Many people don't know what is involved in doing TNR.
The first step is to identify the best time to trap. Generally, the caregivers identify times when they see the cats around. This is sometimes at midnight or 3 am and sometimes we get lucky and it's at 9 am, but we often sleep in our cars, trapping all night long.
The second step is to secure vet appointments for their spay/neuter surgeries. There are only a handful of vets in the Denver Metro area that do low cost spay/neuters for feral cats, and there are specific days when this is offered. That means we have to plan our trapping efforts around those days.
The third step is to prepare the community caretaker, and ask them to not feed the day before. This is very difficult as people are often emotional about their colonies. Dealing the caretakers is often the hardest part.
Next, we ensure the traps are cleaned and sanitized, buy the mackerel, get the towels and puppy pads and food ready and drive to the trapping area.
Once there, we spend the time to set the traps in strategic positions, then we wait. Sometimes (but rarely) it's 15 minutes, sometimes 8 hours. We have to wait as long as it takes or as long as our schedule allows.
Next we bring the trapped cats home, set them up on blankets in a quiet basement or room of the house, and give them food and water.
The next day we take them to the vet, usually by 7 am. They get their spay/neuter surgeries, which we fund, they spend the day there recovering, and we pick them up later the same day. During surgery they also get their left ear tipped. This is a painless, but important procedure, as it indicates to feral cat trappers that the cat has already been trapped, neutered and returned. Ear tipping is vital to prevent any further trauma for an already TNR'd cat.
We bring them home, back to the basement/room, feed and de-worm them (we are probably the only trappers that take the extra step to treat them for worms) and let them rest.
We continue to feed, water and change the bedding as needed for the next 48 hours while they recover.
After that time, we take them back to the exact spot they were trapped and let them go.
Finally, after they have been returned, we go back home, clean and sanitize the traps and do it all over again!
