We got her! We got the momma cat!
She doesn't look any more pleased with me than the last time I saw her that close. Poor thing.
So I'll be taking her in to the clinic this morning. I may look into the vouchers the humane society has for spaying them even more cheaply, because I think there may be another coming.
This wasn't the first cat we trapped. Early in the evening, we caught her sister. If you recall, there were the two sisters all along, and I always saw them together, but hadn't seen Sister 1 since the kittens came about. While I was pleased to see she was still around. I was a bit perplexed what to do with her, because when we looked close at her, she's also bagged up as if she's nursing a litter somewhere. (sigh)
Well, I didn't want to make her abandon those kittens to starve, wherever they are, so we let her go, but I immediately regretted it, wondering if we'd ever catch her again, and when exactly the right time would be to catch her again, if not now. Perhaps the kittens would survive her being gone just a couple days. I didn't know. But I wasn't prepared to catch two, I wanted the momma of this set of kittens. I was pleased to see that she was REALLY hungry and went immediately to the food we have on the porch, so she didn't just run off, she hasn't given up on us, we may be able to get her again.
I was pleased, at least, when I woke up, to see we had gotten our target cat, who is now in the back of the Ranger in the cage, feeling pretty surly.