Week 10 - The Cat Ambush

This week Husker Cats had our follow up meeting with administration. Since we had responded to every call from Landscape Services, be it about cleaning up a mess from rogue feeders or finding a home for a kitten they’d caught, and I should note those calls had all but stopped, I hoped for a quick approval. How naïve I was being! Despite their earlier insistence that we remove no adult cats from campus (we had to fight to be able to adopt out kittens), now they say there are “too many” cats at CBA, which is my colony, and we have to get rid of some. Now that they’re all fully feral, oh yeah, that’s going to be easy – sheesh! They didn’t say how many was a good amount – it’s like dealing with my mother from the grave! – so I guess I’ll wing it.

They also wanted the feeder moved so the cats wouldn’t hang at the front entrance of the college. All this because they say the cats are pooping in the grass (I’ve never seen that and it’s completely against cat nature but what can I say?) So right after the meeting, I went over to CBA with the Landscape Services people and we moved the feeder – about 50 yards to around the side of the building and down a few stairs to a service area next to the library. I tried to call the cats over there after work but it’s quite a way from where they live so they just sat where the feeder used to be, glaring at me. I made a trail of dry food, with piles every few feet and went home to a night of bad sleep. While I didn’t dream about cats, I had a stress dream that woke me up at 3:45 and I couldn’t fall back asleep. I finally got up at 4:30, got a few things done then shocked the whole group by showing up for water aerobics at 6:15 (I’d sworn vehemently that I’d never go to that class.) When I checked the feeder on the way in, at least one cat had found it because some food was missing but again, the cats were hanging at the old site and wouldn’t come over. I had better luck after work, using a can of stinky salmon wet food to lure them over. By the time I left, 5 or 6 cats had found the feeder (good thing or would I have slept that night? Doubtful.)

Several days later, I’m sleeping better but now am dreaming of cats. Oh well, at least it’s progress. Now I just need to find people with farms or acreages who are willing to take some feral cats. Know any?