Two More Caught at Side by Side Colonies

Face off Gray male, right ear tattered and beat up from fighting but not ear tipped.
Spicer Origins long hair black tux. The cat is large, but I'm not so sure it is not a girl. The nose and feet are smallish. She or he has a cold.

I caught two more cats at the two block apart colonies in Albany. I caught that big gray face off male and he is not fixed.

I caught one of the two black tux long hairs at Spicer Origins also.

I have too many cats now for the clinic reservations I have and don't know where to get them all fixed. Boy. I also have a wait list now of about 30 cats.

Face off in the Fog

The cats at Spicer origins are hungry. I've had no luck with trapping there, last couple of days. This a.m., I left out some food and texted the caretaker asking him to feed again. Otherwise, they end up dead out on the road, crossing into the fields, trying to find food.

I ran into the big problem male at the other colony as I was checking that trap. There is still an unfixed female to catch there, then the big male prowls the entire area picking fights. He was at it this morning in a screaming face off with a gray male, who might have an ear tip. I only saw the possible ear tip when I uploaded the photos I took of the face off, from a distance, through my car window in the fog.

It was a classic face off, the big black and white male all puffed up and screaming right in the gray male's face. However, the gray male just stood there, not reacting, outside of look of horror across his face.

The old man came out, said he'd never seen that gray male before, but I think it's one I caught three years ago, when helping catch cats for the old woman three houses down.

The gray male has it down. If he runs, he's in for it. If he just doesn't react, as scary as that might be, the trouble maker gets nothing from the encounter. The bully wants a reaction.




Gray male stoically bears aggression.
Fixed male kitten, hungry, out in the frosty field.

I am still suffering the effects of chlorine exposure at the Albany pool. My skin prickles and itches if my hair touches it. My eyes burn and are still red streaked and itch. I have a rash across one side of my lower back.

The exposure seemed to trigger also, strangely, severe menopausal symptoms. Why would it do that? Maybe it's just coincidence.

It was stupid to enter a pool filled with water treated with a chemical that is toxic to me. I just wanted to have some fun. I love water. I love to swim.

I was explaining to the old man this morning, why my eyes were red, and he said he can't stand chlorine either and it's too much for he and his wife, the smell and taste of it, in tap water. So he got some filter that goes on his water line before the hot water tank. The filter only needs changed twice yearly he said and it removes the chlorine, so you don't have it coming out at you in the shower either. He said he found one at Fred Meyer for $30 when he accidentally broke his old one.

Albany is well known for its highly chlorinated water. It's hard to escape the effects. An effect its had on me is that I don't drink enough water, because I let it sit a few days, after filling bottles or jars, to let the chlorine escape, before drinking it.

I get depressed here. It's not just the chemicals everywhere used and accepted, on lawns, in the water, it's the smell of chemicals in the air nights from the industrial plants and its the dust and chemical mix in the air half the summer, from all the grass seed farms surrounding Albany.

I was born sensitive to some chemicals and cursed with a keen sense of smell. I want to move but I don't know where to go and I don't have any money. The industrial district smells are foul in the air nights. It's grown much worse in the last months. I don't know why.

I'm going to get one of those filters that goes on the water line though. They're cheap and the old man and his wife swear they take out the chlorine before it even comes into your house. That's one thing I can do.

Last Spicer Kitten Caught. But Mom....

Last kitten caught at Spicer colony. Mom still needs caught.

This morning, as now is my ritual, I get up at 5:00 a.m., dress while hot water is heating on the stove, grind my coffee beans, and sit the plastic filter atop my cup. I then add a brown cone shaped paper filter and a couple teaspoons of freshly ground coffee, pour the hot water through and enjoy my first cup of coffee.

That's as my car warms up. I sit inside, air so cold my breath clouds out, as the car idles in the driveway. When it's warmed up, I flip on the headlights and head out. Already many early risers, heading off for their early shifts, are on the roads.

I park across the street from the Spicer Origins colony. Sometimes the couple, each with early morning jobs, are both gone and sometimes just one by the time I arrive.

I check the trap I've left set on their porch. Not touched. I add some fresh bait, curse under my breath, get back in my car, and pull around the corner, to the next colony, merely a block away. I get out my mag lite for this one, and creep in past their trailer.

This morning, eyes flashed back at me, from my trap, nestled in under the back of the trailer for weather protection, and wrapped in a clear plastic mat. I got a roll of that, at the mercantile in Empire, last time down.

This time, it was a tame medium hair black tux, from the block behind the owners of the house that feed the four stray teens and their mother.

I let him go and reset the trap, again cursing quietly.

An early morning slow jogger, whom I've encountered before in my early trap checks, jogs so slowly by my car, I try to engage the bundled up miserable looking frowning form, in conversation. I say "Good for you out exercising like this in such cold weather." The form does not respond. Not a facial muscle twitches. Not a muscle turns my way. She slogs on at a snails pace, determined. I watch her go, unfazed by the snub, guilt rising in me, as usual. Joggers do that to me. This one is hyper skinny already. I feel the fat bulging at my own waist then try not to think about all I should and should not be doing.

An hour later I return. Eyes again peer at me through the end of the trap. I am used to this and dare not think I might have the one kitten of four, not yet fixed.

But I do! I have the fourth kitten, caught, snug and safe, in my trap, until she can be fixed. Now, to catch the darn mother. She's been hanging around again, the old man told me later today, when I returned, triumphant, with another trap, to set again, to start the routine all over again, to catch that black mother cat.

The other colony isn't so easy. The cats show up only very early morning. I am tentative at that hour, with the couple rising so early, working so hard, like they do, and the two teens there also, and the dogs. I tip toe onto their porch to check the trap. Yesterday morning, it was the little Siamese mix already fixed male inside it, which sets me back. I let me out. He tore off.

I don't want to wake the humans or disturb them or hassle the humans in any way. I just want to catch the rest of the cats. I've seen at least one more younger short hair, maybe two. I thought only one long hair black tux needed caught but this morning, I saw another. Then there's the troublesome male, the big guy, who shows up only sometimes, and beats up everybody he encounters.

I've caught ten now, between the two colonies. The little girl from Spicer Origins I caught is in my bathroom. She was sick, with conjunctivitis and a cold. I hold her and pet her and her little butt with the three quarters length tail goes straight up. Her face is flatter than it should be. She's soft and skinny and pathetic and how much I hate taking her back there, once fixed.

My mind skims for possibilities for her and at least a couple of the others, but the skimming produces a big flashing "No Results for your search 'options for semi feral precious teen female'".

So I hold her, give her antibiotics, fluids, eye ointment, anything I can, to prop her up, get her strong, for her hard life once back.

This morning after I caught the gray tux kitten, I went on over to the nearby brand spanking new huge Walmart super store, which opened a couple days ago. I immediately saw a former Circle K clerk. I said "So you got a job here." "Yes," she said, "I get more hours and higher pay here."

I was happy for her, and many others who got jobs. When the only jobs open are part time low wage jobs at Walmart and people are happy to get those, tells you how bad the job situation is around here.

Walmart sells the same stuff Kmart sells who sells the same stuff Target sells. And so on. I pushed a cart around the store like I might buy something but same old--Walmart is far more expensive on food than Winco, and the real food section is very very small (as opposed to the fake prepackaged formed food section).

I checked the traps again moments ago. I'd come home tired. I bought vaccines at Heartland. I'd given all the ones I had to a Brownsville woman who had an outbreak of distemper, so she could quickly vaccinate or boost others in her household and prevent more deaths. I hadn't one single vaccine left, which made me nervous. So I made the trip to Corvallis.

Then I fell asleep in my cold house in my clothes, coat still on, on my bed and just woke up, an hour ago. Off I went, to fulfill the routine, although I know by now, this hour has never produced a cat in a trap at those locations.

Persistence, I tell myself, the pep talk. Don't give up. You've trapped ten already in two difficult colonies that otherwise would be exploding soon. Good for you, I tell myself. Good for you. Persistence, that's all it will take. Keep at it. Keep it up. Don't give up, just don't give up. You'll get them and you'll be happy you did, once they're caught. Be worth it, right?

Breeder Overloads Heartland

Click post title to go to the story. A Monroe rabbit and Guinea Pig breeder decides it's not making her money and turns over dozens of animals to Heartland.

Breeders suck in so many ways.

Last year, many cat rescuers/fixers/shelters called it "the year of the Siamese" because so many of the strays and even feral colonies were Siamese. These generally result when people get an unfixed Siamese to "make money" breeding them and become backyard breeders. They abandon the effort and often the cats, leaving them to continue to breed as feral colonies.

When someone overloads a shelter like this, other animals already there or about to be brought in suffer overload results and sometimes get euthanized when they otherwise wouldn't.

A List of Things I Wish I'd Done (or hope to do)

Here is a list of things I wish I had done in my life. Some things I might still be able to do! What is your list?

--Become an astro physicist
--Travel into space
--Build a completely off the grid sustainable cabin, producing my own energy, catching and using my own water, using a compost toilet and growing my own food, trading for what I can't produce.
--Learn to fly a small plane. Buy my own small plane. Go everywhere.
--Learn to fly a glider.
--Fly a hang glider.
--Learn to platform dive.
--Live in a beach shack on a tropical island.
--Learn to surf.
--Travel the world.
--Go on snow camping snow shoe trips.
--Become comfortable with public speaking.
--Learn to dance the tango and rumba and salsa.
--Write songs.
--Visit the canyon country of Utah.
--Visit the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Death Valley.
--Learn to sail.
--Learn to make fantastic french pastries.
--Learn how to con and ensnare some of the people who have seriously abused me.


Well, my supper is burning on the stove. Will work on the list more later.

Went Swimming. Had a Blast!

I went swimming today at the Albany pool. I had a blast. The woman invited me whose three teens I trapped a month and a half ago. There was an exercise class she attends, but I slipped over and swam a few laps.

It was so fun. But afterwards, within minutes of exiting, my skin began to prickle and itch. My eyes went red and the familiar effects of chlorine on my system set in. Within minute my eyes couldn't bear sunlight.

Inside my enclosed car, the fumes of chlorine on my wet swimming clothes and body were overwhelming. I'd taken a shower once out, but I took another once home. I wish I could swim and not have the chlorine affect me so badly. Even my taste is off for hours after exposure.

I took an antihistamine to try to alleviate some of the effects. I probably won't go again, due to the problem my system has with chlorine, but today was fun, despite the aftermath of itching and red eyes.

Pampered House Rescues

Grumbly with his mouth full of cat toy.
Fantasia, of the Quirky Sisters, likes her basket bed, a prized fought over bed space.
Best friends and cousins, Suri and Grumbly Rumby.
The other half of the Quirkies, Echo.
Gretal, doing so much better with all teeth gone.
Cougie, one of the business cats.
The gray and whites--Honey on the top, Mooki on the bottom.
Quirky sister Fantasia.

Albany water rates are going up next month by 3% and sewer rates this summer by 9%. That's a 12% increase by summer on the water sewer bill, that comes as one. Garbage rates already went up last year, too by I don't know what percentage. Electric rates increased 13% last year.

Just in two years, these four things: electric, water, sewer and garbage combined, with their rate increases by summer, will have increased costs to people within city limits for utilities by about 30%. That's a hellish utility inflation rate for a couple of years.

Don't even mention the increased costs for food and gas in the last two years. How are we supposed to survive?