So, thanks to the ball of raffia string and Gerald, we’ve invited Samantha into the house and will coax her to stay until after delivery (anytime from 3rd Feb to 10th Feb) and after she is spayed.
It wasn’t exactly a difficult operation. Gerald came in, Samantha came in and pull the raffia string tied to the door handle, that’s it.
Samantha jumped a little when the door was closed by pulling the raffia string. She did not go berserk this time around.
Gerald definitely helped. If Gerald hadn’t come in first, Samantha wouldn’t have come in at all. I tried it yesterday afternoon with food when Samantha was alone in the porch. No way. She didn’t even step into the house.
This ball of raffia string has helped us catch Riley and now, Samantha.
Of course I didn’t know what to expect, so I cleared the storeroom this morning, making sure there are no dangerous “landslide” spots. This is just in case we cannot get Samantha to go upstairs and she wants to use the storeroom as her delivery room.
But Samantha did explore up the stairs, which is good.
I’ve wrapped up the bed with a piece of tarpaulin. Creamy used this room last time and defecated on the bed! He didn’t know how to use the litter box. Hopefully Samantha knows.
I cleared this cupboard too, and will put a box with towels inside.
Gerald was absolutely at home inside the house. He even went to the bathroom to use the litter box. How smart is he? He wasn’t even interested to get out.
Riley was the happiest of all – she invited Samantha to play with her.
Note to new readers: Riley and Samantha were/are street cats on our road and Riley used to follow Samantha everywhere. It’s almost like Samantha was Riley’s mentor. Or a big sister? Or her mother? I doubt it. Can a calico give birth to a grey tabby? I suppose they can, right? I searched on Google. One site said absolutely NO. Other sites say it’s possible. I haven’t done enough research on it.
But here’s what I’m sure of. When Minnie was a young kitten who had just given birth. Yes, she was a kitten herself. I saw her carrying two babies on the street. One was grey and one was definitely 100% calico. So we now know that the grey one was Smurfy (Minnie brought Smurfy to our house during the MCO to ask for help). I never saw the calico after that. But Samantha turned up about two years later. And at that time, Samantha had the same body conformation as Smurfy – sleek and long, like a cheetah’s. So there is a possibility that Samantha is Minnie’s lost-daughter!! Which means, Samantha is Smurfy’s sister (that is why we gave her an “S” name).
So is that possible? That means we have reunited Minnie with her long-lost daughter? What are the chances of that happening?
Tabs isn’t exactly very happy with her space infringed upon by both Samantha and Gerald.
Later, we let Gerald out. But Samantha won’t be going out for at least two months or more now, unless she escapes.
Samantha did try to escape by digging at the stainless steel netting on the windows. Those aren’t exactly cat-escape proof. We are getting new netted windows installed but that would be in April.
Let’s hope Samantha will not escape.