Kitten Paparazzi

 We recently trapped 20 cats in Pueblo Park from Dec. 1-3. Sixteen were neutered, all were ear tipped, and released back to the park. With the permission of Summerlin Council, caretaker Linda Akhuna has been braving the rugged terrain daily to provide food and water for the Pueblo Park community cats.

Akvhuna and the other caretakers wanted to TNR more of the cats in the park. Without the resources and knowledge to perform a mass trapping, their previous attempts were not that productive. C5 volunteers worked with another local animal welfare group to bring in traps, secure spay/neuter slots, and assist with transportation and staging.

Conditions were difficult for trapping. Much of the terrain where traps needed to be placed was in a wash and rugged. The first night, the trapping began too late and we had very little success, trapping only two. The next evening we returned earlier and managed to trap fourteen.We returned on the third successive evening targeting the remaining 10 holdouts in that section of the park. We caught four  including "Scrapper" one of the parks main Patriarchs.

Akhuna, and other caretakers worked hard this year to help socialize and adopt out many of the cats from the park. At one point this year, they estimate that there were over 60 cats  living in the park. After adoptions and some attrition, the various colonies now total around 33 cats. With 20  out  of 26 in one section, having been neutered for sure, Akhuna and the other caretakers are well on their way to supporting our ultimate goal: less kittens in the spring!