davidbowerkingwood

Abby Cat as Ninja Kitten

How it all Began

People who know me probably don’t realize I’ve actually been involved in trapping wild animals. While this is not one of my ordinary pastimes there was one occasion when duty demanded I engage in the trapping of wild animals. While the animals were truly wild they were not really dangerous, in fact the wild animals were five very active kittens who needed rescuing.

This is how that all came about; my company had transferred me back to Houston after a few years in Austin, Texas and we found the house in which we now live. We were the first occupants of this house which was one of several new houses on the block, some of which were still under construction. One house across the street was being framed and, as a builder, I watched its progress with interest.

After a few weeks the house was close to being completed when it came to the attention of the builder and the neighbors that a mother cat had given birth to a litter of kittens in the attic of the house. The builder was growing increasingly annoyed by the situation and didn’t want the kittens to delay closing of the house to the new owners.

Over a few days observation by both neighbors and builder it had been fairly well confirmed there were five kittens in the attic. The attic situation made it virtually impossible to catch the kittens for all the obvious reasons and the builder made it known that he would have to dispose of the mother and her kittens if they could not be removed quickly.

Our entire family loves animals and the thought of such a horrible fate was totally unacceptable to us but we were just as perplexed as everyone else as to how we might affect a rescue of those kittens.

The mother cat was friendly and could be approached and petted but the kittens scattered all over the attic when anyone came up to visit. I decided to accept responsibility for the rescue and told the builder to give me a couple of days and I would figure something out.

The Plan

Being by nature a meticulous planner I knew I needed a plan that would work the first time without fail. The challenge would be rescuing all five kittens as any time someone approached they would all run in different directions for inaccessible locations in the attic. By that time the walls and doors had been installed and it would be theoretically possible to trap the kittens in one room if they could somehow be lured into that room from the attic. I inspected the second floor and found a room with attic access that seemed a good choice for my plan.

Since the mother was friendly I decided to use that to our advantage; I would take the mother and put her into a cat carrier and take her home and leave the kittens by themselves in the attic to get hungry and thirsty. Then the next day I would take some cat food and water over to the house and use that to try and lure them into the room.

The room I selected to use as a trap was on the second floor and had an attic access door on the back wall. My plan would be to close the door to the hall and stuff a towel under the door as the gap was large enough for a kitten to slip under it. There was a boxed-out window on one side of the room and my plan called for me to sit very quietly in that window until all the kittens were in the room then jump up with a towel, close the door to the attic and stuff the towel under the door.

The success of my plan depended on getting all five kittens into the room at the same time; I didn’t want to lose any of those precious lives.

Putting the Plan into Action

As time was getting short I decided to put the plan into action immediately; I took a bowl of cat food over to the house and the mother cat smelled it and immediately came out of the attic to eat. I shut the door to the attic and let her eat then gave her a good pet and put her into the cat carrier and took her home. I knew the kittens would need some time to get hungry so I waited over night to put the rest of the plan into action.

The following morning, I got our other cat carrier, cat food and water, some leather gloves and two towels and went across the street to put the rest of my plan into action. The kittens weren’t making a sound but I was very confident they were hiding in the attic. I went into the room, closed the door to the hall and stuffed a towel under the door.

Then I placed the food and water in the far corner of the room, as far away from the attic door as I could and took my position in the boxed-out window; the waiting game began. For several minutes I sat quietly in the window, hardly daring to breath but no kittens appeared. Then after several more minutes one kitten appeared and walked over to the food and water; then another and another until four were there but no sign of number five.

At that point I began to worry that one of them might go back into the attic before the fifth one made its appearance; but just as I was beginning to wonder if my plan would work, number five made its appearance and walked over to the food and water.

I instantly jumped up, ran to the attic door, slammed it shut and shoved the towel under the door. Those five kittens went crazy with fear and started running around the room looking for a way out but there was no way out. I had them all trapped where I could eventually catch them all. Needless to say, my next step was to put on those heavy leather gloves as I really wanted to avoid being scratched and bitten by angry kittens.

It took some time, as trying to catch five kittens even in a closed room is not an easy task but eventually I had them all in our second cat carrier and closed and locked the door to the carrier. Now I had five very upset kittens in a cat carrier and the mother in another cat carrier at home.

I carried it to our house and decided I would reunite mother and kittens; I stood the cat carrier with the mother on its end and rather unceremoniously dumped the five kittens on top of their mother. I don’t recall how the kittens reacted to seeing their mother again but it must have had some sort of calming effect on them.

Safe at Last

The following day we took the mother and her kittens to the animal shelter where I was told the kittens were young enough they could probably adapt to people and be adopted. Needless to say, after all that, I truly wished them the very best!