In , "Lotte"
wrote:
| "Arjun Ray" wrote in message
| ...

| I would never leave a trap unmonitored overnight.
|
| Well, it's not really umonitored, because I set it right below my
| bedroom window (feral highway) and can hear it when it trips.

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. If the trap is on your own premises, that's
different.

| If I hear it trip, I'll get up and go throw a blanket over it. That
| usually settles down the thrashers and keeps the cat and trap protected
| until morning.

Do you still leave the trap outside overnight? (We don't do that.)

| Thrashers are, unfortunately, just as likely to hurt themselves in
| carriers as in the trap, at least the one I use (hav-a-hart knock-off).

In our experience, thrashers settle down when they're removed to an
indoors holding area. There seem to be two main factors in their panic:
first, that they're out in the open, and that they're on familiar ground
(but in a strange predicament). Moving them to an unfamiliar location,
and keeping the trap covered of course, seems to kick in their natural
instinct to be as quiet as possible.

| I did try transferring cats when I first started doing TNR and it
| seemed to just stress the cats more.

That may have been a matter of technique - how did you transfer them?
We exploit their preference to stay hidden - putting the trap and cage
end to end, covered, and then uncovering the area where we don't want
the cat. It may take a few minutes, but eventually they move. We
generally don't use carriers except perhaps for release (in which case
they were recovering in a crate, so we use the same principle: put the
carrier in the crate and then uncover the crate.)

| I'm not really sure what you're saying here -- mine spend the night
| in the trap, and the trap is at home... that's where I do my trapping.

I meant holding them overnight indoors.

| Do you trap away from your own home?

Yes. I live in an apartment, so I don't have "visitors". I help with
various colonies in the area (and in other parts of the city.) I've
used other holding areas, such as the basement of a church for one
colony that I stabilized[*], but it's more convenient for me to take
them to the HS directly from home in the morning, so I bring them home
when I trap them.

| we have a 'hoarder' down the street that feeds the 'hood strays but is
| absolutely clueless about neutering -- I'm sort of 'working under the
| radar,' so to speak.

Oh man. This feeder is guaranteeing a constant stream of visitors for
you.

| I'm sure I've caught and neutered people's pet cats, because people
| here let them wander around at will, without collars on. Incredibly
| stupid.

Same here, in my neighborhood. It's a nuisance.
[*] Pictures: http://www.picturetrail.com/aray/ . The colony is in
"Colony 5"; one of my favorite fellas, Greystoke, is also in the
"Ferals" album; my foster kittens Katrina and Calvin were also from
there.