Now is a good time to ask for help if you need to humanely trap a stray cat. You can borrow a trap from the Ulster County SPCA, from T.A.R.A. or the Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption. If you do put out a trap, you must check it every 15 minutes, put a towel over it, and either take the cat in the trap right away to the spay/neuter van, keep him safe overnight in a garage, or do not do it. You must be aware that at anytime you could catch a skunk, raccoon, or opossum in the trap. You could also trap a nursing mother cat or a neighbor's pet. If a mother cat has kittens and brings them around, you must wait until the kittens are able to drink from a bowl. Then you can take the kittens to a shelter and try to trap the mother. But, in only six weeks, a female cat can have a new set of babies. So it must be taken very seriously and carefully planned before anyone traps cats. The organizations will explain all this to you. I will never forget when I put out a trap, only to catch a large raccoon. I put on a double set of overalls, double gloves and straddling the trap I managed to push it open with a broom handle. It was very scary, but the raccoon did figure out how to get out and took off.

The people you need to contact for traps are: Ulster County SPCA at 845-331-5377, RVAA-Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption at 845-647-4406 ,T.A.R.A. or The Animal Rights Alliance, Inc. at 845-754-7100. They have a van in Middletown each week, but their headquarters are located on Route 209, Westbrookville, NY.

* * * I thought you might want to know what plants are very dangerous for animals. I found this list by joining Dr. Mercola's website and in turn found Dr. Karen Becker, D.V. M. and her very informative website.

The plants to be very careful of are: Amaryllis, cilantro, the roots of the cyclamen, castor bean, oleander, azalias and rhododendrons, tulips, English Ivy, and the Sago Palm for both dogs and cats. Marijuana can cause depression to the central nervous system of pets as well as seizures and coma. Lilies are very toxic for cats. If you want to know the rest of the list go to Dr. Karen Becker's site.