Monday, December 31, 2007

Little Miss Sunshine Now

Little Miss Sunshine is doing well in her new home. She got the best of homes, that's for sure. I sure fought hard for her, from digging her out of that deep buried woodpile in rural Philomath, to bringing her through extreme conjunctivitis, after her spay, and then ringworm, too. She endured three times weekly baths for a month. And finally, finally, she got the best of homes. Finally, finally, she got her happy ending.

Look at her now!
Miss Sunshine, on left, in pile of cats on new adoptors lap.
Little Miss Sunshine enjoys naps with the dog.

Trip

I was gone for two nights, went to Portland to see my brothers. Was nice to get away except I started coming down with a cold the day I left, Saturday evening. So it was a little hard to sleep, with junk running down the back of my throat.

My nose was broken when I was a kid. A girl was waiting outside the public swimming pool for someone she didn't like. Only I came out first and she threw the rock at me, thinking it was going to be her "friend" who came out first. I didn't even know her. My nose got broken. She ran off.

So anyhow, I get drainage down the back of my throat with any nasal event, like allergies or a cold. Drainage runs backwards, instead of coming out the front of my nose, like with people who have normal noses.

So anyhow, never easy to sleep if I get a cold. Constant coughing ensues with the drainage and tickling. I do my best not to get colds. This one so far isn't big time, you know, but i knew I was getting it because my feet started getting cold, my lungs felt heavy and I just wanted to sleep Friday and Saturday. Bad timing to get a chance to visit my brothers in Portland right when I get hit with a cold.

I had a good time, just to see them.

I came home this morning. I came home to a message from the woman who adopted a kitten a month ago, saying he has a cold. I loaned her a vaporizer i think two weeks ago. I wonder if she has used it for him. The kitten has herpes. I think I explained the virus to her, that outbreaks can occur when a cat or kitten is under stress. Maybe I forgot to fully explain that to her. Maybe I need to print off some information for her on it. My printer currently is not working. Not sure why.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

LAPD Enlists Aid of Feral Cats

Click post title for story about how the LA police department has turned to feral cats to solve rodent issues at some of their stations, declaring this approach humane and a win for the cats, who otherwise would have been killed at shelters, and a win for the LAPD and their rodent problems.

Boey, Whose Family Was Featured on American MakeOver, Dies

Boey has died. Little kids shouldn't die of anything. She was just a sweet little girl. I send best wishes to her grieving family and friends.

Click post title for link to Corvallis Gazette Times story.

Friday, December 28, 2007

God Rest Her Soul

That poor little gray and white girl, she's gone now. The injuries were from a dog attack. Her infection went clear into the bone and she had been infected for some time. She was extremely pale. The vet said she wasn't going to survive that infection, it was so deep and the injury so severe. God damn it. These people on that street, letting their vicious barely cared for dogs run wild who inflict such severe suffering as this little girl had to endure.

All I want to do is sob.

Ozzy Needs a Home

Ozzy, a neutered male kitten from Hate Thy Neighbor. He'd had a severe cold, and the old man caretaker had been attempting to care for him in his garage, but it was cold and he wasn't getting over it. A couple days here, worming, defleaing, and Ozzy is doing great, and pretty much over his cold already.

Ozzy originates from across the street, where several of the other cats started out, too. All the cats from across the street are now fixed, except one of Ozzy's sisters, who scratched the man who lives across the street when he was trying to put her in a carrier so I could get her fixed, then ran off. Ozzy has a right eartip. He, a brother and a sister were fixed at the October 29 FCCO clinic in Philomath. I'll get to the last sister very soon again, however.

Their black tux mother, barely more than a kitten herself, was exceedingly pregnant when I trapped her, one of the first five I trapped at that colony. I targeted her because she was pregnant and way too young to be a mother AGAIN.
Ozzy is extremely loving and sure wants a home. It's good some of these kittens and cats are getting out of that situation and into homes. Elmo also is from HTN and needs a home, as does Brambles.

Injured Kitty at the Vet

I took three cats up to the vet this morning. One is a huge male from Lebanon. He's tame, and possibly gay, but, he does like female humans and has grabbed his caretakers hair and tried to "do" her. So he's, thankfully, getting neutered. Other than that,he doesn't fight with other males, despite his massive size, and shows little interest in territory marking or female cats. Gay, I'm telling you.

This Lebanon woman feeds neighborhood strays. A Lebanon area cat helper trapped two of the outside cats, but this freaked her out totally, because the trapper didn't cover the traps she set, and one cat, exposed for over an hour inside the trap, totally freaked, which freaked this kind hearted woman out. So, she'll let me trap the outside strays, but only when she isn't there to see it. Next week, I'll do just that.

And her grandpa, in Salem, feeds about 20 cats, on his farm. And he is desperate to get them fixed. I just told her about the FCCO. Since she is emotionally unable to trap, either I'll do it, or I'll find somebody else to do it, and get them in to a Salem FCCO clinic, a FLEX clinic or the Philomath FCCO clinic, before breeding season begins yet again. I suppose she has about 8 that need fixed, all outside strays, except for two three month old kittens she took in.

So I also took in the brown tabby second Shedd teen, finishing that colony.

And I took in the badly injured gray and white long hair cat I netted last night out at Hate Thy Neigbhor. I'm more convinced this is a fan belt injury. Cats try to keep warm in this frigid weather by sleeping inside the hoods of cars. This can prove deadly.

I told the vet, if the cat is savable, to save him, and I'll find some way to pay for the cost of saving the cat. I feel these desperate cats should get a chance, since they've not had it good. I just want him or her to feel loved and cared about at some point in his or her life.

It's important, in my mind, for some reason, that hard luck humans and animals don't die out there, suffering, cold, having felt no love touch them in their lives, only anger and hardness and judgement. I want love to win. I'm such an optimist, but an optimist who works hard and sacrifices to try to make my delusional dream real. At least I'm not a lazy delusional optimist.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Three Cats Fixed Today and I Net a Badly Injured Cat

Three more cats were fixed today, courtesy of Poppa Inc. One is from Shedd, a male, now six or seven months old, born to a tame mother dumped there a year ago. I got the mother cat fixed last summer. There are two surviving kittens. I set two traps yesterday and caught one in the night, the male, while the female went into a trap today, and will be fixed tomorrow, finishing that small colony before it had a chance to blow up.

The other two teenagers, both orange females, are the survivors of a litter from an orange mother, who lives next door. I got the mother fixed a couple months ago. Now these two girls are also fixed, finishing that small colony.

I stopped by Hate Thy Neighbor tonight, in the dark and freezing cold and pouring rain. On the porch, when I drove up, was the newcomer to the colony, that the old man told me about yesterday--a gray and white long hair young kitty, badly injured. The cat doesn't use it's left front leg and is missing a lot of fur on the left side also. There are some huge open sores on the left side above that leg.

I had my remote control trap along. I set it. The cat went in. I hit the switch and nothing happened, except the cat heard the buzzing and movement of the servo arm above him, and exited the trap. I snuck quietly out of the car with my trusty fish net, and netted the cat as it flew by, once it saw me.

Without a towel handy, I took off my outer shirt to put over the cat in the net, leaving me in just a T-shirt in the freezing wind and rain. I got the cat into the malfunctioning trap and then put my shirt over the trap. Once the trap was inside the car, I was able to see the cat is very seriously injured. I don't know how the cat was so badly injured. Looks like a car hit injury or a fan belt injury to me. Also could be buckshot. I'll let the vet assess his or her injury and its cause.

The injured cat is very pretty. I don't know where the cat came from. The caretaker of the HTN colony saw it first a few days ago, limping, behind the empty house across the street.
Black male, from Shedd
One of two orange sisters, from Albany.
Second orange sister fixed today, along with the black Shedd male.
Injured gray and white kitty.
The injuries.
This injured kitty is very beautiful.

The Pigs Who Killed Bhutto

Let them rot in their own filthy disgusting blood.

She knew she'd likely die. She came back anyway. She came back because she loved Pakistan and she wanted a better Pakistan for its people.

And so the black slobs of evil killed her. And with her does hope for Pakistan also die? Will the people give in to the violence of the Islamists, who want to control every aspect of every person's life, particularly, of a woman's life? Why? Because they're insane. They are insane unhappy control freaks and that is the bottom line.

No one is allowed freedom or happiness under fundamentalist Islamists. NO ONE!

We too here, in our country, must guard against the dangers presented by religious extremists. I have read that Mike Huckabee is somehow connected to a way out there cult, where woman are kept shrouded away, without voice, and children are punished by being forced to kneel and pray in a closet, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. I don't know if this is true. If it is, it's disturbing.

Are such pseudo-religious control freak cults a danger to America? Every bit as much a danger as Islamic fundamentalists. Fundamentalist Mormons and other Mormon outgroups--just as dangerous.

Mormons don't even believe anyone of color can get into their heaven, or own a planet, like they believe also. My brother told me they have "suspended" some of their controversial beliefs while Mitt Romney runs for President. I asked how they suspend beliefs their founder, Mr. Joseph 'Face in Hat', Indian treasurer scammer, wrote in as doctrine. My brother says they do this by "locating alternate writings" of Joseph Smith. Mr. Smith had something like 17 wives. I believe some of those wives were kids, basically.

I am tired of all this violence. I am tired of men who kill, for whatever justification they can vomit up. I am tired of fake religions and fake Christians. I am tired of religions that sprout mainly so men can control women or have sex with kids. I am tired of the people who support violence, including the left leaning movie industry. I am tired of people who decide the best way to solve problems is through violence.

This is part of an instant gratification world, a world where long term effort to change things peacefully is judged too hard, for most. Instead, violence becomes the chosen answer to everything.

It's just so damn easy to pull a trigger. It doesn't take courage to pull a trigger or trigger a bomb that also blows one's self up, so the perp never has to face victims or families of victims.

Verbal and debate skills in our world are declining in favor of the use of bullets and bombs to solve all problems. Such is the world of men.

Who are the courageous of our time?

I'll tell you who.

Those who turn away from violence as a solution, that's who.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Seymour, a.k.a Seyless, the One-eyed cat from Rural Philomath


Seymour wandered up to the right rural Philomath porch. K is one of the kindest people I know. She contacted me prior to the Neuterscooter's arrival in Corvallis about the stray with the bad eye, she was feeding. She wanted to help him. Help him she did.

She caught Seymour in a live trap and brought him to the Neuterscooter clinic, where he was not only neutered, but after the day of fixing was over, and all the cats had gone home, Dr. Peavy removed his herpes damaged eye.

After a rough few days, Seymour began acting like he wanted to be a house boy, and not an outside fed stray or feral. He began purring his head off, kneading, and absolutely will go nuts with catnip.

Seymour is, in other words, now thriving, thanks to a vet who charged only $40 to remove an eye, at the end of a very very long day, and a kind Philomath woman, who would not look the other way to his suffering.

Want to See What Hero Veterinarians are Doing?

Click the post title to go to website of a veterinarian, intent on spaying as many animals as possible. His current campaign involves fixing dogs and cats in Mexico. In Tijuana, 150,000 dogs and cats are killed each year, due to overpopulation.

This vet has stern words regarding spay/neuter!

For every one person born, 15 dogs are born and 45 cats are born. That should be enough to make any US citizen with a functioning brain immediately get their cat or dog fixed. Do you have a brain?

Buster, Kitten with Throat Skin Torn Off, Doing Much Better

The kitten I trapped at a seed warehouse who had a horrific injury to his throat, went home with the seed man who contacted me about trapping the cats for fixing. He is doing much better, as second photo below shows. I subsequently trapped his sister, whom the man and his wife also adopted. They then trapped not only a tame mink, but the mother cat, who was feral, and whom they had fixed and returned. They are feeding her.

The little boy when in my bathroom, just after I trapped him. The injury was likely caused by him getting caught in machinery at the seed warehouse, the vet said.
This is him three weeks later. His wound is healing nicely.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Favorite Movies

There are Dick Flicks and there are Chick Flicks. I generally like a movie somewhere in between the extremes.

I suppose taking recommendations from an employee at a movie rental store means taking your chances. People like different sorts of movies. This clerk recommended Eastern Promises. I watched it and thought it extremely drab. I should have known I probably would not like it, because I had mentioned something about the one Bruce Willis movie I liked, but I couldn't remember its name. She had looked at me like I was nuts and said "All Bruce Willis movies are great." I beg to differ.

Bruce Willis movies are simple stuff. Here is the Willis movies formula. Bruce Willis=super tough super good guy. Throw in super bad guys. Throw in victims, usually children and women. And that's the premise of almost every Bruce Willis movie I've seen. Boooorrrriiiiinnnnng. You do not need a brain to watch a Bruce Willis movie. Usually, you need abnormal testosterone, if an adult, or, you need to be a developing teen boy.

I have not seen all his movies. I quit. But I saw one good one he made. I can't remember the name. He was a soldier, for some reason in Africa, reluctantly helping get out some hostages. I liked it.

I am trying to remember movies I have enjoyed. Here is a partial list, in no particular order:

Bulworth

Falling Down

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Dick

The Ghost and the Darkness

Gatica

Edward Scissorhands

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Chocolat

Ed Wood

Out of Africa

Never Cry Wolf

The Snow Walker

The Unforgiven

Million Dollar Baby

Schindler's List

Shawshank Redemption

Whale Rider

Sling Blade

Requeim for a Dream

Man from Snowy River

Thelma and Louise

Pleasantville

The War of the Roses

Blood Diamonds

Shining Through

Vacation

LA Confidential

Usual Suspects

The Black Stallion

Hard Candy

The King

Rabbit Proof Fence

Empire of the Sun

I will add to the list when my memory wakens.

Don't Vote for Huckabee. His Son Tortured a Stray Dog to Death.

Click post title for the story, about Huckabee's 17 year old son, fired at a boy scout camp, when he and another camp counselor hung a stray dog, slit its throat and then stoned it to death. He was not charged. New information has come to light that he wasn't charged because of his father's influence.

I wouldn't vote for a man like that. I hope you won't either.

Rented Two Movies

I didn't like either one. Rescue Dawn. Eastern Promises. Both were violent. Both were matter of fact, like a list. This how this happens. In Rescue Dawn, it was "this is how a prisoner was treated, then escaped".

Rescue Dawn was about a pilot shot down in Laos, on a secret mission, or rather "mission into territory where nobody was supposed to know we were fighting" during the Viet Nam era. The pilot is captured and endures, with a handful of fellow prisoners, torture and hardships at the hands of the equally tormented starving Laotian guards.

He talks the others into an escape attempt, especially after one of the Asian prisoners overhears the starving guards speak of taking them into the jungle and killing them, claiming they did so when the prisoners attempted escape, so they can return to their villages and hopefully find food.

In the escape attempt, he is the only one who summons the balls to attack their former captors/torturers, to prevent them being immediately recaptured or killed. He and one other prisoner strike off together, while the others head off on their own.

They nearly starve to death in their quest to find American troops. In the end, his friend is killed by villagers they startle and he is is airlifted out when he is finally spotted by a plane. This movie is based on a true story.

There was nothing entertaining or intellectually stimulating about watching this movie. I know war is hell already. I had friends who went and fought in Viet Nam. I don't know why I rented it, couldn't find much of anything to rent, I guess.

The other movie, Eastern Promises, I rented because the movie store clerk said it was great. I thought it was boring and empty. A list of this is what happens in the Russian mob, but the story's scope was limited, very limited, so you were seeing really nothing of what goes on with the Russian mob, just what went on with one child molesting old Russian mob man and his one son, a homosexual drunk, who has a friend's throat sliced, wihtout telling daddy.

And with a KGB agent who had inflitrated this Russian gang of thugs. The plot tries to be interesting by starting with a dying pregnant teenager, who has written a diary one of the nurses steals from her handbag. The teen was pregnant. She dies. The baby lives. The nurse tries to find her family, and finds out instead, from the diary, that she was kept as a sex slave for this disgusting old Russian mob man. Barely interesting.

There is contrived sexual tension between the undercover KGB man and the nurse. He and the nurse save the baby, briefly stolen by the drunk son, in attempts to protect his father, when the KGB agent, using information from the diary, gets the police to arrest the father on child molestation charges, since they have the baby, with its DNA, as evidence. The KGB undercover agent wants the father, who runs the mob family, out of the way, so he can move in as number one.

The most laughable scene in the movie? When two brothers of the man the drunk son paid to have killed, attempt to also kill the undercover agent, when he's naked, in a sauna. A naked tattoed man, fighting, in a sauna, isn't sexy, to me, but I would think the writers must have thought so, and likely were gay men. The scene could have been left out but is one of the only interesting scenes in the movie.

Also, you have to pay close attention to the dialogue. Heavy Russian accented English is hard to catch. Or you can watch the periodic subtitles, which help some, if you can see them, on your little screen TV.

Visit to the Homeless Camp

I went to the homeless camp today, Christmas. I had gifts, small ones, I'd bought for those folks, some wool socks and gloves, toiletries, food, cat food, some other things I thought might make life a tiny bit easier for them. At least I wanted them to know somebody was thinking about them.

Nobody was there. A huge tree, probably 18 inches across, had fallen across the trail merely 15 feet from one of the tents. That must have been extremely frightening to hear come crashing down. I wonder if this occurred in the big windstorm. There were signs someone is still living there, or had recently been there. I left the gifts. The plastic storage container a friend of mine bought, for them to store cat food, was half full of rainwater, empty of any cat food, with the lid off. I dumped out the rainwater, and put another bag of cat food inside it.

I saw no one, not even one cat. I put out cat food, left the gifts and food where they would see it, and left.

I hope they are ok. They have hard lives. I know, you'll say, most of their problems are self-induced. I know this is true. But they're human beings. They're suffering human beings. The woman has been raped multiple times. I know there is no solution for her, or for many of the homeless. I know many will have tough ends to their lives. But in the meantime, I don't see any reason not to treat fellow human beings with some kindness.

We're all not really very seperated from each other, really. Tiny differences--just some wood walls, a roof, bank accounts and nice clothes are all that differentiate one of us from another, in many instances. There are good people and bad people with and without homes.

I don't meet saints, really, out there, with homes or without. We've all got our problems and our blaring glaring faults.

Sometimes I see our existence as extremely frail. I see the thin layer of dirt and vegetation atop this huge spinning molten rock we call earth. We live in that thin thin fragile layer of dirt and vegetation. We often live upon this fragile layer with arrogance, like only we matter, like only a very few of us humans even matter. It's a funny joke.

The universe is vast. We know things. We don't know most things. I look into the stars and understand I am a speck and nothing more.

Monday, December 24, 2007

It's Christmas

It's almost Christmas. Another 45 minutes. What am I going to do tomorrow? Don't know. No plans. Chirp brought a cold outbreak into the house--thank you Chirp. I gave my only anti biotics to him and his brother, Elmo, so far unadopted.

Hopefully, the cats will get over it. I have four sneezing now. But it's probably viral anyhow, and will have to run its course. I am lacing their food with lysine.

I got a full blown feral adult in my spare bedroom. He escaped my wire cage and next thing you know, he's gotten up on the high closet shelf, with accompanying racket and destruction.

He's from a vacant rental house a block from where I live. I'm reluctant to return him, even though the apartment complex people feed the strays well. That's because the prop management company is going to seal off under the house again, like they did a few weeks ago. Only that time, they did so with cats under there.

They were able to break out, but they might not be so lucky next time. I trapped two of about six, actually, but this brown tabbvy tux's mom had metastisized bladdar cancer, and the vet put her down, and I buried her. So I have only him, and no options of barn homes, and I don't know what to do with him.

Since he was scrambling up the closet door and jumping down, I finally gave in and put a laddar in there for him. I'd house him for now in the garage room, but the door won't close anymore, due to shifting in the garage floor and walls.

I'll walk over there tomorrow, to see if they've sealed up under the house again. If so, I'll let him go. If not, well I don't know. The rest of them will have to be trapped, too, at some point, to avoid a population explosion.

I can't tell you how many cats I've trapped within a few block radius of here, since I moved. A lot. Over fifty. That's kind of pathetic. And there are more.

Goodbye Graham and Chirp.

Chirp and Graham just got a home together with a very wonderful Philomath family. Both boys came from very bad situations. Graham comes from the Corvallis colony, where just yesterday, when returning Boo and a tame gray tiny female kitten, after they were fixed, because the caretakers wanted them back, I found a cat leg, devoid of flesh, although there was some fur left on the foot. The cat had been killed by either a dog or predator. They're all fixed now there, at least, thanks to me and Poppa Inc. Graham had no future there, so this was his Christmas miracle.

Likewise for Chirp, who came from a similar situation. Over forty cats being fed by a kind old man. All resulting from neighborhood barely noticed house cats and their completely unnoticed offspring breeding. Most there now too are fixed, thanks to me and Poppa Inc.

Good luck Graham and Chirp. May better lives for you ensue.

Graham, while here after his neuter surgery and prior to being adopted today, by a wonderful Philomath family.
Teens peer at me, from the colony were Graham comes from, where he had no real future.
Graham and his sisters gobble food I put out, where he used to live.
Chirp, when younger, held in a cage in the garage of the colony caretaker.
Chirp a few days ago, just after his neuter, which occurred at the Springfield Neuterscooter clinic. Now, Chirp has been adopted.

Best Job in the World

This is the fourth night in a row that I've fallen asleep on the couch, watching TV, early, only to wake up stiff, cold and disoriented, early in the morning. Whoa.....

I think I fell asleep last night around 9:00 p.m., right after the end of the amazing race. And I just woke up, at 5:14 a.m. Whoa......

Before the Amazing Race, the doorbell rang. It was two sisters who live in North Albany, for whom I took in a couple strays they'd been feeding. They had presents! A T-shirt, some candy, some slippers, gift card to Freddies. They said I shouldn't be forgotten because I do so much for other people and cats... It was so delightful to have them show up like that--all dressed up warmly, in warm coats and gloves--just like you think about what someone might do on Christmas. They were like Santa Clauses!

They're really fun people. I thought that when I helped them with their cats. And they also paid for those cats who went in, too. You just don't see that much. So these are extraordinary Albany citizens.

That Philomath woman had brought me a Christmas tree ten days or so ago, like Santa Claus. They sell them this time of year. I'd helped her with a bunch of cats, most recently with a cat she caught who needed an eye removed, which was done, at the end of a very long day, at the Neuterscooter clinic in Corvallis. The poor boy, now named Seymour, even though I suggested he maybe should be named Seyless (get it?), now purrs his head off and adores his catnip and likely is going to be a beloved house pet.

I paid for that eye to be removed, but in reality, although I say I paid, I really didn't. I had gotten a donation from a very kind older woman, who lives in Newburg, who is also good to me, that I used to cover that eye being removed. (Thank you Esther!). It all works out in the end.

I have been very blessed. I love helping cats. Sometimes I act mean about it, like I'm some martyr or something. But in reality, I love helping cats and the friends I've made helping cats, well that's something else, something wonderful.

Like Kathy from Philomath. Like these N. Albany sisters. Like the Newburg woman, although I've not met her yet. Like Suzanne of Vancouver, who adopted a Siamese from a collectors trailer in Lebanon. Samson.

I waded through cat shit that was unbelievable and suffered some unbelievable things to help those 27 cats in that cat feces filled trailer. But I made some wonderful friends as a result and would never in a million years have not done what I did in that horrible trailer, even had I not known, like I didn't then, that in adopting out those cats, I would make friends for life. Friends like Suzanne.

I got to meet people like Dr. Anderson, that vet, who used to own Countryside, now retired and moved off to some south state, a lucky state. He was a kind man, who cared about all the right things. His mother-in-law told me he left behind, when he retired and moved away, a lot of money people owed him, just walked away from it like it didn't matter. I guess it didn't matter much to him. Priorities. He's sure got a following still. I guess I'm kind of a Dr. Anderson groupie. I admire him and his values.

If you talk about values, hard work and kindness and giving natures, I'd have to say the Poppa Inc. volunteers are the best in the state and probably among the best in the world. None of them get paid a dime, and yet, what that handful of volunteers has accomplished for Oregon, with heart and soul and hard work, is unbelievable. Yeah, Keni, Beccy, and all the Recycled Gardens volunteers and the owner of the RG land out there, I'm talking about you. You're my big time heroes. BIG TIME!

The cats have helped me, as I've helped them, get what I need from life---Love. Giving all I've got to give, gives me back a million fold over. I have a blessed life. And I get to help people and cats. Best job in the world. Sure it has a downside, but not much of a downside, when I think of the big picture.

I haven't any skills really, except helping cats and I have a big heart. I like to help people. It makes me feel good days' end. Makes me feel like I've done something valuable day's end. Helping the cats, same thing.

I complain, I know. Usually when worn out. Fact is, sometimes when I complain about people, I feel for some reason I should complain about them, maybe because of their lifestyle, or I'm trying to make myself feel better by putting somebody else lower.

That's not right. And in reality, most of the people I help out, no matter how bad I don't like some of the things they do, I like them, connect with them, empathize with them, wish I could help them even more.

And here's the even more mysterious and wonderful part: these people out there in cyberspace, I've never met, who read my blog, send me things, give me encouragement, support, and I've never even met them.

You know, out there, who you are. Like Kate in California, off to Vegas for Christmas, who sends me constant encouragement, even some sunglasses last summer, and recently a big old box of presents that included a robe and warm top and fuzzy blanket.

I've forgotten to put in here a million people. I apologize for leaving really crucially wonderful people out. I'm fading upstairs sometimes, if you get my drift. But for sure I would mention Mike and Linda, who live in Gresham and are wonderful, although if I passed them on the street, I wouldn't know it, I wouldn't I'm telling you.

And Leigh Ann, a cat woman in Las Vegas with many extreme health issues, who is so kind to me, and now spending Christmas, I hope, with her family in Canada. And the cat blogospherees, who helped raise money for Hope's surgery and care, who are just wonderful, including MaryLyn of Texas......

And Midori and her sister, I love you both. Midori and her husband adopted Little Miss Sunshine. Midori could be a comedian and I told her she should be, the way she can make you laugh and tell stories, holding off on the punchline until you can't stand it anymore, then giving in, at just the right moment.

And Marianne of Canada, who adopted Mickey, the one-eyed boy, she's an animal saint, and also, a retired magician. I never dreamed I'd meet a magician.

I never dreamed in my 30 years locked up away from the world inside the mental health system, that once I escaped that horrid system, and I only escaped because I got beaten nearly to death by staff on a psyche ward, that I would get a life finally, and get to do things I only dreamed of doing--acts that save desperate lives, and in so doing, I'd save myself.

My real life began in the year 2001--the year I just said "no", finally, to the mental health system and walked away from it, the year I got a metal plate in my neck to repair damage done in a beating. I've had six years of real life now, jam packed full of living and loving and helping out the strays. I've had six beautiful years of life!

If I've offended you with my rough edged ways, forgive me please. I'm still a child learning. I was isolated so long.

It's Christmas Eve. Another day. Life is the greatest gift. It could be snatched from any one of us at any moment. I don't care if there's a heaven or no heaven. I'm not trying to earn my way into anywhere. I just like helping out the strays. I like it. So I do it, and in the process, I've met the best people in the world.

There are so many suffering souls in this world. I am a lucky soul, a very very lucky soul.

Merry Christmas to all!

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Goodbye Aces---Again.

This is Aces, huddled in soggy berry vines, just before I netted him. I couldn't stand to see the little guy suffer so.
Look at beautiful Aces now. I miss him so much already. I know he couldn't stay, but I loved him so. He's a beloved cat and me and the other cats will miss this kind hearted boy very much.

Aces left for a new home today. Just now, in fact. Two nice young men came over and adopted him for their family. It was hard to get the boys/men to say anything, however. Shy, maybe? I could sense they were very well mannered nice kids. Hard to say kids, however, for these two, because they behaved so much like young men.

Anyhow, Aces went off with them to their Corvallis home. Good luck, Aces. Aces is a nice kitty I've had here since he was tiny, and I netted him in the berry vines. He was looking so pathetic and miserable and hungry. That was at the BS overflow colony. 90 some cats fixed in that little dead end Albany street so far. He had no future there. Now, I hope he has a good future with this family.

Also, I returned the tux male kitten and the little tame gray kitten to the Corvallis colony. I found the rear leg of a cat, too, while there, near their back porch, gray hair still on the foot. The cat met an awful fate and recently, too. Either he was killed by one of their two dogs or by a fox who roams through the area. My guess is by their dogs, even though they claim the dogs just chase the cats.

It's the second cat part I've found there. The first was just a kitten's tail. He too was killed by a predator, domestic or wild. So I really really hated returning that little gray female kitten and the black tux kitten. No futures there. But they didn't want to sign them over.

I also returned the six kittens fixed Saturday to the stables. They didn't want to go back. They had loved lounging warm and well fed in my bathroom. She sure didn't want more cats to care for out at the stables. But she adopted out kittens to a friend unfixed. The friend never got the kittens fixed. They grew up and reproduced, and then the friend dumped the offspring she couldn't give away back at the stables. There were 8 in all. Five of the 8 were females. The ones who got homes, they're likely reproducing too.

Stupid people out there, who think they deserve to breed their cats, because kittens are so darn cute. The consequences of this behavior are suffering and death to the cats. Dumbshit no heart self-centered people.

I still have three male kittens here--Graham, one the Corvallis colony folks did agree to sign over, Chirp and Elmo, brothers from Hate Thy Neighbor. KATA has agreed to take these three boys, if I don't find them homes first.

I still have Shady, from the BS, Mooki, one of the Spicer boys, and Brambles, who also comes from Hate Thy Neighbor.

Christmas from the Couch

Cat Fixing So far this month........

So far this month, 17 cats have been fixed at Countryside Vet, using Poppa funds and seven kittens were fixed in Tigard, using Poppa funds. I took 14 cats from one Lebanon location to a Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon clinic. Funds to pay the $25 per cat donation for these 14 cats came from fellow cat fixers and supporters, from WA, OR and even CA. Then, at Neuterscooter clinics, twenty more cats, originally from Benton and Linn County, were fixed. A friend sponsored five of these 20 and Poppa paid for five of the 20, too.

So, this month so far, 48 cats have been fixed. I believe this month all but 8 were Linn County cats. The 8 Benton County cats were two kittens from Hull Oaks mill and six more from the Corvallis colony, which is now done.

So, 40 more Linn County cats fixed this month so far. And 8 Benton County cats.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Tulip Gets Her Home. 3 Males Fixed Today. Seven Kittens to be Fixed Tomorrow.



Tulip got a home this evening. It's been in the works for two weeks and she finally went. We will miss her here very much. Tulip is from the Hate Thy Neighbor colony. She, her sister, and Weed were huddled dying in an old camper extremely ill with pneumonia and herpes virus. Tulip's sister died. I force fed Weed and Tulip and gave them sub cu fluids for a week, before they finally began eating on their own. Still, Tulip had a "blue" swollen eye, from herpes. I was sure she would lose it. It's been a long haul. And now, my little Tulip is going to her own home. Her brother, Weed, left last week for his home.

The first photo above is of the three, just before I took them, huddled very ill, inside the camper shell. The second photo is of Weed and Tulip playing together about ten days ago. I will miss that pair!

I got three males fixed from downtown Albany today. I'd gotten four cats from the same house fixed a couple weeks ago. One male kitten left to go there. They would never have gotten them fixed.

Tomorrow, the remaining six stable kittens will be fixed, as will be Matilda, from the Slophouse colony, which is only one block from Tulip's colony. Matilda is going to a home tomorrow night. She has drastically improved since she came here. I had feared she had a heart murmur or even a hepatic shunt problem, since she was so listless. But it was just that she was overloaded in roundworms. She has been doing incredibly well lately.

In other news, I had asked the Corvallis colony caretakers if I could adopt out the tiny tame gray female kitten from there. I've gotten about 30 fixed for them now. They said "no", because they'd cared for her since she was tiny. Well, sort of. They cared for five. The rest died. She would have died also, had I not wormed her. She pooped out so many dead roundworms after that worming, I couldn't believe it. Then I tapewormed her, with similar results.

I had a conversation with the woman about proper care of pets. That house is trash ridden. They don't let her in the main part of the house, just the filthy cat feces lined laundry room. They can't take care of themselves and should have no pets until they get their act together. But she wanted her back, said she wouldn't have ever known about worms unless I had told her.

She said when I returned her today, if she wasn't home the laundry room would be open. It wasn't open when I went to return her. Someone was upstairs however, and they stared down at me from the bedroom but would not come down to let me hand over their allegedly precious pet kitten, now fixed, courtesy of others. I knocked and knocked. When the person in the room upstairs would see me looking at them looking at me, they'd try to duck out of sight. I left in disgust.

They've gotten over 2 grand in free fixing, vaccinations, parasite treatment, but can't even be there to take back there kitten. Not only that, they won't answer the door, when I come all the way over with it, when they're home.

I am going to leave them a message that they need to come pick up their kitten or start paying boarding costs. $10 per night. They'll be outraged I bet. Isn't that funny to think about, that they might be outraged? It is hysterical!

They don't do a thing to get all those cats fixed, then somebody does it for them, on their time, on their dime, having to step through their trash and filth, that they could clean up, but don't, to do it. And they'll be outraged, I bet, that they are expected to come pick up their own kitten, fixed and paid for, by someone else.

Well anyway. So it goes in catland.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Freaking Out. Strangers at My Door. After 11:00 p.m.

Two people, guys I think, one long haired and kind of staggering, were at my front door, after 11:00 p.m. Doorbell woke me up. My neighbor said they tried their door, also. My neighbor said the one guy he thinks is one who has wandered up this cul de sac twice already.

Scared me to death. I yelled at them to get the hell away. I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight. This is the third time now, in less than a year living here, I've had people wander into my yard high or drunk. The other two times it was broad daylight. What is up with this town?

Eartips at Heartland

Heartland calls me when an eartipped cat shows up there. An eartip identifies a cat as already fixed. Usually I can identify the cat. Sometimes I can find the cat somewhere to go. Not this time, unfortunately. I have no room at the inn. I feel for ferals who end up at Heartland. They are killed there. Heartland has no way to hold ferals. Think about it. How could they? And yet many in the public don't think it through and think if they take ferals and feral kittens into a shelter or call Animal Control about them, that they're actually helping the cats. Well, that's delusional and stupid thinking. They're signing their death certificates. Anyhow, wish I could have saved these two.

I don't know the Siamese male with one eye. I didn't get him fixed. I do know the gray tabby eartipped female they have there, brought in from Fern Road. I got her fixed through Poppa funds early last summer. I recognized her from the picture sent to me by Heartland. They want these cats brought in to them to live, to have a chance, even if they're not set up to hold ferals. I wish I could take this pair of cats on, but I can't. I'm overloaded with unwanted cats now.

I trapped cats some people living on Fern Road, were feeding, and got their house pets fixed. The gray tabby female was an outside cat that was there when they moved in. She was tame, but I got her eartipped because she was an outside cat. Now they've moved out, I guess, and someone else has fed her for awhile, and doesn't want to anymore. Likely, she won't make it out of this situation alive either.

Makes me sad there are so many unwanted cats out there, who end up dead because there just aren't enough homes or people willing to take them on. The problem is huge. The only answer lies in massive spay/neuter efforts and education, although I don't have much faith in the latter.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Gripes

I guess I'm overly tired. I'm upset about the cat who died today, too. I guess I'm tired of being alone constantly. I'm tired of having no easy place to go get affordable groceries and cat food. I have to drive to Winco in Salem or Corvallis to get anything now. I guess I'm just plain tired.

I'm torn over KATA's offer to take a couple of kittens. They only want healthy ones ready for adoption. That means Aces, and Aces alone. The five in my bedroom will have to go back to their respective colonies, the Corvallis colony, which is just a collectors hovel, cat shit everywhere, trash everywhere, and the HTN colony, where an old man is overloaded with cats from his neighborhood, because the neighbors on that street don't fix their pets and won't get involved in helping solve the problem.

So I'm torn over that. I guess KATA even adopts out cats at Petco in Vancouver. I'm very torn over sending Aces to live in a cage in a store in Vancouver. I'm not as bonded to the two HTN boys, but one of them is not that tame, and I don't have the time to socialize him completely. Nor the set up. If he has to go back to HTN, his brother should go with him.

I"ve never really settled here in Albany. I've never had the ability yet to set this house up for cats. I've got a HUD inspection coming the day after Christmas. I am worried about it. My brother had said he would get some things fixed, like the water under the house problem and the roof leak problem and a couple other things, that are smaller. But he never had time last summer. The HUD man let it go, when he inspected last February, when I moved in, on the promise the problems would be repaired last summer. So I'm worried, because they weren't.

My brother says to tell the HUD inspector these things will be done after the first of the year or next summer. They're not going to buy that, I don't think. That's not the way HUD works. So I'm worried. Also, I need to get the tree problem, with the hanging limb, taken care of before the HUD inspection, because that might be an issue.

I"ve got some roof glop and I might fix that small leak where the TV antenna comes into the attic, myself. I don't think it will be hard at all. I do need I think 24 hours without rain, but maybe I don't.

There's the plumbing issue, too. Water backs up inside the dishwasher, then, if I don't notice it in time, it starts spilling across the kitchen floor. This was a problem when the house was bought, only my brother didn't know it, because, well, nobody had lived here for awhile and the water in the sink and dishwasher hadn't been run for months.

There was no disclosure on this problem, which sucks. I doubt the realitor knew. The owner might have known, but might not have, since the house was used as an investment rental since it was built.

I don't use the dishwasher because its' grotesque inside, from having standing water in it, and because some renter here ran something with wet paint through it. That's a man thing. My father used to run car parts through the dishwasher. The paint splattered, if it was paint, on the sides and bottom. I'm not sure it was paint, but the back, sides and bottom have these tan spots and splotches. Not sure what that is.

The dishwasher needs removed, is the bottom line, as does the garbage disposal, which seems linked to the dishwasher issue. I don't use either of these appliances. I run the dishwasher once a week or more, to get the water out of it.

I have been studying up on do it yourself plumbing and I think I can take care of the issue myself, with the right tools, but I won't tackle it until I have everything I need, and all the knowledge I need also.

My brother attempted to get a cat yard built, by hiring a friend of his, who put up a fenced area and built a small room in one side of the garage, so the cats could, if we ever build an overhead run, get to the garage room, through, theoretically, a run from a cat door put somewhere from the side of the house that joins with the side of the garage, to the room in the garage, then out another cat door to the cat yard. Complicated? Yes. But the house and garage layout, with the yard behind the garage, leaves no other possiblities.

The cat yard was never finished. No cat doors from house to some sort of run, which is not built either, that would take them to the garage room. No cat door from there yet either, in to the contained yard, which isn't contained yet. I have some wire, but I am physically incapable with my neck issues of putting up that wire without some weeks of severe pain. I'm almost ready to sacrifice those weeks, however, to get it done. Now the broken tree issue is holding up doing that.

There has been some sinkage of the garage concrete floor, which has some cracks, and now the garage room door won't close, due to the shifting. That room now is unusable for cats because the door won't close, and has taken almost all the space in the garage, outside of where I park my car. So anyhow, complications.

I have some ideas, to deal with the door and the sinkage issues, that the neighbor says resulted after the earthquake of 15 years or so ago, that cracked his garage concrete floor also. I figure if you cut the door a bit too short and too narrow, and hinge it on that way, and take care of the resultant spacing cracks by attaching pieces to the exterior of the door, that would close over the frame, not inside it, then that would allow for sinkage shifting and not affect door closure.

That's my big idea to solve that problem. I just need to implement but I don't have the proper tools to implement. So next time my brother comes up, I'll tell him this idea, which I think he'll like, and he has the proper tools to implement.

I have no way to get the cats from the house to the room in the garage, unless they are in carriers or traps, so I currently only use the room to house ferals in traps before and after surgery. But it's difficult to manuever them into it, due to the placement of the door and the lack of space now, in the garage, if my car is inside it.

So this house has never been set up for cats and may never be. I still dream of living on the edge of Corvallis again, with parks to hike and more greenery. The drudgery here of the car and concrete culture is getting to me.

Stupid

I am gullible and stupid sometimes. I realize I paid out of my own pocket over $500 to take cats to the various Neuterscooter clinics. I could have taken these cats elsewhere and gotten the fixes paid for through Poppa. I don't know why I did this, got caught up in the frenzy of cat fixing, I suppose, and working the clinics. Five of the kittens who came to clinics were kittens I adopted out unfixed, to ease the crowding situation here, but with stipulation I'd get them fixed later.

I got an adoption donation for two of the five, and did put that back into the fixing, which occurred for all the kittens left out there, I'd adopted in a panic this summer, unfixed.

I generally do not adopt out kittens unfixed. With feral kittens, however, since I am just one person, and often have no time to socialize feral kittens adequately, I will adopt them out unfixed to families who will handle them. It works better for the kittens that way. They get handled and homes, where otherwise, they'd just remain feral. And I collect them back, as agreed upon, to get them fixed, when they are old enough. That happened for Willy, Simba, two BS colony kittens and for Scruffy. So that was just something I had to get done, and swallow it.

I briefly had one volunteer who fostered two kittens, who got homes, then she decided that wasn't for her.

It's back to just me again. And it ain't easy to even get enough sleep to keep on track. Because if I'd had time to think, I would not have taken any cats into the Neuterscooter that I paid for out of my own pocket. It was stupid. It was the result of getting caught up in the excitement of their visit and having too little sleep and too little time, while also trapping cats for fixing, and caring for all these rescued cats and trying to find them homes.

I forgive myself these errors, although costly. If nobody else understands the tremendous pressure and workload I am under, I certainly do understand it. So it's easier to forgive myself knowing.

I was going to try to get a few small Christmas gifts for some people, but I've had to rethink that. I love giving people small gifts at Christmas. Oh well, it's the way it is.

What I need to get done, is my cat yard. The cats are too confined. The space is too small. And most are used to being outside. So they're not happy about the confinement here, at the new place. My brother doesn't want me to concoct my usual makeshift cat yards, as I've done at all my other rentals. But for gosh sakes, I don't think it's going to get done any other way. So when the weather is decent enough, I'll try to rig something.

Here's the other big issue. That windstorm broke off a large branch of the Maple tree in the future cat yard. But it didn't fall. It's hung up, up there. I can't get to it, because it's too high. But it will fall. And I don't want it to fall on me or on a cat containment yard, tearing it apart. It's a big enough branch that if it fell and hit my fence, it would go right through it, too. So there's not much sense building anything out there, until I figure out how to get that down. The branch it broke off of has to come down, too, because it's split halfway, by the other branch breaking off it.

I tried lassooing the end and yanking on it, but it's hung up way high and wouldn't budge with me pulling on that rope I got around the lower end. It's very windy again today. Maybe it'll fall.

Last night, I went over to the stables to get cats a woman dumped off there. 8 of them. The stable lady adopted out unfixed kittens to somebody who didn't get them fixed, and they bred, and now she's dumped 8 of the offspring back on the stable lady.

While there, without warning, several dogs came around a corner and a chubby stocky mix breed latched his teeth around my kneecap. Didn't break skin, but I have bruises today and it was painful, mainly because he got his jaws and teeth around my kneecap. This was a pack mentality bite incident. He backed off instantly.

Then I got told about cats living under a vacant rental house one block from where I live. I trapped two, but they might have to go back after being fixed, since I have no place for them. They're being fixed today.

This is one of the two I caught at the vacant rental house a block from where I live. This adult female, the mother of the male teen below, didn't make it. The vet office just called. They said the vet found evidence of metastisized bladdar cancer, when he opened her for spay and recommended euthanasia. Makes me sad.
This is the tabby tux male teen, being fixed today, from the empty rental a block away.
Stable cats to be, this one, and photo below, being fixed today.

Christmas Tree Killers!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

100 Cats Fixed Today at Corvallis Neuterscooter Clinic

Long day. 100 cats were fixed today at the Neuterscooter Corvallis clinic. They came from as far away as Creswell, Eugene and Sweet Home. I took six kittens in from the Corvallis Colony, which finishes that colony, and six from highway 34. I also arranged for Willy and Simba, the two male Siamese boys I trapped at Hull Oaks Mill, plus Scruffy, one of Hope's kittens and his buddy, a calico kitten, to be fixed today. 16 cats in all. A friend sponsored five of these cats. Poppa paid for five and I ended up paying for the other six.

I didn't mean to trap so many. But, it's good the Corvallis colony is now done. KATA is taking in two of the Corvallis colony kittens fixed today and that is certainly wonderful news since they have no life or future where I trapped them. Of the six Corvallis colony cats I took today to the clinic, three were females and three were males. Of the six I took of seven kittens from Highway 34, four were females and two were males.

I've got to catch that last kitten, who is female.

I'm way behind on everything. I haven't sent out a single Christmas card. I haven't shopped for any Christmas gifts. I think I should get my brothers something at least. I can't think of what to get them, since they can get themselves anything they might want I would think. So it is a hard thing to think of something they might enjoy, and it might be too late to mail anything and have it arrive by Christmas for them. I don't see my brothers very often but I think of them, especially around the holidays. I won't see them this year. My older brother is busy and likely so is my younger brother. They both have families.

I was given a beautiful Christmas tree by a Philomath couple for whom I've gotten quite a few cats fixed. But I never decorated it. I got a few ornaments when Albright and Raw was having the close out sale when they went out of business. The ornaments were extremely cheap and very beautiful I thought. I can't find them, however. I must have put them somewhere and now I can't remember where. There were only about six anyhow. I could always make some ornaments and maybe I will. It's not too late.

I'm very tired, so tired I can't sleep. My back hurts and my knee hurts and my foot hurts. I can't stand long hours like I did today without hurting real bad for several days. I think it was worth it, since we fixed 100 cats and removed two very damaged cat eyes.

I am happy KATA will take in the four boys, two from the Corvallis colony and the two from Marilyn Street. I am no good anymore at all, at adopting out cats, since I have no venue for them to be seen and thus cannot compete well with the fixed place shelters nor the shelters with venues like Petco offers KATA because they are nonprofit. So it's very hard for me. I have a lot of cats here and no homes forthcoming, although Tulip may be getting a home the end of the week.

Well anyhow, it's almost 2:00 a.m. and I can't stay awake any longer.

Dr. Peavy, the Neuterscooter Vet, and her partner, are leaving tomorrow for Indiana. Thank you, Dr. Peavy and Oscar. You did Oregon a great service once again.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Brooke Wilburger

With Courtney returning to Oregon soon to face charges for murdering Brooke Wilburger, I am remembering the time she disappeared. It was a hard time for this community. I could not believe she had been taken, in broad daylight, and close to where I live. I wanted her found. I wanted her found alive.

I phoned in way too many tips. I was watching for any tiny thing, remembering things from my past that might mean somebody was suspect. In retrospect, I should have not been sending tips in. My car had broken down. I was totally isolated out in my shack, watching the coverage, and I wanted her found so badly.

I'd been trapping cats along the river, for an old friend, right before Wilburger's disappearance. I was trapping along the Mary's River, in Pioneer Park, not very far from where the kidnapping occurred. I have a good memory. I was out after dark, too, until late. I saw a lot of people, some quite spooky, while trying to trap that pregnant long hair torti. I have a memory like a steel jaw trap. I e-mailed descriptions of everyone I saw in those days and nights to the cops.

I took the weekend off because there was an FCCO clinic that Sunday. On Monday, the day she was kidnapped, I slept late, and even so, was exhausted. I finally loaded the Harrisburg warehouse cats into my car and returned them. My car's transmission was failing. I drove right by that complex right during the time frame during which she disappeared. NOrmally, I remember everything. NOt that day. Was too worn out.

On Tuesday, I was back trying to trap the long hair torti. I remember hearing helicoptors overhead and boats on the Mary's and saw searchers going through even the berry bushes. I had no idea what was going on. I caught the cat. I headed back with her to my place and saw huge media RV's in the parking lot at Reser. I wondered what was going on. When I got home, I turned on the TV. I couldn't believe it. I felt guilty, too, that I had not seen anything the day before, when driving the cats back. I went over and over in my mind, the trip past the complex when returning the cats to Harrisburg and even the drive to Harrisburg, trying to remember every car that passed me. I had to go really slow, because of my failing transmission.

The car broke completely. The clutch went out and the engine too had severe problems. I was stranded then, a couple miles from anywhere, and very upset over Wilburgers' broad daylight disappearance. I have a thing about that. I don't like it when young women or girls are abused or raped or hurt. I wanted to find her or her found---alive. I couldn't stand seeing the parents grief, evident behind their bravery, on TV. I took to going out nights to search. Later, when I'd see buzzards circling, I'd go back and search that area in the night.

When the tipline was announced, I was stuck at home, stranded by my vehicular failure. I e-mailed in too many tips.

But way later on, over a year at least later, KATA asked me to check out an area. They said a Californian, on her way back to California, had seen a white cat in a certain place and wanted the cat helped. They were swamped. D had a family funeral to attend. I was exhausted but I went anyway. It was a large area to search for a cat.

I stumbled across something buried, partially, under a log. I pulled at it. It was a sweatshirt. Something in me, perhaps due to exhaustion, prickled. There was other stuff there, some woman's underwear on a stick, some other stuff, buried. Whatever it was, whatever had gone on there, totally freaked me out. I don't scare easy. I wondered if the faded sweatshirt, rotted from time, but at one time a shade of blue, was "hers". The prickley feeling increased until I bolted from the area. I couldn't get away fast enough. I went back into Albany to the house of a friend and after debating it with her, called the Corvalis police and asked if they had checked that area. The woman told me to wait, that someone would call back. No one did. So my friend and I figured the area must have already been searched or that they had really already found her or something.

I am going back to that spot. I am going to search it myself. It's just something I need to do.

I want that bastard convicted. I want the parents to have closure and peace. That it happened in Corvallis, in my backyard, still to this day does not set well with me. In the time since, in my rural roamings after cats, I keep a watch out, for anything that might be Brooke.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Two HTN colony Boys. I don't Want to Take Them Back!

Tomorrow is the Corvallis Neuterscooter Clinic. I have seven reservations. A friend got five, for me to fill. Scruffy, one of Hope's kittens, will be coming with a friend. So will Willy and Simba, the Hull Oaks Siamese boys, in a new home, but who will return to be fixed tomorrow also, under my reservations. I stopped by to try to trap the seven kittens of a tame torti, already fixed, who was dumped along highway 34 pregnant last fall and promptly had seven kittens. I caught three, and the caretakers have now caught a fourth. So already I had 8 of the 12 reservations filled.

But, I went by the Corvallis colony. There were five kittens still needing fixed there and one teen male. I caught all six of these, too. There was no food out and the cats swarmed my car the moment I pulled up.

I still have the two boys fixed at last Friday's Springfield Neuterscooter clinic, from Hate Thy Neighbor Colony. I don't want to return them, but I have no luck anymore, finding cats homes. So I"m torn now, but at least they are fixed. Elmo and Magoo, I call them. Elmo is a brown tabby on white boy and Magoo, his brother, is a super friendly smoke and white boy. They are three months old, almost.

Graham, one of the six kittens I nabbed at the Corvallis colony, which, as of tomorrow, when these last six are fixed, will be finally ENTIRELY fixed. I hope they don't get any more cats, for gosh sakes.
Boo and Graham, both of the Corvallis colony. Both boys. Both will be fixed tomorrow.
Elmo, fixed last Friday, of HTN colony, although he's totally tame. I hate to take him and his brother back.
The wonderful Magoo, a very tame smoke and white male kitten, who literally "chirps" instead of meowing. He and Elmo, brothers, were fixed last Friday.

The Scarey Future

When travelling this last week, I talked to people from all walks of life. Many are matter of factly discussing the future collapse of society, when the economy falls apart. I guess I wasn't surprised.

One person stated her family is building an underground room, that could double as a fall out shelter. She discussed the width and mass required of shelter walls to keep out radiation like you might discuss the weather. She talked about stocking rice and how to keep bugs out. Others joined in about what they are doing to prepare for the economic collapse of our society.

One person said the new armed militias who would be stealing, looting and killing would be the already very well organized high tech gangs already doing these activities in most cities in America. He felt they would be the the most destructive forces a family would have to contend with to survive. He felt the average law abiding citizen would be at a disadvantage from the outcome, because, to survive, one would need to drop normal values of not stealing or hurting/killing others.

It's strange in a way to listen to average people discussing these things so matter of factly. Maybe I'm grossly out of touch. Maybe I should be more concerned and start hording all sorts of commodities.

I talked to a professional woman about this, after hearing all these conversations. She said she and her family are concerned also. She felt that a global economic crises is on the horizon and when it hits over half the earths' population, mostly the poor, sick and old, will be wiped out.

Really? I know people can behave far worse than animals. But would we really turn on each other like blood thirsty monsters, if we could, if rule of law were gone? Is the only thing holding back our viciousness towards one another rule of law? Fear of consequences, i.e. prosecution?

How far would you go if you were hungry? How many of your normal values would you set aside if you were starving? Would you pillage your neighbors house, rape your neighbors daughters, kill your neighbor and steal any gas and food they had, if you feared no consequence for this action and you were hungry?

Do you have secret rooms, underground chambers and tunnels built, stored supplies, guns and ammo galore, all ready for the alleged inevitable collapse?

I don't. I have not stored up much of anything to help me survive the collapse people talk about so casually.

I have rice, sure, a five pound bag, already with some bugs in it. I use it to fill socks which I heat in the microwave to keep sick kittens and even myself warm. I could eat that and for just one person, five pounds of rice could stretch out to last a quarter of a year, I suppose. In Oregon, in the winter at least, one can catch enough water to satisfy thirst from the rain. But what then?

I've started thinking about it. I guess because so many people are talking about it. I feel negligant in a way for not spending more time thinking about it and maybe preparing.

I suppose it's been a bit on my mind since I live in Albany now. I guess here, the culture here, feels much more like everyone out for themselves mentality. I don't sense any community. I still have this feeling that in Corvallis people would band together and help one another through a huge crisis, even societal collapse. That might be just a wishful thinking sort of thought. I had a hard time of it for decades in Corvallis. There were no white knights over there sticking up for one another like I have this feeling should happen with people, like I still feel, for some reason, would be more likely to happen over there, than here, in Linn County. I don't know why I think that way, however, because, like I say, I had a really really tough time of it in Corvallis.

I still have this feeling people should help each other, that that is normal behavior. That's why I help people with their cat problems. I have been helped in return, with trades and gifts, like those Philomath people brought me a Christmas tree, like people feed me sometimes, or give me vegetables from their garden when I help them with their cat issues, like that tow truck man helped me out with tires off cars he'd towed when mine were bare and even loaned me a car, when my tires were too bare to drive mine, so I could go down to see my family on Thanksgiving (Les Schwab, you still suck). That's how things should work, is how I feel. People helping one another with whatever they can offer. I like feeling like that's how things should work. I like it when people help me back and then I help them. Makes me feel like I'm in some secure network. Protected or something from the outright viciousness of the jungle.

I haven't the resources to become truely paranoid with all this collapse talk. If you can't stock up and build tunnels under your house and secret rooms, due to finances, there's not much one can do, but forget about the whole thing and hope for the best. That's probably a very good thing.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Snowman--Big White Huggable Teddy Bear Cat

November Cat Stats--49 Fixed Using Poppa Inc. Funds

During the month of November, 2007, I took in 49 cats to be fixed, 32 of them females, using a combination of Poppa Inc. funds and caregiver donations. The cost to Poppa Inc. was $1644.

37 of the cats fixed were Linn County cats while 12 hailed from Benton County.

Ten of the Benton County cats fixed came from a homeless camp in Corvallis. The other two were Hull Oaks Mill cats.

Of the Linn County cats, most came from Albany.

Seven came from a stables and surrounding area. All these had been dumped.

Another seven came from a rural Linn County residence and these cats were the offspring of cats dumped along that road.

Five of the cats fixed were living around an abandoned house in Albany.

Of the other cats, over half were owned by Albany residents who felt they could not pay to have them fixed themselves, or wouldn't, and had neighbors or landlords complaining (intervened on behalf of the cats, in these cases, knowing they would be the ones to pay the ultimate price).

When I look at the statistics, I see how the overpopulation problem occurs. People get pets, like free kittens, on a whim, don't get them fixed, move, and abandon them, leaving the cats to fend for themselves, or, hopefully, encounter a kind person who will feed them and get them fixed.

Most unfixed cats I encounter are after the fact---after they have been abandoned or dumped somewhere unfixed. My wish is to stop the problem at its source. It's source is people who do not fix their pets and who adopt out kittens unfixed.

Last spring, I was called by a Corvallis woman for whom I'd once gotten seven cats fixed. She was being evicted and wanted me to take or hold all her cats, including two more unfixed pregnant cats, until she could find another place. I went over, and dug the two pregnant cats out of knee deep garbage filling her apartment. Although this woman and her two teenage daughters had several more days to exit the unit, they did nothing to clean the place, and would just sit on the porch, instead of getting their things out. A neighbor had agreed to feed the remaining cats, but they did not even take advantage of that offer, but finally vacated the premises. I took the two pregnant cats and found them homes after they were fixed and fixed immediately. The fate of the others, who at least were fixed, is unknown.

I then got another phone call from the same woman a few months later. She had moved to another apartment complex and had acquired two more kittens, whom she would not let me fix, stating they were too young. She said she would let me fix them later, but instead I got a call from her a couple weeks ago, that she had again been evicted and wanted me to "hold" the kittens for her. I was full up and could not help her. I don't know what happened to the kittens. When she gets another place, she will get more cats who will not be fixed, and repeat.

This behavior is endemic in certain populations in Corvallis and Albany, more so in Linn County, where large segments of the population, due to poverty, addictions, and mental health issues, are extremely mobile. They get animals on a whim when they cannot even take care of themselves, and abandon them over and over again, when they move.

It is sad, for the people involved, but especially for the animals and children involved.

On Board the Neuter Train

I had a blast the last week. I travelled with the Neuterscooter. First, I went to two Springfield clinics. Then, had half day off and travelled with the Neuterscooter to eastern Oregon for two more clinics.

The drive over was long and in the dark last Monday evening and night. There was packed snow on the ground in Pendleton. We got up early and I volunteered the day at the Pendleton clinic, which went smoothly. We finished late. That night, my knee and back went into painful spasms, preventing much rest, even though the motel bed was delightfully comfy. The next morning, we were off again, very early, to Milton Freewater for another clinic and another long productive day.

Wednesday night, however, I got a great night's sleep at the motel. My neice had stopped by the Milton Freewater clinic, bringing coffee for myself, the vet and other volunteers. My brother, clear down in Coquille, asked her to do that. It was so good to see her. She goes to school in Walla Walla. She'd just finished her last final and was headed home for the holidays. My brother was extremely impressed with the Neuterscooter when it visited North Bend. The service provided at an affordable rate is needed everywhere, throughout Oregon and beyond. People cheer when they hear the Neuterscooter is coming.

Thursday, I got to sleep a bit later in the morning. By 10:00 a.m., we were on the road back to Albany, and to Corvallis, where the vet and her partner are staying.

But, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. We were just going to view the falls from the second bridge up, then decided to climb the trail to the top of the falls, which is one mile, most of it straight up. It was exhilerating, to say the least, and fun.

We then headed back to Albany, where they dropped me off before heading to Corvallis. Today, Friday, we had another clinic in Springfield, which also went smoothly. I took down two more Hate Thy Neighbor kittens, both males, who had been kept in the caretaker's garage out there. But they were a mess. I was disappointed that he would let them get sick, wheezy and full of worms, when he even had worm meds and access to antibiotics. I guess he considers it normal now. Anyhow, I wormed both and have given both flea treatment and started them on antibiotics.

This morning, my car would not start. It has sat in the garage for four days without starting and it wouldn't start. I was supposed to be down at the clinic to volunteer again by 8:30. My neighbor came over, at my request, and jump started my car. My biggest problem was I could not get it out of park, even with the key on, and so the front could not be accessed from outside the garage, to jumpstart. Finally I called my brother and asked him what was I missing here, that I couldn't get it out of park when the car was dead. He told me to simultaneously put my foot on the brake. This was all it took. I rolled the car out into the driveway then, in neutral and my neighbor pulled up close enough to get the cables on it for a jump.

I need a new battery. Or the alternator belt is loose. I need to check that. You can't change those belts anymore yourself. Or even tighten them really. There's no space in these front wheel drives with the engine cross ways. It's nuts that you can't even change a cheap belt now yourself. Crazy. So I don't know if it will start in the morning, if it sits all night, or not. I was going to get a new battery today, but I never had the time.

I got back about 10:30 p.m. The next clinic and last clinic will be Monday in Corvallis at the Fairgrounds. Then the crew heads back to Indiana--home for them. I'll be sorry to see them go.

Oregon needs the Neuterscooter. There's just no affordable options in most areas for people to get their pets, strays and ferals fixed. The catch 22 is, as a person tries to save to get that one cat fixed, at the going rates in these parts, which can be hundreds of dollars, the cat breeds and the person then has more needing fixed and they can't keep up. The Neuterscooter provides an option for people and that is why the business is a lifesaver to so many. Too bad more vets don't take up that calling. They could make plenty of money doing it and be regarded as heroes to boot.

What a week. Sure, the days were extremely long and grueling sometimes, when my back would hurt. But it was an experience, I tell you, that I would not have missed!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Schwab's Attempt to Appease Attorney General Complaint

I got a letter from the attorney general's office concerning the complaint I filed against Les Schwab. The reply from Les Schwab's paralegal was sent to the attorney general, not to me. The reply was full of lies about what happened, huge lies.

I get it, however. My brother told me if a company gets enough complaints against them, action is taken. So they have henchman, like the paralegal who wrote the reply to the attorney general's office, pretending they investigated, pretending they will mitigate the problem, when they don't give a shit about me or what they did to me, they just don't want my complaint to be added to the unaddressed company complaint file, likely already large, maintained against the company at the attorney general's office.

They want to look like they will address the complaint without addressing it, is what is going on here. That's why they never called me and never sent me a letter. That's what it's all about, baby, a crapola company, hiring PR paralegals, to gloss over legit complaints so the company won't have to face the music.

Les Schwab's paralegal claimed to have fully investigated the claim, and yet never called and talked to me. Les Schwab's henchman claimed the person attempted to be helpful, and only referenced my volunteer work when I told him and that I told him I routinely overloaded my car with extra passengers, volunteering that information. Actually I never carry passengers. Well, maybe once in a blue moon.

The letter from Schwab mop up man was so derogatory towards me, claiming they are saints and I the sinner, that it is laughable.

He claims and I quote: "Prior to this discussion (the one where I allegedly walked up to an assistant manager and volunteered the information that I trap cats as a volunteer, routinely overloaded my car with passengers and cages using my car stop and go), the assistant manager was not aware of how Ms. Harmon used her car." Well, that's just a fine pack of lies.

What really happened? I went in to get yet another flat repaired on the balding tires still under warranty with Schwab. I told the manager and he said he was a manager, not an assistant manager, that the tires I'd bought from them were not holding up well at all.

That's when he blurted out his infamous words "We know what you do with that car." I was taken aback, shocked actually. I was tired out. I'd just changed a flat out on highway 34 and rolled in on my donut. I tried to ask what he meant, and he repeated it. I said "you mean because it smells like cat pee in there?" I was trying to lighten his hostility. He then started in on how I use the car like a mail truck so he couldn't honor tire warranties on any more tires he sold me.

I didn't know what to say. I should have said 40,000 miles is 40,000 miles. All I could think of to say was to stutter out "Your founder would be horrified that you are attacking and attempting to cheat a volunteer." That's exactly what he was doing.

Schwab sucks.

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 ...