I didn't want to post this. I felt so bad. I am still carefully choosing
how to post this. The area I live in has a bad stray/feral problem. I
rehomed three last year including Bonnie who I kept. With spring coming
and more cats hanging around I set the trap again when I knew I had time
Sat. morning to make a clinic run. I set out to catch a large b/w longish
haired whose been hanging around for a while, eating from here, seen
crossing the busy road often. S/he resembled Jake from last year so much
that I thought they were littermates. I trapped him, took him to the
clinic in the am and left him for neutering, shots, dewormer, combo test.
At 5pm it was time to go pick him up, where I found out he was indeed a
HE but he was already neutered. Ok, dumped maybe? When they told me he
was already neutered, I said, good! I don't have a houseguest for the
night (no surgery, no sedation) . No comments made, I thought nothing of
it. When I got him home, I took the trap back around to the back deck
where I trapped him and opened the trap to release him. He was reluctant
to leave the trap so I covered it back up again and went inside to leave
him alone to come out on his own. When he didn't after several minutes I
got worried. He had been in a curled up position in this trap and he's a
large cat and I thought maybe he was stuck. Keep in mind I haven't done
this much, and I have never brought a cat straight home from the clinic
with the intention to release him except in one case but that is another
story I've already told. Slowly he started coming out of the trap. When
he was fully standing, I realized that he was indeed sedated for his exam
at the clinic, but it was too late to get him back and he wasn't coming
back to me. He stumbled down the deck steps and ran to the fence he
usually jumped over to get in my back yard. It took him two or three
tries but he made it over. He ran (thank God) in the opposite direction
of the main road (I was in tears and hysterics at this point thinking
what have I done).  He ran wobbly-wise across the road behind me (not a
busy road) and fell a few times, got back up and ran more. He ran right
into the yard of a house I could barely see through some woods but if he
was a stray, he would have steered clear of humans right now. It was then
that it became clear that he wasn't a stray, but lived there.  Some of my
neighbors know I trap strays to get them neutered but obviously not the
ones who let their cats run free.  I am relieved to say that I saw him
tonight bouncing around playing in their yard at the edge of their
property but I don't know if this was enough to scare him into staying
away from me.  Me. The one cats can trust and I f.cked up with this one.
I didn't know they sedated him. In hindsight, of course they sedated him,
to handle him. One more reason to keep your cats in. To keep them safe
from me.

If you let your cats out, please please put a collar on them. I'm going
to have to go door to door to find out who here has cats because my
neighbors tell me I have many coming up to the feeding station these
days.  Kitten season coming up.  I only want to prevent the strays from
having kittens, I don't want to trap and have your pets sedated.