failure

Minnie snoozing next to me last night on the couch. Cat was draped across my thigh with the most contented look on her face.

Trying to trap Ghost was a dismal failure Tuesday afternoon and evening. I planned to get Twin in the catio first since the other two would be easy. I figured Robin would be in at the door and open it when I was coming up the stairs with Twin in my arms and he would be in before he knew it but when I got across the street Robin already had Lovey and Handsome in there. So when I came up the stairs with Twin she was not at the door, she was holding Handsome to keep him from going out so I had to use one of the hands I was using to hold Twin firmly to open the door. Twin freaked, pushed out of my arms claws extended and landed on the floor just inside the open door determined to escape. Robin dropped Handsome, we’re both crouched trying to block Twin and get the door closed. We succeeded but not before Twin got Robin good on the meaty part of the outside of her hand. And then Twin was frantic to get out, trying to push through the screen and chicken wire (chicken wire on the outside of all the openings because the indoor cats had torn the screen in many places). I slipped the food dishes and bag of food through to door to Robin and then set up the trap while Ghost watched. And then we waited. Twin claimed down a bit but only as long as one or both of us were in there talking to him and petting him. The other two were fine though Handsome tested a few spots. And we waited and waited and waited. Ghost got close to the trap only once sniffing at the food at the back of the trap. Nope, not going in there. Ghost has been feral all his life I suppose, he’s been hungry, he knows hungry, he can deal with hungry, and he’s wary, has to be to have survived, and he definitely wasn’t hungry enough having eaten the day before. 

I went home about 4:30, needed to walk Minnie and start dinner. About five Robin reported that twin as still trying to get out and she was afraid he would hurt himself so she basically stayed out there only going in for a few minutes now and then. Wasn’t long before Twin was frantically trying to claw his way out again. At seven she reported that not only was Ghost not in the trap, he had left. We decided to stick to the plan and keep the other cats in all night. At 9:40 she reported two more escape attempts from Twin and now Handsome had teamed up with his brother to try and get through a particular spot they felt was the most vulnerable (where the bricks are in the picture). I told her to go ahead and trip the trap and let them out but she decided to wait a little longer. Then it started raining and the food in the trap would not be tempting. She waited until it stopped raining and then opened the door. All three run out, I asked her. She said Lovey went first, then Handsome who was still trying to tunnel out and she had to show him the open door. And then Twin who took the longest as if he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. I think he really liked the cat bed a lot, she said, but he finally shot out. How funny, Twin who was the most frantic and determined to get out was the last to leave.

Now I don’t know what to try. There’s no way we can lock the other cats up every night on the off chance that Ghost will get hungry enough to venture into the trap. It could take days and I’m not sure I could get Twin in there again, at least not right away so there’s no way I can feed the three brothers and not Ghost even if I don’t put a portion out for him. He’ll manage to get some of it. I’m thinking a big net and a blanket if we can get close enough to him. Plonk the net down and throw a blanket over it but how do we get him out from under the net/blanket and into a carrier without him shredding the net/blanket and more importantly, us. In the meantime I'm leaving the trap out where they see it all the time to get used to it and maybe in a couple of weeks, try again only this time using canned food for bait instead of dry.

I decided to put the monarch wing painting in the other frame with a mat. I like it better with the mat. I took it over to the HH market yesterday for their extended hours today, open until 7 pm. 

Haven’t worked on Paisleigh’s blanket the last several days trying to tie up various loose ends so that’s my dedicated activity for the weekend.