Hellcat and Foxes

 Friday night at dusk, I put food out for Nike on the neighbor's porch. As soon as I stepped back, Bobbie jumped up on the porch and started gulping the food down. If Bobbie is there, kittens are probably near... I walked around the corner of the house and glimpsed the white one along the back wall. Time for some trapping. 

I came back with the large drop trap. The noise and commotion of setting it up scared Bobbie and her kittens away. I still baited it and laid out the cord across the yard to the fence. Five minutes later I took a peek into the yard from the other side of the fence. The dark striped kitten was under the trap eating the bait. A quick pull on the cord and the kitten was trapped. No more waiting for all three at once. Best to take what I can get.

I ran home and grabbed a smaller trap to transfer the kitten into. When I returned, she was putting up quite a fight - running from side to side, pushing the trap around, claws, teeth, glowing eyes and a howl. I sat on the drop trap to hold it down and got to work setting up the transfer trap. I had my back to the kitten for a moment. The calamity stopped. I turned around and the trap was empty. How could it happen? She must have flattened herself and pushed underneath at a small gap. Strong, determined and full of rage, Hellcat had broken out and was gone. 

 (Actually a picture of Bobbie yawning)

I had little hope of catching her again. Maybe I could still trap the others. I added more cat food for bait, then crouched ten yards away behind a bush. Nothing. nothing. the remaining daylight was almost gone. I was about to leave. The white kitten slowly and silently came out of a wood pile and circled around the back of the trap. I readied to pull the cord. As quickly as she appeared, she was gone. Something else came into view in the twilight. A pair of foxes bounding and hopping directly at me from the far side of the lawn. I stood up. They saw me and quickly reversed back towards where they came from. Foxes gotta eat too, but they're not having kitten tonight. I grabbed a flashlight and circled the back yard. Eyes glowed in the bushes where they had exited. I ran towards them waving my arms with the light. "No, no", I said to the foxes. The eyes vanished and did not return. 

I went back home thinking that I had scared the kittens enough that they would be un-trappable and I had revealed a threat that could likely kill them.