TNR Adventures - #3 Pepper and ... Knight?

Another day another neuter, right? Here we go again. The following cat was the last one we did from our property.

Cat #3 came along ... a 12 lbs black and white DSH guy. The clinic named him Pepper (yeah, I know, not very original, but what can you do?). He was rated at a 6 on the feral scale. Another intact male. No microchip. He was easier to work with than cat #1 (Knight), but not by much. At least he didn't leave as many scratches as Knight did!

Note to self - make sure you always have long sleeves and gloves on when handling strays and ferals ...

He was neutered, vaccinated and microchipped. He stayed with us for two days post surgery to allow him time to recuperate. I know many people push that it's not "major surgery", but I really think it is.

I mean, come on, they're removing his testicles ... how can that NOT be major surgery? Those same people who say it's not a major surgery keep telling me that I really only have to keep the cat overnight (if at all) before rereleasing. I just can't bring myself to this. I continue to keep them for a few days to ensure they are eating and defecating ok before taking them back to the wild unknown.

Anyway, we tried for cat #4, but kept catching Knight (Cat #1)! We did have another cat in mind, but that one doesn't seem to want to cooperate. After the third night in a row finding Knight in the trap, we decided that if the other cat doesn't want to get caught, he won't be. We didn't do too poorly with the ones we have here. It will be time to do the process again in our barns soon enough.

Time to move on to the next colony. Adventure awaits!