Every 4 hours we check the traps, to prevent the cats from staying too long in the cold, rain and wind, which means that we've been going through a couple of sleepless nights, waking up at 4am, but of course we do it willingly and can never get enough of it!
The first night could not have gone better, we caught 2 cats! We transfered them to the veterinary clinic, where they were in a quieter and much warmer environment than in the bitter cold of the past few nights here in Corvo.
The next day, the cats were anesthetized, neutered and identified with a microchip. We also registered some relevant data such as gender, age, colour, characteristic marks and their general state of health. During anesthesia, we cut the tip of the left ear of each cat, in order to distinguish cats that are already neutered from those which are not, making it easier to release recaptured cats and spare them from more stressful moments in the traps.
Once the cats regain consciousness and are wide awake, they are released in the same area where they were caught and return to the wild.
After 4 nights trapping cats we were able to neuter 5 adult male cats. This week we placed the traps elsewhere at higher altitude, where many barns belonging to farmers exist, and we hope to continue with success.
We cannot thank enough to our dear friends Tiago and Nuno for the effort they've done to help us instaling the cat traps and checking them every night... so thanks for the fellowship!
Meanwhile, the number of spayed domestic cats has reached 43 cats (about 2/3 females and 1/3 males) and keeps on rising, little by little...
No comments:
Post a Comment