Not Much Going On

Monday night I was back up Quartville road, to check on the food left Saturday.   All of it was gone, which did not surprise me.  There are many possible responsible parties--birds, deer, loose dogs, foxes, and also cats, if any still alive there.   I took a trap and set it but wanted to be home by 10:00 p.m.   I saw nothing there, in the time I sat and waited, mostly reading, in my car.  It was raining again.  

 I left out more food, took up the trap and went back to Thistle Creek to send a couple texts.   Thistle Creek is five miles back towards the nearest town.   You can get cell service there.   Around here people come to know where there is and isn't cell service.  

While I was sitting in my car there I noticed a large hole in a dirt bank.  A good ten inches across, obviously well used.  It was very dark by now.   To the right of the hole, maybe six feet away, in same dirt, was a smaller hole and it was there I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.   I sat quietly with the car lights on, so I could see, waiting.  More movement.   It was mice!   Lots of them, coming and going in swift dashes from that hole.   

I heard a yap behind me then.  I never could find its source but it sounded like a fox.  There was also a lone deer wandering around, as if bored.

I made a stop in Lebanon to pick up a trap some folks had for weeks.  I was home by a bit after 10:00 p.m. with chores still left to do.  

Today the rain is supposed to end for a few days I think.

Back up Quartzville

 The slide that has kept Quartzville road closed since mid December has been cleared now, as of last week.  The slide closed the road at mile 14.  We were trapping the cats at mile 15.  Today was the first day I could get up there.  I know I'll not find that poor young gray tux whom had not yet been caught when the slide happened.  It's haunted me to think about her.  I saw her on my game cam, two nights before I caught Tickle, who is likely her sister.   Although five more cats were caught after I caught Tickle, the gray tux on my game cam photo was never caught before that slide closed down the road.  Had to go look, and leave out food, just in case.

So I did.   

I got up there just after 9:00 a.m.  Fog had cleared just about the time I hit Sweet Home.

I was surprised to see that Green Peter Reservoir has quite a lot of water.   I'd already passed Foster Reservoir on the way up and Foster is its usual icky self for this time of year--very low and ugly.

I passed 15 or more cars and trucks pulled off along the road, most below the dam.  They fish the river.  Farther up, past Green Peter dam, there were still quite a few cars on the road, that is, for that road.

Rocky Top group camp, at mile 15, where we caught so many cats, was quiet and still closed.   I went in anyhow.  I picked up a lot of trash too.  People had been there and been messy.  I removed the shelter another lady put last November in the back side of the vault toilet covered area.  Someone had peed on it.  There were tampon pieces and also dirty wet toilet paper in the covered entry.  The vault toilet is closed and locked so I guess people decide to use the covered entry anyhow.  It was disgusting.  

I put out food multiple places, called and called, just to let any cat nearby know I was there, just in case you know.  Finally I left.   Some people in pickups had pulled up and were putting on farmer john wet suits.  I asked if they were fishing or?   They were rock hounding and go right into Whiskey Creek there.  So they need wet suits to do that.  The water is cold.  Rock hounding is big in this area.

I gave them my phone number and asked if they'd keep an eye out for the cat.  I'd already told them the story.  They said they would.  

I moseyed back home then, driving across Green Peter dam, to take a couple photos.  Stopped on the far side of Foster Reservoir too, at the boat ramp.   Foster is not pretty this time of year.

I'm not surprised I didn't see the cat.  Those cats were only out after dark anyhow.  It was a trip I had to make, just to get some food up there and maybe I'll be out there soon all night, just to see.

Here's where the slide was I think.  Looks like it could easily do some more sliding.

Some of the Rocky Top Trash.  I picked all of it up around the parking lot too.

Whiskey Creek as it cascades beneath Quartzville road down to the Quartzville creek arm of Green Peter Reservoir.

Rocky Top bridge

Green Peter Dam from the south side.  Quartzville Road is over on the other side.

Green Peter Reservoir is way fuller than it was last I was up there in December.

On the way back home I stopped here in a boat ramp parking lot on Foster Reservoir.  The parking lot was littered in debris.  The lake was far away due to low water level and the boat ramp closed.

I got back home around 2:30.   I suppose I should do some chores.

Rain Stops Finally

 We endured a lot of rain.   Pineapple express thing.   

Way too much rain.  My yard is sinky mud.  We also had wind.  Fortunately the neighbors massive evergreen did not fall.   It is not well tended.  By this afternoon, all was calm and dry.

This morning I returned Stormy, the long hair young gray male.  He was neutered yesterday.

Afterwards, I went to Gleaners and worked several hours.  I displayed bread, loads of it.  We always have more bread than anything else.  Then helped display canned goods and juice (we rarely have much of this and very little variety).   

Then it was adoptee box filling time.  I was sent a trainee, a younger man.   He learned fast.  

I was home by 3:30 or 4:00.  Collapse time.   But I wasn't that tired.

Since I missed distribution last week I had a week of creative dining, and finished off nearly everything in my fridge.

Mostly I ate the stew, potatoes, carrots and onions bioled.

Don't worry I like it fine.

Today I have bread again, a couple of bananas, some broccoli, a couple oranges, a pepper, a can of chili, a few other things.  There was not a great deal of food, except for bread, so I kept what I took limited so everyone could get some.  R, the lead today, had made an appeal that all do this so everyone got something.  There are a couple of leechy people there, who do as little as possible and take as much as possible.  I don't like them.

I got six eggs.  I was happy about that.  Inflation is ramping up again.  Gas has gone up in the last month by over $.40 per gallon, among other nasty price increases that are really difficult.  Our country is falling apart, at least the country we once knew.  Some nights I cry to think about it.  Especially the cozying up with Russia and turning backs on long time friends.  

Ten Cats Fixed Yesterday in Portland

 The FCCO clinic yesterday was a training clinic.  The FCCO, in conjunction with United Spay Alliance, is training vets who are interested in helping their communities, with how to's on high volume spay neuter, anesthesia, spay techniques, etc.  Unfortunately no Linn County vets had signed up yesterday, (I asked), always hopeful.   We still have no affordable options in Linn County.  We can get a spay or neuter plus rabies shot for ferals in Corvallis for $100 but that isn't a doable cost for feral colonies, only onesies and twosies now and then.  

Thursday and Friday the couple began trying to catch cats, out at the Seven Mile colony, this time in a different barn.  They had FCCO reservations for them yesterday.  A few weeks ago, I took  14 cats from the tractor/chicken barn, out in the field, up to FCCO to be fixed.. This second colony reside in the loft of the goat barn.  I'd only taken one cat thus far from the goat barn to be fixed--a classic torti adult.

Those tractor barn cats are fed by the wife of the 80 plus year old couple.

The goat barn cats are the domain of the husband.  And its a difficult barn.  The goats occupy the ground level. The cats live in the loft and aren't routinely seen.  In fact they had no idea how many might be living in that barn loft.  They are fed down in the narrow space available just inside the door.

Somehow he fit my drop trap inside that narrow space and had been feeding under it.  Thursday night, he caught two under the drop trap.  I finally saw how he'd rigged it, so he'd even have room to drop the trap, by pulling a cord.   He'd run the cord forward, from the drop trap stand, that holds the trap up, so the cats can go under it and eat, to a caribeener hooked near the stairs, then back over the trap and through a hole he'd drilled in the metal wall of the barn.   OUtside, I saw a ladder leaned against the side of the barn.   He'd stood on the ladder, peeking at the trap through the hole and yanked the cord from the ladder.

Anyhow, I removed the drop trap after he caught two under it, and set traps outside and inside the barn, and by Thursday night, five in all were caught.   Friday, they were busy, so I went back and forth setting and checking traps and by Friday night, we had nine cats ready to go.   She checked the traps left set up til 11:00 p.m. and I told her I'd check them on the way to Portland yesterday with whomever was caught.   There was indeed another cat in a trap yesterday morning.  I picked up the tenth cat and headed off to Portland with the ten.   

They do not know if there are more cats calling that barn home.   I had left them my second drop trap too, for her to try for the two still not fixed from the tractor barn.  

After checking in the cats in at the FCCO, I spent the day at the rest area sleeping in the back of my car.   I didn't have to wait too long.   The cats were ready for pickup at 3:00.  After I picked them up, I drove home through some heavy rain, at times. 

 I'd just pulled into my driveway when I got a text from the couple that they had caught one of the two still not fixed in the tractor barn, but could not get it transferred out into a live trap.  I drove on out and  got the cat into a live trap.  Once home, exhausted from the day, I got the ten who had been fixed food and water then set up the new unfixed one in the garage and went to bed.  The unfixed cat will be fixed Monday at the private clinic.

Today, I'll return the ten now fixed cats and do a lot of cleaning and laundry.   But nothing else.  

The ten cats included two gorgeous long hair Seal Points, two long hair grays, a torbi teen, a long hair orange tabby teen and four kittens--three of them tortis and the fourth--black.

It turned out, all four kittens are girls.  The only question mark was the black one.  The other three being tortis I already knew were girls.   The fifth girl was the torbi teen.  The long hair orange, the two seal point long hairs and both gray long hairs---all boys.  Who is the mom then, of the four kittens?  The torti adult I already got fixed, no doubt.  But....I do believe there are likely other cats coming and going from that barn.  Hard to really know.  

When I returned the cats, he said he thinks they're all fixed now in the goat barn.  One left to catch in the tractor barn.  26 by tomorrow fixed at this location.  One to go apparently.

Finally

 Finally, my mysterious massive black tux yard stray, Pietro, is fixed and back with his people.

He's come through the yard for maybe a year.  Usually I see him on game cam but sometimes its during the day too.

End of January, I saw him featured on a Lost and Found Pets local page.   That's when I learned his name is Pietro and that he lives very close to me, on the street behind me and down almost to the next cross street.   He hadn't been home in awhile.  And they hadn't seen him since, until this morning that is.

Since that time, his owner and I have communicated.  She and her son came over a couple times when I'd see him but he was gone before they arrived.   Today, I had my biggest trap free, since the mom cat from by the library had left last night.   We'd transferred her to a small trap for her journey to FCCO today.   So I set the big trap out this morning.  He has been coming by between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. for a few days.  Today it was later, but I caught him anyway.

I called his owner to come be sure it was him.  She came right over and he began crying loudly, happy to see her.   I'd already contacted Alpine Animal Hospital and they agreed to neuter him if I got him there by noon.  We loaded him up and I took him over.  I just waited around in the parking lot.    Soon, they brought him back out, freshly neutered, vaccinated, flea treated and wormed.   I took him straight to his people then.  He'll probably be back out free roaming soon, but at least he's a fixed boy now.

Pietro is one of those massive males with a sweet personality.  He's lovable!!!   I'm sure I'll see him again.

Broken Down

 I broke down yesterday.   

I get up yesterday morning, clean everything, debate on taking back the Waterloo girl cat, Brambley, before Gleaners, then got lost watching reels and didn't get it done.  Monday evening I returned the three kittens staying out at Berlin Road, after they were fixed.   And the Scio lady trapping the Albany library cats had picked up Marble, the laid back boy, also fixed Monday, to join three other library cats in her barn.  Of the five cats done Monday, only Brambley from Waterloo was still with me and needed returned.

The Scio lady had also caught the mom cat at the library in my massive trap and brought her here, to stay until this evening.  She'll then pick her up to take to Silverton Cat Rescue, who has FCCO spots on Thursday.   It appears of all those cats at the library caught so far, six in all, that only one, the mom, is female.   The two still not caught are allegedly both boys too.  

Off I went to Gleaners yesterday feeling stomach sick.  I'd eaten too much pizza in the prior two days.

A friend had gotten it for me.  And having little else left but some boiled potatoes, carrots and onions, I ate pizza.

But it affected my stomach.   And I felt sick at Gleaners.  I worked about an hour when sleepiness overcame me.   And stomach issues.

I came home, did not stay for distribution even, and went to bed.  I got up around 3:00.  I felt better but now my shoulder was hurting.   It had begun hurting the night before, from the side of my neck into my shoulder blade. Darn it, I thought.   I meant to do more of the heavy lifting with my left arm, you know, give the right one a bit of rest.   When I breached 65 and marched onward, I realized I needed to juggle things, shift the burdens of lifting around, but I do forget sometimes.

The trash debacle with no pick up last week, and dirty litter piling up has led to different solution attempts.  I began shaking the dirty litter through hardware cloth, to sift out the poop and that's a lot of shaking.   Anyhow, there's been a lot of extra lifting work the last week.

I took Brambley, the only cat from Monday I had still, back to the park about 4:00 p.m.   I released her at the residential feeders, because turns out she primarily lives there.  Once released, she ran across the road and up the trail to the park.  However, she stopped half up the trail, turned and looked at me, waiting for me to leave, no doubt, so she could return.

As mentioned, I've had the mom cat from behind the library also in my bathroom, in a huge trap, which I should not have helped carry in there in the first place, had I been thinking clearly and not excited that she caught her.  I was happy that she finally ate in the night last night.

She's a beautiful torbi.

The trap is large.  There's a small litter box at the back, a blankee piece in the middle, then food water.    She's relaxed a lot since first arrival Monday evening.

The Scio lady has now caught all but two of the cats behind the library, despite the pouring rain.  The tenant there at the apartments next door is going to try to get the tamest of the two cats not yet caught into a carrier today.   Thankfully the Scio lady, who came over last night with the one black tux she'd caught, intending to leave him here for last night and today, did not leave him here after I told her I couldn't lift a thing.

Today I have nothing I have to do except get all the darn garbage out to the curb beside my cart, which has been out there since last week.   And remember to use my left arm for the lifting.

Tomorrow evening the couple out on Seven Mile are supposed to start trapping for Saturdays trip to FCCO.  They don't know how many cats are in the second barn, but only see 8 at a time, they said.  One of those I already got fixed.  I don't think they'll catch many.  In the other barn, where 14 have already been caught and fixed, they have my second drop trap set up to try to catch the two who are not fixed.   That barn, although out in a field, is much more open  than the goat barn so they know the cats in that barn better.     

It's atmostpheric rivering here.  I think we're to get near 3 inches of rain in a couple days or maybe its that much through the weekend.  I'm not sure.

Cats and Trash and Broken Sirens

Black unfixed male in the park

 I get lied to a lot in the course of getting cats fixed.  People come up with overly fantastical tales about where cats came from to get them fixed at head of the line.    People promise to donate when I get their cats fixed and then never do.  People promise to feed in traps, to make it easy to catch the cats, then just don't bother.  

On and on, the lies add up.   I can barely believe anyone anymore.  Some people really think I fall for their tall tales.   I just don't let on.  Why would I?  The cats need fixed and I don't have the time or desire to confront their untruths.

Yesterday was cat round up for today.  I have five spay neuter reservations at the Salem clinic, the last for the month.

Collecting three of the five needed was easy.  I knew I would be taking the last three kittens from the Corvallis homeless camp.   The homeless lady, according to her grandma, loves cats.  She'd been caring for this mom cat at a camp, who had a litter last summer. I got three from that previous litter fixed, who ended up as teens at her grandmas' out on Berlin Road.  But she'd been unable to get the mom contained until a few weeks ago.  Then when a situation over in Corvallis where she was living turned south with some guys who kicked out the kittens and mom, she took the kittens to grandma, but couldn't find the mom.  She was on a city bus then, and saw her behind Bimart, got off the bus, ran and caught the mom.   It's not far from where she'd been staying.   So mom joined her kittens out on Berlin Rd.  I got mom and one of the kittens fixed a couple weeks ago.  Today the last three kittens will be done.   

There are two lynx Point boys and a seal point girl kitten.  They hadn't named them yet, since they are not sure what they'll even do with them.   So I named the boys Bumble and Tumble.  The girl is Rumble.

This is the girl--Rumble.

Sunday morning I set out to try to catch two more, to fill the five spots.   I sat in Lebanon outside a house for a long while trying to catch the one remaining unfixed cat there yesterday morning.  They've had my trap for weeks, but keep randomly setting it, instead of selectively trapping for the one cat.  Then they just catch one of the fixed ones, in front of the unfixed female and that makes it all the harder.   But once the trap was set, and I had a bottle under the door with string around the neck to selectively trap for the adult female, the cats all vanished.  I knew then they hadn't been reliably feeding in the trap.   I knew my time there would be wasted and left after two hours to try elsewhere for two more cats.

In my time there yesterday morning, this is the only cat I saw, a fluffy already fixed teen I'd caught several weeks back.

I went up to the park, where there are at least four unfixed cats.  The feeder lady was there.  We are not on the best of terms anymore.

After she left to go home,  I caught the teen.  The teen is a relatively new arrival and hangs out with what the feeder lady calls her mom.  He or she was with their mom when I caught her.  The mom is massive and fuzzy, but I never caught her, partly because it began to pour down rain.  There's also an unfixed black roaming male who is also fed in residential.  I went over to a residential feeder afterwards and unloaded two cases of wet food for them.  They're poor but try hard to not be a burden by requesting cat food.

So Brambley, from the park, became the 4th cat for today. Brambley turns out to be a girl.  I'm getting him or her tested because I'm actually hoping to place the new show park cats and no longer have to interact with folks who have grudges against me.

Brambley, a teen, sex unknown

I went  and helped a Scio woman trapping near the library yesterday evening.   She had a friend with her.  They're young and a lot of fun.  They got involved trying to catch half dozen or more cats, after exiting the library and seeing kittens in the field behind it.  She already caught two of the kittens a week ago, who briefly stayed in my garage.  They were fixed through SCR spots in Salem and now will be barn cats at the Scio ladies place.  She's determined to get the rest fixed too.

She wanted to catch the mom of the kittens only last night, since I have a drop trap but I'm taking it out to the Seven Mile colony today and she'd only have access to use it last night.   So I took it over and set it up, beside where the cats are being fed.   I sat in my car, she and her friend in the smoke shelter for tenants of the apartments.  They feed the cats.

The other cats there are easy catches compared to the adult female.  The Scio lady has FCCO spots later in the week for them to be fixed.  I had one spot left open for my appointments.  I could take that female in to be fixed if caught.  

But mom never showed up.   She selectively caught a young male, that I thought could be a female the way a big black long hair male was following it all friendly like.   We put the cat in the trap in my car.  I could take the cat to be fixed if we didn't end up catching the adult female.

 And then this happened.....lots of sirens, two ambulances and a firetruck go by, but the firetruck's siren is broken and just screaming.  It was ear piercing and went on and on, since it turned up the street by where we trapping and stopped shortly after, siren still screaming.   The screaming ear piercing wail did not stop when the truck stopped, but went on and on.  We covered our ears as it hurt our ears, joked about it then knew we had to get out of there.  Just as we were leaving, the firetruck finally drove off too.  We knew the cats would not come out after that for a very long time.

The fifth cat going is the boy Marble, who I thought might be a girl, due to the overly friendly overtures of the big black long hair male, towards him.  He's getting fixed today and she'll catch the rest, hopefully, this week.  It's good she caught him, because then came the whacko siren incident and all the cats vanished.  If she hadn't caught Marble when she did, I would not have had a 5th cat for today.

Marble, from the library colony

There are two or three black tuxes to catch, another orange tabby teen, the black long hair adult, the mom, who looks from a photo to be a torbi, and maybe a Siamese male too.   There may be others.

Someone was feeding the ducks in the parking lot

My friends loaned me a small rolling garbage can, to put some of the litter in.  This is because the garbage company did not pick up trash last Thursday as usual, because of our one inch of snow. The trash route for Thursday will not be picked up again until next Thursday.  The loaned cart is about a quarter my usual cart size but will help a lot.   I can load it with bags but will also label it "TRASH" for pickup, so the garbage people have no excuse to ignore it.   My neighbors son forgot to put out the trash week before the no pickup Thursday and now they are overloaded too.      And a cat rescue in LEbanon did not get picked up either, due to some snow, on Thursday, and they're in the same boat I'm in---trying to find options for dirty litter.

Last night, the Scio lady came back to my garage with me to borrow another trap, and took a bag of dirty litter with her as a relative had some room in her can.  That was very helpful.