What I Take With Me to the Feeding Stations

 

 



My car loaded up for the feeding station rounds



I thought you might like to see what I take with me when I go to the feeding stations.  I take a lot more with me than I used to. 


I bring several bottles filled with water.  I fill them from my home drinking tap (there are two taps in Cyprus).  The cats drink so much water I cannot believe it.  The kittens drink a lot, too.  When the water bowls are empty, and I fill them, that is the first thing the kittens run to get.  It's especially important in the summer in Cyprus to supply water because there is no rain.  I do provide it all year round.



Lots of large water filled plastic bottles go with me

I used to take the kibble in separate, doubled plastic bags - doubled because one tiny cat claw and it is over for the kibble in the bag.  It was convenient because I knew how many scoops to put in each bag for each station.  But now it would ridiculous.  I would be scooping all day.  Now I put the whole 15 kilo bag of kibble in the back seat and a scooper, and fill and refill a plastic bag as I go from one station to the next.

The whole 15 kilo bag of kibble goes with me in the back seat

I take another tote bag for canned food, plates, tissues to wipe the bowls, and extra plastic bags for trash and dishes.  This tote bag came with me from America, it's from LLBean.  It's sturdy and great with all the pockets for organizing smaller stuff.

Plastic plates, tissues, canned food, plastic bags, a scooper for the kibble

I occasionally switch out the bowls at the feeding stations and bring them home for a good cleaning, so I carry some extra bowls with me, too, in case some look very dirty.

Large clean bowls for swapping out dirty ones

Also, when they are not both occupied, I keep a small carrier in the car for emergencies.  I only have two small carriers.  I could really use a couple more.  My other carriers are enormous and are for dogs, too big for the car or to actually carry.

A small carrier and a soft blanky

I often take my camera. 

My Camera

And at night I take a flashlight.  This one uses no batteries and is a wind up.  It fits perfectly between my inside upper arm and ribcage for hands free.  I have used lots of different flashlights and lanterns and this is the best.  Batteries fail at the worst times, and so do bulbs. 

A wind up flashlight for hands free at night

And I usually keep a trap in the boot of my car, a couple of beach towels large enough to cover the trap, and a peepee pad.  I keep a can of trapping bait in my camera case.

A trap

Canned fish for trapping bait

Sometimes for an occasional treat I will bring a big bottle of milk.  They like that.  I have also taken them yogurt before.  Most like it, some don't. 

A big plastic tote is best to actually carry from the car, because they are easy to clean, waterproof, and strong.  The one I use now is from IKEA and it is giant. 

So there you have it. That's what I take with me to the feeding stations. 

Oh, and this doesn't go:

Lulu

I try to make sure all the cats are out of the car before I leave the house!  Sometimes I have been surprised halfway down my home road, and have had to turn back to drop off a cat or two. 

Sometime I forget stuff, or run out of kibble, that's a bummer, but I am never very far from home. 

My Mission: Trapping and Altering Wanda from the Park

Thank you to the kind lady who sent in a donation to alter Wanda.

 

 

 

THE MISSION:

 

TO TRAP WANDA
FOR ALTERATION

 

 

THIS IS WANDA:

 

 

 

 

 WANDA RESIDES MOSTLY AT THE FEEDING STATION KNOWN AS THE APARTMENTS:

 

 

 

 

 WANDA WAS SEEN FREQUENTLY AT THE PARK UNTIL RECENTLY:

 

 

 

WARNING: 
DO NOT CONFUSE WANDA WITH MYSTERY:

 

 

OR BLABBY:

 

 

 

THESE ARE WANDA'S KITTENS:

 

 

 

THE GOAL: TO PREVENT MORE OF THE ABOVE, CUTE AS THEY ARE.

Wanda is clever. 

She is known to take kittens as hostages into the trap with her.

She is known to take the bait without setting off the trap.

Stay tuned, follow me on my mission.


THIS TAPE WILL NOW SELF DESTRUCT.

The Feeding Stations Updated

It's time to update our map. I mentioned in the last post that we added a new feeding station this past summer.  It is located behind an apartment building on the seafront road not far down from the Park. We call it "Sandra's" after our friend Sandra who has a seasonal apartment there and who led us to the struggling cats who live back there.

We have also moved homes since our last map so the new map reflects better our new distance from the feeding stations.

So the new feeding stations are as follows:

1.  The Maisonettes
2.  Sammy's
3.  The Fields
4.  The Apartments
5.  The Park
6.  Sandra's
7.  Our House

 



 

Hundreds of Felines Take Over Park

Here is a link to a story on Fox News where a cat population at a park in the USA is getting out of hand.  I commend the volunteers in Hawaii who are working very hard out of pocket to manage the population and solve the problem humanely.  I also commend the patience of the community who are not particularly happy about the problem.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1926808543001/hundreds-of-feral-felines-take-over-park/?playlist_id=903226511001

Here also is a story of another community in the United States who has come together to solve a similar problem.  The kudos here go to KittyFixers and the wonderful residents of community of Southfield, Michigan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFR9b5LCSpg

We need people to come together like this in Cyprus, and we need to educate our communities and ask for their help in solving and managing the problem.  I know there are isolated individuals doing what they can in their villages, but we need to come together in a more coordinated manner with manpower and a vision all over the island so we garner more support, both on the ground and financially .  Nik and I are quite overwhelmed at the moment and estimate we are feeding about 100 cats daily.  We are in desperate need of funds for spaying and neutering and veterinarians who will help us with reduced rates, or we could easily end up with a similar situation at our own park.

many of the new young cats
at the park are nearing adulthood

some of the cats from
 our park feeding station

Wanda, an unaltered female from the park

If you have any ideas, and/or can offer help please contact us. If you live in our area and would like to offer help on the ground, please contact us. If you would like to donate food, cans and kibble, please contact us. If you know of any veterinarians who can help us with reduced rates, please contact us. Thank you.

Ants and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails or What Summer Feedings Are Made Of

OK, well, not exactly.  But it rhymed.  Summer feedings are actually made of ants and slugs and puppy dog tails... and hedgehogs.  Winter feedings are made of rain, snails, and more ants.

Ants are people, too, so we don't like to kill them

We used to fight the ants vigorously by trying to outsmart them.  We fought them with particular gusto outside at our house and over at Sammy's (where there is paving) with chalk lines.  They worked for a time, but we had to keep drawing them because the cats unintentionally would wipe them away with their paws.  Being an artist, I eventually ended up drawing elaborate and sometimes seasonal pictures around the bowls.  I graduated to a box of colored chalk and grew in discrimination until I became a connoisseur of different brands of colored chalks.  The best chalks were the softest ones and became stubs quickly.  I bought a lot of chalk, a lot of chalk, but, no worries, chalk, like talk, is cheap and one of the last great deals on earth along with potatoes.

Sylvia with one of my faded chalk masterpieces ;)
 

But then there was this great revolt.  Suddenly the ants didn't care about our chalk lines anymore.  They started storming right over them.  They were like bacteria that mutated and developed a stubborn resistance to our antibiotics.  It made us crazy. We've tried many things since then: cinnamon, lemons, towels, little towers and moats, and they have overcome them every time.

The slugs are gross and leave their trail over the food and bowl.  They are very determined and not as slow as you think.  We have seen some seriously fat ones.  They will hang out all summer if there is a sprinkler nearby.

That huge thing on the bottom right is a slug.  Even Amber, pictured here over at Sammy's, is grossed out.

Snails are a winter problem.  They are fast little creatures when they know where they are going and think no one is around.  As soon as we go outside after the first fall rain (Cyprus is dry all summer), they will be everywhere.  It will be hard to walk our dog Muji without stepping on one if not fifty if not a hundred.  It's a horrible feeling to step on a snail.  We try to walk around them.

There is no shortage of snails in Cyprus.  This guy will be waking up soon.

Soon the snails will be a mighty force to contend with at the feeding stations.  They will have to be plucked out and un-suctioned off when we are wiping and filling the bowls, and they will hide under the rims where they think we will never find them.

Hedgehogs hibernate in winter but often come to the feeding stations in summer.  They are cute and don't eat very much, and don't come in in armies, so we don't mind them very much - just when they poop in the bowl, because they stand in it when they eat. Sometimes we have to pluck a stunned hedgehog out of a bowl, but that is rare.  More often it is their poop.

Dogs are another matter.  They are a real problem in summer.  There is a surge in stray dogs right after hunting season ends, just before spring, when the hunters dump their no longer needed dogs on the streets and in the mountains.  Some of these stray dogs find our feeding stations.  They eat all the food we leave for the cats and drink all the water we put out.  While we are happy that they get to eat, it can become a big problem as it was this summer at the park where dogs came regularly and scarfed all the food.

Puppy dog tails
 Dogs which we love, can sometimes feel like the enemy when trying to feed street cats

I can always tell when a dog has been at the park because, 1) the cats are not around when I drive up, and 2) the bowls are licked absolutely spotless and are usually a good distance from where they were left (and sometimes they are also mangled).  The cats occasionally do eat all the kibble we leave out, (though we try to make sure we leave enough so they don't), but when they do, they ususally leave traces of kibble, just like they do in our home.  Little bits fall out of their mouths when they are crunching and are unworthy for another go unless there is absolutely no other alternative.  At the very least when cats at the feeding stations eat all the food, there is usually a little kibble dust left.  Not so if a dog has been there. There's nothing but a spotless bowl.

So these are the things summer feeding are made of, and about which we complained to one another all summer like little whiners, along with the unbearable heat and the summer visitors from Nicosia who narrow our feeding hours.  "Winter will be here in no time," we reassured one another.  But soon we will be complaining about rains and soggy kibble, cold weather and cat flu, and of course, snails, and, no doubt, more ants, and we will say to one another, "Summer will be here in no time!" :)

More New Kittens at the Park

Remember this little guy?

An orphan from the park; he's pretty feral

And this little girl?

Another orphan from the park

Here she is again, in case you need more cuteness:

This cutie was super friendly and all alone, so we brought her home with us

Well, last week, another two kittens showed up at the park, apparently motherless:  This one, who looked just like the one above:

She looked just like the one we brought home with us

And this one:

This little black kitten is the same size as the two calico kittens 

We feel pretty certain that at least the two little calico kittens and the black kitten are littermates, but we are not sure about the other mostly white one.  He looks a bit bigger than the other three, but it is still possible he is a littermate.  Really, we can only speculate.

This guy is just a smidge larger than the other three

We have racked our brains trying to think what intact females we haven't seen for some time, and the only one that comes to mind is this one:

Trixie

I saw Trixie for the first time back in April, down on the beach between our house and the apartments.  Then later I saw her a couple of times during very late night visits to the park.  Nik saw her once at the apartments. 

1. The Park  2.  The Apartments  3.  Sammy's  4.  Our House  5.  The Maisonettes  6.  The Fields

But neither of us has seen her in a long time.  Could something have happened to her?

And then there is Angie, Agamemnon's girlfriend.  She used to come to the park in the morning, even after she delivered her kittens, and then she just disappeared:

Angie, an intact female; we haven't seen her in some time

The missing mother could also be a cat we have never even seen before.

Since we know now from obervation how long and how close mothers stay with their kittens, we know it is impossible for young kittens such as these to appear so long without a mother.  Sometimes we see mothers without their baby kittens, (they will come to eat, then leave), but we almost never see baby kittens without their mothers for this long.  (The exception is when a mother cat may be moving her newborns and she happens to drop one due to a fright.  In that case we may see an infant kitten alone in a bad situation.  But in that case they are so young they likely cannot even walk yet, and that is not the case with these four kittens.) 

After trying on every adult cat at the park as "Mom" and being rebuffed or disappointed, these three finally settled on Baby, who was, at least up until last week, a mother still nursing her four much older kittens.

Baby

Baby and 3 of her 4  kittens

Baby was game after some initial doubts about it.  Though we don't know whether Baby has nursed these three orphans, she has taken on the role of their protector, which we will get to in the next post.

Pretty small to be on their own

We are glad they found the feeding station and are staying close to the group

Sonata and Solo

I was in no way prepared for the surprises I got at the park last week, or the hunger of the cats that showed up at the park to be fed. 


Nearly all of the kibble bowls we leave behind for the cats were licked clean.  When the bowls are licked clean like that, it means either one of two things to us - either a stray dog has come through and found the food (but usually you can tell if it's a dog, because the bowl will be upside down or something canine crazy like that), or for one reason or another, the cats are extraordinarily hungry and there are more cats feeding.  Judging by the way the cats were behaving, and the dissonant chorus of mewing as I laid the plates out to be filled every morning, I think this week the cats were really hungry. 

They are going through more food than ever!

This week at the park we had as diners: Agamemnon, Strike, Blabby, Greyboy, Baby, Moonpie, Mustafa, Petey, the cat we thought was Braveheart ( but we have our doubts anymore, and now we call her Wanda), Coral, and also Baby's kittens who came down from the hill to test the waters - (we have counted a total of four kittens for Baby now), and a few cats up top we didn't recognize.

The cat we thought was Braveheart, but we don't think so anymore.  Now we call her Wanda.

Baby and three of her four kittens

 Baby's kittens have been venturing close to the table and enjoying a little soft food, too.

Moonpie

I didn't mention Gunther, because he has in the last two weeks migrated up to the apartments to eat.  He disappeared for about 5 days recently, and I was terribly concerned until one morning Nik called me down at the park from the apartments, and said Gunther was there.  Phew.  That was a relief.  Of course we have missed him on the table top.  We are not sure why he has migrated up there.

Gunther, formerly getting a tan at the park, now is doing his sunbathing up at the apartments

And then, you could have knocked me over with a feather, when on Wednesday, I sensed another cat behind me, and I turned around and saw Sonata.  

Sonata

We have next to no pictures of Sonata, because she is a cat we normally feed up at the apartments, and we simply don't have many opportunities to take pictures while there, because we try desperately  not to attract attention for the safety of the cats.  Many people who live and weekend up there think of the cats as a nuisance.

That's Sonata, on the right, in a rare picture from the apartments

Sweet Sonata

Sonata is Solo's littermate.  Solo is our precious pet cat we picked up and adopted from the apartments last summer when she was just a kitten, after we saw that the kitten she had been inseperable from until then had been hit by a car.

Solo as a kitten, the night we picked her up last summer

Last summer there were many kittens there at the apartments, many of them long haired tabbies like Sonata and Solo.  And then slowly they started disappearing. After we found Solo's playmate hit by a car in the road, every time we drove by the apartments after that we would look and see Solo sitting by her lonesome next to an ancient food bowl someone had put out; she was one of the last kittens left.  (We know the cleaning ladies had at one time been feeding kittens there, but we didn't see any evidence of feeding anymore.)  I couldn't bear it any longer, and one night when Nik was working late at his second job, I went down there with a carrier and told myself, pretty inexperienced at the time, "If she runs I will let her go; if she doesn't put up a struggle I will  bring her home." Well, she purred the minute I picked her up and the entire way home, and she continued purring as I sat down with her in the guest bedroom.  We fell madly in love.  She looked just like a ragamuffin.  And she had the craziest big furry paws.  She had worms, earmites, fleas, and a terrible case of ringworm.  I was so glad I had gotten her. 

Solo is a treasure


Solo really inspired me artistically, and I drew many pictures of her:

"Crazy Feet" was an ode to Solo's remarkable paws

This one I called "Classical Solo" because it seemed she walked on music and air

Here Solo was sleeping sweetly

 Here I drew Solo as the Ragamuffin kitten she was at the time

So when we discovered months later during a feeding that there remained a Solo lookalike at the apartments, we felt a special connection to her immediately, as we knew this was one of Solo's long lost littermates.  One major difference though is that Sonata is completely feral, and as yet we have been unable to get her anywhere near a trap for altering.

Sonata showed up at the park twice last week.  Why was she there?  Is something going on at the apartments?  Is it all the new people there for summer vacation?  Too many new cats?  Bullying?  We don't know.  Is she perhaps, like Mustafa, migrating?  Did she have her kittens near by?  We know she knows Mustafa, because she used to play with Mustafa and his littermate Lionel last winter when they were small kittens.  It was cute.  She looked like the young adolescent babysitting the younger kittens.  We were glad then to see Sonata had some friends.

Mustafa, above, and Sonata used to play together at the apartments, though Mustafa is a several months younger

Sonata is a cat that holds a special place in our hearts since we have her sister.  We really would like to be able to trap her and alter her and get her to a safe haven, but that has proved to be a challenge. 

Solo, Sonata's littermate today