05/15/2026
🐈⬛ FERAL FRIDAY 🐈⬛
It’s kitten season, and we’re tracking kittens all across the Twin Cities! Right now, we’re working with a homeowner who’s been caring for a very smart female cat living in the woods behind her property. We’ve rescued kittens from this location before, but we’ve never been able to catch this elusive mama.
This spring, she was spotted back in the area with four kittens in tow. Unfortunately, while attempting to trap the family, the homeowner only caught one kitten.
When trapping a mother cat with kittens, our goal is always to:
• Trap all of the kittens first
• Trap the mother if the kittens are located and can be quickly rescued
• Or trap the mother with some kittens if the remaining kittens can be easily recovered
What we never want to do is trap only SOME of the kittens and leave the others behind. As tempting as it can be to grab the easy-to-catch kittens, the reality is that the mother will often move the remaining kittens immediately and they may never be seen again.
Sadly, that’s exactly what happened here.
But we finally got a lucky break: we trapped mom! We were able to get her spayed the very next day and fitted her with a tracking collar while she was under anesthesia.
The challenge now is that she travels constantly and rarely stays in one spot for long, making it difficult to locate the kittens. We do know she regularly eats and visits a certain area, so we set up a drop trap with a remote-controlled door. Inside, we placed lots of food and even a few toys to keep curious kittens occupied if they wander in.
Keep your fingers crossed that mama brings her babies by for a meal so we can finally get them to safety!
In the meantime, here’s a video of a raccoon visitor who decided the toys were pretty entertaining too. At least we know that part is working.
