically requested a female, which is great, because most people always want the boys.)

Here's hoping everything checks out okay! :)

[applegrove]

16. You are a good friend to those cats.