AKA F1

 

We took our three mama Hobo Kitties to the clinic the other day to be spayed and get their shots. ( If you click on the link there’s a picture of Silver Bubba and Headbuttr’) The clinic offered a discount rate for feral cats as a public service; over two hundred dollars cheaper than our local veterinarian charges for each animal so it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.


Lucy picked up the wire cages on Thursday and did all the trapping that evening while I was working at the temple. We must be living right as this part went off smoothly. The clinic furnished pieces of cloth cut to fit over the cages which kept the frightened Hobo Kitties calm all night; that and I’d promised we were taking them to Disney World.


We dropped them off at the clinic at 7:00am Friday morning. Lucy filled out the forms as the lady behind the desk labeled each cage ‘F1’, ‘F2’ and ‘F3’; ‘F’ as in Feral. She then asked if they had any given names; we added Silver Bubba, Shadow and Headbuttr’ to their unofficial temporary aliases.


The clinic would spay, check and clean their ears for mites and get their rabies shots; all three Hobo Kitties came to right at $ 140.00, a very reasonable charge. They have a policy on feral cats to clip the tip off of one ear; not very much, just enough to identify them as spayed feral cats.


I can see them in a police line up with other neighborhood cats charged with disturbing the peace, “You, yea you with the funky looking ear, step forward. Okay, is that the cat that was hoopin’ and hollerin’ outside your window last night?” Spayed cats won’t be out getting into that kind of trouble or at least they won’t be adding to the stray cat population.


We have them locked up in the kitchen nook for another day giving them a chance to heal before setting them free. Shadow, the most feral of the three had gone on a hunger strike the moment she got trapped. She never ate the tuna fish bait and refused to eat anything, not even a small bowl of milk; we were becoming concerned for her well being.


This evening I opened the back door near where the three mama Hobo Kitties were; lifting the cloth cover at the end of their cages so they could see out the door where their kittens were playing. I called out to see if any of the kittens wanted ‘treats’; a magic word that got their ears going, even the mama kitties, the ones which had been ‘clipped’.


The two little ones which belong to Silver Bubba, the ones we call Mark and Baby Bubba , are the least afraid and came to over to the cages for treats and to rub noses with the ‘prisoners’. The other kittens were close enough to gather treats which I scattered just outside the door. All the mama kitties wanted treats, even Shadow decided to end her fast; a major sigh of relief knowing that she was finally taking nourishment.


Tomorrow after we get home from church we’ll give them their freedom and hope they have sense enough to take it easy and heal the rest of the way. In a couple of months we’ll round up all the little Hobo Kittens, all eight of them. We enjoy watching the kittens and how they interact; but being responsible neighbors includes putting a halt to their promiscuity and never ending population explosion.