This has been an interesting week for us and Sneaky.  I caught a glimpse of her Monday, and, with my limited glance, I thought she looked like she might be pregnant.  I took Lady in to have her ear looked at and stumped the vet but came home with some Frontline spray to apply — she thinks it might be some kind of mite, but the skin scraping was inconclusive.  The Frontline seems to be doing the job for Lady.  I mentioned my suspected plight of Sneaky while I was there, and we all groaned.  But what could we expect?  She’s not spayed, and she’s about a year and a half old.  It’d a be a miracle if she weren’t pregnant.  As an aside, researchers are working on contraceptives that can be given in food.  They just aren’t there for cats yet.

Monday night got very interesting.  The inside cats were at the window chirping, and when I looked outside, Sneaky was prowling around the windows, rubbing on the door, putting her paws on the sill, and talking to the cats. I opened the side door and put my hand on the inside of the screen, and she didn’t run away.  In fact, she batted at my hand and rubbed on the screen.  Sneaky was either lonely or in heat.  Tuesday was more of the same.  I had the trap out, but she would take food out of the front but wouldn’t go inside. I had a carrier next to the trap in case she would go in there.

Thursday, I sat out on the porch with her, and she rubbed against my hand (I did have a can of cat food out there I was luring her with).  Then I made my first mistake.  I tried to scruff her and put her in a carrier.  That spooked her, because I didn’t get a good grip — not a lot of loose skin on her neck.  Later that afternoon, I tried again to befriend her.  I had her back in the area.  She wouldn’t come near my hand, but when she eventually stuck herself two-thirds of the way into the carrier (I had a few dollops of food in there), I tried to close her in, but I failed to hold the carrier end, so when she resisted, the carrier went flying, and so did the cat.

I’ve blown two opportunities to build trust with Sneaky, and she will never go into either the trap or the carrier now.  That means I need to grovel for her forgiveness and do a lot more work to build trust with her, that I’ve shattered on two opportunities.  Working with feral cats makes me feel like a pretty big screw up sometimes.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried again.  Sneaky stayed in the area when I went outside to sit on the porch.  She ate the canned food I put out for her, but she could not be lured within five feet of me.  The same is true today, and she’s staying even further from me.  Yes, I screwed up, and she’s not ready to let me forget it.

Something must have happened to Peaches, because I haven’t seen him since I before I came back to town on Sunday.  Because of that, it seems Sneaky is a lonely kitty.  She is definitely a she.  My impression is she’s pregnant.

The only way I’m going to catch her now is if I can build enough trust to be able to hold her for periods of time and long enough to be able to put her in a top loading carrier.  I hope I can do that before she has her kittens, because if these kittens can be born in captivity, we’ll be able to find homes for them (not OUR home!), get Sneaky spayed, and either release her to outside or find a home for her (again, not OUR home!).  Even I say eight cats is more than enough.