FieldHaven Celebrates National Feral Cat Day: Phantom’s Story
National Feral Cat Day is sponsored every year in mid-October by Alley Cat Allies®, a national advocacy organization for feral, community, alley, barn, stray – whatever name you give them – cats.
We had made some fun plans to celebrate the day in downtown Lincoln but the much needed fall rains came and washed our festivities down the gutters.
In spite of the wash-out, we had the very BEST National Feral Cat Day ever! The day became all about one little mom cat and her three newborn kittens.
FieldHaven volunteer trappers Sloane and Joe had been working to get this elusive young kitty for nearly a year. In fact, this trap-savvy gal had evaded the trapping efforts of three other rescue groups. She’d already had one litter and they had been hoping to trap her before having a second one.
Their hopes were dashed on Friday night when they heard tiny cries at the trapping site. Two tiny, cold and hungry kittens were found. The weather was turning rainy and mom was nowhere to be found. Another volunteer whisked them off to FieldHaven’s shelter. Now the rush was on to find mom so she could be reunited with her kittens.
Not so fast! Another screaming kitten soon made itself heard. This time they used that little screamer, who seemed much stronger than its siblings, to lure mom. Using the “kitten bait” trick they put the kitten in a carrier then butted the trap up to the closed door of the carrier creating a tunnel that hopefully mom would follow to save her baby.
It was a long night but in the early morning patience was met with success! Now Phantom and her three babies are spending a very rainy day safe, warm and cozy in the FieldHaven shelter.
A very successful National Feral Cat Day indeed.
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