06/13/2025
Yup
When you leave one cat behind…
For many years I've heard the axiom "TNR 90% of the colony for success". Quite honestly this has never made sense to me, if you leave 10% intact you're gonna be in trouble again very soon. Our advice is TNR 100% of the colony for success because if you leave one cat behind…
Two months ago I did a relatively small project in my neighborhood and TNR'd 10 cats for my neighbors. But what they avoided telling me until after the fact was there were actually 11 cats – but that 11th cat was pregnant and they hadn't wanted me to get her spayed.
It so happened that I had trapped their cats two weeks before having a hip replacement. There was nothing I could do about that mother cat at the time - but I counted ahead by weeks and set up spay/neuter appointments for that mom and 4 kittens as soon as I found out she had delivered. By the time the kittens were six weeks old, I was a month out from surgery, so I was able to gather them up and put them with a fantastic foster – and received assurances from the man that he would be able to put the mom in a carrier for her spay day.
The day before this cat's spay day, I called to arrange to pick her up and oh - surprise surprise, he couldn't catch her. This supposedly semi-tame cat was now untouchable. Excuses were provided as to why it would probably be impossible to catch her – and this very smart cat did evade capture by me. But, there was no way I was leaving one intact female behind – I'm not sure if the "threat" that I would not be going away until she was caught was the reason he finally cooperated… but he got her. I wasn't totally surprised when she was spayed to find out that she was actually already at least three weeks into a pregnancy. Had I not persevered, all the work of getting this colony altered would have been undone. I had 10 cats neutered at this site, but one female producing 4 kittens increased the number of cats to 15 with just one litter. And in a few months the population once again would have been increasing.
Our advice? Don't give up – keep going until the colony is 100% altered, and then practice good colony management by watching for any potential newcomers. One backyard at a time, one neighborhood at a time - you really can make a difference.
