Angel Traps

It started the way it usually does; an angel informs me that there is a new face in the side yard.  Really? I ask with genuine surprise and disbelief that another cat has found its way to the Museum side yard.  Really?  Its actually a kitten; 4-months the angel estimates.  I see the trap already set and a small thing with long matted hair sniffing around it.   I'll foster if you catch it, its young enough for a home.

The Museum Cats are schmoozing around the angel's feet as she sits patiently, waiting for kitten.  The cats know the angel, know who fed them, know the drill.  Almost every one of them has already been lured into the traps by hunger and the smell of wet food.  Trapped cats are fixed if needed, treated for fleas, and given  basic shots. Protocol is to then release them back to the colony or area where they were trapped.

Occasionally, a trapped cat is deemed adoptable and mainstreamed into rescue or fostering or a shelter.  This kitten is young enough to find a home and it is the Christmas season... opportunity knocks? In my mind, this job is a no-brainer; angel traps kitten, gets it fixed, drops it off at my house where I quickly and easily civilize it and hand it off to a loving couple who decide to remain childless and devote life to kitten.  Easy, I think, too easy.