Well, last night proved to be a tie in the land of Feral Cats

There is one cat in particular that has proven to be Dusty's arch nemesis.  It is a black cat and it was born in May (we believe), it has a sibling that is black and white.  The black and white one is more timid than this black one.  While the black and white one spends a lot of time under the bushes in the front yard, this black cat is more brave.  It likes to sleep on our garbage cans, under the truck, and on top of Dusty's car.  The day after we brought it home, freshly painted, it slid down the windshield and down the hood.  Being a feral little booger, it's nails obviously weren't clipped and the paint job was ruined with tiny little claw scratches.  This same cat sits outside the garage door (we leave the door cracked so the garage has air for when the dogs are in there avoiding the sun) and just sit there so Archie and Chico bark at it like crazy.  This cat is not scared of sprinklers and runs through them, when I spray it with a hose, it doesn't react.  To Dusty, this black cat is his white whale.

We hadn't seen the cat in a couple days, and it had obviously not fallen for our trick of food in the trap.  But last night, it reappeared it's mangy little tail to taunt us.  Dusty set up the trap in a new location, next to where it sleeps and covered it up so it looked like a cozy little den.  A few minutes later, we heard the trap go off.  Dusty ran out there giddy as a school boy to see his prize.  It wasn't the black cat.  So, at 9:45 last night, he went and dropped that cat off in the field in hopes of setting up the trap again to catch this black cat.  Who was out there watching him. 

To help lure the cat into the trap he got several plastic spoons.  He put wet cat food on all of them and did a trail to the trap.  The last spoon rested just inside, so once you tasted it you could go in just a bit further to get more and be trapped for good.  This morning we ran out to see if we had anything.

All we could find were empty spoons.  Even the one partially inside the trap.  Dusty was so disappointed.

I put the trap away for the day, it's supposed to be 105 and I don't think a cat would do well sitting in that heat until we got home to release it and I would break down and cry if I came home and a cat was dead because we hadn't released it in time.  I don't need that guilt.

But tonight, the hunt is on....