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Sunshine
in the Woods
July 12 - August 3, 2003 — missing 22 days.
Complete
Cover Sunshine is lost in an area teeming with foxes. This brave kitty
finally makes it home after a few ingenious adjustments to the trapping
routine.
What
a huggable bundle of fur!
Because
Sunshine had escaped once before three years ago and came to Barbara
when she sat quietly in the woods behind their house, I kept on encouraging
Barbara to sit quietly in the same woods in addition to trapping for
this latest escape. Because the last positive sighting of Sunshine
was of him running from a ridgetop back down into the woods, my guess
was that even though there were foxes known to be living right in
the woods, he probably still considered this area to be his Safe Spot.
Despite
carting a big bowl of Sunshines favorite treat — spaghetti sauce!
—
into the woods and sitting quietly
for 7 hours, trapping, flyering, etc nothing seemed to be bringing
the golden snuggle bunny home. In the end it was making a few changes
to the routine that brought him home. Just a few days prior to trapping
him, a fox had been inadvertantly trapped (then relocated), the trap
was hosed off, and the time of day for trapping was changed. The result?
A successful trapping and a happy reunion for Sunshine and his family!
Wonderful
news! My baby is finally home safe and sound after 22 days!
We
were finally able to trap him -- right behind our house about 100
feet away in the woods. The advice and the profile for timid indoor-only
cats was dead on. We kept getting reports of "sightings" quite a
distance from our house, and we checked them out, of course, but
I insisted that my husband keep setting a trap in the woods right
behind our house. Sunshine finally "took the bait" of sardines around
7:00 p.m. Saturday evening - three weeks after he first got outside.
I'm ecstatic of course to have my baby home, and he's been hanging
close to Mommy purring and sleeping as close to me as he can get.
I think
we had success, not only because we kept trapping, but because we
had trapped a fox on Thursday night, which I had my husband "relocate"
to an area several miles away -- with woods and a lake. I'm sure
there are other foxes in our area, but this may have been the one
whose territory was right behind our house and who had Sunshine
so terrified. My husband had witnessed a fox chasing a cat on Wednesday
night up in the cemetery behind our house -- just got a fleeting
glimpse of the cat, which was yellow. It may have been Sunshine
or another yellow stray that we've seen, but I truly think getting
rid of that fox allowed Sunshine to finally breathe and get brave
enough to come out to the trap Saturday evening.
Thanks
everyone for the advice and support. I cannot say enough how grateful
I am! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm a very happy woman!
Barbara
(Sunshine's Very Happy Mommy)
.
. .survives 22 days and nights in the woods. . .
Read
Sunshine's full story here.
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