First time I saw Fanta he was together with Cola on the other side of the fence on the neighbours ground. Usually I see new cats on the wildlife camera before I see them in real life. Some I only see on camera for years. So it was quite unique that there suddenly was a new face right in front of me. Cola is a shy male that I started seeing a couple of months earlier, always together with Nuka. Fanta and Cola clearly have similar markings and could share parents, even though Cola is a bit bigger. Fanta was still young and very playful and would sometimes see him play in the field by himself.
Soon after Cola started bringing him to the feeding spot and I caught them on camera every night. Fanta also came by without Cola, so I knew I had a good chance of catching him if I set a trap. Isn't he a cutie?
I worried for his ears, as I thought they looked quite black, so I borrowed a trap to get him to the vet. Unfortunately I had some technical difficulties with the trap and it didn't release even though Fanta did enter the trap. You can see how it went down here. I had better luck the next morning.
Feral cat at the vet
At the vet he was checked for a chip, but as expected there was nothing there. Then he got a full health check, checking for FIV and making sure his teeth were alright. Luckily Fanta was a healthy boy and the vet estimated that he was around 6 months old. Perfect timing to get neutered. There was nothing with his ears other than a bit of dirt, so they got cleaned and tattooed (this is common practise here in Denmark. You can read all about it in our FAQ). Fanta was of course sedated during the examination, neutering and ear tattooing.
Returned
Neutering a male cat is not a big procedure, so when Fanta seemed to be fully awake later that night I decided to let him back out, rather than keeping him overnight. He was very stressed and didn't want to eat or anything, so I thought he would be better of going home to Cola. He ran as fast as he could as I opened the cage.
A few hours later as I went down with cat food, I saw him lounging as nothing had happened, in the area where he usually would hang out. Some cats hide a good while after being TNR'ed, but not Fanta. He was back at the feeding spot that same night, reunited with Cola. He simply carried on as usual. On the wildlife camera recordings you could clearly see his new ear tattoos.
Apart from my first failed attempt at catching Fanta, this was by far the easiest TNR project I've done so far. This is partly because it was summer and the light was working well for me. Also he wasn't scared at all of going into the trap. And lastly he recovered very quick and didn't hide from me afterwards, making me worried.
A few days later I tried to catch Cola and I would have been succesful if it wasn't for another technical problem with the trap! (you can see what happened here). I hope to catch him next time so Fanta and Cola can live peaceful lives together.
See Fanta and Cola together here. You can read more about TNR practise and the benefits here.