Sometimes things don't quite go as planned...

You may remember I posted here a few weeks ago looking for advice about
some adolescent feral cats we've been feeding.  We decided we'd bring
them into the house after they get neutered, at least until they
recover from the procedure.

I contacted some local T-N-R groups for help trapping the cats.  I know
it's busy this time of year, but I was dissappointed to receive only
one response: from an individual volunteer rather than a group.  She
offered help but called on a weekend when I had out-of-town guests, and
then she left on vacation herself.

We decided to go it alone and rented traps Saturday so we could bring
them in Monday (yesterday), since I had the day off work.  We held off
on feeding them Sunday afternoon so they'd be good and hungry.

We set the traps out bright and early.  One of them didn't work at all;
both cats ate out of it without tripping it. The second trap sprung on
one cat (Catenary) but he slipped out before it closed completely and
got away.  It looks like it smacked him on the back on the way out.

I reset the trap and we did manage to catch the other cat (Dirigible)
and get him into the vet.  Catenary was gone all day, nowhere to be
seen; he usually stays very close to the house.  On the way back from
picking up Dirigible at the vet I was concerned to see Catenary around
the corner, out in the middle of the street.  I think he was out
looking for his brother.

Even though neither cat had been in the house before, somehow Catenary
knew we had Dirigible inside; he came and sat right next to the
basement window looking in for some time.  When he saw me at the back
winow of the house, he just ran up there and sat staring at me.

Back inside, we had left Dirigible alone for a while; the vet said not
to feed him for about an hour.  When that hour was up, we went to feed
him and he had disappeared.  I know cats are experts at hiding, but
this guy is a genius!  No visual sign of him since yesterday afternoon
and he didn't even touch the food or litter box overnight.

It seems like separation is a huge stress on the two of them (and us).
I was hoping to trap Catenary this morning and get him into the vet
before work.  Not a chance!  He approached the trap, got his head into
it and appeared to have a flashback.  He leapt straight up into the air
and then tore off as if pursued by demons.

I opened the back end of the trap and left the food there so he might
get accustomed to it a bit.  I guess I'll try again tomorrow and
Thursday if necessary.  After that the vet won't take him until next
Monday.  At least they're about two blocks away, so there's no long car
rides to deal with.