Operation Tux

I returned the trap that I had borrowed from the Humane Society as the trap that I had ordered arrived a few days ago.  It's a really nice and sturdy trap.  As good as or even better than the ones from the Humane Society.

I decided to bait and set this trap last night.  The one from the Humane Society was cable-tied to stay open.  The brand new one was set to have the cage door come down and lock into place once an animal steps on the trip plate behind the food.  I really wanted to catch Tux, the black-and-white tuxedo cat that has presumably terrorized Java and also may be staying where Chai is during the daylight hours.

I set the kitty buffet inside the trap and set it up around 8:30pm.  Tux usually show up around 9:30pm.  I then waited and went outside with a flashlight to see if Tux or any other animal has been caught in the trap around 10:15pm.  And lo and behold, there was Tux!  Here is Tux checking out the feeding station and then going into the trap:

And here he just trips the trap door to shut:

Poor Tux; he freaked out and tried to claw out of the cage...  When I got to the trap, I saw a little bit of blood on his left paw.  I also saw that he is indeed a male cat, but neutered.  Upon examining his head carefully, I also noticed that his right ear-tip had been clipped meaning that he is a feral cat that had been TNR'ed (trap-neuter-released).  His left eye was oozing a bit with clear liquid.  He did not look like he was well-groomed like a house cat.  That explains why no neighbors knew who the owner is.  He probably is a feral cat.  However, for a feral cat, he let me pet him, which also probably meant that he belonged to someone at one point in his life.  A true feral cat would not let a human handle him/her.  He hissed and growled at first, but he did not try to bite or scratch me when I opened the cage to stick my hand in.  I petted him for a while.  Of course, I was concerned about my safety so I put on a pair or leather work gloves before doing that.

I debated whether to put the GPS device on him.  It was being charged after the firmware was updated.  I then decided that I need to think this over but at least have him in a more comfortable place until I could make up my mind.  Underneath my deck is a storage area which has a door surrounded by lattice and slats for the deck stair railings.  I thought the slats were wide enough for an average sized cat to pass through.  So I spent a couple of hours stapling some leftover wire-grid fence material I had after making a trellis for my vining plants.  I did not have enough to cover all the slats.  So I leaned some potting soil bags against them so that the slats were all covered.

I then proceeded to try to put a collar on Tux.  As I was reaching in to touch his neck, he bolted out of the trap!  He ran like there was no tomorrow.  I've never seen a cat run so fast.  He ran towards the side yard and immediately disappeared from my vision.  Alas, he did not give me a chance to make up my mind about the GPS device or just a note with my phone number on a collar.  But knowing that he is currently a feral cat, I did not think that a collar with a note would be useful.  A GPS device would have been better to identify his location during the day.  But that plan was foiled as I was not careful about the trap door opening...

I wonder if he would come back.  Only my video surveillance would tell.  Oh well.

I am planning to build the raccoon-proof walls around the feeding platform tomorrow.  I bought the boards, metal brackets, and screws.  Tomorrow's video will tell if 1) raccoons come back, and 2) Tux comes back.