Happy Beginning

(View of the pond at sunrise yesterday.)

M and I were up bright and early yesterday, ready to try to capture Barney once again.  This was pretty much our last chance to catch her and get her to the woman who kindly volunteered to take her in, take care of her, and perhaps tame her so she would be more adoptable.  We couldn’t expect Kind Cat-Rescue Lady to wait week after week for us to bring the cat to her when she could be using the space for another cat.

Having blown it last week trying to use a cat carrier and string, we decided to go with the Havahart trap.   We put the trap out after our failure with the carrier and Barney slowly got used to it as each day we moved the food further and further into the trap.  Barney showed up for breakfast yesterday morning, stepped into the trap, started eating, and nothing happened.  She seemed to be too light to trip  the trap.  Luckily, after some shifting around while she was eating, she finally tripped it.  Mission accomplished.

I felt awful, watching her panic in the trap.  But it was, as they say, for her own good.  I’ve been reading about stray and feral cats.  The average life span for a stray cat is 3 to 5 years.  They die from starvation, disease, attacks from other animals, or by being hit by cars.  It’s not a good way to live and it would have been inhumane to leave her out there to fend for herself.  In the U.S., approximately 5 million cats are abandoned each year.  Shame on you people who do that!

We took Barney, in the trap, to the car and off we went to her new (and temporary) home.  Kind Cat-Rescue Lady was indeed kind.  She has a great set-up for rescuing cats in her home with room for 12 cats at the most.  KCRL works for a vet and appears to be very knowledgable about stray and feral cats.  She also handled Barney well and with a great deal of kindness.  We moved Barney from the trap to a very large kennel-type cage where she had a blanket to lie on, a litter box, and some privacy once KCRL put up some curtains to give Barney a chance to calm down and get used to her new surroundings.  Since Barney hadn’t eaten much, KCRL fed her some canned food.

Everything was clean and nice.  The cats all appeared healthy and happy.  I think Barney will thrive and do well there.  She will be seen by a vet this week to be checked out, vaccinated, and spayed.  KCRL said she normally waits a few weeks before having the cats spayed or neutered so they will have some time to adjust but it’s kitten season and we had a tom cat hanging around the property lately.  It’s best to get Barney taken care of soon.

The KCRL said she’d keep in touch and let me know what happens with Barney.  Hopefully she’ll find a nice home where she’ll be spoiled rotten (like the two cats currently hanging around my computer).

(Daffodil Hill.  Lake View Cemetery.  April 4, 2010.)

After taking care of Barney we went up to Cleveland to check out the Lake View Cemetery.  The weather was gorgeous.  Our main purpose on this trip was to see Daffodil Hill.  They have a collection of over 100,000 bulbs on the hill, a project that has been ongoing since the 1940’s.

The daffodils are pretty, and there is quite a variety, but I don’t think they are quite all there just yet.  Perhaps in a week or so there will be more.

This was not our first trip to Lake View Cemetery, but it was our first during the day and to tour around the cemetery (on our own this time around).  We were there in 2003 to see a play (The Spoon River Anthology) performed by the Charenton Theater Company.  It was, to say the least, an interesting venue for a play.  Most appropriate as well, given that the characters are the dead citizens of the fictional small town of Spoon River.

I will post more about Lake View Cemetery and our visit soon.  Right now I need to get back to work.