This page is meant to keep rescuers up-to-date on the latest calendar dates. It is meant to be fully fluid and will most likely change on a daily basis. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

If you are a local feeder, please read through these dates and important activities. They are essential in ensuring the success of this relocation.

The owner of the property will be demolishing the house at the end of this month. No other demolition/razing will take place. Clearing of the forest will take place sometime this early summer. This leaves us open to relocating the cats to the forest, and it will buy us more time to trap the cats for relocation.

The plan is going to be to gradually move the cats away from this house and shed which is serving as a sort of "base" for the cats and to a new area deep in the woods but accessible by local feeders. This site will be referred to as CatTown. See the Site Survey page for this location. Moving the cats to CatTown will serve the triple purpose of moving them away from the danger zone where the bulldozing will take place, removing them from the parking lot/side of the nursing home where they have become a nuisance, and finally encouraging them towards using their new temporary storage housing.

You may be able to reach CatTown by going through the storage facility located off of S Crater Road (you can see the storage bins in the satellite shot), but whatever choice you make, you should avoid attracting attention to your activities. The last thing we want is for a member of the public to follow a feeder into the woods to see what they are doing. It will be nothing illegal as we have obtained the owners permission. There doesn't appear to be a locked entry gate to enter the storage huts, but permission should be sought from the storage facility manager.

After they have been re-homed to CatTown and sometime after the demolition, we will begin the trapping process.

Educate Locals about upcoming event: It is our guess that locals keep their pets as outdor cats. They need to be kept up-to-date on upcoming trapping events and to keep their pets in on those appointed days. People wishing to "surrender" their pets will be counseled not to and perhaps given a Petersburg SPCA brochure. Either the local volunteer should go from house to house on foot, or if not possible, should leave a flyer at the door.

Train cats to come to feeding by hitting tin can: Setting a Pavlovian reaction in the cats will be crucial to migrating them to their new temporary shelter colony.

Move feed area: As mentioned above, the feed area will be gradually moved from it's present location in the overgrown area between the house and the nursing home to CatTown. Move the "feed spot" each day by 100 feet, approximately following the line as shown on the Site Survey page. Tap the can loudly and place the food down in the new area. We hope the cats aren't too wary of this procedure.

Construction of CatTown: We hope to put up 4 buildings (holding 5-7 cats each). This will hopefully create a strong draw for other cats to stay in this area. I will need some help with this. This will be a busy day as I will be also sealing the house from the cats. DONE

Sealing of house begins: We have received permission from the owner to enter the house and move junk around. Every room of the house will need to be searched for cats/litters. Plan is to begin with the rear bathroom, thoroughly going through it for cats/animals. Once this has been "cleared", it will now become the holding pen for all the junk in the bedroom. As the bathroom fills up with the junk, a way is cleared through the bed room. Eventually, the room will be divided into a cleared portion and junk portion. Working ones way to the bedroom door, the junk portion can now be moved into the clear area. Once the entire room as been cleared, work can begin in the living room, moving/tossing all that junk into the bedroom. The bedroom should easily hold all the junk from the living room leaving a good amount of breathing room. The kitchen will be handled in the same way.

Once all the rooms have been verified to contain no cats or litters, the front door will be shut to prevent further entry. The crawlspace under the house will then be checked and all entry points sealed. DONE

House Demolition: House will be demolished. Cats will hopefully be far enough away to not care..

Trapping: To be decided, but as many trapping days as will be needed to trap the whole colony. Hopefully, the weekdays will be enough time for them to forget about the trapping. Trapping will take place on the periphery of CatTown and will never be done in CatTown. This location must remain as the main gathering or safe point for the cats.

All calendar dates are now being housed in the vabestfriends Yahoo! group. Please visit that site for more details.