Trapping Through the Snow

Trapping can be easy when you have a dedicated caretaker feeding multiple times a day. In this case, the cats just line up on the banister for their food. All we needed to do was withhold their meals for 24 hours, and it took just 20 minutes to trap four cats. All four were recovered an extra day or two due to cold temperatures and have safely returned to the group. These cats obviously stick together and now they also have three feral shelters to cozy up in under a porch. We'll be back to round up the rest.

Heated Water Bowls

It's important to provide the outdoor cats with water year-round. The winter cold makes that tricky as temperatures drop below freezing. There are lots of good tips out there to keep the water from freezing, such as using bowls that are wide and deep, or insulated. Adding a pinch of sugar to the water slows the freezing as well, or you can add more water to wet food. We set up an electric heated water bowl and it's been working really well - the water is not frozen yet still cool to the touch. The cat tracks around it show that the cats seem to enjoy having such an easy source of hydration for them to use.

When TNR turns into TNA

Feral cat colony caretakers will often try to pull kittens from a colony to be socialized and adopted into forever homes. The window of time to easily socialize a kitten is brief, and sometimes the job is not fully done in time. Then socialization becomes a bit more time-consuming, but the results can be enormously gratifying and worth the effort in the long run. Our Feral Friends TNR Program is currently fostering a few of those cases. Isadora, Josephine, Scarlet and Pablo were brought into a foster home to be fully socialized after being TNR'ed as kittens by a caretaker, who along with her neighbor, would let them in and out of their apartments as their living situation outside was not safe. They are now almost 8 months old. As you can see from the photos below, they are rapidly getting used to the food, comfort and toys that a forever home would bring them. Their progress would be even faster if they could be separated more from each other, and exposed to more people. If you are interested in helping to socialize these cats and others like them, whether it would be to bring them temporarily into your home, or to visit them at another foster home, please contact us through this blog, email us at tnr@treehouseanimals.org, or call us at 773-784-5488, ext. 234.

Three Friendly Cats Need HelpWatch the video!