My name is Armineh and this tale begins when my work manager called me out to her Northridge home to help trap some ferals. I TNR’d a mama cat and found good homes for her four kittens. Mission accomplished! But as it turns out, that was only the beginning.
The following week, she called to say there were three more kittens, so I went back. I happened to glance over her neighbor’s wall and couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw five nursing cats and 20 (!!!) tiny kittens running around the backyard.
This is my trapper friend, Barbara. The bush/tree in the background was so dense that I had to use huge shears to hack my way through. Crawling through the mud, I pulled out 22 kittens one by one and handed them over to her. Then we had to chase/net/grab the other 20 scampering around the yard.
That’s right, 42 kittens, all about 4-5 weeks in age. I immediately started networking on Facebook and reaching out to rescues and my contacts and friends, frantically trying to figure out who could take how many and when and where. We needed to do it all ASAP.
Barbara took the 10 youngest kittens home to foster. I arranged for various rescues to take a bunch, my friend Julie offered to foster 10, a single black kitten went to another foster and eight were privately adopted. Sadly, two of the kittens passed away.
Next, we trapped five adults and took them to FixNation for spay/neuter surgeries. We also taught the neighbor how to use a drop trap. She managed to catch a dozen more adults. Of these, most were female and in heat and/or pregnant again.
All this work took more than 2 weeks. Needless to say we were relieved – and exhausted! — by the time our mission at last concluded. The astonishing final tally: 46 kittens and 18 adults (13 female, 5 male).
We love to be a part of life-saving efforts like these. It’s why FixNation was founded — to help street cats AND the humans who love and help them. Our programs support trappers and colony caregivers and animal rescuers across the county. We make it possible for concerned citizens to trap and fix nearly 50 cats without having to think first about how they can afford to do so. When it comes to community cats, time is of the essence, and kitten season and a small colony can get away from you quickly. We are grateful to people like Armineh and Barbara who are giving their time and love to these cats. And we’re grateful to people like you for making our services possible.
