A Hum-Dinger of a Wild Cat

So I mentioned in the previous post about last week being a hum-dinger... here's another reason why:

You see, we have acreage. It's not a bunch (we have 8 acres), but it's enough for nice elbow room (now, the preceding statement is a relative one- city folk would say, wow!... while other country folk might say ha!). Anyway, it is a good amount for us, as we do all the upkeep and care-taking ourselves (we have a horse breeding business too). ANYway, every now and then, we have had feral cats try and make our place part of their territory and our kitty does not get happy about this. She is a spayed kitty coming on 10 years of age and she's a little kitty at that (see her HERE).

Since our big dogs stay in at night, this Tom was bothered none. Well, that darn cat came prowling around and started making noise... that annoying ?? ...I don't know what you call it...??? howling/kitty screaming noise... That was enough for us to set out the trap.

We've caught many a feral cat in it. It's our "relocator" devise. Now for those of you that think down on this... hey, we always relocate them to an area that is more dense with houses, yet still wooded and natural. It's a few miles down the road and is an acreage subdivision- the lot sizes are anywhere from 1-5 acres and there are plenty of places for food and water.

So, the trap was set. I'm at the computer... too late, like I often am, and I hear that darn cat. We have a wrap-around porch and he, making his cat-calls, ambled slowly by the study (where I'm sitting at the computer). A bit of time past, I didn't hear him and went to bed. Next thing, it's 1:10 AM and I hear a thud... it was the door on the trap. Got a little flashlight and looked through the window. Yup, it was him.

I worried that he would get frantic and try to squeeze through the hole on the top of the trap where the long arm (with meat wrapped around it) goes. The wire there could cut him, so I went outside and laid a big jug of pasture chemical over the hole. Let me just say, OMGaaawwd.. this sucker was wild as a March Hare and BIG. We've caught one other that was pretty wild, but this guy had him beat. He freaked (poor thing) when I got within 8 feet of the trap. I just put the jug over the hole as quickly as I could ... after I held a garage towel over my legs in case he sprayed. My wonderful trap-making other-half awoke for work and I told him about the catch of the night. The relocation took place on his way to work.

So, why did this add to the hum-dinger-ness of the week? Because that darn cat tried to chew his was out of the trap the WHOLE night... I could hear it... as the cage was right outside our bedroom window (that's close to the entrance of our garage, which is where our kitty's food is). So, NO SLEEP the rest of that night as I lay there and worried that he was cutting himself up while trying to get out. He did have some scratches on his nose the next morning. Just hope he is fine. Regardless, I'm sure our kitty is sleeping better now that he is gone.