Trapper Tricks & Tips – Liz Pease

This week, we have the next installment of our occasional series called Trapper Tips & Tricks, which will profile folks who are involved in trapping community cats. This week we bring you tips from Liz Pease, former executive director of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, who has been trapping cats for 15 years. Liz was interviewed by Stacy on CCP Episode 51.

Why did you become a trapper?

In 1994, I started feeding a family of cats that showed up behind the fire station where my first husband worked. He mowed the grass for MRFRS and so I knew Stacy through that. I had read about MRFRS and their work in the local paper, over the years and I knew there was something else I should be doing to help these cats. So, I called Stacy and asked her what to do.

She put me in touch with the MRFRS Feral Cat Committee, and one of the ladies from that group taught me how to trap. I thought she was just going to come out and do it for me, but instead, she showed me how, and I’ve always been grateful for that. I would have missed out on a lot of fun (and zany!) experiences if she’d just trapped the cats and that had been it.

Also, Stacy immediately identified me as a willing volunteer (or sucker, depending on how you look at it!), and quickly got me trapping all over the place (see below). It wasn’t long before I was MRFRS’s sole trapping volunteer, with all trapping calls, for both feral (we didn’t say “community cats” back then) and stray cats, coming to me. I loved it.

Tell us about your first trapping experience.

I was trapping the mom cat and kitten I’d been feeding for several months, but then Stacy asked if I could talk to a couple of other people who were also feeding cats locally and help them out. I’d never trapped before, but all of sudden I found myself setting traps all over the place—and taking upwards of 15 cats to my very first MRFRS Sunday spay/neuter clinic (in the back of my mom’s minivan, since I didn’t have a car big enough to carry all those cats!). I felt like a celebrity arriving at that clinic—and I was totally hooked.

Why do you support TNR?

On a small scale—the one or two cat backyard colonies—it makes the caretakers feel really good to know they are doing the right thing for the cat they’ve been looking after. On a larger scale and in the grander scheme of things, it just works. It means less competition for resources among cats, and therefore means healthier lives for these cats, while allowing them to remain in the home they know and love: the outdoors.

If you could give someone one piece of trapping advice, what would it be?

I once read that while trapping, you should “think about pink lemonade.” The point being that you need to be Zen and think about anything BUT “I have to trap that cat!!” (Much like when you’re taking your pet cat to the vet.) You have to take your energy down a notch and stay cool. If you’re a naturally high-energy or hyper person, trapping may not be for you. Also, get comfortable with the occasional need to get up close and personal with raccoons…and skunks… and woodchucks… and birds… and possums.

What is your favorite type of trap?

I love the Tru-Catch 30D. It’s quiet and smooth and safe… but I also had quite a love affair going with the old Laura Burns folding drop trap that MRFRS had. It was the only drop trap I could fit in my car, and that thing was amazing. It was so beat up and warped, but I caught many cats with it that I never would have caught otherwise. I once caught four adult cats with it at once, which I was not expecting, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when they all went under the trap. I only had two box traps with me to transfer them into, though, so the person I was with (my mom!) had to sit on the drop trap for 20 minutes while I went to get more box traps!

What is the most challenging part of doing TNR?

For me, it has always been the people who insist that their ideas about what makes a good life for a cat (living indoors, with human companionship) are the only way. I have been shocked by how many community cat advocates seem to feel this way, and are willing to force an indoor life on a cat that has lived outside its whole life. It’s true, a life outdoors has many dangers, and I wish that all cats were cut out to be pampered house cats, but right now, that’s not reality. We owe it to community cats to respect their ideas of “home” whenever possible.

What is the most rewarding part?

I always love working with the people. When I was at MRFRS, I did a lot of backyard TNR, and helped a lot of people do their own. It brought me into some neighborhoods that I never would have visited otherwise, and led me to talk to many people I otherwise never would have. I have met some incredible people who really cared about cats, and it has helped me learn to set my judgment aside and keep on talking until I find the common ground that another person and I share.

Also, the moment of letting a TNRed cat go is amazing. You arrive at their home site, and they immediately know they’re home before you even take them out of the car. Even if they have been totally silent since you trapped them, they start rocking around in the trap because they’re so eager to get home. And then when you open that trap door and they rocket out, it’s the best feeling.

A lot of times they stop and look back once they’re a safe distance away, as if they are saying “Really? I’m free? I can go home now?”—and then they’re off. It feels great to know that you are helping them have a better life in the place they belong.

Anything else you want to share with us?

I’ve probably said enough, but I think my two biggest things are: 1) Anyone can trap (well, unless you are a totally hyper person, as I said above—in my experience, your energy will scare the cats off), and 2) Involve the caretakers, at least in watching the traps, and hopefully in teaching them how to trap, too. We need more people who can (and are willing to) trap. Give people a chance to learn how cool it is!