Operasi Quack, Plan B

I spotted the Quack twice this morning. He was at the playground.

My friend, Agnes, had already made plans to bring her trap over and we'd try to catch the Quack this morning.

But by 10am, four workers had come to the playground to do some construction work and it was very noisy.

Anyway, Agnes arrived with her trap and baked fish as bait.

 The first thing to do was to cage Rosie with Ginger so that Rosie won't be accidentally trapped.

That's Agnes fixing the bait onto the hook. This "model" is the same as the two that were donated to us (lent out to rescuers and not returned yet), but Agnes' trap has been modified according to needs, so we can call it an "experienced trap". Agnes says every rescuer who borrowed it will modify it and make it more efficient and also "safer" for the animals. For example, two wooden pieces have been inserted at the sides to buffer the noise from the shutting of the trap door and cardboard has been placed to cover the inside walls of the trap to minimise the injury caused by the trapped animal banging its face onto the walls of the trap.

Yes, this is an "experienced trap".

And you'd notice I have no guts in using the trap, hence I coined "CNRM" from the commonly used "TNRM", where C = Care. I hear there is also FNR where F = Feed.  This must be coined by someone who also prefers not to trap. Granted, trapping is much more efficient but it takes a lot of guts to trap.

I remember a friend used the trap once and she was so traumatised by the experience (more traumatised than the cat), she swore she would never ever use the trap again. I can certainly empathise with that.

So yes, we need gutsy trappers.

 We were all set. A short trail was laid on newspapers.

The workers were curious and amused and came over to see what we were doing. When we explained, they pointed at Timmy who was at the far end of the playground, mooching around from blue dustbin to blue dustbin. The blue dustbins are Timmy's safehouses.

"Is that the cat you want to trap?", they asked, pointing to Timmy.

No, no, we said. Timmy's the good cat. We want to trap the naughty one, he's bigger and white with grey patches.

They said they would alert us if any cat got trapped. I think they were more amused than anything else. I bet they were saying, "ha ha....you think it's so easy to trap a cat?"

We waited inside the house. Agnes said the sound of the door banging shut is very loud and we should be able to hear it.

Then, we thought it may be better to bring the trap inside my compound since the workers had started work and it was very noisy outside. 

 So we brought it in and placed it on top of my garbage compartment.

This would be the end point of the ledge-route that the Quack takes. He comes from the ledge, then he jumps down here. The fish bait ought to attract him.

And we waited.

 Yes, we waited.

Operasi Quack, Plan B was officially called off after 1 1/2 hours or so.

The Quack did not appear, Ginger was snarling at Rosie and poor Rosie was whimpering and pleading to be let out of the cage.

Round Two - Humans - 0, The Quack - 2.

Ding, Ding, Ding!