Wednesday, October 31, 2007

What is it with these disabled/deaf relay calls?

I've received two relay calls now, in the last few weeks. An operator is relaying information typed by a disabled or deaf person. The first one was lengthy and the person wanted to adopt a dog. No matter how many times I told the person through the operator I didn't have dogs, the questions about adopting a dog kept coming. The operator stops to chide me in the process, as happened tonight, that I was to speak as if I were speaking to somebody else, not her, because I'd forget, out of frustration at a person who obviously isn't "listening" on the other end. I got chided over and over, just because I messed up. The person typing to her got no chiding for contacting a cat rescue about wanting a dog, wasting my time and hers and state tax dollars. What the fuck?

Before people start screaming at me about being mean to the disabled, HEY, I'm disabled, OK? So shut up. I'm not prejudiced. But, I don't like people who waste my time or call late. My time is wasted by some dickhead calling a cat rescue wanting a dog, for gosh sakes. And by the one who called tonight, at 10:00 p.m. THAT IS RUDE! Just because a person is classed disabled, doesn't mean they get a free ticket to act stupid, crazy or rude. Just gives disabled people a bad name, is what it does.

Tonight, I happened to have been drunk when the relay call came. It also is 10:00 p.m. at night. Now I know many disabled people don't have any hours to worry about and many are up half the night because they can sleep late. That isn't me, however. I don't sleep late. I work way too much. Tonight, I was trying to relax.

Then the relay call comes and I stupidly answer the phone half drunk. Again, I get chided over and over by the very politically correct operator about not talking to her, but rather pretending I"m speaking to someone I can't talk to.

They want me to tell them the details of all the cats and kittens I have or e-mail the details to the person. You have to talk very slowly so the relay operator can type your response, then say "go ahead" when finished, which I would also forget to say.

I tell that person I can't do that, tell them details on every cat because it would be extremely time consuming via this system, and that they need to not be calling me so late anyhow and that they can go to my website and look at the cats I have available and then e-mail me questions.

I know the ad running lists my website. If they can type into a machine that sends their message to an operator, they can surf the web. If they have that special machine, they have web access, too.

I responded three times that they would need to visit my website and e-mail me off the website after looking at the cats, and they kept responding they wanted me to send them details of each cat I had for adoption until I became frustrated and just said "No". Then, as I was trying to give the operator my website, the person hung up on me.

What a bunch of baloney. I don't care if a person is disabled or not, calling this late at night is rude. And the whole politically correct chiding demanding relay system is not very user friendly. Somebody not used to it, like me, getting chided over and over by the operator, because I mess up, and direct my response to her, instead of somebody out there somewhere, and getting repeatedly chided over it as insensitive when I'd just forgetten, what a bunch of balony. I'm not accepting those calls anymore.

Man alive. Calling me like that this late. That's not very sensitive. You know?

Here's the other frustrating events of today. A Lebanon woman calls and says she wants me to immediately come get about 17 unfixed cats they have and get them fixed.

Turns out, it's a couple I have helped three times before, in three different residences. They were drunks. I first encountered them in an Albany trailer park and got tons of cats fixed there. Then I had to get cats fixed on Elm street when they moved there after their eviction from the trailer park. When they were evicted from the Elm street house, they moved to another location and again I ended up there, fixing more cats.

I hadn't heard from them in three or four years and I was happy not hearing from them. Now I hear from them. Despite them knowing about the FCCO and other programs, they got a cat and let her breed and now there are 17 cats where once there was one, and now they're thinking "this can't go on. Let's call Jody." So some Lacomb woman gave them my number and now they expect me to clean up their mess for the fourth time. The fourth time. Oh yeah, the fourth time.

What a bunch of balony. I fired off at them and gave them the Portland FCCO number, even though the cats are all tame and told them for once, to take care of it themselves. They seem to have no concept that their actions cost other people money. Or they don't care, I guess, as long as it costs them nothing. It's a strange mentality in these here parts.

And then some Albany man calls who has seven or eight unfixed cats and I was fed up and fired off at him and asked him why the hell he didn't get his female fixed long ago and why now he thinks somebody else should pay the costs of his behavior. I then gave him SafeHaven's cat voucher program information and told him to let me know how that turns out for him and his unfixed cats.

Poppa is in its down season for fund raising. These people who knowingly create their own cat problems need to take some responsibility, is my feeling.

Faces of the Six Cats Fixed Yesterday

Massive orange and white tom, from North Albany, fixed yesterday courtesy of Poppa Inc.
The rest of the cats below are from the Millersburg G&C colony




Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cozy Gets a Home

Cozy got a home today. Cozy was the slightly wildish flea infested fourth kitten, of the feral calico, I caught in downtown Albany. She was part of the group Hope came from. Hope was the abandoned kitty whose right eye was whacked out by some freakazoid. I relocated most of those 15 cats because the situation was so horrible for them there. Cozy is the last to get a home here, although I believe Poppa's president still has two of her siblings in foster with her and I don't know if Hope got a home yet or not.

I had all three of Hope's kittens here for quite awhile, because they broke in ringworm, which meant a lot of work. I gave them baths three times a week, sprayed them with anti fungal---lots of work. It broke my heart, too. Cozy wasn't much work. She never got ringworm and fit in here immediately, playing wildly with anybody who would play with her. She was so cute, a little innocent faced Lynx Point Snowshoe Siamese female kitten. She went to a great home. I miss her already.

Someone who lives outside Vancouver B.C. wants Mickey. And actually, I want her to have him. I think she would provide him a great home and that would be one less kitty for me to be caring for. Win. Win.

I've had no other adoption inquiries on him. So I'm hopeful this can be worked out. Apparently she's in a rescue group having some event in Seattle and Oregon members may be travelling up to that and a transfer could be arranged, possibly. In any event, I am hoping very soon I can find Mickey a lift to Canada!

My car is needing some repairs and is not suitable to make the trip to Seattle. But I think we'll be able to work something out---a pipeline for Mickey to Canada.

I bought a black light today. A family is interested in Aces. Because he once had ringworm, I wanted to be sure he was clean. I went over him with a fine tooth comb and the black light and did find three pinprick spots that flouresced green.

I need to bath him, because he'd been into something, and after that try it again. He had dirt all over his face, from getting into something, and stuff stuck to that, and the pinprick green under blacklight was in the dirty part of his face. I don't know what he'd been up to. He had dirt all over his paws, too, so I better check my one surviving houseplant.

I called the mother up and told her, and she wasn't too worried about it, as I wouldn't be. But I like to tell people everything I know about a cat, and not hide things, because adoptions are more likely to work out then. So they're going to wait five days.

Little Miss Sunshine is spoken for, but I haven't heard from the lady for a week or so. And now someone else is interested. So I'm going to contact the coast woman who wanted her, to make sure she still does want her. I've still got Shady, too, and she and Little Miss Sunshine are very good friends.

Mooki, the third Spicer Boy, is still here also and coming out of his shell altogether. It's nice to see. I believe I am sending Scooter and Solomon to a barn home this week, but I don't want to. I really don't want to, but I don't see much other options for them and it's a good barn home. I hate to give up on finding them real homes. It's like failure for them, condemning them to a life as barn cats, instead of cherished house pets. They're cherished here. I love them.

I engaged a new colony today. The old man says there are 19 cats. I trapped the first five in about two minutes. They were fixed today and will be returned tomorrow.

I have a break now, of almost a week without vet fixing appointments. I think a week of just sleep sounds pretty good.

Here is a list of the cats who have recently got homes: Meeko and Machi, two of the Spicer Boys; Scottie and Maryann, of the BS colony; Pixie of the BS; Teddy, Jiggles, Scruffy, Cozy and Romeo, of the Railroad and 5th situation; Starry, an unfixed calico abandoned over on Clay, Jabba, a gray kitten from Corvallis, Micah and Spidy, brothers from the BS; Ming, Maryann's sister, of the BS; Two kittens from the brush and junkpiles, at Hull Oaks mill; and Old Salvadore, whom I miss very very much. I also miss Bangor, now named Maggie and I miss old Butterscotch who passed away about ten days ago.

I still have a lot of cats here. Up for adoption I have Spicer Boy Mooki. I have Shady and Aces from the BS. I have Little Miss Sunshine from Fern Road. I have Thor, although I think he'll be going to a barn home, due to his manx "completion" issues. I have Blooy and Gypsy from Hull Oaks and I have Wheelie and Thistle, Siamese kittens, from Hull Oaks, too. I have Mickey and Brambles and Weed and Tulip from HTN colony, too, in my bedroom. Brambles will likely return to the colony.

And I have Scooter, Solomon and Panda from Lebanon and Poppy from 34th street and Gretal, dumped as a kitten on highway 34 with her brother. I have Cattyhop, too, from the Slaughterhouse colony and Comet from Heatherdale trailer park.

And, besides my own five, that's it right now. Except for Scully, the old river cat, who also is kind of slowing way down and I think I'll lose her, too.

So I have 20 up for adoption here. Of those, Thor and Brambles will leave this week. Little Miss Sunshine, Mickey and Aces are spoken for. I have a barn home for Solomon and Scooter. If these homes work out, I'll have a bakers dozen to find homes for is all. That ain't bad. Not bad at all. It's been a hellish kitten season in Linn County.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Ten Mill Cats Fixed Friday and Sunday.

I trapped another 11 adult and teen cats at the mill, Friday and Saturday, plus found the four five week old kittens. So in total, another 15 mill cats will be fixed at some point.

This evening, shy on places to foster little ferals where they will get adequate handling, I adopted out two of the small Hull Oaks kittens, ignoring my own rules about waiting until a kitten is fixed. Both adoptors are officially fostering until the kitten is fixed and one is just trying out the kitten for the night, at first. I tried to get her actually to take all three, to foster, so they'd be handled adequately so as not to behave feral in any manner, but for now, she'd take on only one. Anyhow, one must weigh the choices, with feral kittens. If ferals are not handled by enough people, when young, they end up attaching to only one person and virtually unadoptable.

Anyhow, of the 11 teens and adults, from Hull Oaks, only three were males and 8 were females, which is a little scary. If they hadn't called, think of the kittens to be born next spring there. I still have at least two adult females to catch down there.

I also took in a female from 34th street in Albany. And the one cat I caught at Sycamore Towers in Corvallis was a silver tabby female, too. Of the three HTN colony cats I took in, two were males and one was a female. Below are photos of ten of the eleven Hull Oaks cats.

Missing in the photos is the third boiler room kitten, a light gray medium hair female, now in the hands of KATA, who got her spayed in Salem, and have her under their program, although she will be returning here until they have an opening at one of their offsite adoption kiosks.

DMH gray and white male teen, fixed at Sunday's FCCO clinic in Philomath.
Brown tabby on white teen female, fixed at Sunday's FCCO clinic.
DLH gray on white male teen, fixed at Sunday's FCCO clinic.
Gray tabby tux teen female, fixed at Sunday's clinic.
Gray tabby female, Gypsy, boiler room kitten, fixed at Sunday's clinic.
Boiler room torti teen, now named Blooey, who was fixed at Countryside Vet clinic Friday.
A tamish dumped off at the mill long hair brown tabby on white adult female, fixed at Sunday's FCCO clinic.
Adult brown tabby female, fixed at Sunday's Philomath FCCO clinic.
Adult brown tabby tux male, I caught in the old car field late Saturday night and who was fixed Sunday at the Philomath FCCO clinic.
Long hair gray and white adult female, fixed at Sunday's FCCO clinic.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Very Bad Day

There are times when you have to give up and just say to hell with it. I have reached that point. I knocked myself out for days, making the long drive to Hull Oaks Mill, thinking I could solve that once and for all. Thing is, I don't get help with the situation there. There is no one willing to reliably watch traps and communicate with me if an unfixed cat is caught.

I was down to three cats. Two in the boiler room, a male and a female, and the Siamese mother of the kittens, who are now here. I had set a trap that Mrs. Hulls caregiver was to watch until she left there, at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. I told her, after that, forget about the trap and leave it set. I'll be back.

I was back, at about 11:00 p.m. Saturday night, after trapping at Sycamore Towers, another frustrating experience, because one tenant is openly hostile to me, the same tenant who caused problems for me a few years ago, when I tried to trap and fix the cats of Sycamore Towers. I then would sit in my car and curse the "joy of volunteerism" in sarcasm, to try to lighten my mood, sitting in my cold car in the dark, being glared at through blinds by a woman who refused to quit feeding the cats and will do anything she can to impede my efforts to get them fixed.

Anyhow, when I arrived very late last night at Hull Oaks, I found a brown tabby tux in the trap out in the old vehicle graveyard. I put that cat and trap in my car, to bring to the FCCO clinic held today, and set another trap.

A man who lives in a fifth wheeler drove up at that point, thinking I might be a prowler. After I told him what I was up to, I gave him Nick's cell number and my home phone number. I gave him explicit directions about calling my home phone, only up until 7:00 a.m. this morning, if one got in the trap and Nick's phone today, because I would be at the clinic and Nick, the clinic coordinator, would get the call on his cell. I got no calls.

I'd left two traps in the boiler room, but the female was wary because the boiler room guys left a kitten sitting in the trap for a day, without calling to tell me they had it. They figured I would show up and get the kitten eventually, which I did. But, the mother she got trap spooked big time.

Nonetheless, I remained at the mill until after 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning, trying to lure her into a trap.

I finally gave up and came home. I got up late Sunday morning, after only about three hours of sleep, and after sleeping through the alarm and didn't get to the clinic with the 14 cats I had until 8:30 a.m. I then fell asleep in my car for several hours!

When I woke up, I drove down to the mill. My trap was not in the broken down car field, where I had left it set early this morning. I drove around and found the fifth wheeler man who said he checked it at 9:00 a.m. this morning and nothing was in it. I went up to the boiler room then. Nobody in either trap but the female was there. I decided to try to net her.

I lured her close with food. I was sitting in a chair with rollers on the bottom on the wood floor. I got her by the scruff and reached for my net and the chair went out from under me.

I knew I was falling, but tried to net her on the way down. I went for her, almost in slo mo, and she got away. My head slammed hard against the side of a cabinet. I saw stars, and slumped to the floor. Everything was black. I don't think I blacked out, however. It was more like dreaming. Then my head began to pound. It's still pounding.

I finally got up, left her a bunch of food, in apology, and drove down to Mrs. Hulls place. I was astounded to see my empty trap in the driveway. I went inside. The caregiver, who is the sister of the caregiver there yesterday, had taken it upon herself, without ever talking to me, without being asked to do so, to go check that trap over off property after she arrived at work.

She apparently had been talking to her sister, so she butted in, probably well intended, but inadvertantly caused mayhem. The Siamese mother was in the trap. This college student who knew nothing about what was going on, was not to be involved, then brought the cat in the trap over to Mrs. Hulls and told Mrs. Hull the cat was very upset and had been in the trap over 24 hours. Fantasy. Fiction.

The cat had likely been in the trap less than an hour. The fifth wheeler man checked it at 9:00 a.m. and it was empty. I believe that caregiver gets to work at 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. I was down to the mill again about 2:30 p.m.

I was angry to hear I'd caught her and that this person had turned her loose. I said "You just ruined hours upon hours of hard work I put in to find her kittens and her. That trap was being checked by 2 people. I was here until almost 2:00 a.m. It wasn't even the same trap your sister checked yesterday." I was furious and kicked the trap all the way down their driveway to my car, put it inside, and drove off.

I put a note on the office door. The gist of the note was, "I've been pushed too far as a volunteer. There are three cats left unfixed here. It is up to you to get them fixed."

Thing is, they won't, I don't believe. And I can't do it anymore. All that driving to get down there, and I'd have to sit there day and night, because I haven't found anyone dependable to check traps and call. The cost to me, to help Hull Oaks again, like last time, has been stupendous. I love that area and that mill, but I can't sacrifice like this, my time, my sleep, my car, my money.

Do you know how hard it now will be to ever catch that Siamese female again?

Anyhow, I'm just kind of fed up, and very very disappointed, that I had her caught, I HAD HER CAUGHT, and that woman turned her loose. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Well anyhow. Life goes on. And as for me, I'm going to bed.

The other irritation at the clinic today was of my own making. I offered to help a family get the last two of their ferals fixed. They said they had them in a kennel, had caught them after the check in time this a.m.

But then the details emerge, and I should have said no right there. I'd exchanged information with them, about getting the other two fixed in Jefferson. Seems they "bought" their dogs from Heartland, paid their full adoption price. Then they got a cat from a neighbor for a pet. They claim they didn't think she'd get pregnant even if allowed to free roam. So what planet do these folks come from?

Then she got pregnant and now the kittens, who have turned feral, are a year old, so just let them pretty much out on their own, after they were born. Then, when she called later, to say her husband let the other two out during the day so they're gone, she also said they'd finally boarded up under the house that the cats were using for their "private" bathroom.. Like this should disgust me, like cats have "private bathrooms".

I should have said "Did you provide them a litterbox? They can't hold it forever, you know." Because she was acting like she wanted me think the cats were horrible and get my sympathy on that. Instead, I was thinking how disgusting her attitude towards lives, they created with irresponsible behavior, was.

She justified her husband turning them out by saying "Well they're mean and hiss at the kids." I said "They're feral and they were scared being confined to a kennel suddenly and having the only place they had to live, under your house, suddenly blocked off."

I hung up on her then. I got the call after I got home, from a long day at the clinic and even longer days prior to the clinic, helping people who behave in that same manner. I wasn't mentally capable of listening to more. People can be so mean to the animals.

Instead of being responsible and getting the cat fixed, the cat was allowed to breed. Instead of then taking responsibility and getting the cat fixed at a private clinic, and taking care of the kittens, they turned the kittens out to become feral and used a nonprofit clinic and volunteer efforts to fix their cat.

That's just lame. So don't think I'm a fan, lady. Yeah I hung up on you tonight and I'd do it again.

Well anyhow.......off to bed.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Cute as Hell Mill Kittens

I spent the morning trapping at Hull Oaks mill again. So far, I've trapped all three boiler room kittens. I trapped two adult females. One adult male and three teens. I also tracked down the four fluffballs Mrs. Hull was concerned about and trapped them. Their photos are below. I have not yet trapped their Siamese mother. I trapped 13 more cats at Hull Oaks in the last couple days, however. I also have the 34th street female and three from the HTN colony.

But, KATA took in already one of the Hull Oaks boiler room kittens. Another was fixed yesterday at Countryside. So I have only seven Hull Oaks cats suitable to be fixed at tomorrow's FCCO clinic. I have 15 reservations. Total cats so far: 7 Hull Oaks; 1 34th street stray; 3 HTN=11 cats.


Friday, October 26, 2007

I'm Running for the Hills

I"m going to run far away, where I'll never hear the words "Linn County" or the the word "Albany" again in my life.

I told this to my brother who stopped by. Him, his wife and his adult son, were on their way up to Washington, for a family weekend with their daughter at her college. They wanted me to keep Pixie for them, who has a cold, which is the last thing on earth I need here, a kitten with a cold, or even another cat to take care of.

I told him to sell this house to some Californian displaced by the fire ASAP and I'll go back and live under a bridge in Corvallis, my home.

It's the mentality here I can't take. The "we don't give a shit about anything" mentality. It's the "we won't fix our pets" and the "cats are discardable" attitude getting me down so hard here. You can't find a street in Albany where there aren't strays roaming, discarded like trash.

Here in conservative Christian Linn County. Oh sure, anti abortion sentiment here runs high. I am not impressed. Show me a single value town and I'll show you one consumed in addictions, afflictions, selfishness, hypocrisy, neglected kids and unfixed pets.

Because those who scream Christian conservative righteous anti abortion often do so, so they feel they don't have to do another damn thing.

Anyhow, can you tell I'm a bit tired out and fed up?

It's because of the calls I'm getting. 20 some cats abandoned over off Knox Butte. Police refuse to do a damn thing. And the bad renters just moved, to a rental real close to where I live. They'll repeat. Why wouldn't they?

12 more abandoned downtown Albany. The woman claims in the message nobody will do a thing, not the police, no animal shelter, and she was referred to me. She wants me to take them all. 30 or more behind Izzy's. More in the Main street area of Albany.

Albany's a shithole for animals. The calls today are nonstop. And I'm already exhausted. There's no sanctuary in Albany. Nowhere to get away from it. Strays everywhere. I have to leave my phone on because I'm trying to adopt out Linn County abandoned animals. What a crock, you know? What a crock. There's no hope for the animals of Linn County. This is Sodom and Gomorrah here. No hope. Need to get out and not look back.

I told my brother, I want it clear, when something happens to me, or I drop dead of exhaustion, it is never to be mentioned that I ever in my life lived in Albany, OR. He said "no problem".

Back to the Mill and Bike Fence Colony. Back to Sycamore Towers. Back to Downtown Albany.

The mill called again. If the timing were not so bad, I would have been thrilled. I like hanging out at the mill, especially at night, tracking down unfixed cats.

I drove down yesterday, after returning the four cats fixed the day before. I don't know why I went down yesterday. I was going to put it off awhile.

Mrs. Hull, now over 90, had seen young kittens by her house and was concerned the mother would teach them to hunt the birds she feeds. I don't even know if there is a mother still alive, since, one person told me, the kittens were so hungry they were trying to eat bird seed. I couldn't get a clear description of even the size of the kittens because Mrs. Hull is nearly blind. Her caregiver was in Portland.

So I set traps out back and then chatted with this interesting woman for over an hour. She said when she was three months old, her mother stood on a Portland street corner and gave her away. She was very fortunate, she said, because a social worker happened along and talked her mother into giving the infant over to her. And, she continued, that worker found her the best parents you could ever dream of having.

Anyways, I finally went over to the boiler room, where I heard there were more kittens. A Hispanic worker who shovels hot sawdust into the steam boiler all day pointed them out and picked up the torti and put her in my arms. I put her in a live trap. They pop up through a knot hole in the wood floor of the boiler room. When I was told they were going in and out through that hole by another worker, I was incredulous! The hole was not very big.

Nobody could really describe their mother, except to say they don't see her often but she might be multi colored, maybe a calico. That was the same description given of the mother of the very young kittens over behind Mrs. Hull's house.

Could be the same mother then, because the boiler room kittens are three months old at least. But then someone said the mother at the Hull house might really be a tabby. There's a world of difference between a tabby and a calico. I am going to have to give these mill workers a seminar on cat colorations!

I left with only the torti kitten.

I stopped by the bike fence south Corvallis house on the way back. I'd gotten four pregnant females, one adult male and two of five kittens fixed there mid summer. I needed to finish it up, by catching the other three kittens. My vet had told me the kittens were a bit too small, and to wait on the other three.

I had no traps in my car. I knew she had one, but how to catch three kittens with only one trap. She was happy to see me. The cats were congregated on the back porch and the adults look great now.

I rigged up her one trap with a cord from the door into the kitchen where we could watch, and let the door fall when the first unfixed kitten went in to eat. She found one of her carriers then, dusted it off and I transferred the kitten to that carrier and set up the trap again.

I was sure the one kitten hanging around the outside of the trap had no eartip and was not fixed, but I could not clearly see the head of the black kitten eating inside the trap to see if it was the third unfixed kitten. But when the one I knew I had no eartip went into the trap also, I dropped the door on both.

Lucked out. They were the two remaining uneartipped black kittens, so I had all three. This all took place in about 15 minutes.

That colony is done now. Ten cats total.

When I got home, after 5:00 p.m., there was a message from the 34th street crowd. They'd lured that preggie mother inside their apartment. He was leaving for work at 5:00, however, so he said if I got back after that, to come Friday, to net her or something, which I am hoping works out. I was ecstatic to get that message, and he had to go someplace else to make the call, because their phone has been disconnected. I felt bad for giving them a hard time about catching her then.

I had a potential Mooki adoptor come over last night, too, but Mooki acted like a banchi, and the adoption fell through. I was very disappointed.

Two others called on the ad, but neither were interested in anything but a Siamese. And one told me there are like 30 cats living behind Izzy's on Pacific. I'd been told about that colony, but also was told someone was feeding and making sure they were all fixed. Doesn't sound like they're fixed at all, however, from the description the folks who called last night gave.

They live within a couple of blocks of the place where Hope and her kittens were abandoned then tried to survive, before Hope was severely injured. They have two seperate neighbors with unfixed cats or feeding unfixed cats. One has not fixed her own cats. One mother just had her third litter of the summer. And one neighbor feeds strays. This news kind of got to me last night. What is it with Albany, I often wonder, or scream.

Sycamore Towers in Corvallis is over run again, too. There are areas that are repeat cat neglect offenders, where management refuses to enforce a fixed pet only policy, and where tenants with questionable character are drawn to live. There are several such complexes on Sycamore and Circle Blvd in close proximity. So the cat problem continues in that area.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Crazy Lebanon Stalker Woman

I am sick of you, Vicki, to be quite honest, harrassing and stalking me and so many others for years.

I am going to find a way to stop you.

Tomorrow, I will be calling the police again, because you are harrassing people who read this blog. I will sue you if I have to. I am going to report your conduct to HUD and to social security, also.

You sent an anonymous letter full of crap to the business of one reader. Another cat woman is being harrassed by your sickness. Do you think e-mails can't be tracked to ISP origin? Do you think I don't know where you use computers and that those places would not be interested in what you are using public computers to do?

LEAVE ME ALONE, VICKI. I don't even know what you look like, and yet your pathetic life has been dedicated to hurting others, to hurting me and people like me. For years, you have harrassed me by phone, anonymous letter, although I have the handwriting comparisons, and be e-mail. Then you began stalking anyone you thought I might know. Why? Because you're nuts! Only crazy people do what you do. You need locked up in a mental hospital forever.

I've been nice about it, tried to ignore your intrusions (stalking) and attempts to hurt me and others. Maybe it's time to not be nice anymore. Being nice isn't working. You're obviously not nice at all.

Whatever your mental and emotional issues are, work on them and quite blaming everyone else on Earth.

If anyone out there has tips or ideas on stopping a stalker, please let me know. This woman has been at it for years and has gotten away with it. She needs to be held accountable for her actions.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

2 Gore, 1 HTN and 1 Corvallis Stray Being Fixed Today

Gore colony muted calico, being fixed today.
Massive Siamese male, from Corvallis, being fixed today.
View from Scrabble Hill of Millersburg plant peeking out of fog.

Hate Thy Neighbor black with white chest spot, unknown sex, being fixed today.Gore colony female, being spayed today.

HTN Colony Cat Photos

A torbi tux female, now fixed, peers at me, through a fence.

Brambles, a male tux teen, and Mickey, whose right eye had to be removed, snuggle together in my spare bedroom. Brambles had a severely inflamed eye also, which has drastically improved.
This male was the one fixed a couple days ago.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Digs and Dooby

Digs and Dooby are two more kittens, both males I think, from the Hate Thy Neighbor colony, being held at the colony, inside the garage, in a rabbit hutch, until they are neuter weight, and hopefully, can be placed in homes. They are very very cute!


Beautiful

I hiked at Bald Hill today. The day was glorious. The exercise was wonderful for my body and spirit. I love that beautiful park. I miss it so much. I live now in Albany.

I went over to trap a cat off West Hills Road. I set the trap, then went for a hike in nearby Bald Hill Park. When I got back from the hike and stopped by the complex where the cat has been living, the woman said "Perfect timing. He went into the trap a few minutes ago." The cat is a massive Siamese male. At some point, he was owned. Now he's fed by tenants.

When I returned the four Gore colony cats this morning, I spotted the black female and also an adult muted calico. So I drop trapped them. Skippy, the white and orange kitten who I had here for a time, was limping. I wonder what happened to him.

I then returned the Hate Thy Neighbor orange and white male, fixed yesterday. The caretaker had been successful in trapping one of the two black cats left unfixed. We're down to only three or four cats left unfixed at that colony.

The black cat will be cat number 26 fixed there, I think. But also I have removed 8 kittens, three of whom died. Three went into foster way down in Oakridge. Two are here. So that makes 35 cats in total trapped or grabbed there, if you also include the very sick orange male, who was euthanized. There are, however, several cats hanging around a house across the street. I don't believe any of those are fixed. I have not been able to catch those folks at home yet, to talk to them about the cats, see if I can get them to agree to getting them fixed, if they even claim them as theirs. They could be strays also hanging out there. I don't know.

And there are some cats fed down the street that the woman wants trapped and fixed. I haven't talked to her myself yet and it may be she is feeding some if not all the same cats as the old man is feeding. Their places are only three houses apart. So anyhow, the street of nightmares isn't that bad afterall.

The calico, spayed yesterday, is going to a barn home tomorrow. She was the one formerly fed by a downtown Albany tenant who moved. As for the brown tabby female, one of her own cats she left behind too, I have no options for her. I wish I did. I wish that woman, who took one of her cats with her, would come claim her too. Fat chance, I suppose. I've become so cynical.

The day was gorgeous. I didn't waste it. It was great to have an opportunity to take a walk in the woods while trapping over in Corvallis. Corvallis residents, you are so lucky, to have that park and so many others.

Faces of Cats Fixed Yesterday

Here's the stray calico, now spayed, who was being fed on Columbus and 9th in Albany. Then the tenant moved, leaving this stray and one of the tenants own cats to try to survive on their own. A temp massage therapist from the next door business paid for her spay and would help place her, except she is moving back to southwest, in like two days. So the calico will likely have to return. I cannot hold her here.
Gore colony calico fixed yesterday.
Gore colony male, neutered yesterday.
Gore female, fixed yesterday.
Gore male, fixed yesterday.
And Hate Thy Neighbor male. I drop trapped him, because trapping there is getting hard. They're onto those traps.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Burn Baby Burn. So Cal Up in Smoke.

It is unreal to see the ferocity of the fires consuming southern California. I think of the people, fleeing for their lives. I think of the animals who are dying. Makes me horrified to see the pictures. I don't like to see fire on that scale. I think about the brave firefighters, trying to stop the flames. I wish I could be there, to help in the fight.

I have a friend I've never met, surrounded now by fires, but so far OK. Kate is a cat person. Kate, I'm hoping your complex doesn't burn and that you stay safe. The cat trapper hotel is open to you and yours, should you need a roof overhead, and can't find anything in your neck of the world. Click title of my post to go her blog.

Six cats were fixed today. One is a calico from downtown Albany. She was fed as a stray by a tenant downtown, who left her when she left that house. She also left her own brown tabby female behind. I'd gotten five cats including the brown tabby female and her brother, fixed mid summer for that woman.

I left a note on the door of one of her friends after trapping the calico Sunday. The woman called me back but said she would not give me Colleens' new number. She said she'd tell Colleen I called and give her my number. I said "You tell her she needs to get her brown tabby."

Then the woman says, "My mother got a kitten. When do you have openings to get the kitten fixed?" I was resentful to hear this. Maybe I shouldn't have been, but for gosh sakes,

I repeated it over, because she didn't seem to understand the first time I tried to say it: I said, "when you get a kitten, you are taking on a responsibility, one that includes getting the kitten fixed."

The latter part is what she didn't understand. She said "My mother DOES want to get the kitten fixed. When can you get it done?"

So I repeated myself, only this time adding that people who get kittens shouldn't expect that someone else pay for the kitten to be spayed, as that is part of the responsibility.

Then I hung up. I was disgusted. Some people want it all for free and leave animals when they move.

The 34th street crowd, where I've been trying to trap that now pregnant female, for months, are having some sort of a drug in I think, something of the sort. You can't even talk to them, they just stare vacantly, and I gave up and brought my trap home. There's only so much you can do.

The six cats up being fixed are one Hate Thy Neighbor male, the abandoned calico stray Columbus and 9th, off Santiam, and four from the Gore colony. I went and trapped them this morning. With these four from that colony, makes ten fixed there now. I like talking to that old man out there, too. Beats talking to the druggies and alcholies or the lay around lazy system manipulating crowd.

It can be dangerous getting cats done for the manipulative crowd. You have to be on your guard all the time. They want. Like a baby needs a breast, they want. Like hounds on a fox trail, they hunt. Like vampires to blood, they suck on anyone and anything that might hold something. And they have very sophisticated scams and lies they run to get what they want from the naives and vulnerables. They're like maggots looking for a wound. After they feed on infection, they're just fatter maggots.

I came home and fell asleep on the couch tonight again. Still not quite caught up on rest but working on it. I got a lot of rest this last weekend thanks to the cold. I'm pretty much almost over my cold. Must be getting immune or something, or maybe it hit hard and moved on. Or is in hiding and will burst forth upon me with vengence if I let my guard down. I don't intend to let down my guard. Going to bed early again tonight.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Albany Abandoned Kitties

Mid summer, KAT asked me to help a woman on Columbus and 9th, in Albany. Seems she was making claims on websites and to shelters, like SafeHaven, even the FCCO, that her landlord was going to evict her if she didn't get her cats and those she fed, fixed. Turns out they were all tame and I think they were all hers. She had two kittens inside also, of one of her unfixed females. KAT asked me to get them fixed through POPPA, as they were backlogged.

I got five cats fixed for her. I got a brown tabby male, a brown tabby female, a tabby on white female, a Siamese mix male and a bobtail blue point medium hair Siamese male fixed for her.

Last week a woman working in a business near that location e-mails. She says she is feeding two strays and she thinks one is fixed but that both were abandoned by a tenant when she moved. I didn't make the connection, since that was early July when I got the five cats fixed for that tenant, named Colleen.

But I sure recognized the house this morning when I arrived to trap the calico for fixing behind the business. Unbelievable. There was the brown tabby, crouching on the porch of the now vacant house where she once lived, sporting that right eartip. The calico has no right eartip but was also abandoned by the woman when she moved. Made me mad.

I trapped the calico quickly and then went by a house, where I also got cats fixed, over on Waverly. I know they know this woman, because I saw their son at the Columbus and 9th house once, when I dropped off the cats I had just gotten fixed. They didn't answer, when I knocked. I left them a note.

In the note, I said I knew they knew that woman and that I needed to know how many cats she left behind. I told them I'd seen one of the brown tabbies I got fixed for her on the back porch. Likely I'll get no response, but I will keep trying.

I have a gang of thugs here, at my place. Cattyhop, Dex and Comet have taken to attacking Hopi and Electra, when they are in the litterbox, as sport. I am about to ban the three thugs from the bedroom.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

I'm Not from Albany, because My Cats are Fixed.

Day of Rest today. I'm worn out and have a cold and I just didn't do diddley squat today. I did return the little gray tabby female to the Corvallis colony. She was fixed yesterday. That woman's husband says all the cats need to go to homes. Funny how a family can allow cats to breed like all get out then suddenly one member decides "they all must go". After all, now they're all fixed, except for some small kittens. And they didn't have to pay a dime to get that done either. Or put out any labor themselves.

I ran into D today, at Winco. She's a Sweet Home cat fixer/rescuer. She says she's quitting it, retiring, fed up. I can't blame her. She says she's sacrificed her life to the people of Lebanon and Sweet Home, to help their cats, and what is there to show for it?

She says the same people they have helped, they have to help over and over. They get more cats, or move, abandon their cats that KAT fixed for them, then get more unfixed cats. Then, she went on, obviously bitter, that they demand that when they return their own cat, that KAT has paid to get fixed, and transported to and from the vet for surgery, that they bring them cat food, too. I know this is how it is.

You keep thinking people will wake up, get a sense of right and wrong, of decency, but it never happens.

D states outright what others think. She says until you start spaying and neutering the ignorant people of Linn County, so they don't reproduce their values in their offspring, it will stay the same and get worse for the animals of Linn County.

I grinned at her. Not much else you can do. She's worn out by it all and fed up. I'd love to scream at them for her. Some pay back for the pain they've caused the cats and the cat women.

"I'm old," she said. "I've sacrificed my time with my grandchildren, my money---everything, and we've been at this ten years. Still, people call by the dozen, everyday, wanting us to take their kittens. And we know, if we don't take them, those people will dump them or throw them out to die somewhere. It never changes in Sweet Home and in Lebanon, the attitudes, the "give me or else" mentality, the lack of personal integrity and responsibility. So I'm retiring," she said again, with conviction.

All I could do was sympathize with her and tell her she's right to retire and that it's sad that the animals are the victims of these attitudes around here.

It's not like I don't feel the same way. I'd like to shake these people, shake open their hearts, wake them up, but how do you do that? People value stuff around here--pickups, beer, drugs, car racing, cigarettes, sex, football games......but apparently not so much life, nor integrity, nor responsibility....they've not been raised that way I guess.....not the people we meet....I know how she feels. I'd like to run away myself, far away, to some mythical place that seems like a gentle breeze in my mind---to Paradise.

In the meantime, I would love to find a way to draw attention to the unbelievable sacrifices made by the cat women of Linn County. We, as volunteers, are never recognized or given any credit for our work. That isn't right. The cat people are the most sacrificing of all the volunteers. And we improve communities, livability, even property values. We are environmental warriors also, reducing the impact of overpopulation on the environment. We are also abused routinely, yelled at, made fun of, used and abused. We deserve some recognition for the work we do.

Some man, who might volunteer a couple days a month, to coach a ball team, gets more recognition. Sad.

Well, anyhow.

I've been in the assessment stage today. I've been thinking about my future, living here alone in Albany, Oregon, the city of unfixed cats. I think it's like Capital of the unfixed cat world. It's hard living here.

I don't want to live here. I'm hoping my brother will sell this house soon, but the housing market fell out, so I don't know if he could even try to sell it.

Also, I no longer have a doctor. This feels to me kind of insecure, which is whiney I suppose, since so many people don't even have the option to see a doctor because they don't have insurance. I have some medical issues, primarily, pain, associated with some spinal cord metal plates. I don't do anything about my pain, other than cope with it, but I have a doctor who knows I have pain, and why, and what happened to cause these injuries. Had a doctor, is a more accurate way to say it. He took a job in the mid west. He's gone.

I also felt better knowing that my doctor knew me before and after I left the mental health system. He knew what I went through in the system, the abuse, the forced drugging, and he totally 100% backed me leaving it. He believed in me. That was nice to have. So it's a loss not to have that.

The clinic where he worked claimed that I would automatically be transferred to a replacement, when and if they found and hired one. They said, in the letter, I would be notified, to do nothing at this time, and if I have an acute (emergency) health issue, I could see an on call doctor at same Samaritan Health clinic.

Well that isn't much of a reassurance. It's been a month since I got the letter and so far I have not been informed that they have found a replacement. As for seeing an on call person at that clinic for an emergency health issue, I'd probably never do that.

I suppose they're having trouble finding someone to hire. I mean if I were smart and well educated, I wouldn't want to move to the mid valley. It's barren. I know it, and I'm not even that smart. Barren of intelligent entertainment or thought provoking speeches and lectures and events. Barren unless you like road or mountain biking, which I know is big in the professional crowd.

I suppose not having a doctor also kind of takes the pressure off. It's like the pioneer days, you do for yourself and die hard in the end, which we all do anyhow in the end. I don't know why that seems to feel like pressure off to me, like I don't have to get this diagnostic test every year or that one, too, because I can't now, without a doctor, and this feels like pressure off me, for some reason.

Well anyhow, I don't know where I'd like to move. I no longer have a sense of belonging anywhere. I don't claim Albany. In fact I routinely lie, if someone asks where I'm from.

It's just different here is all. Very different.

I do my cat and human food shopping mostly in Salem. At Winco there. I buzz up after dropping cats at the Jefferson clinic. It's only about ten minutes from there. There is not one thing I get in Albany.

The good thing about living here is I'm closer to my work. There are unfixed cats everywhere, right in Albany. And the drive to the clinic is literally ten minutes. Much less driving now that I live here. But I also get a whole lot less exercise. There is just nowhere nice to walk for exercise, like there was in Corvallis, or even for a getaway, which also gives you exercise. So it's much harder to force myself to walk here, when it's not pleasant to walk here.

Riding a bike is suicide in many places but especially here. I almost got creamed the first time I went out, by a pickup, full of young men, who seemed to have deliberately come as close to me as possible. Then they also yelled vulgar insults at me. I've not been out on my bike again since. I can't get up the nerve, and it's not a pleasant thought, to go out on my bike again here.

I'm trying to figure out something, that I'll enjoy, won't dread, because I need to get exercise. I'm not a pool swimmer. I love to swim but chlorine and I don't mix. One exposure will irritate my eyes and skin very badly. I wish it didn't, because I love to swim. My swimming has been limited to summer, when I can frequent lakes and rivers.

I'm not from Albany, that's for sure. You can tell that because my cats are fixed.

I Was a Stray Video

Friday, October 19, 2007

I'm Sick

A bad cold has struck my head. I knew it must be coming. Many of the people I've had close contact with for weeks have been sick. Then I abused myself, not getting enough rest. Add stress to the mix, and boom. I'm sick.

Last night I wanted to sleep so badly. My one volunteer brought over the three NW Corvallis kittens--Berry, Breezy and Thor. All are recuperating from ringworm. Thor, who is a manx gone too far, has bathroom completion issues and I don't know where or how he will ever be placed in a home. Berry and Breezy had to be turned loose in the general population, since I had no other private foster space. Aces, Shady and Little Miss Sunshine are in the bathroom. LMS is the only still showing any signs of ringworm, but Aces came down with a nasty cold, exposed the other two, so they must all be isolated.

Mooki, Machi and Meeko's brother, who came down with ringworm, is over it and now in my general population. Teddy, the last of Hope's kittens here, got a home yesterday. He too had overcome his ringworm. Course I was bathing 8 kittens three times weekly in anti fungal to rid them of it. That wasn't easy. But no good thing comes easy.

Machi and Meeko are in homes. I get updates from their adoptors and yesterday, I got photos of Meeko and Scottie from the couple who adopted them. Oh, how that made me happy, to see them doing so well.

I miss Old Sal so very much. His adoptors say he is adjusting well, greeting everyone who comes into their place and being a great lovable kitty, like he only could be, because he is wonderful.

With the death of Butterscotch and Old Sal gone, the balance here is upset and the cats too are having a hard time, as they do when a favorite, like Old Sal and like Meeko, is adopted, or when there is a death and they know a long timer here has died.

Solomon is having a very tough time with the changes. He took to attacking little Skippy, the cute Gore colony kitten fixed on Tuesday in Tigard. So I took Skippy back to his colony. I will still list him, and if he gets an interest, I'll go get him. I also didn't want him exposed to any possible ringworm spores left here or to the kitty colds. It is best he goes back for now.

The tux teen from Hate Thy Neighbor is still fighting conjunctivitis although he and the two small kittens are over pneumonia. I do not know how this will come out. The little teen tux may also lose an eye. Micky, the orange and white one eyed boy, is doing great and eating everything in sight!

So, as far as adoptibles now, I have Mooki, the last remaining Spicer Boy. I have Aces and Shady, from the BS, although Aces is getting over a cold, and I have LIttle Miss Sunshine, the sweetheart Siamese from Fern Road in Philomath, still getting over ringworm, although she's almost overcome it. She was the last of the exposed kittens to catch it.

I have Cozy, the last of the downtown Albany kittens to place. She's not one of Hope's, but rather from a feral calico, now fixed. She and her siblings, up in Beaverton waiting on homes, were so flea infested and pathetic I could not return any of them after I trapped them, although their mother went back. Her sister, a torti, is there, too. The good neighbor found the torti's kittens homes. Hope's kittens are all now in homes and I don't know if Hope has a home yet or not. Hope went into foster in Corvallis after her eye was removed and the Corvallis woman and her friends were searching out a home for her. I had also gotten three stray males fixed there. So everyone is fixed and being fed and has shelter that's left there.

Cozy is a beautiful snowshoe lynx point Siamese female kitten, about four months old now, and slightly feral.

I have the three Lebanon ragamuffins, now adults--Panda, Scooter and Solomon. they want indoor/outdoor homes very badly.

I have Gretal, from highway 34 and I have Poppy, from 34th street. Poppy is fairly tame. Gretal remains shy. Both are now adult torti's. Both are gorgeous.

And I have the one eyed male, Micky. The two kittens, too small to be fixed, and the teen still fighting herpes.

I have Breezy, Berry and the impossible Manx sibling Thor. Berry and Thor are very tame and social now, while Breezy remains shy. My volunteer fosterer, who is visiting family this weekend back east, believes she has a home lined up for Berry. Breezy and the problem Manx Thor, still need options. She'll pick the three up on Monday when she gets back. She's a very nice woman, very smart and caring, and when she dropped them off last night, I was so tired and distraught, I could barely function.

So, I have here, 14 up for adoption, some with some issues of shyness. That's way down from what I've had at other times.

This leaves me my own four, all older cats--Hopi, who is almost ten, Moby, who is close to 14, Electra, who is nine, and the former river cat Vision, who is 12 or so.

I also have Old Scully here, also an old river cat, formerly fed by Myrtle who lived across from the Post Office in Corvallis and fed her along the river. Scully is extremely old and will remain here until she dies.

I have Miss Daisy, who is deaf, who also now I claim as mine. And I have Dex, thrice rescued, she couldn't take another relocation, so she'll stay.

I have two bobtails, Comet, from Heatherdale Trailer Park, who is now two years old, and Cattyhop, a one year old bobtail gray tux from highway 226, just off HIghway 20. They are buddies, shy only at first, and delightful fun cats. I would love to see them go together. I guess that makes 16 up for adoption if I count them.

Of my own, those I will keep, I count the seven, all older cats, except for Dex, who is about six or eight, and Miss Daisy, who is three. Moby, Vision, Electra, Hopi and Scully, are all relatively elderly.

So, currently, I am caring for 23 cats. Of the four in my bedroom, including the one eyed Mickey, all could be returned, as last resort, to the Hate Thy Neighbor colony.

I am searching for the contact information on a woman who wanted barn cats and loved Manx and Siamese. I had misunderstood she wanted barn cats, when they came over, and fell in love with Cattyhop and Little Miss Sunshine. I want them to go as housepets. But Thor can't be a housepet with his "completion" issues, as a manx. So this might be a good situation for Thor and Cozy.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Butterscotch

Hate Train to Glory--Lars Larsen Goes After Kulongoski, Over Goldschmidts Crime

Do I admire Lars Larsen for anything? Do I think he cares about right and wrong or about abused women and children? I don't. I don't think Larsen cares about much of anything. I quit listening to his hate train radio show long long ago. But, I happen to be very happy at least he is going after those who may have known Neil Goldschmidt was abusing a child, in his own political glory days, and did nothing to stop it.

Every tiny-balled man surrounding Goldschmidt, hanging on his coattails, who knew he was molesting a child and did nothing, needs to go down in flames, including Kulongoski, if he knew, and lacked the balls to do the right thing. Including the sheriff now under fire to quit or submit to an investigation of whether he stayed silent on the issue while acting as Neil Goldschmidt's bodyguard.

This is not a joke. Molesting kids is wrong. If you're now the governor and lacked the courage to tell on a political buddy molesting a child, then you need to go down in flames, like a spineless creep.

The Democrats have left this alone. They never should have. This is WRONG to leave alone and makes the Democrats of this state look spineless, like it's ok to molest a kid, if its a high level Democratic politician doing it.

Lars Larsen however is only filing ethics complaints to boost his agenda and career, not because he gives a shit about anything. That's my opinion of the man. That will also be my opinion of Kulongoski, if it turns out he knew, and did nothing, because his balls are shrivelled up and useless.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Old Butterscotch is Leaving Me

Old Butterscotch is dying. I found her laying out across a heat vent. She's laid there for days, rejecting her fluffy fuzzy yellow blanket, in her own carrier, behind the couch--her beloved sanctuary.

She perked up briefly five days ago, when I brought her some chicken hearts. She loves them and always has. But she's stumbled in the rear legs, to walk lately, and moved from the carrier to laying across the vent. I knew she was failing then.

I brought her home chicken hearts tonight. And chicken livers too. It was delusion, to think if I brought them, she'd be alive when I got home. Instead, I pulled her into my arms and held her against my own body heat. A heat vent is such a cold hard cruel piece of metal.

Butterscotch was abandoned on or near the OSU campus. Campus Security fed her. I trapped her only to find out she was already spayed. So I returned her to her life, living beneath the back porch of Fairbanks Hall and being fed by a janitor and campus security.

Four years later, I retrapped her. She'd gotten very ill after bark mulch, alive with bugs and reeking, was dumped all around the back porch of Fairbanks Hall. It made her so sick nobody thought she would live. But she did live. Campus security said they'd find her a home. They didn't. So she's been with me the last three years is it? Or has it been longer?

She almost died last December. My furnace had been shut down as dangerous, at the slum shack where I lived in Corvallis. Then I was evicted. But first, before I was evicted, I told the slumlady about the furnace fire at the bottom and how the gas company came and said it was totally blocked--a fire and carbon monoxide hazard and must be shut down.

She was very upset and said I had ruined her Christmas. Then, just to be mean, she roamed into my bathroom and saw Butterscotch inside the bathroom. She had pneumonia. I had no heat in my place and the bathroom was the only room where I could contain some heat for a very sick old gal, using a space heater.

She said the cats should stay outside and why was there a cat in my bathroom. She's known about my cats since before I moved in. She was saying this right at this time, because she was mad about the furnace, and likes taking things out through intimidation. I tried to explain that Butterscotch had pneumonia and there was no longer any heat in this shack.

She's a grinch, an evil witch, that slumlady. She didn't complain about the new toilet in the bathroom, the toilet I paid for and that I installed because the other one leaked, and the top had broken long before I moved in and replaced by a moldy rotten board. Nor did she complain about the new floor, the floor I paid for and that I put in after ripping out three moldy disgusting fluid filled layers of old vinyl and digging out the rotted boards and mold, so I could breath again in there. She didn't complain about the new doorknob on the bathroom door either, the doorknob I installed, after I came home one night to find myself locked out of the bathroom because the old disgusting nonworking knob had frozen with the lever in the closed position.

She complained about an old kitty, struggling to live, in a freezing disgusting shack this slumlady refused to maintain. An old gal abandoned like trash by someone years before. A humble old stray.

Then came the eviction, when I finally had grovelled long enough and talked back to her. I doubt hell will accept that woman. She's too evil for hell.

The move was hard on me. Harder still on the old cats. Butterscotch took it in stride. She knew as long as she was with me, she was ok.

Tonight she's leaving me. She's leaving me. Leaving me.

She's going away and I can't watch over her, can't hold her, can't tell her how beautiful she is. I can't tell her how sorry I am people treated her the way they did. I can't stop her from going. I want to. I want to.

My dear little campus nobody girl. I was one, too, you know. I was one too.

My little Butterscotch is leaving me. I miss her so already. I miss her. I love her.

Four Cats Being Fixed Today

BS Original back barn teen--turned out to be a female.
BS Overflow buff and white, was a male.
BS Overflow young orange tabby. This orange tabby teen was a girl. Now spayed and returned.
Humongous trouble making black and white Hate Thy neighbor male. This neuter will calm the area!

Four cats are up being fixed today. One is a big black and white male from Hate Thy neighbor. Two are from BS overflow. One of them is a four month old orange tabby and the other, an orange and white, like all the others. One is a dark orange tabby and white from BS Original, from the back barn.

I also went over to the Corvallis colony, intent on getting my carrier back, which I did, and I delivered a cover I built for the dry food they put out, to go under. This will protect the food from rain. Then, on a whim, I netted the older light gray tabby kitten because I had a shot at it. Now, I'm a little mad at myself for so doing. I don't think the kitten is four pounds, so where will I get it fixed?

Albany PiggyWiggies

I saw in the paper Allied Waste in Corvallis is not only raising rates but moving the recycling center behind a fence, to stop events like in photos below. This happens in Albany. I used to think it was mainly poor people dumping, because of high garbage rates. When garbage rates go up, like they are in Benton County, people on the edge, can't afford it, and start illegal dumping or allowing trash to pile up. But I watch the people who drive up and dump shit at the Albany site and many are in really nice cars, SUV's and pickups. Anyhow, this is just one little bit of trash dumped one day at the Albany Recycle Center, which I would guess, will soon be forced to halt the program, or move it behind a locked gate.

Long Day. Five Kittens Fixed.

Yesterday, I was up by 5:30 a.m. and off to Portland by shortly after 6:00 a.m., with five kittens who needed fixed. Before heading out onto the freeway, however, I returned the five older cats fixed the day before to the Gore Colony. I thought they would be up, since the day before, I trapped the cats at 7:00 a.m., when he feeds them. It was 6:30 by this time, but there were not lights on inside the very rural house. So I was quiet as I could in letting the five out of the traps and then leaving.

I had wanted to take the two remaining older unfixed Corvallis colony kittens up to Tigard for fixing yesterday. I stopped by that colony to try to drop trap them. My mood quickly soured.

The cage I had loaned them, so they could hold five of the cats overnight there, prior to fixing, after I caught them, for a neuterscooter clinic, was out in the yard, dirty, with the cover I'd leant them, muddy and wet in dog pee. The litterbox that had been in the cage was not with it and neither was the carrier I had loaned them. I had asked that they have all ready to return to me and cleaned up, too.

This type of behavior never makes me happy. It makes me feel used. Like a whore.

I then set up to drop trap. Five different times, one or another of the family members came up while I was attempting to trap, scaring the kittens off. My mood really soured. They should be out doing this, I thought angrily to myself, instead of impeding the effort. I knew they wouldn't do it, is the thing, because they don't seem to care much, if it gets done or not.

They set out cat food, but on a tray directly in the rain. They've said they would remedy this by creating something that keeps the rain out or putting the food inside the barn, but they haven't. There was no water, either, and one kitten was so thirsty he'd taken to sitting in the dishpan used for a water bowl. I filled it with water from bottles in my car. How hard is it to put some water out, I thought to myself.

There are five tiny kittens, about five weeks old, (mother now fixed) then the two they claim they are going to keep as house pets. There were five they took inside from two litters. Three of those have died.

The two still living, that they claim they keep in, were outside however trying to eat the old yucky cat food in the tray. They're like three weeks old. The bag of cat food they use to put out food on the tray also sits outside on the back porch, which means it gets moisture and air exposed constantly, which drains nutrition and taste. I feel so sorry for these cats there.

So, outside, there are still five young kittens, too little to be fixed, and two older ones not yet fixed. I'd gone to try to drop trap the older two. There is also one adult unfixed male, who only comes in occasionally. I've asked they contain him, when he comes around, since he's tame, but they haven't.

It's a frustrating thing to try to help cats. The fact these folks are extreme Christians doesn't help my perception much of Christian behavior. They're nice people, but it's hard for me to see the basic neglect of animals going on there and I just don't get it.

What causes such behavior, I wonder, and how do they just watch it happen, the kids, too, who are all older teens, some out of school? I guess I don't understand the mentality--the apathy. I don't understand why they don't just clean up the place, take care of the animals, find many homes, and work together to do it. I don't get it, is the thing.

Without luck there, I went to the 34th street location and picked up the other two kittens from the feral mother. The thing with that mother is the couple had her in their house forever, claiming it was their cat from long ago, that someone there had adopted from them, then abandoned. When they moved in there, and "found her" again, they were so happy.

They claimed she was already fixed. I claimed she was too young to be their long lost six year old spayed kitty. They let her out, and she got pregnant.

They wouldn't help trap her, always sleeping in, or too tired or off somewhere. Wouldn't participate. Then she had kittens. Now she's pregnant again. Same thing, they won't go an inch out of their way to help catch her.

So if I want to stop that cat from reproducing, it's going to have to be me over there setting and watching a trap. Me again. I follow those people around. Wherever they move to, there are going to be unfixed pets with them or fed by them. There are lots of people in Albany just like them, too. It's a mentality over here, and not just with these sorts, but even with the well housed and employed types.

I think I'll try to explain the mentality I encounter over here: passive. Maybe that's the best word. Things happen to you, might be another way to describe the attitude. Things happen and there's nothing that can be done to change things. This is not a change the world or even make a neighborhood better mentality.

It's more of a go to work, come home sit on the couch with a case of beer watching TV type of town. And if you don't work, it could be described as a sleep til noon, get up cranky and begin complaining, while still in bathrobe with cig hanging from side of mouth, about how you don't get enough of what you need from everyone else type of town. Yeah, I think that's a good description. Maybe I'm just being a complainer myself this morning. I fell asleep on the couch last night after getting home from Tigard with the kittens.

I wasn't happy when I picked them up at 3:30 p.m. to find I'd been charged for flea treatment for two kittens. I know they do that at that clinic, treat for fleas, mandatory, if they see them. Not their fault. That's why I had applied flea treatment the day before to all five.

But the two from 34th street were so severely infested that the treatment the night before didn't touch the population. Paying $25 more bucks out of my own pocket for those lazy losers' kittens didn't set well with me. Especially since a couple months ago, I gave them tons of donated spray on flea products and bombs, to kill resident fleas inside their place. Likely, those products are sitting unused on a shelf inside that apartment, or, they sold them.

So when I returned the kittens last night, and they had made no effort to catch that pregnant mother, I wanted to vomit all over them. I had to knock many times to rouse the woman.

Anyhow...

The five kittens were four boys and one girl. One tux boy was a kitten from Hate Thy Neighbor, a colony I have grown fond of helping, since the old man is pleasant to talk with. Another little boy, white and orange, and who looks very much like the BSS overflow little female kitten, Aces sister, is still here, and I am returning him today. He's from the Gore colony crowd. Then there were the two 34th street boys.

The one girl was Aces sister from BS overflow, now with BSS Overflow. They're going to keep her. They had said the mother of the four kittens my volunteer paid to have fixed at the Neuterscooter, was black and white, they thought, because they saw a black and white peek out of their boat, where they found the kittens, after they moved the boat from up front to around back by their shop. So I've been busting my ass out there, searching for any black and white cat who is unknown to me.

Well, it turns out, the mother is really the muted calico, one of the first BS Overflow cats I trapped. She was spayed at the Neuterscooter's August clinic. BS Overflow caretaker had not told me she'd just had kittens. Later on, she told me only two seemed to have survived. Well, all six survived. Aces is here, and now the other five are living next door. They're all fixed now! At least.

The mystery black and white female, BSS overflow claimed was the mother because they saw the cat poke its head out of the boat, where they'd found the kittens, is really the owned cat of BS Overflow. I remember now, although they won't, that they told me when I first me them, that they would see the little white kitten in their yard, over by the boat. The white kitten was the one fixed yesterday.

I hope that's the way it is. I've been doing detective work on it, to see who sleeps with who, who hangs with who, to be sure there is not a mystery black and white out there, unfixed, poised to reproduce once again.

Today, a huge angry black and white male, from Hate Thy Neighbor, one BS colony back barn teen and two BS Overflow cats, one a teen orange tabby, are headed up to be fixed.

Dog in the Road

 I went to get groceries yesterday morning fairly early. I was expecting visitors, brief ones, pop in and out, so I wanted to get done with ...