Canning for Cats Total Under $30

I've returned over the half the cans I collected at yesterday's OSU football game and the total, by the time I return them all, is going to be just under $30. The total I've taken in from returning cans and bottles so far, is $21, just enough to fill my car's gas tank, which I did.

I'll need that full tank for this week's cat fixing. I have reservations both Tuesday and Thursday, each day at two clinics, one in Jefferson, one in Salem. Usually, when I have Salem appointments, I kill the entire day in Salem, so I won't have to drive back and forth. I sleep in my car, or I walk around, or I do laundry at a Salem laundrymat, something. At the remote Jefferson clinic, it's harder to kill time for the day, but I've done so. I've slept in my car when exhausted in their parking lot all day.

I'll be getting about 22 cats fixed this week alone. So working about five hours of hard dirty labor to get a full tank of gas to fund this weeks' cat driving, was worth it for the cats of our area.

In other news, inflation has hit wood pellet fuel big time. I went to Bimart to get a couple bags of wood pellet fuel which I use for cat litter. Last year, all year, you could get three bags for $10 at Bimart. This year, for just one bag, they want $4.50. I wouldn't buy it there. I left, shocked at the increase in price from one year to the next. Up $1.15 a bag. Man, that is inflation.

It's up at Winco, too. Use to be $3.29 per bag there. Now it's up to $3.88. Still high, but better than $4.50.

All in all, picking up cans yesterday was sort of interesting. Most people were very nice albeit very drunk. There was a an old lady and an old man, in the preferred high price per spot parking lot back of the stadium, who really looked down on the canners, shaking their heads in disgust like we were all a bunch of alcoholic losers. Wrong. The Clan, as I called the family doing it together, was doing it for money so they could survive. So were the Albany man and woman, who live in their car, which needed both gas and repairs.

This well off old football fan couple, who seemed to think canning shameful, might be out of touch with how many people are out there right now struggling just to make rent or to have gas for their car tanks or food for themselves or their families or to pay ulitility bills.

I bet they'd really be shocked if they knew I was out there making money to help cats and therefore make communities, maybe theirs, a better place in which to live. However, their attitude was in minority out there among the happy drunks at the football game. Most were way more than happy to allow those less fortunate their cast off cans and bottles.