Trick Out Taj-ma Shed for Post Op Feral Cat Rescue
Donation protected
Scroll to the end to see video of an actual night trap....
I practice TNR, trap/neuter/return of feral cats. I pull the 'friendlies' and kittens for adoption. It’s always been a first come, first serve, labor of love. However, I had no space to recover cats after surgery. Whom ever asked for my help had to have a basement or garage. While planning and saving there was a generous donation and the Taj-ma shed for cat recovery after surgery was built in 2017.
For male cats it’s a 1 to 2 day recovery, for females it’s 4 to 7 days depending on if there are complications. The Taj-ma shed is not finished inside and it's not fully functional. Not that this stopped the work, with an extension cord and an Amish fireplace I worked through fall, winter, and spring but summer heat is unforgiving and sadly the temperatures in the Taj-ma shed are not safe! AND it’s kitten season!!!!!
The 16’ X 6’ Taj-Ma Shed Interior needs electrical wiring and lighting, insulation, dry wall, paint, heating and cooling units with thermostat climate control, flooring, shelving, and a garden sink. This project is estimated to cost $4000 with labor.
Should we raise more; 100% of your donations will go for medication, cat food, and litter.
We can really make a difference. I promise you, I know it, I live it every day! And if it’s a bad time to donate...send us a prayer and happy thoughts for forever homes, and please share. Thank you.
Every cat and kitten pictured has passed through this rescue or is awaiting adoption! And I deliver on the East Coast!
Harper Lee wrote, “....real courage is, when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
Hi ho, hi ho it's off to work I go...
After momma and kittens get used to eating under the drop trap...….
I take the rocks away and pull the string!
Sweet success! Kittens adopted, mommy is fixed has her shots and is back with her colony.
Back from the hospital.
Inside the Taj-ma shed
Covered traps, bedding down for the night; I tell them, "Relax, think of this as a spa vacation." The giant fork you see on top of a trap is the tool used to work the traps.
Next step...good nutrition!
Spay day is tomorrow so at midnight all food and water must be removed from the traps.....When I got home from work and went to clean the traps and do dinner.... I heard the tell tale sound, sweet little chirping and squeaking...there in the trap Tinkerbell had been born.
Two weeks later I came home from work and Tinkerbell had managed to get her back paw under the first layer of the wee wee pad and then she must have turned around. She created a tourniquet around her ankle.......
The Vet said watch for gangrene! She might loose her ankle and paw... we did therapy three times a day!
And Tinkerbell was as good as new in a week!
Three kittens were locked in a basement hiding under the furnace. Mommy was shut outside. She wailed for her kittens for 5 days. They must have cried back because when I caught them not a one could meow and their whiskers were singed and they were skin and bone. I also trapped Mom. And a good thing, she had an umbilical hernia, which was repaired, she was spayed and received her shots. After a short stay at the Taj-ma Shed; she is back with her colony enjoying summer.
While trapping a colony of 15 cats, their caretaker handed me a box;
12 Kittens from 2 mamma cats
The kittens and the mammas stayed with me in giant crates that I wired together. At 8 weeks old they went to foster care and the moms got spayed, they received their shots and they were returned to their colony. My job was done.....this next pic is the last time I saw the kittens in their new foster home; several were already spoken for. 11 Survived
Little Petunia is blind so she doesn’t see the Manhattan skyline from her penthouse forever home!
Leo, trapped at 12 weeks, a tough 12 weeks.
But look what 2 weeks and a little medication can accomplish...
Foxy had scabies when he was trapped at 7 weeks, poor baby quarantined for 8 weeks along with his 4 litter mates (none of whom contracted the dreaded parasite!)
Foxy today!
Amazing sometimes who ends up in my traps! When Simon was full grown he became all dark brown!
As I was driving along...I looked to the left and saw a little puff of fur with ears in the street. The neighborhood children said, "The kitten is blind."
Oh hell no!
A little medicine and a weeks time and here's the beautiful Bailey, adopted.
One day Charlie showed up in my garden...
So pretty and sweet...adopted
Niko, adopted
Ricco, an incredibly affectionate happy boy! Available for adoption.
Cleopatra, sadly didn’t make it....FIP (feline infectious peritonitis)
It was great comfort to me to know she was warm, safe, well fed, and well loved, for a nice long time. The mean streets were not her only experiences.
Dori and the hand me down duck, a bonded pair adopted together.
Gracie had the duck first.
Gracie was my first bottle baby!
Today, the piano is covered with crates of kittens in my re-purposed living room!
Total emersion dining, adopted
Luna is super affectionate and available for adoption.
Blu is gorgeous, and available for adoption.
I know, perhaps I've gone on too long? At least you didn't have to click next and toggle to a different page between pics!
Thank you for reading,
All the best!
Catherine
An actual night trap.....
At 11:30pm I received a call from a friend traveling home through the train station at Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ. There is a little kitten inside a hedge of bushes dividing Kennedy Boulevard. Traffic on both sides going 30 MPR.
There was a park worker who would be there all day, he said he'd mind the trap hourly until I returned from work....Alas, no such luck!
All day I pondered my next strategy. I don't think he could smell the food in my trap and then I remembered a video I had of a kitten I trapped just 2 nights ago getting his first bath and crying loudly .
I made a loop of the video and placed my phone at the far end of the trap and what I could not accomplish in 36 hours; the sound of another kitten crying accomplished in less than one minute.
I called these 2 kittens, 'The Buff Boys.'
They couldn't room together until they were fully Vetted !
Chester and Max, adopted
I practice TNR, trap/neuter/return of feral cats. I pull the 'friendlies' and kittens for adoption. It’s always been a first come, first serve, labor of love. However, I had no space to recover cats after surgery. Whom ever asked for my help had to have a basement or garage. While planning and saving there was a generous donation and the Taj-ma shed for cat recovery after surgery was built in 2017.
For male cats it’s a 1 to 2 day recovery, for females it’s 4 to 7 days depending on if there are complications. The Taj-ma shed is not finished inside and it's not fully functional. Not that this stopped the work, with an extension cord and an Amish fireplace I worked through fall, winter, and spring but summer heat is unforgiving and sadly the temperatures in the Taj-ma shed are not safe! AND it’s kitten season!!!!!
The 16’ X 6’ Taj-Ma Shed Interior needs electrical wiring and lighting, insulation, dry wall, paint, heating and cooling units with thermostat climate control, flooring, shelving, and a garden sink. This project is estimated to cost $4000 with labor.
Should we raise more; 100% of your donations will go for medication, cat food, and litter.
We can really make a difference. I promise you, I know it, I live it every day! And if it’s a bad time to donate...send us a prayer and happy thoughts for forever homes, and please share. Thank you.
Every cat and kitten pictured has passed through this rescue or is awaiting adoption! And I deliver on the East Coast!
Harper Lee wrote, “....real courage is, when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
Hi ho, hi ho it's off to work I go...After momma and kittens get used to eating under the drop trap...….
I take the rocks away and pull the string!
Sweet success! Kittens adopted, mommy is fixed has her shots and is back with her colony.
Back from the hospital.
Inside the Taj-ma shed
Covered traps, bedding down for the night; I tell them, "Relax, think of this as a spa vacation." The giant fork you see on top of a trap is the tool used to work the traps.
Next step...good nutrition!
Spay day is tomorrow so at midnight all food and water must be removed from the traps.....When I got home from work and went to clean the traps and do dinner.... I heard the tell tale sound, sweet little chirping and squeaking...there in the trap Tinkerbell had been born.
Two weeks later I came home from work and Tinkerbell had managed to get her back paw under the first layer of the wee wee pad and then she must have turned around. She created a tourniquet around her ankle.......
The Vet said watch for gangrene! She might loose her ankle and paw... we did therapy three times a day!
And Tinkerbell was as good as new in a week!
Three kittens were locked in a basement hiding under the furnace. Mommy was shut outside. She wailed for her kittens for 5 days. They must have cried back because when I caught them not a one could meow and their whiskers were singed and they were skin and bone. I also trapped Mom. And a good thing, she had an umbilical hernia, which was repaired, she was spayed and received her shots. After a short stay at the Taj-ma Shed; she is back with her colony enjoying summer.
While trapping a colony of 15 cats, their caretaker handed me a box;
12 Kittens from 2 mamma cats
The kittens and the mammas stayed with me in giant crates that I wired together. At 8 weeks old they went to foster care and the moms got spayed, they received their shots and they were returned to their colony. My job was done.....this next pic is the last time I saw the kittens in their new foster home; several were already spoken for. 11 Survived
Little Petunia is blind so she doesn’t see the Manhattan skyline from her penthouse forever home!
Leo, trapped at 12 weeks, a tough 12 weeks.
But look what 2 weeks and a little medication can accomplish...
Foxy had scabies when he was trapped at 7 weeks, poor baby quarantined for 8 weeks along with his 4 litter mates (none of whom contracted the dreaded parasite!)
Foxy today!
Amazing sometimes who ends up in my traps! When Simon was full grown he became all dark brown!
As I was driving along...I looked to the left and saw a little puff of fur with ears in the street. The neighborhood children said, "The kitten is blind."
Oh hell no!
A little medicine and a weeks time and here's the beautiful Bailey, adopted.
One day Charlie showed up in my garden...
So pretty and sweet...adopted
Niko, adopted
Ricco, an incredibly affectionate happy boy! Available for adoption.
Cleopatra, sadly didn’t make it....FIP (feline infectious peritonitis)
It was great comfort to me to know she was warm, safe, well fed, and well loved, for a nice long time. The mean streets were not her only experiences.
Dori and the hand me down duck, a bonded pair adopted together.
Gracie had the duck first.
Gracie was my first bottle baby!
Today, the piano is covered with crates of kittens in my re-purposed living room!
Total emersion dining, adopted
Luna is super affectionate and available for adoption.
Blu is gorgeous, and available for adoption.
I know, perhaps I've gone on too long? At least you didn't have to click next and toggle to a different page between pics!
Thank you for reading,
All the best!
Catherine
An actual night trap.....
At 11:30pm I received a call from a friend traveling home through the train station at Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ. There is a little kitten inside a hedge of bushes dividing Kennedy Boulevard. Traffic on both sides going 30 MPR.
There was a park worker who would be there all day, he said he'd mind the trap hourly until I returned from work....Alas, no such luck!
All day I pondered my next strategy. I don't think he could smell the food in my trap and then I remembered a video I had of a kitten I trapped just 2 nights ago getting his first bath and crying loudly .
I made a loop of the video and placed my phone at the far end of the trap and what I could not accomplish in 36 hours; the sound of another kitten crying accomplished in less than one minute.
I called these 2 kittens, 'The Buff Boys.'
They couldn't room together until they were fully Vetted !
Chester and Max, adopted
Organizer
Catherine Kelly
Organizer
North Bergen, NJ