Gulf Shores Realty Can Find Anyone a Home!

It was a typical Saturday when my wife and I stopped by the office for a moment and we saw a black and white cat sitting outside on the South side of our office building.  We had never seen it before so we assumed it was a stray and when we approached, it ran away.   Over the next few weeks there were a couple of additional sightings which were unremarkable.  Three weeks later, when walking from the office to the rear parking lot, the cat became territorial and would hiss at us as we passed.  Upon closer examination, we realized that she had taken up residence in the crawl space under the Gulf Shores Realty office building.  The screen covering the crawlspace had been torn.

As the Broker, my first instinct was to charge her rent but my wife had other ideas.  She started to feed her and provide her water daily.  As time went on, we started to hear meow’s coming from the crawl space.  Weeks later, we saw kittens accompanied by their mother darting in and out of the crawl space.  They were so active, we thought we had twenty of them!  Eventually, they would dart up trees, and play whenever the parking lot was empty but mostly at dusk.

Not wanting to separate the kittens from their mother, we continued to feed the entire family.  When the kittens were old enough, we began to investigate the possibility of catching and adopting the kittens out. We reached out to local agencies and since the mother and babies were believed to be feral, we were unable to find an agency that would catch and adopt them out.  Options presented to us were to capture, spay and neuter and release back under the building or to euthanize.  Neither were acceptable options.  I did decide however it was time to serve an eviction notice.

St. Francis Animal Rescue was kind enough to loan us several humane traps and a large wire cage.  They also provided us with vouchers to assist with the cost of spaying and neutering.  We began the process of setting the traps and capturing one kitten at a time.  Trapping was done mostly at night since the kittens were nocturnal.  We would set the traps and return every half hour to check our results.  Over a two week period, we were able to capture all the kittens.

Once captured, we covered the trap to keep them calm, and called Dr. Nicole Kushmaul, DVM of Veterinary Care of Venice.  She was wonderful and would meet us at her clinic at 1080 E. Venice Ave. any time of day or night.  We delivered a flea infested kitten and two days later, she returned a kitten with no fleas, full shots, and was spayed or neutered.  We repeated this for each of the four kittens and the mother cat.  Each of them were named as they were captured; Sebastian, Sophia, Romeo, Mario, and Mama Bella.

A cat nursery was established at my home to house the kittens and Mama Bella.  We began the process of handling and domesticating the kittens until they were tame enough to be adopted out.  Sebastian and Sophia took about 4 weeks to tame and adopt.  They were adopted together which seemed like an ideal scenario.  Another four weeks and Romeo was domesticated and adopted as well.

Mario, was another story.  Mario was scared and acted just plain mean.  So much so that he was nicknamed Achmed the terrorist kitty.  Just approaching the cage would earn a hiss along with a display of teeth and claws.  There was never a chance you could touch him and survive.  On the one occasion he escaped from his cage, he climbed to the top of the screened pool cage and hung upside down from the roof.  A tall ladder, pair of gloves, good balance and he was retrieved.  It took three months to tame Achmed to the point of being able to touch him.  After another month, he did a 180 degree turn around and was friendly, playful and loved to have his belly rubbed.  Mario was back and he would let you kiss him on the forehead and loved attention.

Deciding it was time, he was adopted out to a wonderful couple who were so excited to have him.  He was gently placed in a pet carrier and they drove him to his future home.  Achmed had other ideas.  He spent two days terrorizing the couple.  He took over their bathroom and stood his ground.  He would hiss and scratch and refused to let them in the bathroom.  After two days of being terrorized and the medical necessity of the family having to use a bathroom, Achmed came home to us.  The moment he was removed from the pet carrier, he was docile and rolled onto his back to get his belly rubbed.  Once home, he reverted back to being sweet Mario again.

Mama Bella was a sweetheart from day one.  She was aggressive under our building to protect her babies.  Once home, it was clear she was domesticated at some point.  Mama Bella and Mario bonded and remain close.  They now share our home with our two small rescue dogs and a rescued amazon parrot.  Needless to say, the crawlspace under our building has been closed and fortified.

If Gulf Shores Realty works this hard to find suitable homes for stray cats, imagine what we can do for your family!  Visit http://GulfShoresRealty.com or call 941-488-6644.