A Night to Remember

It was a really great night for us, a night to celebrate, a night to remember, because we trapped one of the biggest, baddest, most fierce terrors at the park, Moonpie:

 Oh yeah, that's him.  That's him a few days ago.  This is him now:

And he will be off to surgery tomorrow to be neutered, have a little recovery time, and then be released back at the park.  At the moment he is chilling out in the shed.  It's probably the easiest night he's had since the females have gone into heat.

the shed, kitty hotel for the night

I normally don't like this part, to see a formerly proud, independent (at least in his mind) cat suddenly clueless and scared in a trap, but he made it easier for me by behaving so utterly miserably at this evening's feeding, bullying a younger, timid, as of yet unneutered male, Blabby, and attacking poor Tweeny (who is back at the park), that I told my husband Nik to go for it.  Earlier this week he attacked Cindy and Petey, two spayed females, and when he wasn't attacking, he was stalking and intimidating whoever was around:

Moonpie stalking sweet, playful Petey

I wanted to feed the park cats as usual, and then go back later to trap Moonpie, so it would be less time he would have to spend in the trap until his surgery tomorrow.  Nik wanted to trap him at feeding time.  Once he attacked Blabby, all my sympathy for extended time in the trap went out the window.

Timid Blabby, no match for the mammoth Moonpie

And I said, "Nik, go to the car and get the trap, please."

And the rest, as they say, is history. 

So we drove home with Moonpie to find our usual suspects on the doorstep, awaiting us and their dinner: Morris, Mandy (Amanda), Amber, Sylvia, and Jazzy. 

Jazzy, our resident feral Tom, who has lost one eye to an infection

Jazzy hopefully wooing a female in heat on the other side of the screen

We have been trying to catch Jazzy since July, 2011.  He's been too clever for a trap.  Nik and I were feeling confident after catching Moonpie, and we both had the same idea at the same time: let's go for two.  We knew we would have to catch Jazzy by hand.  I brought the food, Nik grabbed the garden gloves and the cat carrier, and I went inside so I wouldn't have to watch the violence, because I am a wimp.  About 4 minutes later I heard the metal door of the cat carrier closing.

And now Jazzy is overnighting in the shed with Moonpie.

And this is what he gave my husband to remember him by:

Ouch.

It truly was a night to remember.  A twofer.

Please join me in praying Moonpie and Jazzy will get through their surgeries easily, and live long, peaceful, and contented lives.