Topic: Sunny Harbours Feral Project - Harbour Cats! - Phase 2 Update 19/07/10 (Read 22907 times)

Shirley · « **Reply #92 on:** February 13, 2010, 09:29:41 AM »

Just topping up the good luck vibes for this weekend-i have everything crossed for you!!

Bazsmum · « **Reply #91 on:** February 07, 2010, 21:43:04 PM »

Thats a fantastic update!

So now you are a fishermans friend?

Glad you have the majority on side with this, more power to you and OH with this!

Shirley · « **Reply #90 on:** February 06, 2010, 11:12:36 AM »

Great update! So glad you've got the fisherman on side!

and other people have agreed to work with you! Hope you catch the 'feeders' in the act, too!

Best of luck for next weekend, especially for mommy cat-i know how clever they can be!!!

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #89 on:** February 06, 2010, 10:26:51 AM »

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates over the last week but we are utterly swamped here at the harbour - no room to squeeze in a sausage let along a cat / kitten!!!

Our feeder hasn't been back last weekend but the temperatures were below freezing and they do tend to only appear when the weather is warmer. Time will tell if they appear tonight!

We have made some progress however on an information front which is great news!! Paul was down yesterday afternoon and managed to get access to the actual yard where the cats are living and into one of the storage sheds that they have been accessing through a hole in the wall. This however looks to be purely their play area as there are lots of units and stuff for them to climb all over and footprints everywhere. We did wonder if mum had had her kittens in there but after extensive search by Paul it turned up a blank.

After speaking to some of the boys and office staff on the site and also to a fisherman he managed to collar at the harbour yesterday it would appear that there are mixed views on the cats but thankfully after explaining what we are trying to achieve and why the cats need to stay at the site all were in agreement with our plan - great news!

Fisherman was probably the most helpful and has told us that the colony took residence at this particular site around 5 years ago. He says they have done a great service at keeping the mink, rats and mice away and he has one of them himself at home that he found as a kitten.

He has confirmed (as we suspected) that the main nest site is under one of the large wooden huts on the harbour not far from our feeding station and often he will see the kittens running about underneath it - this being where we caught Kali & Baby.

He has now agreed to work with us and give us information if he spots any kittens in the area of the shed whilst coming and going - especially as he found out that we'd chased off yobs from trying to untie one of his boats a few weeks back!

One VERY good and useful piece of news was that he was able to tell us who the fair weather feeders are - and believe it or not we have been there at the same time. Apparently an old couple stop by the harbour on a Sat / Sun and have their dinner watching out over the harbour and put out food for the cats. Frustratingly enough they watched us check the feeding station and pull our hair out one night - so needless to say if we see them there again we know whos window to tap

What was interesting was that we asked him how many cats he though were there and he said 4 or 5

was rather shocked when he found out that we had sighted at least 12 different cats and lifted 3 kittens.

he did say that Sammy Sr that we caught couple of weeks back is uber friendly and quite popular around the harbour bless him - and we also told him how to spot the ones we had done and returned.

Our current plan is to trap next weekend providing vets can accommodate the monday morning and get as many as we can in and done and returned to the harbour to live out the rest of their lives. We reckon mum is going to be a difficult catch as she's a sly ol girl - but we will do our best.

Think that just above sums everything up lol so much has happened over the last week I'm losing track of myself let alone anything else.

Liz - if you're reading this - any word on those vouchers??

Bazsmum · « **Reply #88 on:** February 05, 2010, 00:58:05 AM »

Hows things Sarah, hope they have stayed away?

Shirley · « **Reply #87 on:** February 01, 2010, 14:11:30 PM »

Fingers crossed they keep away with food!

Sad to hear mum cat has possibly had another litter

Do you know how many cats are in the colony?

I remember when my mommy cat (RIP) had her litters sometimes. There was another derilict factory on site, full of massive, deep holes where machinary had once been. Some of these holes were half full with bricks and/or water cos there was no roof on the place!

It was a real scary place to go searching, but we had to! One litter climbed up the bricks (they were only a few weeks old!!) and we managed to trap them at the top!

I know what you mean about inacessible places-it was a nightmare! Mommy cat used to bring them to her 'safe' place in our factory-this was a very deep hole full of old bits of machinary, so she knew we couldn't get at her babies there!

I wish you all the luck in the world in your efforts!

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #86 on:** February 01, 2010, 12:36:50 PM »

well.... no food out this weekend but the temperatures were -1 - so we not taking it as a done deal as they do seem to be fair weather feeders and not around if the weather is too cold - time will tell!

In general we are more positive about things now which is good and we also identified their other nest site is within the walls of one of the other buildings on site - so we will be popping down when we get a chance to speak to the guys on site.

We are concerned however that we do believe mum cat has had another litter of kittens so are watching her very carefully just now to identify which building she is in. Regardless of the choice they are totally inaccessible and we just have to wait til she brings them out!

Shirley · « **Reply #85 on:** February 01, 2010, 08:42:59 AM »

Have whoever's been ruining your efforts stopped feeding the cats now?

Bazsmum · « **Reply #84 on:** January 27, 2010, 21:23:59 PM »

Thats good! Hopefully you can get the message through..... Best of luck with this and your continued work for these babes!

Shirley · « **Reply #83 on:** January 27, 2010, 11:23:53 AM »

"" I am of the mindset that if they do go down and dump a load - I'm lifting it! "

(Still haven't got the hang of the 'purple quote'lol)

Fingers crossed you have lots of success with this and whoever's feeding them finally gets the message!!!!

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #82 on:** January 27, 2010, 11:02:14 AM »

oh definitely - if only! lol

We are feeling a bit more positive now than we were at the weekend. The way they have fed so far they only come down to feed at a weekend. I am of the mindset that if they do go down and dump a load - I'm lifting it! ;-)

We're damned if we're going to let all our hard work go to waste - but a lot depends on this 'person' - we may yet be left with no other options if they start to feed more regularly than they are - but we'll plodding away for now.

Bazsmum · « **Reply #81 on:** January 26, 2010, 18:13:32 PM »

Can you not set a human trap?

I know "if only"!

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #80 on:** January 25, 2010, 17:24:25 PM »

Quote from: Bazsmum on January 25, 2010, 16:55:16 PM

Good luck with this, did you place a note at the food station they use? Hope they can understand your intentions!

We both use the same one hun! ;-)

Bazsmum · « **Reply #79 on:** January 25, 2010, 16:55:16 PM »

Good luck with this, did you place a note at the food station they use?

Hope they can understand your intentions!

Shirley · « **Reply #78 on:** January 25, 2010, 13:48:01 PM »

REALLY hope the new notice does the trick! The furries sound just lovely!

It would be awaful if you had to give up now

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #77 on:** January 25, 2010, 10:46:32 AM »

Hi Guys,

All valid points however whoever is putting the food out is organised enough to take a plastic dish with them each time and the qty of food has to be someone buying it as it is waaaayy too much to be left overs. Must've been at least 8kg of dry food last week!!

Also, where the feeding station is you would never in a million years find it unless you knew where it was. Even if you went down looking for it you would have to look really really hard to even find it. We only found it after hours and hours of watching the cats, so this person is aware of the feeding station as that is where they fed before but they chose not to go down in all the snow and very cold temperatures - the time they need the food most!!

Saturday we were totally disheartened and really peed off - but we will give it one last attempt to contact this person and see what happens.

We don't want to put notices up in the town as the more people we draw to the area the more chance there is of them disrupting the cats and potentially moving them away - especially the kids in the area who aren't the greatest shall we say!

We put up a new notice last night - A4 size and put down 2 of them and you cannot miss them if you got in to feed or use the hut. Even if this person can't read english (bearing in mind there are a lot of Polish in the area) then they can read numbers and would recognise that the series of numbers on the notices were phone numbers. We have explained very clearly in this notice what our intentions are and that if they do not contact us to work together or choose to disrupt feeding that they will leave us no option but to consider withdrawing from the site. Something we REALLy don't want to have to do!

That said we went down around 11pm last night and did spot PT and Sammy and Tortie around Midnight and a new face we have referred to as Lily Snr (her complete double in fact - which a lot of the cats there are) which sat and watched us for ages and then came up to the car round the back and sat watching us in the wing mirror watching her - very funny and SOOOOO like the character of litttle Lily we have here.

We have worked So hard to build a relationship with these cats we just hope that whoever this is see's sense and makes the call!

Shirley · « **Reply #76 on:** January 25, 2010, 06:04:48 AM »

Good point Bazsmum, never thought of that!

Bazsmum · « **Reply #75 on:** January 24, 2010, 23:45:45 PM »

Id go to the nearest houses and do some door knocking.... Maybe see if a few leaflets could be left in a local shop etc.....They have to know that you are doing them good....They maybe think you are trying to pts?

Pinkbear (Julie) · « **Reply #74 on:** January 24, 2010, 21:18:40 PM »

Sometimes certain ignorant people actually take pleasure in seeing little feral kittens dart around the place.

They spare no thought about suffering or consequences to the queens or inbreed kittens.

Sending you a big hug, hun. You must feel like pulling your hair out!

Shirley · « **Reply #73 on:** January 24, 2010, 14:40:58 PM »

This is just unbelieveable!!!!! Surely anyone with half a brain cell must realise these cats must be caught and neutered, unless, as Trigger says, they can't read the notices or don't agree with neutering/ Most Greeks for example, believe animals should 'go to their maker intact' Doesn't seem to matter if they go to their maker full of disease having suffered a long, painful death!

Really hope you don't have to abandon this, keeping everything crossed for a successful outcome to all your hard work. x

Kay and Penny · « **Reply #72 on:** January 24, 2010, 14:14:56 PM »

does it look as if someone is actually buying this food, Sarah? do you think it is a genuine cat lover or someone with food to dump?

hopefully, if the former, they have only ignored you up to now because they are suspicious

bear in mind, though, that it might be being dumped by children on an errand, who will not, perhaps can't, read your notices - or even someone whose first language isn't English

Sam (Fussy_Furball) · « **Reply #71 on:** January 24, 2010, 13:16:15 PM »

Ahhh how frustrating for you. I'm sure these "feeders" are wellintentioned but of course it doesn't help you.

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #70 on:** January 24, 2010, 12:56:45 PM »

Gawd only knows Shirley - I did follow your story with mum and the grey boy and think you did a brilliant job with them!

All I can say today is that we are totally and utterly really peed

off

Whoever this person is they are still ignoring our notice and have put down another huge amount of food last night. We are going to put up a different notice explaining to them exactly what we are trying to acheive rather than just asking them to contact us. But if they continue they are going to leave us no option but to have to abandon the project as after all the hard work and many many many hours we have put into this colony they have blown our routine and relationship with them straight out of the water.

We really don't want to have to abandon this as if it isn't taken under control lord only knows how many will be there this time next year but if they keep this up and ignore out pleas for them to stop and or contact us to work together what choice do we have.

At the moment we are both furious about this as well as very disheartened. We have worked our butts off for these cats and have spent so much time and effort getting everything in place for a TNR that they have just blown clean out of the water! arrrrgggghhhhhh

Shirley · « **Reply #69 on:** January 21, 2010, 15:26:59 PM »

Fortunately i DID manage to catch my mommy cat, 19 days after i'd been made redundant (we'd caught her years before to have her spayed, thank God, even tho she had quite a few litters before that!) I'd got a fantastic sanctuary with a feral compound for her and her son lined up-he was already there-but she was found to have leukemia and a stomach tumour so was pts. I was devastated. He kept escaping but would've been ok if she was there, they were always very close. After many months of worry, ( a very long story!) he now lives with me and loves it lol!

Why don't people listen to the experts!!!!!!!!

Pinkbear (Julie) · « **Reply #68 on:** January 21, 2010, 14:49:01 PM »

Aw...

I know how you feel. I had to give up trying to catch a tom for the snip as this

stupid

idiot woman WOULD NOT understand that if fed him a whole tin of Whiskas every single day he would not go for my trap. Even though she SAID she understood and promised me she wouldn't do it, every time I got to the site she'd put out a saucepan full of fresh food and he was laying there all pot bellied and sleeping it off. When confronted she said she couldn't bare to think of him going hungry.... hungry my

!! He was fatter than Billy Bunter!

She wasted a month of my time and we never did catch him.

Shirley · « **Reply #67 on:** January 21, 2010, 12:42:20 PM »

How frustrating for you, after all you've been doing for these cats!!!! I was livid when i was just trying to catch ONE, my mommy cat at work, and i'd get there some days to find left over sandwiches etc despite putting notices up

Really hope people will leave you to do the job in hand! Good luck!

Glad to hear the one with the poorly ear is looking better

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #66 on:** January 21, 2010, 11:54:22 AM »

Just a wee update to say that Lily's siblings are coming on well. The little black kitten is a little further behind but we reckon that is to do with the ear issue which is now healing up well and she is hopefully on her last couple of days of a/b's. He/she is certainly looking better

We think the black and white kitten is a female, jury still out on the little black kitten but we will find out soon hopefully and then we can come up with names for them form the auction list!

We have had a big of a set back with the main group however.

When we first started the project there were signs of someone feeding. We left notices but no one has ever contacted us and for the last 7 weeks no-one has been down to put out any food. That is until the weekend when someone basically dumped a barrel full (huge amount) of dry food and wet down there.

End result is that the cats have been free feeding and it has knocked our entire routine right out the window. We are really annoyed and wouldn't mind if they would just contact us so we can work together but alas not. We have currently switched to 2nd nightly feeding in a bid to whittle down the dry food that has been put out and then we will have to re-start the routine once again.

Our plans of TNR in a couple of weeks time however looks unlikely and we have to admit we're mightily hacked off after all the work and effort and time we have put into the colony for someone to come along, ignore our signs and feed regardless and especially in such a HUGE amount!

Bazsmum · « **Reply #65 on:** January 18, 2010, 17:48:55 PM »

Aw! Hope that the ear will heal nicely now! Your doing a fab job there Sarah and OH!

Sam (Fussy_Furball) · « **Reply #64 on:** January 18, 2010, 16:41:22 PM »

well done on catching all these gorgeus furry purries.

Shirley · « **Reply #63 on:** January 18, 2010, 13:16:34 PM »

Awww poor baby ! Hope the little mite will be ok!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #62 on:** January 18, 2010, 12:48:13 PM »

Well done you

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #61 on:** January 18, 2010, 12:44:28 PM »

thanks guys.

Well we now have them both purring like little tractors and they have now cleaned themselves up now too so are black and white instead of black and mud grey!

They are doing really well and the little black with white chested one is still that bit more unsettled though we may know why.

As I think I mentioned earlier he has a raggy ear which we figured was from being chewed by something. We did believe there to be a scab on the back of the ear and have, where he/she will let us have a quick passing look. Both have started to let us pett them more over the last 24hrs and this morning when petting the little black one the scab (or so I thought) fell off in my hand.

On closer inspection it is in fact the end of the little ones ear!

dead infected tissue. So the little one now has half a left ear and we not sure if he/ she will lose a little more. Am so thankful they've been on A/b's since they came in!

Really feel for the wee soul!

Bazsmum · « **Reply #60 on:** January 15, 2010, 17:52:34 PM »

More gorgeous babes....You and OH are doing fab with this!

Liz · « **Reply #59 on:** January 15, 2010, 14:03:36 PM »

Good luck with the first session - remember to supervise Paul after the Wilfred Incident!

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #58 on:** January 15, 2010, 11:01:50 AM »

well the little ones had an OK night - though one of them decided it would be fun to try to escape!!! Bless their wee heart!

Both have eaten, drank and are currently cuddled up behind their teddies. We'll see how they get on with their first hands on session a bit later once feeding and cleaning is taken care of.

wish us luck!

Shirley · « **Reply #57 on:** January 15, 2010, 07:03:32 AM »

Fantastic news!!!!!

Gorgeous pusscats!

Well done!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #56 on:** January 14, 2010, 22:02:54 PM »

I reckon the mostly black is a girl and the other a boy

They look quite defiant

Liz · « **Reply #55 on:** January 14, 2010, 21:46:43 PM »

They are gorgeous - Little black and white looks like our Sparkle - she was clalled Spike as we all thought she was a boy till speying

the other poppet looks like one of our former fosters Domino - the spot under the chin

madkittyrescue · « **Reply #54 on:** January 14, 2010, 21:44:52 PM »

well we have some great news! - we have managed to get Lily's siblings - 2 little black and whites.

Both absolutely filthy - not sexed so far - and are currently settling into the harbour though most unimpressed.

Here are a couple of piccies for you of them both. The little black with white chest has a very raggy left ear though doesn't show up on the piccie very well.

Bazsmum · « **Reply #53 on:** January 12, 2010, 18:42:36 PM »

Aw he is lovely, well done on another capture!

Author Topic: Sunny Harbours Feral Project - Harbour Cats! - Phase 2 Update 19/07/10 (Read 22907 times)