Rachel: Hi little baby- oh no!
[Sonnie making pspsps sounds]
Sonnie noticed a cat with a bad eye on one of her walks with Khione.
We came back with treats to see if we could get any closer.
Sonnie: Smells good, right?
Sonnie: I hope you like it! Here.
Sonnie: Good girl!
[Rachel laughing]
Sonnie: Good girl! Rachel: She's taking it.
Rachel: Are you gonna run away now?
Sonnie: Oh, I have more!
Rachel: She's just hiding down there!
Rachel: Aww, what a sweetheart!
Sonnie: You can see her from the other side.
Rachel: Yeah. Ope, she's back.
Sonnie: Hi! Did you like it? Did you eat it that fast?
[Rachel laughs]
Sonnie: I don't wanna give you too much.
Rachel: She's like how Nagi used to be.
Rachel: If you gave him food then he'd take it and then go hide somewhere with it.
Sonnie: That eye is so bad. If she even has an eye anymore.
Rachel: I think it... it looks like it's shriveling up.
Rachel: It looks like she got scratched, probably by another cat, and that
Rachel: that eye has been like... shrinking.
Rachel: Because you can still see the eye. You can see the pupil and you can see the scratch.
Rachel: I think it'll be a little harder to get her into a cat carrier, but...
Sonnie: I know...
[Sonnie making pspsps sounds]
Sonnie: Oooh!
Rachel: Aww, she wants more.
Sonnie: I don't have any more.
Sonnie: Well, I do have more, but I don't want you to get an upset tummy.
Rachel: We are back to try to capture the kitty.
We followed her around the back of the building which seemed to be the territory she took for herself.
Rachel: Is it too far away?
Here you go.
Oh no!
Rachel: She's coming.
She felt most comfortable interacting with us with a fence between us.
She was clearly very skittish, so we decided to see if we could build up some trust with
her over the next few days, with the goal being getting her into a cat carrier and to
the vet to have her eye looked at.
Rachel: I brought a carrying case for her.
...which I put a little bit of food in, to see if we can get her used to the case.
Maybe she'll go hang out in there for now
instead of sleeping directly on top of all these air conditioning units.
She's curious.
Rachel: Ope, she found the food.
Look, she's so happy in there!
Sonnie: I wonder if she'll hang out? Yeah, she's laying down.
Sonnie: She looks comfortable.
I came back with a cat carrier, which she liked, but if we tried to get close at all
she’d leave it and run away.
She also wasn’t building up trust quickly enough considering her eye, so I decided to
get a trapping cage.
Rachel: Yeah, she's so happy! She just laid down right away!
Sonnie: She's so cute.
Rachel: So we haven't been able to catch the cat through normal
trying to gain her trust methods.
The thing about this cage is, the cat we're trying to capture
has already been captured and released.
Because she's got the nick in her ear.
So if she's really smart, maybe she remembers being captured
in a cage like this and she won't go inside.
So I'm going to try to maybe disguise it a little bit.
For one thing, I'm going to cut out pieces of cardboard
to put on the floor
so that she's not walking over grating.
She or he. We'll see.
And make it more natural for her to walk into.
Haku. Haku!
One arm. That's what you can fit inside.
Okay, Haku. What if I cut open the other side?
Haku, look! It's open now.
There you go!
Okay, you can have fun for a while. I'll take it later.
All right, I'll come back later.
So I've cut out a cardboard base. I tested it again.
Hopefully he/she will still go into our trap!
As I feared, she knew not to step on the plate.
Sonnie: She's so smart.
Rachel (whispering): Oh no!
I came back several more times with the trapping cage with it disguised in various ways, with
more smelly and appetizing bait, and even with a long string so I could manually trigger
it, but she never set more than two feet inside the cage again.
There were several areas around the block where people left out food for the local strays,
so there was no way for me to withhold food for a couple days and get her desperate enough
to risk the trapping cage again.
Aaand there she goes.
I was at a loss for what else I could try for a few more days and just spent some normal
time feeding her, when I realized I could get her to chase food and lead her around
her little territorial area, as long as I stayed far enough away.
This made me think I might be able to lead her to a more open area with enough space
to set a drop trap.
Rachel: Since nothing else has worked, I'm trying to build a drop trap now.
Kinda like old school, the first thing you think about when you want to capture an animal.
It seems like really... almost too simple.
But you can get the cat to walk UNDER the cage, which is important.
And so that's what we're going to try to do.
I keep calling her "her". I don't know if it's a girl.
I did the same thing with Poki.
Jun: I think it's a "he" since all our cats are "he".
Jun: Boys!
Rachel: We'll use both. One of us is bound to be right.
Everything is already cut. Just need to put it together!
I just finished the base for the drop trap.
Now I'm just gonna spend the next 45 minutes tying this net around the base.
The website that I was going off of for building this
said it's better NOT to tie it around the top
because you want the net to have some give.
Jun: The funny (or not funny) thing is
has a fence that has a sign that says
"We are extra alert for strangers/ weird/suspicious people."
Rachel: "Keep an eye out for weird people."
Jun: It was exactly about you, right
Rachel: Except everyone there knows us now.
We're talked to the building manager...
we've talked to... most of the residents have driven in and parked and seen us.
The guy on the motorcycle has parked and seen-
I've talked to like everyone.
Jun: How do you like it here, buddy?
Rachel: ...They're all very nice.
Rachel: And they're all just impressed that we're trying to catch a cat
even though we're not professionals.
Jun: You're going to impress them even more with this handmade, giant, DIY trap.
Rachel: I really think they're just going to think there's something wrong with me.
Jun: ...Which cost quite a lot.
Rachel: $70...
Jun: And with the cage that totally didn't work out, adds an extra $50.
Rachel: And then we have to park... in the city...
Rachel: It's costing a bit of money...
Jun: A little less than $200 already, before you even take her to the vet.
Rachel: But it's gonna be worth it if we can help her.
Jun: Yeah. I really hope we can find a good owner.
Rachel: If we can't, then... all of this is going to suck for literally everyone.
Haku! I need this!
It took a lot longer to get the netting on than I thought it would.
So we have to wait until the next day to finish it.
This part is mostly done.
I have the door on.
I have the anchor flap.
The only thing is finishing the prop stick.
Then we need to test it. Then we'll be good to go.
Poor Jun injured himself so I finished up.
But I think we're done!
I sanded off the bottom to round it out a little bit.
I got a string through it. Everything else is set up and ready.
I'm gonna test it out on our cats real quick.
I know outside we won't be using it on carpet, but these floors dent surprisingly easily.
So I don't think we should be dropping... even though this is very, very light
weight... I don't think we should drop it on our floor.
Rachel: Haku, eat ya food. Eat ya food.
Haku, I'm gonna catch you.
He doesn't even care.
Duh duh duh duh duh... Real life we gotta move quick!
Much faster than this!
Haku! C'mere! Haku!
Come through the door!
He doesn't care 'cause it's our house.
Come here!
Yeah! Come here!
Good boy! Look at you!
Haku, you're so good at being captured!
Such a good boy!
I have a rubber band around this to make it harder to move it up and down
because I was afraid that this would just bounce out when we do this on concrete.
And then because we don't have a door that shuts (vertically) down,
I have this.
Which we'll put down real quick.
And then I have wires to wire that shut.
And then if the cat goes past this
then I can slide that down and use the real door.
Otherwise this can work temporarily.
Because our car will be right there.
Think it works. I think it's gonna work, Jun.
Kitty's under here. She keeps coming out when I shake the food.
I've set up the drop trap here.
It's not where I wanted to, but this is the only spot flat enough
that there aren't spaces for her to run out
after we catch her.
Just gonna see what we can do.
We talked to the people who are on the other side of this.
So they know we're here doing this.
We're not just trespassing.
After spending many hours with her over the past two and a half weeks, I knew the areas she
liked to hang out when I entered her territory with her.
My plan was to lead her around the back of the air conditioners and under the one on
the far left—a spot she frequently hid.
Several days earlier I had practiced leading her around with food and she never seemed
to fill up—just like Poki—so I wasn’t too worried about feeding her too much.
But I did need to toss food somewhat quickly or she’d lose interest and retreat back
to a previous hiding area.
If I moved my feet she’d also become wary and try to retreat, so I had to take things
slowly.
She was so smart and never gave me more than one chance with a trap, so I knew I’d only
get one shot to catch her or she’d never go under the drop trap again.
The instructions I read online all emphasized to wait until the cat settles down to eat
out of the food dish you placed at the back of the trap.
But she wouldn’t go for it.
She’d only eat the food I threw, even though there was a dish full of the same exact food
right in front of her.
So I realized I’d have to trigger the trap even though she'd never settle down.
I also asked Jun to back farther away since she didn’t know him at all and kept stopping
to stare at him.
That meant he wasn’t able to keep filming when I triggered the trap, but I thought it
was more important to catch her than film.
And...
SUCCESS!
Rachel: Oh my god, I am literally shaking!
She leapt at the netting like a rocket trying to take off so I had to keep my weight on
the trap while Jun helped hand me the connecting cage.
My heart was pounding so quickly and my hands were literally shaking!
But I managed to transfer her successfully!
Rachel: Go put her in the air conditioning in the car. I'll take care of everything else.
Rachel: We got the kitty! I'm on the way to the vet now.
You can see how red my face is.
The weather app says it feels like 43°C
which is over 107°F.
Which is the same it's been the entire 2.5 weeks I've been trying to catch her.
I would have been worried about her being out in the heat this whole time
if I didn't know, you know, over the 2.5 weeks
that she was still genki and active the entire time.
We made it to the vet!
But because of corona...
Hi baby.
...everyone waits in the car with their pets.
You don't go wait inside the building right now.
The vet said her eye is still there, but it's been pushed back into the socket, likely
due to an injury from a fight, and her third eyelid has shut permanently over it.
It’s called pthisis bulbi, which is basically a fancy term for a shrunken, non-functional
eye.
He said it actually doesn’t need treatment right now, and that removing it would only
cause her additional stress at the moment.
She was so nervous that he didn’t want to do much testing or anything that day, but
he gave her broadline parasite treatment for some fleas and managed to trim her nails at
our request.
He said he can’t accurately test for diseases like feline leukemia for at least a month,
so until then we’re just supposed to keep her separated from our cats.
Hopefully by then she’ll be a little more comfortable with us.
All right, we made it back and we've finished preparing Jun's room.
So we've got food dish here...
water bowl 1, water bowl 2.
Jun: Away from the litter.
Rachel: Yeah. Litter farthest away.
She has tons of spots to sleep.
These will be a little... she can hide a little.
She's got a box here.
All of the wires have been removed from this room.
or covered in saran wrap, like Jun did there.
Jun: I was gonna film my next cooking video in this room.
But that won't happen until I confirm (she doesn't have any transmissible diseases).
Rachel: For at least a month...
I'll turn this this way so it's easier for her to run away from us.
There you go!
Assuming things go well and she’s not gravely ill and she does adjust to indoor life, our
intention is to adopt her out to another family.
There are so many stray cats
here that aren’t suited to life on the streets that I think right now the best thing
we’re in a position to do is foster the ones who need it the most, take care of their
medical bills and then help them find new homes.
Jun likes the idea a lot and even wants to build a fostering room in our future house!
Anyway, that's our hope for the future!
For now we’ll have to see how this kitty does.
Here, I'm gonna, again, turn her around
so she sees the exit and it's away from us.
And then I'll just open from this side.
There you go!
Let us know if you have any suggestions for names, or know of anyone in Japan who may
want to adopt her if things work out!
There you go. Good girl!
We should let her explore this area and become comfortable with it.
All right, sweetie. I'm sorry you're scared but you have food and water.
You can explore. We'll see you later!