Out of Pod Experience

CCP Affinity, CCP Vertex and another colleague whose devname escapes me, have just spent the last hour trying to catch a kitten that is living in a large pile of rocks across the road from our apartment block. We waited patiently listening to him meow to establish his position, then lured him out of the rocks with tuna. He ate the tuna, but we were unable to get a hold of him to take him to safety. We are going back tomorrow with a cat carrier to have another go at rescuing this kitten, and I wondered if any of you have any tips that might help us?

I was going to suggest a stinky fish for the bait, but you already got that part down. Maybe lace it with some sedative.

Set up a deadfall trap, remember to set the weight of the deadfall 5x the weight of your target

You could rub the tuna on your body, before you feed it. That way it gets accustomed to your smell.

It could take a while though, before it feels safe enough to hang out with you. Also you will want to cage it yourself, before the dog catcher arrives. It will sense the danger and try to run when he gets there.

That or do the sedatives, though I don't know if the legal sedatives work well or not. It could always wonder off before it falls asleep and be hard to retrieve it.

You want to get some cat treats (soft dry treats). Throw one on the ground and then keep luring her closer to you.

Make sure you are seated low on the curb and be very passive. You don't need 5 people standing around. Just have one of you do it that is the most empathetic and calm demeanor person. Not someone who OOO's and AAAAH's every time she does something cute.

Don't be afraid to make eye contact with a cat. And talk in a soft voice.

As the treats get closer to you, it'll take a few attempts but just get her to take the food out of your hand, if she's hungry enough she'll go for it.

At this point, you might still have a hard time catching the cat itself, but you'll have a friend. If she's friendly enough and used to people, she might even start to follow you around. Depending on how young the kitten is, as soon as you start feeding it and she starts to like you, she might immediately take to you and you won't have a problem getting the cat picked up if she's young enough.

Make sure you have pungi sticks in the pit, so it can't get out and get away

If you think you have the time to wait for the kitten to get used to you, then go for the slow build up of trust.

If not, then you will have to trap it under a box or other container. One thing I do with insects that happen to get into the house is that I take a clear cup or container and enclose them onto the surface where they are. After that I take a piece of paper or something and slide it underneath to create a fully sealed container. I then take it outside and release it.

You could do the same thing to the kitten with a box trap. Trap the kitten in a box and then slide a piece of cardboard or something underneath so as to seal the creature in. From there you can more easily coax the creature into a more suitable transport container.

Dress up in giant cat suits and meow incessantly at it :D

But yeah, what Micheal said.

Also, cats ♥ Good luck!

Obviously need a few SeBo's

SeBos, remote SeBos, and heavy dictor with 2 infinipoints.