The Siamese

After the big move to Florida, I started working for the sheriff’s department here. It was in the records department, five days a week, in an office building. I soon realized that I made a mistake. Why did I think I could work in this setting after my career with animals out in the field? I was miserable. I was also very fortunate to have an understanding husband who hated to see me unhappy. So I quit.

Now what?

My last day was December 16. On December 18 my front door camera caught a Siamese cat playing with her five kittens on the porch. Sometimes the universe has impeccable timing. I decided my new mission, at least for the time being, would be to capture this cat and get her spayed.

We had seen this particular cat scurrying around the neighborhood a few times and figured it might be someone’s pet allowed outside. After speaking with a few neighbors it turns out no one claims ownership and one neighbor had been trying to catch her for over a year now. She has had several litters of kittens which he was able to take to his own vet where they were adopted out. But was never able to catch mom cat in the live trap. He let me borrow his trap.

At this time there was also a black and white cat that had started to hang around our yard at night. Setting off motion cameras all night and even getting into a hissing match with my indoor cats through the screened kitchen window.

I decided he needed to go first. He was easy to catch in the live trap. I gave him a few nights of free food on the porch next to the trap before setting it. This also attracted the Siamese from time to time and she realized there would be food available daily. The morning the black and white male was caught she even sauntered up to the trap to visit him. I wouldn’t doubt if he was the father of many of her babies.

I dropped him off with a TNR program and picked him up again the next day, sans testicles and half an ear. I released him a few streets away. If he really did belong to someone in the area he would be able to find his way home again. Two nights later my camera caught him looking for food on my porch again.

One night the camera also caught a fluffy, long-haired cat without a tail and a raccoon, helping themselves to the treats. The Siamese now kept coming more regularly. I had no idea where she might have her kittens hidden. The first time I saw them on camera they appeared to be around 6-7 weeks old. Now it was 2 weeks later which means they would be fine without mom, and I never saw them on my cameras again.

By New Year I had habituated the Siamese to feed on my porch every night. I set the live trap, doing my best to cover the trip plate which stood up quite high. One morning the cameras alerted me and I watched out the front window how she carefully walked into the trap, ate all the canned food and then carefully backed out again, never touching the trip plate. She was clearly wise to this trap and I needed a new plan.

I decided to rig up something where I could manually pull a string to snap the trap shut. But she was too quick getting in and eating and leaving, and by the time my camera alerted me she was already trotting down the driveway with a full belly.

My husband and I recently constructed a catio for our cats to enjoy the outdoors in and I figured this larger enclosure could be the perfect way to trap this smart kitty.

We hauled the catio to the front porch. I tied a string to the large door and pulled it through the screen of the front window so I could easily access it from inside the living room. That night I simply set out some food and allowed her to come and feed several times throughout the night. Then the next morning, like clockwork, she showed up again for food. I had put some enticing canned food down early in the morning and she did not hesitate to enter the catio for that. I held my breath as I steadied my hand on the string inside the living room window. One swift pull closed the door as planned.

The poor girl immediately went into a frenzy, jumping along the walls and in the process injuring her nose. Droplets of blood spattered across the cement of my porch. She was clearly more feral than domestic. I covered the whole catio cage with large blankets to allow her to calm down. I had also set up the live trap inside the catio as a sort of hiding place, or safe space, for her to go into. It took her some time to understand this. The trap however had the back panel removed which I would now need to re-insert to close the trap for good.

After a few hours of allowing her to calm down, and making phone calls to figure out who would be able to take her in that day to then get her spayed, I decided I needed to close her up in the trap. She had been sitting in it for some time. I slowly opened the large catio door and put a towel over the small live trap. Just as I started to insert the back panel of the trap she shot out of the small trap, past my feet and out of the now opened catio door. My heart immediately sank. I had failed in securing her. I had failed her.

I was sure she would never come around again after this traumatic experience.

I set out food without the trap to just see if she’s even still around. Several nights went by and I saw some other cats and even a gang of raccoons visit the porch, but then I saw her. She was willing to give me another chance.

I made sure to provide food again every night. Just near the closed trap to get her once again desensitized to it. I saw the black and white male cat visit a few times, as well as the tail-less fluffy cat with a collar. I then set the trap again, now with a modified larger trip plate. I saw once again how she entered the front of the trap and then back out. Clearly she was just too smart for a conventional trap. My dear husband begrudgingly helped me haul the large catio back to the front porch so I could once again set that up.

What I did not expect was the kittens to now show up. They were around 3 months old now and somewhat independent. One night I caught two of them in the catio and secured them to the trap and a kennel. They were dropped off to animal services who could asses them for possible adoption and neuter them. The following night I caught another kitten and he too was brought to animal services. On the original video I counted 5 kittens with mom, which means there may be two left with her now. I set the food out night after night. And she came now almost daily. There were a few frigid nights where no cat, or even raccoon came by, but I caught her on video almost every night. The problem was that the camera alert on my phone was just delayed enough that she would be able to quickly eat and leave before I was able to get ready to once again pull that string on the door.

A month passed and I had managed to catch 6 kittens. All black and white, or all black, leaving me to assume that their father was most likely the male cat I caught initially. After transporting the 6 kittens to animal services I gathered there were none left. I spotted Siamese mom cat occasionally on the camera but then it got cold. Very cold even for Florida winter. I didn’t see her for over a week. When the nights turned warmer again I set some food out to see if she was still around. That one night I attracted the tail-less cat, a large orange cat, and much to my dismay two more kittens of the black and white variety. Sigh. So back to setting the trap and catio to try and also get these two littles. One was easy, one was not.

Once caught I realized these are not new kittens, they were in fact the kittens I had already caught and brought to animal services. Through the TNR
(Trap-Neuter-Release) program they had been fixed and vaccinated, and because they were too spicy to become pets they were then released back to this neighborhood.

Days turned into weeks and I did not see Siamese mom cat again. The last time I saw her she looked quite pregnant and it is very possible she is hiding somewhere with a new litter. I can find solace in the fact that I was able to at least neuter the large male and all 6 kittens in our little neighborhood. I am still angry at myself not being smart enough, fast enough, to confine her when I initially caught her. She will forever by my white whale. The one that got away.