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On January 19th I received an urgent call from Jeannette in Hammersmith: one of the 3 female cats in a colony in her garden which were scheduled to be trapped and neutered the next day had given birth to 3 kittens in her shed that night. This was a great surprise, as Katie had been pursued by tom cats only 3 weeks earlier, around Christmas. Jeannette was very worried about the safety of the new family, especially since Katie, the shyest of all, would normally only come to eat when no one was about. As she had chosen the old tom's bed for her kittens, only 3 yards from the back door, she was likely to move them at any minute.
Within the hour a very radiant and bubbly Jeannette appeared to fetch me with the equipment: she and her boyfriend Dennis had just been secretly married that morning! They could not wait to tell their in-laws, who would be delighted that they had tied the knot after 6 years, but now their main concern was Katie's rescue.
On arrival we were fortunate enough to find Katie's mother in the front basement area, also apparently pregnant, and decided to trap her first to have her safe for neutering the next morning. Katie was in the back garden and so would not see her mother being trapped.
Now we could concentrate on Katie. She was in full view behind the shed door, folded protectively around her kittens to keep them warm. Tiptoeing, we placed the baited automatic trap at the shed door, which was only slightly open, and quickly withdrew into the house. We kept very quiet in the back of the room, prepared to freeze should Katie appear. She did so eventually to pay a brief visit to the flower bed and later, a second time, to send the old tom flying: he had innocently put his nose in the door, maybe thinking of a little nap. Determined to get Katie, we sat until 1.00 am. Our waiting never amounted to boredom: we could see the funny side of a honeymoon for 3, perched for hours in the back of a darkened room like chickens in a row!
Finally we adjourned our siege for the night. We provided Katie with fresh water and, after thoroughly weighing the pros and cons, decided for safety and locked the shed. Katie, totally absorbed by the joys of new motherhood, was none the worse next morning. By 10 am the 3 chickens were back in position, and finally, after 12 more hours, Katie appeared: she came over to the French windows, inspected the bright torchlight shining out from the room, sniffed around the trap - and disappeared again. We sat breathless: soon Katie reappeared and went, quite relaxed, into the trap. We quickly put the kittens in a warm box and rushed back to my place, where a long hospitalisation cage was waiting ready for the little family. We put the kittens in the covered end and let Katie slip through the side door to join them.
Katie spent several weeks in that corner, religiously looking after her kittens. She snarled and lashed out at me whenever I attended to one of the sections, and only ate when nobody was in the room. But then her attitude changed: as her kittens started weaning and walking around the cage they became interested in me - and so did Katie: by the end of 8 weeks she was living in the nearer uncovered end of the cage (now elongated with a queen's cage), eagerly watching the activities in the flat. She had also stopped flinching whenever I passed and sniffed my fingers through the wire rather than attacking them. Amazed by this development, and encouraged by the patient and devoted attitude of the young couple, I suggested to Jeannette and Dennis that they give Katie a chance as a pet. Should this fail, she could go back into her garden. After being spayed she was moved to her new home, where she was kept in her cage for 3 weeks to get used to it. Tirelessly Jeannette tried to tame her by lying on the floor next to the cage and talking to her, helped along by the other cats in the house, who, being old friends of hers, gave Katie confidence.
Finally Katie was allowed out of the cage one night. The curtains were drawn to prevent her from throwing herself against the window, should she panic, but surprisingly this did not happen. Locked in the room with her favourite playmate, she had the chance to sniff around all night and settle. She was kept in the house for another 3 weeks during which she made quite unbelievable progress: initially Jeannette only played with her with a string, then she started stroking Katie gently from behind when she was eating - importantly, never (not even today) approaching her with hands from in front - followed by many short attempts to hold her which became longer and more frequent. Eventually Katie was coming up to be cuddled, held and her tummy tickled. When Jeannette finally let her into the garden, with the back door left wide open, Katie came straight back into the house.
When I went to see Katie 5 months later I would not have recognised her except for her markings: the gaunt, nervous little imp of a cat had grown into a soft, plump and contented little madam, well aware of her special position in the household. She was so relaxed that I soon stopped behaving especially carefully. To make my happiness complete, Katie's mother had also moved in; the third spayed cat of the colony was already tame and could certainly not be turned away, and they were joined by the tom, who was blood-tested and neutered as well. Any more out there? I can tell you where to go!
Elke de Vries, Winter 1998 Newsletter