Adrienne Reynolds of The Crowned Cat works to ease kitten season
By Midge Raymond
It’s a cold morning, with temperatures within the mid-40s, however the solar is starting to interrupt by means of the clouds and heat the air. It’s day for trapping cats.
Adrienne Reynolds, founding father of the nonprofit rescue The Crowned Cat, parks behind Crater Lake Ford to begin her day’s work close to the place Bear Creek and the Bear Creek Greenway emerge on the east facet of Interstate 5 on the north facet of Medford. About 500 ft behind the dealership and a former city campground is a colony of feral cats that Reynolds first trapped, sterilized, and launched two years in the past.
Then, she says, “I happened to drive by a month ago and realize that about 500 feet behind that colony is another colony that has blossomed.”
She has counted, to this point, 32 new cats. “A lot of them looked like they were dumped,” she says, “and I think a lot of them were dumped unsterilized and had litters of kittens out there because a lot of them are feral and shy. But they’re not mean. So now we have to get that colony under control.”
Trap-neuter-release (TNR) entails trapping feral cats, sterilizing and vaccinating them, and, if they aren’t adoptable, returning them to their authentic location. TNR is broadly seen as essentially the most humane and efficient long-term solution to management feral cat populations. In addition to controlling the variety of cats, spay/neuter makes them much less prone to roam and battle, holding the cat group safer.
Earlier within the week, Reynolds trapped 4 cats — who reside at The Crowned Cat as they await surgical procedure — and he or she must entice six extra to fill her spay/neuter appointment slot on the SNYP spay/neuter clinic in Talent.
She has lower than every week.
Reynolds believes many of those new cats have been dumped as a result of they’re pleasant and in good situation, “but they are in survival mode, so I can’t get too close to them, other them trapping them and getting them sterilized.”
The finest final result for these cats, in fact, is adoption — however even pleasant home cats who get deserted are sometimes unable to be adopted out. They merely by no means recuperate from the trauma. “It’s hard enough to get friendly cats and kittens adopted,” Reynolds says, and when cats are too frightened and timid to belief people once more, your best option for them is to be launched again into their colony.
“Every cat I trap is assessed for friendliness and adoptability. If they’re friendly or adoptable, they’re not going back out there — but sadly, the ferals will be re-released.”
Reynolds units up 4 traps on the bike path close to the colony. Cats peek out from the blackberry bushes, curious however unwilling to come back nearer. Some are orange tabbies, a lot of them lower than a yr old. There are additionally black cats, black-and-white tuxedo cats, a fluffy calico, a long-haired grey tabby. They look wholesome — there’s a longtime feeder at this colony, Reynolds says, who feeds the cats each day. And Reynolds has offered eight cat shelters (fabricated from Styrofoam and stuffed with hay) so the cats have locations to get out of the rain and snow and keep heat.
Today, Reynolds has her eye on a sure rotund cat she hopes to entice. She suspects the cat is a pregnant feminine. If she will entice the cat earlier than she has her infants, the kittens will be socialized and adopted out. If the cat has her infants on the Greenway, this implies there will probably be as much as one other half-dozen ferals that have to be fed, trapped, and glued earlier than the cycle continues.
The traps are set with canned cat meals, which is a deal with in comparison with the kibble their common feeder supplies. Yet lots of the cats are sensible — they go round to the again of the entice to examine the meals however don’t enter by means of the entrance, as in the event that they know they’ll get caught.
Not all cats are as trap-savvy, nevertheless — inside the first half-hour, two cats have succumbed to temptation.
Reynolds takes the 2 traps again to her automobile, the place, with the automobile closed up so nobody can escape, she gently wrangles the 2 cats into carriers. Then, she takes the empty traps again to the Greenway with the hope of trapping two extra.
She acknowledges a cat she trapped two years earlier — gray-and-white, with a stubby tail and a tipped ear. Community cats who’ve been sterilized and launched all obtain an ear-tip — the surgical removing a small portion of one of many cat’s ears throughout anesthesia — which alerts to rescuers that the cat has already been mounted.
This cat stands about 20 yards away, watching however not coming nearer. “These cats aren’t afraid of humans because they know humans mean food,” Reynolds says. Yet taking a couple of steps nearer will ship them scurrying again below the blackberry brambles.
These cats’ life spans are brief — they solely stay 5 or 6 years, versus the 18 to 20-plus years of a home cat. In addition to predators, Reynolds says, cats usually get shot at or poisoned; she has encountered many dying, useless, and sick cats throughout her years of rescue work.
The Crowned Cat, a 501(c)(3) based in 2021, is certainly one of a number of native rescues offering important assist for cats. With Jackson County Animal Services now not accepting cats on the shelter, there at the moment are fewer choices for stray cats in addition to for people who’re unable to maintain or re-home their pets — and native cat rescuers are working more durable than ever to choose up the slack.
“Get your cats sterilized,” Reynolds says. “That would help every rescue. Get your cats sterilized and microchipped, if you do nothing else. Whenever you come upon a cat — if you feed it, fix it. That is the most integral part.”
Out on the Greenway, one other hour passes by. Cats come out from their hiding locations to roll on the bike path and bask within the solar’s heat — usually, frustratingly, proper in entrance of the traps Reynolds is hoping they’ll go into. At final, one other half-hour later, one other cat takes the bait. After two hours, three cats is a fairly good end result — the longest Reynolds has waited is 5 hours.
This cat seems as if he might have a tipped ear, and Reynolds inspects him as finest she will. Because many ferals battle or in any other case handle to injure their ears, typically it’s exhausting to inform on sight whether or not they’ve been sterilized. Many spay-neuter clinics, together with SNYP, add a small tattoo to a cat’s stomach, which helps to keep away from pointless surgical procedure in case an ear-tip isn’t conclusive.
In this case, the ear is unquestionably clipped, however not by a lot; it might simply be an damage. Reynolds decides to be protected relatively than sorry and to take him in. It could be far worse to let him carry extra kittens into the group.
With nobody else taking the bait, Reynolds decides to return later, at nightfall, with sardines or fried hen, that are prone to sweeten the deal for the cussed ones. For now, she’ll take these three again to The Crowned Cat, the place they’ll be reunited with different members of their colony as they await surgical procedure.
Adoptable cats will seem on The Crowned Cat’s Facebook web page, in addition to at upcoming Friends of the Animals adoption occasions on the Rogue Valley Mall. And that is the half that makes all of the exhausting work and hard choices worthwhile. “It’s amazing to educate people about the wonderful world of cats,” Reynolds says. “And by pairing cats with people who wish to adopt them, so much happiness is spread. I relish in spreading the love and fulfillment that being owned by a cat brings.”
Ashland resident Midge Raymond is co-founder of Ashland Creek Press and writer of the novel “My Last Continent.” Email solutions and questions for Catty Corner to her at [email protected].
