13 Cats Being Fixed Right Now

I ended up with 14 cats this morning, to take to the Wilsonville clinic, for fixing. Include the bottle babes, and that number jumps to 16. But, I decided not to get nursing mom fixed. She's a good mother, nursing the two kittens, even inside the live trap. I'll hutch her for now and try to figure out where to go from there. She's feral!

The cats include: the white female from the Corvallis complex; Sami, the pneumonia girl, from the Albany yard, two kittens, one boy and one girl, from the Albany trailer park, and nine cats from the Scravel Hill colony. I got 12 in all, if you include the mother and her two kittens. I've now trapped 13 at that colony.

The woman of the couple who care for the Scravel Hill colony cats, this morning confirmed that the black long hair is indeed the mother of the newborns and said the other three are likely dead. I had trapped her last night, along with two kittens. I left three traps set and caught three cats and a possum in those. This morning, quickly, before leaving for the clinic, I drop trapped four more, including three kittens and a big gray tux male.

I had my alarm set for 5:30. I jolted awake at 6:20 a.m. I had turned the alarm off in my sleep!

Within ten minutes I was on the road. I'd promised the Scravel Hill folks I'd be up there by 6:30, since they usually feed at that time, to try to trap a few more before heading to the clinic. I was 15 minutes late. I thought that was pretty decent, after waking up at 6:20, loading the cats quickly, and taking off, without so much as combing my hair or brushing my teeth. Yukko!

I quickly flea treated everyone upon arrival at the clinic. They must be pre-treated for fleas there, or, if they find fleas, they mandate they then treat them for fleas, and I would have to pay big time for those treatments, out of pocket, like $12 apiece.

This has been a week of getting lots of cats fixed, high pri cats, too, like that white female from the complex and the pregnant brown tabby female, from same complex in Corvallis. They don't need more cats born around there, that's for sure.

Finding two of those complex cats a home---huge! I need to find a home for that little black male from there also. White girl will have to return. Like I said, white cats as barn cats equals death. I don't know how long she'll last living like that around that busy area, but it will certainly be longer than she would last in predator country.

I still feel horrible about losing Marian. But there's this hope. When I went out there yesterday, again searching the area, handing out fliers, the water dish I'd left, full of water, outside the cage Atom and Luke are still inside, was empty. Somebody drank that. I thought that was an excellent sign that she is there, just still hiding out. I poured more food into ditches out by the road, called her, and I think she's still on that property. She knows Atom and Luke. I like to think one day they'll see her. The fields are cut or bare around there. I search them with binoculars. The vultures have not migrated for the winter. So far, no circing in the area.

But here's the thing. Ridge Road, to the north, crosses I5 and connects with Seven Mile. She could be east of the freeway easily. I haven't been east looking for her or handing out fliers. She would not have headed east immediately, due to the traffic and noise of that jet boat race. But, if she initially ran north along the fenceline, in the ditch, and I didn't spot her out there, hunkered down, then ran farther north, then east that night, in the quiet, she could be east of the freeway by now. She could have ended up east of the freeway, via Ridge, as early as Friday night and I may be searching the wrong area entirely. I have talked to people all along Tangent Loop to 34, that way, but not on Seven Mile and that is now where I need to go.

Why would she head east? Because her original home is NE of where she was lost. And, it's NE by only about twelve miles, maybe less, as the crow flies. She could have been back in one night, if not killed en route. Cats make such treks all the time.

I suppose one of the most spectacular of such treks was that of a declawed inside only White Persian. She lived with her elderly owner in a Scio or Turner area assisted living center or home. The old woman's personal caretaker lived on Jefferson Scio road. When the white Persians' owner died, the owner willed the cat to her caretaker. Her caretaker took the cat to her Jefferson Scio road home. The cat got out of the house the first night and the caretaker could not find her. Her former inside only home, where her owner had lived, was ten miles away, with a river in between. She showed back up outside the front door three days later.

There you have it.

Here's another story. A Eugene cat rescue person adopted out a cat to a man who lived about seven miles, through very urban city, from where she lived. The cat got out, through a window the man forgot was open, that very night. The rescuer didn't know the cat had escaped his new home. All she knew was that she went out to feed the outside strays she fed outside her backdoor every morning, and there he was. One night, seven miles, back home, through a heavy urban area.