Stealth Trapping: Setting Out Traps 24/7

I’ve had traps set outside in hidden locations non-stop since Monday night. I call this “stealth trapping.”

This is when you set out traps 24-hours a day and see if you get any “surprises.” My TNR friend Bruno calls this “fishing for cats.”

With stealth trapping you leave the traps unattended, but they are in secure locations, the weather has to be mild, and you check the traps every other hour or so.

In this case I learned that most of the cats here are already TNR’d. TNR works!

I still have the sick cat on my mind, so I put a trap in that yard with the owner’s permission. His yard is completely secured by a fence.

Unfortunately I did not trap the sick cat. No one has seen him since that day.

I also set out a trap by the Eleanor Rigby Colony next to their outdoor cat shelters. This is under their front porch, out of view from the street and completely dry. No “new” cats here either.

I also set up two traps for the Marta Volta Colony. The caregiver no longer feeds because the colony was adopted out, but she said she sees cats from time to time, including an orange one. She is currently out of town and gave me the keys to her gate and said I could set traps anytime.

I trapped an orange cat around midnight on Tuesday, but he was already ear tipped!

Poor guy looks like he’s being arrested in this photo. I guess stealth trapping is like a sting operation.

I set a trap in my front yard because I’ve been seeing a new cat coming around this summer. The James’ Gang Colony cats in my backyard don’t let anyone in, but the front yard feeding station is fair game.

I already wrote about how I trapped an ear tipped grey cat.

But I had a feeling there was another one, so I kept trying.

And got this cat in the middle of the night.

His name is Popcorn because he kept trying to pop out of the trap. He moves fast!

He got his TNR treatment the next day at the clinic, and I released him in the front yard this afternoon. Popcorn is the first cat I ever TNR’d in my front yard! He acted very, very feral, alternating between fierceness and fear. Let’s see if he sticks around.