A tiny tail poked out from a small hole at the bottom of a shed at Vancouver Island Air on the Tyee Spit in Campbell River on May 30.
This tail inevitably launched a three-day campaign to rescue a mom cat and her kittens from underneath a shed at the float plane operation.
“The shed is a permanent building, and they will be difficult to catch as we cannot get under it,” Vancouver Island Air’s Melissa Cuttler said in a message to Campbell River Partners for Animal Welfare (CRPAWS), a society dedicated to the rescuing of feral, lost, and stray cats.
“The shed is cemented to the ground with just a cat-sized hole to get underneath it, so I am unsure how many kittens there are,” Cuttler said.
Karen Ingle from CRPAWS went to the site to scout the location and see what kind of equipment the cat rescuers would need. CRPAWS’ first action was to set up a live camera, and video footage showed four kittens roughly six to eight weeks old.
“We needed to know how old the kittens were to know how to proceed,” said Ingle.
The kittens’ age meant luck was on CRPAWS’ side, since younger kittens would demand more care throughout the rescue and after. The team immediately set up four traps.
Soon after, two more tiny faces appeared, raising the rescue count to six kittens and one feral mom.
“The first night, we caught mom. We don’t typically like to catch the mom right away; there’s pros and cons to that,” said Ingle. “If you catch the mom, there’s no one there to look after the babies but the con is, if you don’t catch the mom, she hides the kittens and you don’t know where they are.”
The trappers made the tough choice to put the mom cat in care and focus on rescuing the kittens.
They soon caught the first kitten, then the second, third, and fourth. But as the first day started to fade, the urgency to save the two remaining kittens increased without mama there to protect them.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. We got to catch these other kittens as soon as possible,” Ingle said, so she called in reinforcements, placed food and water near the shed, and camped out at the site in her car, patiently watching the traps all night.
Because the clever kitties sensed the humans’ presence, trappers on watch from their cars would camouflage their windows with the “cozies” that a CRPAWS volunteer makes to cover the traps when cats are inside.
Despite their best efforts, nothing happened that first night, which Ingle said was “discouraging.”
Later in day two, the team finally caught the fifth kitten. Only one more to go. Then, an uninvited guest arrived: an eagle on a nearby pole eyeing the possibility of a kitten-sized snack. Racoons were in the vicinity, too.
“That brought up a lot of emotions,” Ingle said. “There’s a big risk to a kitten on their own.” Day two ended in another overnight stakeout.
Day three, and the final kitten had become trap-savvy after seeing its family caught before it. The team switched to adult-sized traps to see if that would trick the furtive feline. No luck.
CRPAWs then implemented the pull trap.“It takes a lot of patience because you have to make sure they’re in the right place or you could hurt them. They come in and they go out (from under the trap), and they go around, so there’s lots of adrenaline, lots of sadness,” Ingle said.
With the kitten evading the pull trap and the clock ticking, CRPAWS used a final tactic to help coax the kitty: they played the recorded mewings of its siblings. “It was heartbreaking to see the little cat run from one side of the container to the other, searching for its mother and siblings,” said Ingle. “But that worked to draw out the kitten.”
Now in foster care, all six kittens are happy, healthy, and undergoing the necessary treatments to keep them that way. The team gave the cat family aviation names in honour of their family home. Mom cat Amelia Earhart has been treated and spayed, and because she is feral, she will return to Vancouver Island Air with the staff there keeping tabs on her wellbeing.
The kittens are Gibson, Otter, Beaver, Via, Hawk, and the last kitty to come out, Goose.
The staff at Vancouver Island Air kept tabs on “Operation Aviation Rescue.” “It was an exciting weekend at work, and we’re so pleased it had a happy ending,” said Cuttler. “The dedication of the CRPAWS team was inspiring. These volunteers do it purely out of love for the animals they’re helping. It was very cool to see them in action.”
CRPAWS is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and is looking for a larger care facility to meet the rising needs of lost, found, stray and feral animals in the community. CRPAWS is entirely volunteer-run and depends on generous donations to help them help the animals. To find out how you can help, visit crpaws.ca.