- By Jody Harmon (www.PURR.petfinder.org)

I have trapped 23 cats total at the Cheshire colony. Only six of these 23 remain with E. He's damn lucky he met me. Without wonderful programs to help me get them fixed, these cats would have had no hope. These programs are: Pet Overpopulation Prevention Advocates (POPPA), Inc. And the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon. Visit their websites. Volunteer or donate. If you do, you'll make a difference for animals and people. Like what's happened with the Cheshire cats.

Two unfixed females were originally brought to the property to control the rat problem.

Because the females were not fixed, the rat problem turned into a cat problem.

The six adult fixed cats who remain on the two acre property, will effectively control the rodent population. Fixed cats are better mousers. Unfixed males spend all their time searching out unfixed females and fighting with other unfixed males. They spread disease in the process, cause neighborhood noise complaints, and spray everything cat accessible to mark their terroritories. Fixed females can put their time and energy into mousing, instead of into nourishing and defending litter after litter after litter which often leaves them malnourished and prone to disease. You want good mousers? Then fix your mousers.

Adults in Colony---8. Two of these adults have now been relocated.

Two of the six females were pregnant when spayed.

Two males and six reproducing females. All now trapped and fixed.

• Miss Lily--adult DSH brown tabby female, still in colony--fixed at Corvallis FCCO clinic July 25, 2004.
• Miss Amelia--adult DSH torti (female)--fixed at Corvallis FCCO clinic July 25, 2004 (mother of the four young kittens two of whom I just added to my bathroom kitten collection). Returned to colony.
• Miss Camelia (sister of Miss Amelia)--adult DSH torti (female) fixed at Sweet Home FCCO clinic in June of 2004. Returned to colony.
• Mr. Siam (not the name E has for it but I forget it)--adult DSH gray/white Siamese mix male--fixed at Sweet Home FCCO clinic in June of 2004. Returned to colony.
• Miss Fuzzball--adult DLS white and black female, fixed at Corvallis FCCO clinic July 25, 2004. Returned to colony.
• Sweet Pea--adult DSH black and white male, fixed through Oregon Neutermobile, operating in Eugene, August 2004. Returned to colony.
• Miss Ebony--DSH black female, fixed at FCCO clinic in Sweet Home, June, 2004. Returned to colony and later relocated, with Mrs. Sour and Tabby Girl, to Crow.
• Mrs. Sour--DSH orange tabby female, fixed in August on the Oregon Neutermobile operating in Eugene. Returned to colony and later relocated to Crow.

Kittens trapped at Cheshire colony.

• Yocal--white and black DSH male. Fixed with POPPA funds and adopted out.
• The Saint--tabby on white DSH male kitten (Angel's brother), fixed with POPPA funds, and adopted out with Little Black, a DSH all black female kitten, spayed with POPPA funds.
• Little Black 1--deceased. Little Black 1 one was one of three fostered for E by his friends who basically kept them in a small filthy carrier and finally demanded I retrieve them, which I did. The little brat boy would let them out and then the mother or grandmother would try to chase them down and put them back in the filthy carrier. Little Black 1 became weaker and weaker. I took him to the vet. He was trying to die from a severe heart murmur so he was helped in his direction. I still wonder if it was not a heart murmur caused by trauma (abdominal hernia) endured while being fostered at the house of hell.
• Turtle--DSH all black male kitten, fixed with POPPA funds and adopted out.
• Cuddles--DLH flamepoint male kitten, adopted out unneutered to a wonderful friend who lives in WA. He will be neutered at four months of age.
• Bubbles--DSH tabical female kitten with eclectic personality, fixed at FCCO Clinic July 25 in Corvallis and adopted out to a south town friend.
• Tipsy--DSH brown tabby male kitten, adopted out unneutered to a friend in Oakridge. Tipsy is getting neutered next week.
• Angel--DSH tabby on white female kitten, fixed through POPPA funds and still awaiting a home. Adopted out September 7 to a north Corvallis family. Angel got a home!
• Tabby Gal--DSH brown tabby female, fixed in August 2004, on the Oregon Neutermobile, operating in Eugene, and relocated with Mrs. Sour and Miss Ebony, adults from same colony, to Crow.
• Busty Brown--DSH brown tabby female, fixed August 22, 2004 at the FCCO clinic in Salem and adopted out to a Portland woman.
• Undecided--DSH black and white kitten fixed through the Oregon Neutermobile operating in Eugene and still awaiting a home.
• FleaFree--DMH all black male kitten, now with white undercoat showing through, fixed in August at the Oregon Neutermobile while operating in Eugene. He still awaits a home.
• Two yet unnamed kittens I trapped at E's place last night. One is an orange tabby male of about seven weeks and the other a gray torti female. Adopted out September 7, to my neighbor's daughter and her family! (renamed Hobb and Susie, I think)
• BraveHeart--seven week old orange tabby male, sibling of above two young kittens already adopted out. E trapped him using the selective trap rig I have set up down there. I wanted him to get both remaining small kittens. He grabbed the other one, a torti, by hand, and put her in an insecure basket carrier and put them both in his truck for the night. By morning, she was gone. She had escaped through the very large basket holes E had failed to secure and climbed out through the window of us truck. Her mother, the adult already spayed torti, had ripped open the screen already. Fixed using POPPA funds on September 13. Adopted out same day to a Beaverton couple.
• Savvy--four month old torbi female kitten, trapped by E using the selective rig and brought to me on September 11, 2004. She was spayed on September 13, 2004 on POPPA funds and is awaiting a home now here. Adopted out on September 20 to an Adair family who also took the last little holdout of the colony, the torti thought dead, but who wasn't dead.
• Little Tee-DMH black and white tux female kitten, about 8 weeks old. Adopted out on September 21, 2004 to a man who lives nearby. He took her in to his own vet the same day who refused to believe this kitten came from a feral colony. Well, she did, and only three days prior to her adoption, too. What can I say, but that I've not met a feral yet who wishes to remain a feral if someone is kind and offers them the love, patience and joy they have so long desired.
• BraveHeart's Sis-the holdout, the last kitten of the colony to be caught and brought here, now already adopted to the same loving family who adopted Savvy. This classic torti, six weeks old, the smart brave little girl who attempted to break her brother out of the trap, then escaped from E's basket carrier, finally came to my bathroom. But only for two days. A family who were going to adopt Undecided and FleaFree instead adopted her and Savvy, the older torbi kitten who tamed quickly and loved to be held and to hug people. Who could not love any of these kittens? It is impossible once one meets them and knows their stories and experiences their spirits and hearts. It is impossible not to love any one of them once one meets their eyes and sees into their souls

The Cheshire colony project is completed. All cats have been trapped. All those old enough have been fixed. Only six cats remain in a colony that once numbered 28 cats. The six who remain in the colony are fixed.

With all these female kittens, next spring, the population of the Cheshire colony would have increased to unimaginable proportions. If the six reproducing females had remained unfixed, they would have had at least one more litter apiece this year. Instead of 20 kittens out there who survived, there would have been forty, increasing the colony size to 48 cats by end of summer. Half of the kittens have been female. If all had survived until spring, 26 females would have produced litters of four to six kittens each. If each female only produced four kittens, the result would have been 104 kitten additions to the colony. Add that to the 48 cats already there, and that area would have been over run with 150 cats.

Fix your pets, people, and support the programs that helped the Cheshire cats and the man who cares for them.