Daughter called saying she had located the weird noise she heard earlier, a kitten stuck in some cholla cactus. In the photo below the black you see just behind the chainlink fence is the kitten.



We had to cut the chainlink fence to get the kitten out. The cholla on top of the black in the above pic were stuck in the kitten. Used a pair of pliers to pull about 12-15 pieces of cholla off the kitten before we moved to the light by the tack shed to pull out the spines.






After an hour of pulling cactus spines we had removed 95% of the spines and decided to stop torturing the poor kitten. The rest would wait till the next day. The spines on the table were all pulled out of the kitten, some of them 3/4" to a inch deep. The kitten was amazingly docile. The only time she really squirmed was when she was turned on her back and I was pulling spines out of her belly and inside her back legs.



Kitten resting up from its ordeal.



Daughter just called a second kitten has been found this time in a prickly pear cactus. Not near as many spines. These kittens are likely feral. This brings my daughters animal count to 4 cats, 4 dogs, 6 chickens and at present 4 horses. Not to mention 2 kids, one feral daughter and a cowboy in the making.

good looking kids
tell her not to blink next thing you know they are driving off in your truck

What a mess. Glas we don't have plants like that around here. Honey locust, wild roses and blackberries are about as bad it it gets.

Didn't anyone ever tell that feral girl not to run with scissors? lol

I have caught many wild animals with cactus thorns in them. Have pulled many out of myself. That cholla breaks off and you have a chunk attached to to you. Seen a lot of cattle with a piece of cholla stuck on its head some place. Prickly pear has tiny little hair like stickers too. You pull out the big ones but those little ones make you get a rash and burn and itch for days. No way to pull them out.

Picked up a guy hitch hiking back in the 70's. He had a handfull of cholla flower buds that had not opened yet. Told me had some peyote. Having grown up in that part of CO I had never seen or heard of peyote growing there so asked him to see it. I never did tell him what it was.

Cholla, prickly pear and other cactus should be banned in AZ and NM just like trapping is. If we can save just one kitten it will be worth it!

Nice looking kitty and kids

I bet that little girl has Country feet. Callouses on the bottom from not wearing shoes.

She and her brother both run around bare footed. I don't know why they both don't have stickers in their feet every day.

You have far more critter compassion than me. I would have told her that it was time that the grandkids learn some hard life lessons and put that kitten out of its problem with a .22. Free roaming cats will make more.

But you're a kind dad and grandpa. I never had daughters or have any grand daughters so I haven't dealt with over tender female hearts much, outside of my wife's. And she is in a "need to know" situation when I need to put critters down or not.