TNR last night at Bendemeer Rd construction site

On Sunday night we went to the construction site at Bendemeer to trap and sterilise the remaining stray cats there. A total of 7 cats were trapped. Before we report on the night's trapping adventure though, we have another surprise in the story to share.

We heard news from the vet that of the 7 cats that went to the clinic today only 6 were viable for their sterilisation operations. One of the cats, a cream coloured female, was in too late a stage of her pregnancy to sterilise - she might die from excessive blood loss on the operating table if the procedure was done. The vet estimates that she will give birth within the next few days. If we were to return her to the site now, we would never be able to trap her again for neutering in future. We made use of the ICU pen (without the heating pad) to board her for now, and she arrived today at our foster home. Looks like she will stay with us for the next 2 months. We have named her Bree.

Bree, not very aggressive, but still stressed

The pen is a bit small for her but we have no other boarding pens left - nor space, for that matter.

Will update when Bree gives birth. Possibly a litter of 5-6 kittens, though we can't feel her to know for sure, we don't want to stress her out for now.

Meanwhile, back to the trapping that took place last night.

The construction at this site is now more advanced, piling works are already up to the second storey. There are 3 areas where the cats congregate. The first gate, which is off the expressway; the second area is across the road under a flyover; the third is another gate along Bendemeer Road which has since been sealed. We were working on trapping the cats at the first gate and the flyover.

The first gate, near expressway exit

Across the gate, under flyover and amidst bushes

Majority of the cats were at the gate itself, and there were no more than five red tabby cats spotted at the flyover. We managed to trap Bree here at this flyover, as well as one of her boyfriends -

Male ginger cat from under flyover

The remaining 5 cats trapped at the first gate:

Tabby/white

Tabby/white

Ginger/white

Tabby

Tabby

Of the 6 cats neutered, 5 were male. The only female was pregnant. They will be returned back to the construction site this Tuesday.

Here is the bill from this round of TNR for these 6 cats -

Vet bill, trapping and boarding costs - $285

Have trouble uploading a copy of the bill from Clinic for Pets itself onto the page, it can however be viewed here.

It was very challenging trapping these cats: at the gate, many of the cats ran in and out of it, but it was locked and we humans couldn't access it, so we simply had to try trapping the cats that were willing to come out of the gate. None of the cats are keen on human contact, so all had to be trapped using humane traps. There were so many ants on the ground that we worried ants would cover the food in the traps before the cats could get to it. While we waited for the cats the enter the traps, we kept getting irritated by ant bites. After no more cats were willing to come out from the gate, we braved the exiting expressway traffic and crossed the road.

Opposite the road, the cats were thankfully hungry enough to come out from the bushes under the flyover. Within the bushes, when we went to check out how many cats there were, the entire area was dark and littered with dry cement which we could smell breathing in. If the cats didn't come out, it would have been far more challenging to get them trapped. Unfortunately one of the traps we laid got the door caught on some leaves from the bushes, and we missed out on one more cat we could have taken for neutering - rookie mistake on our part.

As for young, not yet mature kittens, we spotted three, possibly about 2-3 months old. One is semi-longhaired, all are tabby or tabby and white. We however have no resources to foster them at the moment considering their age - they would need the pen that Mary Lou is now in. We laid some food for them and they ate with us from a distance.

2 of the 3 kittens sighted

Fed the kittens before starting to trap the mature cats

We estimate about another 5-6 cats left at this site to trap and neuter which would necessitate another round, more than what we had planned. If you would like to contribute towards the sterilisation of the remaining Bendemeer construction site cats, you can make a direct deposit to our bank account POSB savings 188-52652-7 and contact Elaine at 90880675 / elaine@lovekuchingproject.org to indicate you have given towards our Sterilisation Fund.

Will update on our next trip to this site when we have planned the date which will be within the month.