Today’s kitty update will focus on outdoor cats and Rossie (the indoor feral).

Rossie now knows when I close the doors to the parlor, she’s going to get to come out of the cage (at least, that’s what she thinks), and that’s usually correct. Sometimes, I just want to replenish her food and water, so she doesn’t get to come out then. This week, since she’s started heading out of the carrier when I begin to unlatch the cage door, I insist upon scratching her ears before letting her out. She tolerates this pretty well. Yesterday, I insisted upon picking her up and carrying her to the chair before releasing her. Usually when I pick her up, she’s purring. Not that time. A little later, I went behind the cage where she was sitting, and I scratched her ears, petted her, and picked her up. She was purring. I released her after a few minutes, and she stopped to groom in front of the cage (gotta get those nasty human oils off my fur!) before heading behind the cage again when my chair squeaked.

As for the outdoor cats, we’ve been able to pet both Junior and Walter while feeding them. We’ve left open carriers out there all week, hoping they’d get used to seeing them. I was petting Walter while he was eating yesterday morning, and all of a sudden, he bolted under the steps, Sneaky flew across the yard to the shed, and I turned around to a commotion with Junior half in the carrier and half out with Mr. L trying to close it. Alas. Not to be. Junior escaped after clawing Mr. L pretty good. Nobody has been back (well, Sneaky wasn’t too worried — she’s not afraid of the carrier anymore). After I went in the house, Walter returned to clean out his bowl, but the others remain untouched. I think Junior was genuinely spooked.

Before Mr. L made his move, I was thinking I might be able to get Walter into the carrier (his notice arrived from Dr. Val that he’s due for shots this week). Probably not now. We’ll see how things go this week.

I have been setting the trap every afternoon and evening for the last few days trying to entice the dark gray kitten into it, but she has been ignoring it. Lately, I’ve seen her looking it over on the game camera, so maybe I’ll make some headway with her. I want to get her caught before she winds up pregnant, and I don’t think I have too long of a window — maybe a month if I’m lucky. If I can get her spayed, I’ll release her unless Dr. Val thinks she can find a home for her. But I have to catch her first. It’s as if Sneaky has taken her under her wing and instructed her on the evils of traps. Or, maybe Junior. He was a quick learner about them. Still lamenting my ham-handedness which allowed him to escape after I’d caught him in the trap.

In related news, I’ve placed the second game camera on the base of the birdbath to get different views of the cat’s activities. We’ll see how that goes.