Monday, August 24, 2009

Caught Kitty!

Just a quick note - we took our first trapped cat to the local pound today!

We purchased a cat trap a few months ago. We seem to have relatively large numbers of stray cats in our area, and wanting to keep the local wildlife happy (not eaten) we set up the trap.

Our bait was only some cat food, which had been out for about a week - so the poor thing must have been pretty desperate to want to eat it. hehe

She was a long haired moggy/tabby cat who didn't have a collar, microchip and wasn't spayed. She had matted fur and obviously not loved. It was sad to see, but I'm just happy she ate the cat food rather than another poor little bird last night.

She's safe and warm tonight, at least.. and hopefully will find a responsible owner in the near future. Unfortunately, this won't serve as a warning to other cats in the area, but we'll set the trap out again and be ready for the next one.

Goodnight!

2 comments:

  1. That's awesome! I've wanted to do this for a long time, but wondered about the legality. Most of the strays in our yard are our neighbours' pets, which they are required to keep within their own yards. They obviously think fluffy is cute and beautiful and wouldn't hurt a fly, and will enrich the lives of every neighbour they visit! Grrr.

    What do you do if you caught a cat with a collar? Would you return it to its owner, or would you take it to the pound so they have to pay to get it back? I like the latter idea :-).

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  2. Hi Darren,

    We spoke to our council about the procedure before we started. They even offer loans of traps to people for a refundable $20 deposit.

    It was explained to us that the cat is given back to the owners without charge on the first occasion, and after that they will get a fine. Even if they have a collar, we would give the cat to the local pound, so the owners understand that they're doing the wrong thing by letting their cat wander the neighbourhood.

    I do like cats - I had two beautiful British Shorthair cats many years ago - but I'm also a big believer in indoor-only cats or even cat "runs".

    I'd talk to your council and find out what your rights are. I see it as being helpful to the council too, since they've got people out there catching nuisance or potentially feral cats for them!

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