These are "the kids". From left to right they are Scooter, Houdini and Zeus. Their mom was abandoned by someone who moved out of the neighborhood a while back. Another neighbor pointed them out to me in June1996, and thus began my mission to catch them. I thought they were much younger then they turned out to be and mistakenly believed I could just reach down and pick them up. Boy was I wrong! :)
First off, Mamma Cat was pretty possessive and very wary of people. The kittens picked up on this. They would play with string and such, but if I got too close they would all take off. I started putting food and water out to gain their trust (and ended up feeding most of the indoor/outdoor cats nearby, along with a raccoon).
All I had to catch them in was a cat carrier. My idea was to lure them into the carrier with food and close the door on them. Houdini was the first to go in. And that's when I found out how quick I had to be: I tried to close the door instead of slamming it - she got out.
I caught Zeus July 2 and brought him to the vet for testing. Meanwhile I couldn't bring him in the house to expose our other cats until I was sure he was OK. So I set up a large dog crate with food, water, litter and tshirts in the garage.
Scooter I caught the next night. I had since found out the Zeus was only tested for FeLV; there was another test they could to for FIP. So back they both went to the vet. And now there were 2 of them in the garage.
Now don't forget Mamma Cat. She simply growled when I caught Zeus. She rushed towards me when I got Scooter. I didn't know what she'd do when I got the next one.
On July 4, I waited until my fiance got home to try again. Houdini finally goes in the carrier, I slam the door, and Tim keeps Mamma Cat away from me. In my eagerness to catch her, I actually slammed the door too hard; the bottom part didn't catch and she slipped away again. She disappeared under a neighbor's fence, and I was afraid Mamma Cat didn't see where she went. It was getting dark and the fireworks were due to start, so we looked for her with flashlights for about an hour before giving up. This is how she got her name, BTW.
By now, the results have come back on the 2 boys and they're both clean. I also find out they're about 4 months old, which is pretty old for socialization.
I begin the task of moving them into the house. I don't want them to have free run of the house because first off, I want the other cats to get used to them in a controlled environment (I was told by people familiar with feral cats that they would be great 'cat' cats, but not too good as 'people' cats). I also want them to get to know me and I can't do that if they're hiding somewhere! I bought some screening material to use between the living room and dining room so all the cats can see and smell each other. Then I brought in the crate and set it up in the dining room.
I decided to let them out to see what would happen. Scooter took off and ran around the dining room for about 10 minutes straight (this is how he got his name). Zeus (who hadn't been named yet - took me awhile to come up with this one) wasn't quite as phsyco, but still wasn't happy. Funny thing is, Scooter was always easier to catch and to this day is the friendliest of the three.