Saturday, May 31, 2008

Tetanus Shot Needed

Insult to injury, I suppose. I took the black mother of the kittens and one of the brown tabby kittens up to be tested at Countryside, this morning. Both were negative, which means the three little boys, whom I have named Smokes, Rocket and Pokey, are negative. I wanted to get at least one of the four brown tabbies tested, to avert any disaster if they are positive. The male tested was negative. This was a relief.

Then I headed straight down to Poohcow to return the black male and tame black female, who refused to nurse her kittens anyhow.

The man was there, and said again that his girlfriend was going to donate, which raised my hopes at least, although I'll believe it when I see it. He said the last unfixed black cat was right in the carport area, where he stores a great deal of old equipment. I set a trap there.

He said she ran back to the blackberries then. I showed him how the traps work but went ahead and took the second trap back there to set it. Just as I set it, I moved my foot and felt stinging extreme pain. I'd stepped on a rusty screw head, protruding up through a junker board all hidden in grass, other junk and vines.

I limped back to my car, foot screaming, blood running. I ripped off my shoe and cleaned the puncture wound and was glad it was bleeding, which decreases chance of infection. I told the man I'd just stepped on a rusty screw and would have to get a tetanus shot. He just grunted and walked off.

My tetanus vaccine is not up to date sadly.

I turned the two fixed cats in my car loose then and left.

I stopped by the Shedd cafe, seeing my buddy Roger's rig there. I told him what had happened. He bought me lunch then he and his farmer friends, there BS'ing, told me I needed to get a tetanus shot right away. I know I do.

Roger is a really nice guy and doesn't like unfair treatment. He slipped a donation into my hand after walking me to my car and said "fill your tank and get that shot". Made me feel good.

When Roger was a seed farmer, I got over 200 cats fixed for him at his seed farm and another two dozen fixed at his house. He had a neighbor who fancied himself a Siamese breeder. Myraids of caste off offspring would end up at Rogers. We'd then get them fixed there. Finally he went over to his neighbor and said "Look, we need to put an end to this. I'm getting your female fixed, but I wanted to tell you." The guy agreed, but donated nothing. The guy is a teacher and didn't even know point color names of the backyard Siamese he was breeding.

So anyhow, I think really highly of Mr. Roger. I practically lived at his seed farm for a year, getting all those cats fixed there. Miss Daisy is one dumped off along the road his farm was on, in the heat of one August. He found her out by the road, or she would have died for sure. She had burns on her paw pads from walking the scorching hot asphalt after being dumped. She was deaf, too, and that might have occurred from gunshot sound violence. People take cats out to shoot, then miss and the cat, often injured or damaged, is left to struggle. Miss Daisy had a happy ending to her horror story, thanks to Roger.

I thought about waiting until Monday on the shot, because they might give them at the health department and that might be the easiest cheapest option. Right now, I'm waiting on a return call from the Good Sam on-call person. I called them to see if I can wait til Monday, if that's ok, or if it's not ok. I don't know if you have to get it right away or not.

I wasn't going to set traps out at that colony today, but then he had seen one of the two left unfixed there, so I buckled to his urging to trap it. I suppose he just wants it done and over. I know I do.

House of Kittens

Friday, May 30, 2008

Afternoon Nap Improves Attitude

I'm feeling much better after napping several hours this afternoon. Was worn out. I also mowed and raked my lawn, with my whirly blade muscle powered. Using that is so much easier, I would imagine, than maintaining and gassing and firing up a gas powered noisy belching mower. The old man next door has a machine for every job and he loves using them. That's him, not me. I can roll mine out of the garage and be done, without muss or fuss in a matter of minutes.

The people with whom I had a tiff apologized yesterday after I also apologized. They said they'd done the best they could with that cage. I know they did. Life isn't perfect and people do the best they can, sometimes at least. The really horrible thought about her being in that cage is they believe the third kitten was killed by a raccoon after the coon pulled the poor kitten through the mesh of the trap. They had the cage in the barn. Try to sleep on that one. That is why the mother cat was ballistic and ultra traumatized.

I am pushing the kittens here to beat the band, even though none are anywhere close yet to adoptible age. Maybe if I start early with getting people interested, that will help. The three little boys from the Poohcow black mom are intrepid. They think I'm mom because their own black mom prefers now, the brown tabby gang, the older kittens, who have taken to her. The three little boys, only three weeks, now cry for me and come running to me for food. They're something else. Two blacks and one smoke.

The brown tabby gang of four are shy. I hope to win them over quickly. Since black mom is a lousy mom and producing almost zero milk, she's going home tomorrow.

The three SafeHaven fosters are tame and really sweet now. Hissy, Spits and Scrappy. They, however, must return to Savehaven for adoption, once 8 weeks and two pounds. HOwever, as a condition of fostering, I told them I won't return them for adoption until they are fixed. This is because SafeHaven adopts out kittens unfixed, exasperating me and worsening the cat problem in Linn County. They have agreed to pay for them to be fixed.

The Wrecking yard mom's kittens are now wanting to exit the rabbit hutch and run around. Since it is on a desk in my spare bedroom, I have to move it lower, so they don't fall out. The mom has been coming and going from the hutch for several days. Of course she needs time off from her kittens. She's a really great mom to them. They are healthy and adorable.

Cat Woman Blues

Want to read another cat woman's frustration? Click the post title to go to the blog of a friend of mine, who lives out in the mountains east of Eugene, struggling with the same issues. The link is to a post she wrote angry at a disturbing Methodist woman she's dealt with over and over and over again.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Phone Yell Out

I exploded tonight over the phone. The people deserved it, I thought. But, deserve it or not, it would have been better, with hindsight, to swallow it all. They had contacted me wanting help getting a feral cat with newborn kittens fixed. They housed her in a cage for two weeks with the three kittens and one kitten "disappeared". Yeah, I know, how in the world does that happen.

So I agreed to meet them in Corvallis this evening to pick up the cat to be fixed tomorrow. They were going to bring her to Albany, but I was going to Corvallis this evening anyhow. They said they couldn't get her out of the cage, so they brought her in the cage. I was late to pick up the kittens fixed at Heartland today. I was dismayed to see this huge unwieldy cage they'd hauled in the back of an open pickup. It was covered with a blanket. I didn't look at it because I had to get inside.

I was supposed to go trap at two locations tonight, so went out to get that cage out of my car and the cat out of it. The vet would never consider taking a cat in a cage like that. I could not believe they had not transferred her out to something. They had said it was because of their irresponsible neighbors not fixing their pets, but then they admitted to having at least one unfixed house cat themselves. So at that time, I began thinking, 'all is not as it seems'.

So I take off part of the blanket to try to get the cat out and realize this is a disgusting insecure rusty smelly awful cage. And I couldn't get the extremely traumatized kitty out of it. there were some torn stinky pieces of carboard on the bottom, reeking of cat urine, dirty litter and cat feces, too, which all spilled out into my car. It took me over an hour to get that cat out, because of the shape and condition of that awful cage.

They had said at first they could pet her, then she turned very mean and would attack them, but they thought it must be because there was a kitten dead in there somewhere. It was an awful thought to realize she'd suffered under such conditions for two weeks.

Already exhausted, I was now very angry that I'd had to put out so much more effort for these people and that now, it was too late to trap the other cats I was to take in tomorrow. If they wanted this cat fixed, it was thier job, not mine, to get her into something suitable. It was not up to me to do so much for them.

So I called them and told them just that. I'd spent over an hour getting that cat out of that awful cage and that they should have done that, this was not part of the deal. She started screaming at me and hung up on me, all outraged. Then I get the nasty e-mail.

I love the part of her angry e-mailing detailing my faults, that also says they were actually helping me with my quest, instead of me giving them my time, my money, my knowledge, my energy for free plus a free fix. I didn't realize, all these people wanting help with their cats, are actually doing me a big favor.

Anyhow, I finally told her I was sorry for yelling and she said she was sorry for yelling and both of us are extremely exhausted and need a vacation.

I did not go out and trap anymore tonight. I still had a million hungry kittens to feed, litterboxes to clean, etc. I'm just taking in the two tomorrow. Sure that's no good, with everyone totally stressed from kitten season. I talked to a KATA lady tonight who also blew up at someone, who wanted their cat fixed for free right now, that sort of thing. It's a huge issue for cat volunteers, the demeanment, abuse, and exploitation of people. We all go through it and we explode at people now and then, treating them like we are treated so often.

The shelters are in the public eye, get the donations, the publicity and the workers are paid. Management is very well paid often. The people out there trying to solve overpopulation on their own are a completely different crowd than the shelter workers and staff.

A completely different cup of tea, we are. You've never met such people. You've never met volunteers who work harder or sacrifice more. And yet, you never hear of us from the mainstream. We're ghosts, myths, urban legends. Nobody believes we exist or that anyone would sacrifice so much for their cause.

Conversely, when we are heard of, nothing is ever good enough. It's pathetic in so many ways, but the people I've met who do this, are unbelievable people, not ordinary in any sense of the word.

Are we crazy? Quite possibly. But who isn't in this world.

Who out there wants to send me on a vacation to a nice warm azure beach? Because I'll love you forever and have your name tattoed on my butt. I know, fat chance. Nobody has any money anymore.

Stupid Me



Stupid me. I returned the four cats from Poohcow colony, south of Shedd and stupidly grabbed the four brown tabby kittens. Then I trapped one more adult. Then I released the final female I had not yet released, who had been lactating and followed her into the berry vines to where her three kittens were, howling and hungry. I grabbed them, despite the fact I had forgotten my gloves and was getting torn up by berry vines. I cut many away using a pocket knife. I then reached into the brush and pulled mom back out and stuffed her in with her kittens. She will go back, that's for sure. For now, I want her to do the work of caring for all seven kittens.

Why is this stupid? Because I'm exhausted and over extended already, caring for too many unwanted Linn County assholes' cats already. And I got so little money and time to do it on. And I'm half to the breaking point from dealing with assholes, who take advantage of me. Linn County is chock full of assholes.

(I swear way more when fed up, disgusted, exhausted and really wanting to run away).

I left the Poohcow colony man a dissertation I wrote in my car while waiting on traps there today. It was all about being responsible and donating, because it ain't free to get cats fixed, transport them to the vet, pay for bait, or care for kittens. I told him that. I taped the pages to his trailer door. We'll see if he coughs anything more useful than shit up. You know, like good cold cash. Or a vacation to somewhere real nice and relaxing. I'd take the latter in a heartbeat.

So, of the four kittens of the very in heat brown tabby on white, spayed yesterday, one, the gray tabby, is a girl and the other three, all brown tabbies, are boys. They're six weeks. Of the three owned by black mom, spayed yesterday, one is a smoke while the other two are black. All three are boys. They are three weeks and they like me. Wow. At least I have kitten friends. That's impressive and you know it.

Buffers, River and Thumbs are over being fixed at Heartland through KATA. River will not return, but rather go home with a KATA volunteer. Buffers and Thumbs return here but both are spoken for. So the polys are out of here.

That leaves me with the wrecking yard four, and their mom, and now seven from Poohcow, six boys and one girl, and their mom, plus the three I'm fostering for SafeHaven, but they, once 8 weeks and fixed, will go back to SafeHaven. So I have 14 kittens here currently, plus Buffers and Thumbs, who will be here until their adoptors come by the first week in June. 16 kittens to care for. Plus my crowd. I don't regret taking these Poohcow kittens. I should, I know. Maybe I'm turning into a sicko collector.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Photos of Five of the Seven Being Fixed Today

FarleyFeline colony DLH black tux male, being neutered today.

FarlyFeline Black, unknown sex, being fixed today.DSH brown tabby on white Poohcow Colony, lactating, with four kittens, but being fixed today nonetheless.
One of two Poohcow colony black females, being fixed today.
Poohcow Colony brown tabby male, being fixed today.

Kitten Update Photos

The three polydactyls (former to be Coos County snake food) here still are: Buffers, Thumbs and River, the only girl. Buffers is a very active little boy who sometimes irritates the older cats. This morning, he and Miss Daisy got into a brief tiff, when he tackled her face. Two photos of the face off below.



This is River, the girl kitten of the three polys still here, a delight, fun, vicious wrestler and wild player.
The wrecking yard kittens and their mother also are doing just fine. Here is the little black tux kitten of the crowd.
And here is mom with one of her two gray tabby on white kittens. She often leaves the rabbit hutch now for hours, watching out the window in the spare bedroom, or playing with the older kittens, the polys and the Three Amigos wild bunch, who are no longer wild.

Seven More Cats and the Tinkerbell Comment

Yesterday, I trapped some cats from a KATA referral, down in Shedd--the Poohcow colony, I have named it. The man did not donate, which was extremely disappointing to me. He also wants me to take all the kittens from two mothers, apparently without contributing a dime.

I told Vicki of KATA, who referred me, I can't take on four more kittens. I don't have that kind of money or any way to adopt them out for sure. And I can't afford to end up with more cats here. You have to vaccinate them immediately, test at least one, which costs $30 minimum, usually with an office visit added on, worm and deflea them, then feed them and tame them. Costs lots. To ask a stranger to take on costs like that, without a contribution, is being an asshole.

Last night, I couldn't go to sleep for awhile, thinking about "the nerve" of these people, who feed strays, then do not donate a dime to help get them fixed and complain to high heaven that there are kittens and want them gone, too. My frustration with people who contribute nothing is high today.

I trapped four of the seven cats he feeds, including one of the mothers. He left a message later, that irked me royal, stating he had put the kittens, who are five weeks old, in a cage on the porch, implying "come get them". I try not to stew over people like that, but it's hard not to and to know those kittens fate isn't good if I don't take them, but what the fuck, you know. Aren't there any honest people out there anymore, in Linn County that is?

Do people not understand the costs they are asking others to take on? Do they think there is some magic money out there, that magically pays for it all, just materializing in the bank accounts and wallets of those trying hard to solve this issue?

Yesterday, I had the BS caregivers take one of their sick males to Countryside, to be looked at and perhaps euthanized at the expense of others. He'd been sick so long, and then had bloody snot coming out his nose when I stopped by there on Saturday. I couldn't believe these people just let them suffer like that. This county sucks. They'd tried to shoot him last week, but missed and he ran off, then came back.

I trapped two more of the FarleyFelines, too, and have maybe three more to catch there. They had some young man come in and offer to shoot the cats because he likes shooting cats. He shot four or five, sitting in the trailer at an open window. I drove back to that colony, on a whim, or maybe the cats were calling me to save them, because the wife then put an end to the shooting since I drove up their driveway offering again to help get them fixed. She contributes when can to the cost of their fixing. I like her and her kids. She's a good person. I think the young man who was shooting before, is now going to help me find the kittens of the two mothers who were fixed last Friday.

Update: I went out after dropping off seven cats at the vet to be fixed, including four from the Poohcow Colony, two from FarleyFelines Colony and one more female from Heatherdale, to the BS. I had them put the sick male in a carrier. He also has ringworm. They were very disappointed the vet didn't euthanize him yesterday, said, with a laugh "We already had dug a hole." I wanted to punch them this time. I'm just worn out and fed up, I suppose.

Then they told me a black cat had kittens, and were trying to blame anybody but themselves for not watching or keeping track and I wanted to punch them again.

Then the husband made a joke about somebody he saw while at the vet clinic, claiming he is a "Tinkerbell", in other words, gay. I was in no mood for hearing shit talk off people who have caused me so much pain and suffering. And costs, to volunteers they don't even know, in Portland, working their butts off to raise money to fix the cats they never fixed. Some of those volunteers have included, gulp, "Tinkerbells".

So I turned on this man and I told him, "I am not prejudiced, except, except towards assholes who don't fix their pets and expect other people, good hearted volunteers, to not only pay for their cats to be fixed, but to also spend hours upon hours upon days and weeks and months, rounding them all up and transporting them to be fixed."

I walked out.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Increases in CA Pets Killed and Taxes Spent---The Ticker of Death

California's killing of companion animals in shelters is documented on a ticker on the main website of coalitions of groups attempting to change things, both for the companion animals of California and for the taxpayers who pay for the irresponsible behavior of others, that leads to so many companion animals in shelters. Click post title to go to that website. Anybody reading this from California, get involved with this initiative. I was just sent another reminder about this effective informative website and effort which is incredible and needed.

The ticker keeps ticking up the deaths:


2008 ca shelter report
In the 147 days since January 1:


Pets killed: 202,556
Taxes spent:
$101,156,835.00

Monday, May 26, 2008

Man Charged with Shooting Neighbor's Dog

A man on Clover Ridge Road shot a neighbors dog who was going after his chickens a second time. The dog's owner is in a wheelchair and told reporters she couldn't go out after the dog. I wonder how the dog got out in the first place. My guess is she let it out, to go to the bathroom, or to run. If she is in a wheelchair, why would she get a big dog that needs to run. Does she not have a fenced yard, I wonder? If not, again, why would she get a big dog?

Anyhow, it's sad all around. A man is charged with felony animal abuse and a dog is dead. At HTN, man, there are some dangerous dogs often running loose too. Dogs like the Golden Retriever that killed over a dozen cats. One of them killed was that little long hair gray tux, whose front leg was mangled. She survived for awhile, until I netted her. She was so horribly injured and infected by that time. How she suffered. She was euthanized.

On that street, the barking is extreme sometimes and sometimes so loud it sounds like a dog pound. Dogs are mostly kept inside small places all day, without backyards, or tied to junk. It's very very sad. One Chow will rocket out of a house, if he gets the chance and just run and run and run. Takes them a long time to find him sometimes.

I've been bitten by a lot of dogs. Once, I had just arrived at a horse stable, to help with a bunch of unfixed cats there, and a group of dogs came around a corner before I could even react and one grabbed me on the kneecap.

And then there was that dog in Millersburg the man let out, with two other dogs, when I knocked, trying to return three cats I'd taken in for them, to be fixed. The one dog rushed out the door and attached to my calf in a split second. Boy that hurt. He bit deep and I have scars from that one. That man knew his dog bites. The dog has bitten many people and still they keep the dog. When he attacks a child, then it will be over. Someone needs to talk straight to those people about their vicious dog and the pain he's already caused, to people like me, with my scars. But those people just used me to get about 20 cats fixed and they don't give a shit I have scars to show for meeting them.

I got bitten three times in two months by Pomeranians. Thing is, every single one of those owners knew the dog bit people. That is just very very irresponsible and mean.

I carry a big can of bear pepper spray now and I use it if a dog comes at me. And I use it if they latch onto my leg, too and I have absolutely no qualms about doing so.

After two severe bite wounds from dogs, I know the damage they can do just by crushing with their jaws. People whose dogs bite, should be sued for being really irresponsible, mean and apathetic.

I never used to think twice about seeing dogs. I've owned dogs and like them. But now, when I see a dog, I think about the pain of those bites and automatically wonder if the dog is going to attack me. I suppose it's silly, but, it's hard to forget the shock of a group of dogs coming around a corner at you in a split second.

Bird in the Garage Run

How it happened, I don't know. My cat yard is completely fenced over. So how did a bird end up in the overhead garage run? You got me. My garage door was open while I weeded the front yard. I weeded for hours. Dandelions. The front yard lawn space is a jungle of clover and dandelions. The dirt is poor quality. Drainage is nonexistent. And I'm not resorting to spraying the hell out of it with all sorts of chemicals. In fact, I couldn't really care less what it looks like, but for neighborhood peace, I weeded it.

The weeds come because the old man doesn't weed his yard, but he mows it. Unfortunately those dandelions sprout a stem, flower and go to seed between the times he mows it, even if it's just a week. I weed and weed and weed, but it will never really do any good unless he does.

Anyhow, I went back into my garage, exhausted, with my knee stiff and my neck hurting and my thumb joints swollen from hours of digging weeds, and I hear a weird sound. I can't figure out what it is, but I glance up, because all the cats are in a corner of the garage run and there's a bird there, cowering in the corner. How the hell would he get into a completely contained yard, but beyond that, into that little tunnel of a chicken wire overhead garage run?

He appeared unhurt and my cats seemed afraid of him. Starling or blackbird. I don't know which but the parents outside were screaming their heads off.

To get to that bird inside the tunnel wasn't easy. I ended up on a ladder cutting the wire. I scratched up my arms doing it, because I wanted to do it quick. I put my net over him, big mistake. He started screaming to beat the band, starting up the screaming of his parents outside, who could hear him. I took him outside then in the net and had to cut him out of it, with his parents dive bombing me.

My arms were bloody afterwards. He had to have gone through the chicken wire. It's one inch mesh, one and half inch in some spots. He's a small bird. He must have run into my open garage to escape the old man's evil cats, flown up, landed on the mesh and gone through it. He flew off once I released him from my cat net, unharmed. The parents then left me alone. I am getting a supersoaker squirt gun to blast the old man's cats when they go after baby birds. Tain't cool. He saw me out there releasing it.

Anyhow, the bird was no worse for the wear, but I'm a mess, cutting my hands and arms on that wire, trying to get it off quick to get him out of there.

It was strange to see my cats afraid of a bird. When I was climbing up on a laddar and they wanted to run by it to get away from me in their face up high like that, they were even afraid to run by him. Well it's just as well.

I'm experimenting with a collar idea that might deter a cat from a successful bird hunt. I think it's clever and I hope it works. It's a simple concept.

Anyhow, after weeding and I didn't get them all, I watered the front lawn, then I planted seed and put dirt over it, to give it a better chance and wetted it down.

The sky is black and ominous. We're supposed to have thunderstorms tomorrow. I bet we will have some. I have a feeling in my gut, kind of a strange feeling, and I wonder if it's related to all the tornados occuring in strange locations. I hope one does not occur here. I just have this strange feeling, like something bad could happen, when I look at that sky tonight. I guess warm air and cold air masses have to collide in order to produce the big clash of the titans storms that spawn tornados. I don't think the air masses up there have that much temperature differential.

Kitten Loves His Chicken Part 2

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Bug Screening the Vegee Plants

I've had just a few bugs attack my growing small garden so far, mostly the two pepper plants' lower leaves and the broccoli. So, I made what I hope will be bug retardant screens for the plantars today. I used old horse fencing, that I cut and wired in ovals, then covered in window screening.

I made the large wooden plantar from old fence boards. My one tomato is doing well. So are the leeks and onions and my two strawberry plants. The squash are shooting up as is the broccoli, but my carrots have failed to thrive. I think the seed was too old.

Out front, I planted pumpkins. I checked on one of the seeds which is breaking open and beginning to sprout.

This is my container planted in leeks and onions.
My newly bug screened cherry tomato plant.
My homemade plantar box broccoli, squash and peppers. One end also has a couple potatos planted from sprouted spuds I had on hand.
These are bug screens I made for the broccoli and pepper plants I planted in the yard proper.
Bug screening over the wood planter. I tied PVC pipes to the sides, to weight it down. At the ends, I tied cotton cord to the edge of the screening then ran the end of the cord under a brick to hold the screen ends down but allow me to easily remove it.
This is one of two small beds, with mattress I got at a garage sale for $2.50. I love them both. The cats do also. I get to sleep in any of three places now and do so.

Spits Defends his Chicken

Spits grabbed a piece of chicken this morning and then, boy, he wasn't going to give it up for anything.



Spits is one of three feral kittens I am fostering/taming for SafeHaven.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Bored

A slow day for sure today. Last night, I fell asleep on my couch about 6:30 p.m. I woke up at 1:00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep for a couple of hours.

This morning, I woke up early, with thoughts of maybe I could do something. I returned all the cats and took Bo, the big male, father of some of the wrecking yard newborns, to his new home. Then I stopped by HTN. I guess I wanted to see if he was the one who shot a dog, although the paper report said it was on Cloverridge and about a half mile down Cloverridge.

He's had tons of trouble with aggressive dogs coming onto his property. A couple of them killed over a dozen cats. When he called the cops about it, the cop who came over made it out like it was a cat problem and had to be constantly redirected to the fact a dangerous dog had come on his property several times and killed his cats on his property. Still, she made no police report on such a horrible thing. The old man had been horribly depressed over the losses. So was I. After that, he got a pistol. He figured if the cops were going to do nothing, he'd have to protect his own property.

It is fairly strange that the cops will do nothing about abuse of cats but will about abuse of dogs. It's like protecting men but not women, somehow, in a way. When someone was shooting dogs with pellet guns in North Albany, a big deal was made, investigation opened, paper article written. But when 17 cats were killed in two nights by a rampaging dog, the cop called it a cat problem and refused to take a report. That's sad. No wonder the old man has taken steps to protect his own.

So anyhow, he was gone, off shopping when I stopped by. So, fancy free, nothing to do, I stopped by the BS and BS'ed awhile there, then came home.

I intended to do something, although I wouldn't know what, but fell asleep in the spare bedroom with the foster kittens instead, waking up late, just an hour ago in fact.

I should have gone to Corvallis I guess to the Saturday Market or maybe hiked Bald Hill at least. I can't afford to do much. I read books, and check my vegetable plants and clean my traps.

I do now especially wish I still lived in Corvallis, with everything going so extremely expensive. There's plenty to do, for exercise and healthy eating, right there real close, so close you don't even need to use a car. There's nothing like that here. Twice a month I go to Winco, in either Corvallis or Salem, to shop for food. And that's about the extent of any shopping I do, outside of getting a few items now and then at Home Depot or Coastal Farms.

As for the day, there's something to be said for a nice lazy day and napping leisurely with kittens. Very restful and no stress to the day whatsoever.

Video of Wrecking Yard Mom and Kittens a Week Later

Seven Cats Fixed Friday

I took up seven cats to be fixed Friday. Four were Albany cats--An buff orange tabby, a brown tabby tux male, a black tux pregnant female and a gray tab on white medium hair male.

Then I took two from south of Albany, both in heat females, and the one male from off highway 34, dad to the four bottle babes, now here with their mommy. He will be going to a new home tomorrow. I call him "Bo".

Buff boy from near West Albany High School.
Brown tabby tux male, from same location.DSH black tux female, pregnant when spayed yesterday, from same location as above two boys.

Front street boy.
This female, from rural road just south of Albany, was in end stage lactation AND in heat, when spayed Friday.
Another lactating and in heat female from same location."Bo" from wrecking yard daddyhood fame, who will move to a new location now, since he is unwanted in that area.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Clinton Robert Kennedy Remark

Oh my gawd, when I saw a clip of that remark she made, my immediate reaction was: Is she planning to kill Obama?

I'm just being honest about my initial gut reaction.

Oh my gawd. Sounded almost like a threat.

Someone made a very funny remark on a radio talk show. He called this campaign a miniseries. I couldn't stop laughing.

Trouble Kittens

You don't get much done with kittens in the house--underfoot, crying for attention, playing, wanting fed. Boy. These polydactyls are really funny, but also a lot of work. Add the three bedroom ferals from Safehaven and the four bottle babes, with mom, and, well, lots more work here lately. I just don't get much sleep during kitten season.

I went out after cats this afternoon. I got my quota and then some. There is a situation in west Albany some neighbors have been working on. They have it mostly contained but there are five or six more needing fixed. Myself and the little girl living there, ten years old, whom I think I've turned into a cat trapper, trapped two of their cats--a buff orange male and a short hair black tux.

I also checked at an old situation south of Albany. I'd gotten tiffed over my own issues and exhaustion, the usual suspects and left that situation over a year ago. I think I got tiffed because I kept coming back to trap the ferals and they wouldn't be there and their own cats would be out, making it impossible. Then I lost their number, as I already have again, something I'm good at doing, but I found their place.

Yes, they still have unfixed cats. I trapped two tonight from there. So I have four, two from Albany, two from south of Albany, plus the male from highway 34, who is going to a new home after his neuter, and the folks down near the bar off Old Salem finally grabbed that stray male they've been feeding. They have made friends with him and stuck him in a carrier tonight. So I have six, plus one trap still set. Plenty of cats for tomorrow's vet appointments, that's for sure.

I got caught up tonight in watching the Alaska Experiment marathon. Kind of tough going, those four volunteer families are facing trying to support themselves while living a winter in the bush of Alaska. One couple has gone pretty much stark raving mad with cabin fever. Comes from isolation. They're seeing things, hearing things, it's really sad. They were successful in a hunt to secure winter's food, but, seems the woman got sick off the goat meat and has been ill.

A father and his two adult daughters also are facing some interpersonal conflicts but doing fairly well. They canned a lot of salmon which is holding them through, but failed at a moose hunt to secure meat for the winter.

Another couple is having maybe the worst time of it. They are living in a wall tent on a bay. They only caught and canned a few salmon, failed at a moose hunt, and have almost no food to last them.

The third group is three friends living in the best cabin of all of them. They were successful in a goat hunt to secure protein for the winter, but got into trouble on a 40 mile hike to visit the couple living on the glacier. I finally gave up on the marathon a few minutes ago. Anyhow, there are only two episodes left, so my guess is, since winter has barely begun, that they all give up and go home. Otherwise, there would be far more episodes in the series you'd think.

Makes one think, how would we survive if each one of us had to fend for ourselves in securing food, shelter, medical treatment, etc? Well, with populations the way they are now, I don't think the wild game would last long, to be honest. If a natural disaster or war destroyed our own gardens and local farms, we would be, very very quickly, in deep trouble. So shows like this make me think, how could we survive.

I think what I would do, would be go the easy route and make a little worm farm. Worm burgers are very high in protein, you know, and small worm farms can be created quickly and easily. I suppose that'd be my approach. Kind of yukky but I bet I'd get used to it.

Bugs are very high in protein, too, so maybe I would make a beetle farm. Maybe I'd make both a beetle farm and a worm farm. What would I do for vegees? Hmmm, not sure. I'll have to think on that. Many part of the pine tree are edible. I remember that, at least. Mountain sorrel--edible, camas--edible, um then there are all the berries, but those are so seasonal. Well anyhow.

The BSO3 people have some geese and those eggs are huge. They sell them to a woman who puts a pin hole in them, and drains them of their innards, then dries them, then paints beautiful artwork on the shell. But you could subsist on one of those huge eggs a day if you had to.

I hooked up with a couple from Minnesota during my own Alaska experiment. They were trying to subsist off the land, but actually the woman had a good paying job, which made this much easier. They bought lots of supplies with the money she made that allowed them to live off the land, like livestock feed. They had chickens, rabbits and a couple of cows. When I hooked up with them, I'd been living in a shack that was 8x10 feet big. Yup, that's right. Kind of cozy.

Plastic tarp for a roof. Old piece of plywood for a door, with a string for a latch/lock. About 3/4 mile hike down a winding trail to the nearest road. I finally hauled up one piece of plywood for the roof and put in an old sheet metal wood stove I found at the dump. But, you had to be right on top of it almost to feel the heat and it got really cold--minus 55 with the windchill. I made the mistake of going to bed with my boots on, I was so cold. That made things worse, since the boots restricted circulation.

I'd go into the Harbor Master once a week to take a shower. Grungy, huh? Showering once a week. When the hot water hit my frozen feet I about went through the roof. I had early stage frostbite on three toes. I had to cut out part of my boot after that because I could not stand the pain of my boot touching my toes. I did not lose function of my toes, thankfully. they had turned a pale shade of gray.

I cut wood with a handsaw and hauled it back to my cabin, as I called it, on a piece of corrugated aluminum I'd found. I'd punched two holes in one end of it and run a rope through both, knotting the ends, and used that as a harness for this makeshift sled. The wood I cut was all deadfall.

I used the Resurrection River as my refrigerator, if there was no snow. I had a waterproof container and sunk it into the river, but I had to watch the levels and sometimes the edges of the river would freeze.

Anyhow, the Minnesotans were interesting people. They were big time pot smokers and grew their own. This was one reason they came to Alaska. I ended up milking Annabelle twice daily in exchange for room and board. I lived in the unheated quonset hut on their property. I had a really warm sleeping bag rated to minus 60 or something. Chickens would come into the quonset hut to stay warm and lay eggs in my hat. Sometimes porcupines also came in.

Milking Annabelle was ok, except it took a long time when she was giving like five gallons, right after she'd birthed. We sold that milk. I'd strain it first, through cheese clothe, into a gallon jar. Then let the cream rise and carefully dip it off. We'd sell that separate. We had a frig on the porch of their house and it was the honor system. The milk sold for $3 a gallon.

We made cottage cheese and sour cream with it, too. We made ketchup and salsa from high and low bush cranberries and pancake syrup and jam from blueberries.

Then there was a big flood while they were gone and I was very ill with the flu. I had to go underwater to cut the cows free, where they were staked out down along the Salmon River which had jumped its banks. Another year or so after that, the barn burned and the Minnesotans went home to Minnesota. I came back to Oregon.

Both of them were really determined to try to make it up there, subsist that is, by making, growing as much of what they used as they could. It was a privilege to learn so much from them and share in their endeavor.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Lots of Angry People out There

Someone left a real nasty message on one of my youtube cat videos. This person has left nasty messages before. Digi something, is the user name. I really couldn't care less. This person hates cats and tells me how sick it is that I help them, instead of doing something about the land mines that are blowing up kids legs.

Well, digi, there isn't a thing I can do about the trillions of warmongers in the human race. Sure, I'd like to neuter most of them. But I can't. I can't change big things far away. It's impossible.

So I change what I can change here. I help solve feline overpopulation. So shut the fuck up, angry Digi, shut the fuck up you self-righeous angry, self-loathing life-hating meanie. Got it?

There are angry people out there. Man alive. There was another road rage incident in Portland today or yesterday where the two angry drivers ended up with their cars headlight to headlight. I think they both got arrested.

Digi, if you're so worried about the land mine thing, get yourself some bomb defusing training and go dig them up and defuse them. But don't crap on people who can't do that. Go do it yourself, if you want to make things better in that regard.

I guess a better answer to Digi would have to say, "Hey, I'm with ya on that one, am in the midst of bomb squad training, then I'm going to rob a 7-11 to get money so I can buy a passport and plane ticket. After that, I'll just choose a country that might have landmines, take me a bag of apples in carry on, (so I don't have to pay that new $15 per bag checked bag fee), and once I get to a country that might have land mines, I'll find a likely looking field, and start throwing apples out into it. If there is a big explosion, then I'll start digging and defusing and hopefully won't get added to the list of legless land mine victims."

Well anyhow. Like they say in AA, change the things you can and forget the things you have no power to change. Or something like that.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

How Would You Like to Give Birth Here?

That young mother, with nobody, gave birth in the passenger side floor of a wrecked car full of trash and junk. This is the way a lot of cars involved in wrecks or abandoned look inside, then are towed to wrecking yards. There, they await retrieval by owner or an insurance settlement then they are crushed for scrap. Many are total trash inside. This is where I found the four kittens' I now have here, along with their mother, in this disgusting car right down there amidst the trash and broken glass on an old newspaper.

And this is the male I was after there, father to at least two of the kittens, very obviously. He'll be neutered Friday. The business next door is where I caught him, after following him down the railroad tracks. They don't want him around. He sometimes sleeps in old boxes in a seed bay and rummages through their dumpsters looking for food. So I don't know what to do with him after his neuter job.

These poor cats live hard lives, that's for sure. Too bad people don't fix their pets. Too bad people abandon them like trash. I don't think they understand how much they suffer, like that mother giving birth where she did.

Is that what you imagine will happen to your kitty after you dump her along a road, assholes? Her starving nearly to death and giving birth amidst broken glass and human trash? In a wrecking yard, where the carelessness and mayhem humans and their machines create, is lined up in rows of junker smashed stories like caskets in a war zone, and where the only human present, periodically, is shooting nutria with a black pistol while sipping a mixed drink? Is that ok with you people out there who dump your cats, or do you just not give a fuck?

She's a good cat, and a good mother, now happy and content and unbelieving still, at the food available. Her eyes light up ever so slightly when I refill her dish but she doesn't want to get to comfortable because all this has to end, she thinks. She's relieved, too. She can love her kittens like she always wanted to love and care for them. And not like she had to, out there. She knew they were going to die. She's just a little mother and a quiet soul who nobody even noticed was desperate to the bone. A very good soul. Quiet and unobtrusive.

You people out there, who did this to her, or to others like her, please. You could do so much better. You could be noble. You don't have to be mean. It's a choice to be mean like that. You could just have easily chosen the light.

Craigslist full of Free Kitten ads From People who think Overpopulation is Fun

It became so depressing for me to go to craiglists pet section, that I rarely do so anymore. Not only is it frequently used by arrogant breeders who try all sorts of pouty stunts to list their registered or supposedly registered bred puppies and kittens, even though craigslist bans listing from breeders of any sort, but it is used by the in your face we're going to breed cats or dogs because it is our American right crowd, too. Dismal to read the magnitudes of free kitten ads, like the one below, happily listing kittens again, from the same mother cat.

Here's one, from the Blodgett/Summit area. Note how the ad states "past kittens" like this mother has had multiple litters.

can deliver to corvallis area
will be ready 1st week in june, both grey ones r spoken for but we still have 3 adorable blk ones with faint stripes gender unknown at this time
they r adorable and very playful!!! mom is a great mouser and has a human like personality, so if they take after her they should be awesome cats. past kittens have grow to be huge so they will be big house cats
they r free
call or email

enjoy pics mama is in the pics also


This is another from Corvallis below. They're moving. Moving Checklist: Turn in change of address form; have utilities turned off; dump beloved cats at Heartland, where they may be killed. AT least this person is trying to find them a home and at least not dumping them out in the country somewhere.

The fact there are so many people breeding kittens, with abandon, like in the above craigslist post, makes it less likely these two, if they end up at Heartland, will get homes. It is the tragedy of overpopulation and irresponsible owners.

Strays, kittens people can't find homes for, or that are born to feral mothers, end up in shelters in droves this time of year or dumped out abandoned like the mother cat in my bedroom. People go for kittens, and, they go for free unfixed kittens, so the cycle never ends and strays and adult cats, who end up homeless, or languishing in shelters, lose.

By the time females are having second litters mid summer, the new home market will be saturated. People who didn't fix their females, will dump kittens at shelters, or along the roads in the country, throw them out of cars. They'll get angry and start dumping pregnant tame cats by early to mid summer too. Every year, it's the same. In Linn County, where there is no convenient kill the excess shelter, they'll call private little unfunded people like me and angrily demand I take their adults and kittens, like it's my fault they never fixed their cat in the first place. Anyhow, here's the post.

We are moving to California and cannot take our cats with us. I have had them since they were babies and they turned 5 in February. They have always been kept inside and are super sweet. They are brother and sister and my hope is that they can stay together. We have an appointment to take them to Heartland Humane Society on Sunday, so this is my last hope of finding them a good home together before taking them in. They would love a place where they could safely explore outside. One of them had his hips removed a few years ago from an accident, but he is fine and healthy...he just can't jump very high. Please let me know if you are looking to adopt a couple of cuddle bugs.

Astoria Doctor Begins Charging Medicare Patients $600 Per Year Retainer

Want the privilege of going to one Astoria doctor? If you are a Medicare patient, you must pay $50 per month just for the privilege of keeping a PCP. Why? He claims government reimbursement rates are horrible for Medicaid and Medicare patients. To make ends meet, or just to force those patients out, he is charging the retainer to Medicare./Medicaid recipients.

So far, he's lost over 100 patients who can't afford the retainer. Among them, was the old woman interviewed on the news for this story. She's gone to this doctor for twenty years. Now that's she's on medicare, she can't afford the retainer fee and is looking elsewhere.

This behavior creates more rifts between rich and poor. This behavior highlights our broken health care system that will become even more broken in July, when the feds cut reimbursement rates an astounding percentage again. Most likely, it will become nearly impossible to find medical care if you are a medicaid or medicare recipient.

How does this relate to the election? Senator Obama's plan leaves in place most existing institutions as is, like medicare. This won't help those on medicare find a doctor. It will solve nothing, in fact. Senator McCain's plan does nothing.

So what, you say, if poor people and old people and disabled people can't get any medical treatment. Who cares? Well that's exactly how Hitler thought, so he began rounding up such people, including the disabled, mental patients, homosexuals, the poor, abused women, runaways and gassed them to death even before he started in on Jews.

Maybe the mostly vacant HP campus in Corvallis can be used for Oregon's concentration camp for the purpose of gassing the poor, disabled and elderly.

Just kidding, but man things are getting bad.

In related news, I've badly injured my right knee. The tendon or ligament or muscle running diagonally, from the top inside to top outside, is really swollen and even hot. What does that mean? I don't know, except it hurts. I suppose I'll need to operate on it myself if it rips off. Any self knee operation hints out there? Should I just bite down on a piece of leather and shut up?

Kitten Photos!

SafeHaven asked me to foster three feral kittens. At first, when I thought I had no mother for these four bottle babes, it was to be an exchange--they take the four bottle babes into foster, I foster the three feral kittens someone brought in from Three Lakes Road. But then I caught the mom who is feeding her own kittens now. Anyhow, the three ferals are here, too, and not that feral---two gray tabbies, a boy and a girl, and a black tux boy. Plus, I went out to pick up my traps at the wrecking yard where I got the four kittens and mother, and spotted the male. He took a turn into the brush then nonchalantly walked one rail of the railroad tracks, showing off I suppose. I set a trap for him, but he's wily and roaming a large area. I took a photo of him, however. And one of mom with her kittens. She is actually a muted torbi tux and very content currently.

Two of the SafeHaven fosters I currently have in my bathroom.


This is the male I followed today and want to catch.
Mom, with her kittens.

The Scoop on the Highly Chlorinated Water

The water department called, said they checked the level of chlorine from the hose in front of my place. They said the level is almost equal to the level they chlorinate at the plant. I asked what happened ten days ago, that would change the amount I taste in the water. Heat, that's what happened, the man said. With heat, he said, people use more water and so the level the water is treated with at the plant ends up the level of chlorine that comes from the tap. Ordinarily, some passes off in gas, as the water sits, unused.

He said they have had complaints about this from others, people who smell chlorine when they open the faucet or the hose.

I stopped by Heatherdale and talked to the old couple about the brown tabby they'd trapped, who is now in Turner. He used to work for the water department in Brownsville. He said all sorts of shit happens at water treatment plants, like way too much clorine would be added and somebody's fish would all be killed, that sort of thing. He said the public would never know what really goes on.

Anyhow, bottom line, I can't drink the tap water. Too much chlorine. Irritates my digestive track top to bottom.

Sexism Among the Democrats?

I saw a letter to the editor in the Gazette Times, by Tina Empol, who sounded angry over Clinton's defeat in Oregon, also charging that the Democratic party has turned a blind eye to rampant sexism that has surfaced in Clinton's campaign against Obama.

In a way, it's sad that if there is even a hint of racism in campaigns, boy that is taboo. Sexism however is still a.o.k.

One of Rosa Parks most famous quotes is about just this subject. I can't remember it verbatim, but, she stated she was discriminated against far more as a woman than she ever was as a black.

Has the Democratic Party gone too far some wonder, by remaining silent on the subject? The sexism displayed against Clinton was most evident among younger Obama supporters. Seems strange. You'd think young liberals would be, well, not as sexist. You'd think so anyhow.

I'm not a Clinton supporter, I should say. I never liked her husband. Some think he did nothing. Well, not so fast. He took advantage of his position of power with an intern. He should have known better. But that wasn't all he did. There are numerous other accounts of his sexual exploits, including a troubling little matter in which a witness with tapes of his conduct with a coworker, was severely beaten by someone hired by Clinton, allegedly to get those tapes.

Clinton's behavior goes way beyond a Whitehouse affair.

I see another big evangelist guy got busted for soliciting sex from a 13 year old girl. Only it was a cop. Funny. Well it is funny. These preachers who get so many people puppy dog following them and they're just assholes, loving the power, saying what they need to get believed as god's ambassador, filling collection plates, living in mansions, doted over by crowds and doing their dark seedy deeds in the night, hoping not to get caught. When they do get caught, it's hysterical.

Fell Asleep on Couch

Exhaustion has struck me. And I suppose lonliness is getting to me big time. I've had no energy. Today I fell asleep on the couch in the early evening and didn't wake until 1:00 a.m. I checked on the mom with her newborns in the rabbit hutch in my bedroom and they were just fine. She is very happy taking care of them. At first I didn't think she was going to, and was still feeding them myself. But she's taken over.

I didn't get back to the wrecking yard to check traps this evening because I fell asleep. There was nothing in them mid day, so I pulled one. The bait is likely dried and useless now, as an attractant. Tomorrow I'll remove them all. I'm not going to catch anything more there.

I'm not excited about summer coming. I am in a kind of hopelessness that I can't find a way out of. There is no recreation I can find around here I can afford, nowhere to go, unless trapping, and the isolation from the human race I experience here is far worse than in Corvallis, where I used the hiking parks in the summer. I live in a world unto myself.

I'm still looking for rentals in Corvallis that I might be able to afford, and that will take cats. I don't want to return to life in a low income complex however. The contacts I used to have in Corvallis, one by one, have quit returning calls. Well, I don't get over there very often. The contacts I have in Albany are people who want something of me, like getting their cats fixed, whatever.

Anyhow, I'm just lonely is all.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

California Trying to Pass Spay/Neuter Legislation, to Save Money

Click post title to go to the main website for proponents of the California solution to companion animal overpopulation. Hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in California shelters every year at an extreme cost to taxpayers. California is trying to do something about this, by passing a spay/neuter law. I believe some parts of the bill state that all dogs and cats four months of age or older must be fixed. Shelters must fix animals prior to adopting them out, so they don't become part of the problem either. It makes sense. I wish Oregon could become as progressive as California. For animal haters out there or those who think government shouldn't regulate what people do with their pets---laws come about because irresponsible people behave miserably and their actions affect others, in costs and livability. Then come regulations.

So bitch at the irresponsible pet owners and breeders who don't fix their dogs and cats.

On the right side of the homepage, they have counter running, stating the numbers of cats and dogs killed in shelters so far this year and the cost to taxpayers. Here's the tally so far, from their website:


2008 ca shelter report
In the 140 days since January 1:


Pets killed: 193,179
Taxes spent:
$96,473,857.00

In other news, I called the Albany water department today, to find out if they knew why the last few days the water has tasted so horribly strong of chlorine. It's been so bad it's burned my throat. So, I don't drink it currently.

I got the fifth degree. I thought they'd tell me something like they've been adding more chlorine, for some reason, some reason maybe related to the time of year, or something. But instead, she asked me if the water from the bathroom and from my neighbors also tasted of chlorine. I said I don't know my neighbors and I don't drink the water when I shower, just from the kitchen sink and that it's only been this bad for a week or so. She started in again, saying Albany water is all from one source so if my neighbors water isn't reeking of chlorine....she wanted me to believe it's all in my head. Problem solved. I had to interupt again to tell her I don't know my neighbors so I have no clue if their water tastes excessively of chlorine lately or not. She said she would have someone look into it and get back to me.

I am very sensitive to chlorine. I can't swim in public swimming pools more than once, before my eyes turn blood red and my skin breaks out in bumps. I know what chlorine does to me. This water lately only, reeks of chlorine.

I think if you pay for safe water, you should get safe water. Water rates just went up again, too. I should be able drink the water exiting the tap.

Does anyone know if there's a test that can be done to check chlorine levels after filling a glass from the faucet? I want to know and I do not believe I'll get anything straight from the city necessarily.

Starving Young Mother Cat Very Grateful

The lactating cat I caught is likely the mom of the four kittens. I took her into the bedroom tonight in the trap and fed the kittens in front of her. They were then crawling around on the floor, eyes still shut, crying when Brambles, the young male from HTN came up. He adores kittens and has taken to sleeping with and grooming the polydactyl seven week olds.

But the mother, in the trap, still slightly looped from anesthesia began to growl, defensive of the kittens. I took this as a good sign and put them all together in the rabbit hutch. The kittens have been fed and mom is still under the influence of pain meds, so they can bond as she sleeps off the anesthesia.

Mom is starved to death and wolfs food. She wolfed food even in the moving car right after I caught her last night and had loaded her into the back of my car in the trap. I often offer a cat in a trap more food, as a good will offering. It is rare an enemy would offer food. So I do it to ease their minds and they are generally too frightened anyway to eat it. Not her. She is so hungry.

No cat was caught last night in the trap I left set there. However, I went out again tonight and set more traps, in case there is another mother out there. It was already late when I got out there. I'd picked up the three cats fixed today and delivered the male brown tabby to the same barn home in Turner where his two siblings are still in containment along with four of the orange tabbies from the Lebanon barn. He was caught this morning at Heatherdale. I then delivered home a male who showed up at a large all fixed colony in Albany. I came home, fed the kittens and set her up beside them in my bathroom, then headed out to the wrecking yard. Darkness had already come.

There is so much drama in the cat world, if there is another mother, the real mom of these kittens, she would know this cat and know her kittens and where they are. So, if this is the wrong mom for these kittens, the right mom is likely now with this mom's kittens. Trust me, the cat world is soap operic. Kitten stealing is common. Jealousy, you name it, whatever goes on in the human world, does so also in the cat world, including the horrors of starvation. Young mothers without choice in their pregnancies, starving to death as they attempt to raise kittens without any easy food source.

Mom cat is so grateful, so unbelieving there is food everywhere and that she can eat her fill and sleep and eat some more.

Such a brave soul can bring an old cat trapper to tears.
The mother cat.

Brown tabby male, formerly of Heatherdale, now with his two siblings in Turner.
Albany male, fixed today also.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Frustrations at the Junkyard



UPDATE: Woohoo! The cat I caught is the mom. She's lactating. I knew it was. I'd seen the cat farther up the dirt road, but intercepted her return to the junked car with a live trap, because she was starving. I've seen that cat hunting the ditch along highway 34 for almost a year, periodically. Woohooo. I've got a mother to go with four newborns. Yahoo. I told the tech, when she called to tell me she's lactating "Gawd, I love you. I can sleep again!" Woohoooooooohooooo!

I could not come up with a cat to trap or take in today yesterday for the life of me. A colony I'd been contacted about, by a family member on Spicer, was prime candidate number one. The caretaker of an Albany colony that "failed to trap" for the FCCO clinic, because it is by the canal and ducks and ducklings kept getting in the traps, also failed to respond.

What to do? I had one lined up from the Felony Flats district of Albany. The Front street Felines cat owner, with five females left to get in, said she was ill with the flu and didn't want to catch anymore of hers for a few days.

A wrecking yard had called a few days ago, saying they found kittens in the floor of a junked car. I called them and they said I could go out and set traps. They said there were several cats out there and that the nightwatchman would open the gate for me.

I went out.

I found the kittens in the hot car, panting, open mouth breathing. I wasn't sure what to do. I should have let nature take its course. Should have.

Instead I took them to my car and fed them the little KMR I had with me and water. They eagerly ate. Their eyes aren't even open yet. I got varying descriptions of the mother. She hadn't been seen for a day. This would be abnormal with kittens so very young. She wouldn't want to be far from them. But, nobody was feeding that young mother and for her to try to subsist, in scorching heat, on her own, with four kittens to feed--I felt for her. I decided the liklihood that she had abandoned them, or that something had happened to her, was very high.

I took the kittens and put them in a carrier behind a set trap. For three more hours I was on the property and saw nothing of her. The watchman was drinking and surly by this time. He would at one point say he'd seen lots of cats behind his RV, then would say he hadn't seen any cats. He then told me he thinks cats are garbage anyway.

Out on a dirt road, leading to the wrecking yard, I spotted a gray tabby and white. I set a trap and just after dark, caught her. Is she the mom? Hell if I know. I showed her to the nightwatchman and he said it wasn't the mother, but that she was far prettier than the mother of the kittens, but then said he'd only seen her running off. By this time, I figured he didn't have any idea what the mother looked like and may have never seen her.

At 10:30, I finally left, leaving a trap set within the fenced gated property. He said he was up by 6:30 a.m. every morning and would call me after checking the trap by 7:00 a.m. It's almost 7:30 a.m. and no call.

It is extremely frustrating. And now I might be stuck with four bottle babies and I don't have the time for that.

The good thing is the Heatherdale old couple caught that final brown tabby this morning, so I picked her up on the way to the vet. I took three cats and did finally go retrieve my trap in Turner, after dropping off the three cats.

I then checked on the HTN mother, who was suppsed to be spayed, with the four male kittens. They're looking good. The boys, close to two weeks old, are fat and happy. I don't know if the fifth kitten from her, the torti who went to SafeHaven, survived the weekend or not.

I am totally exhausted and should have left these four kittens in that car. I know they would have died. I was told she's been around there over a year, the mother. No one feeds her. She has to hunt for herself. So none of her litters have ever survived. I suppose she just leaves them, knowing she can't even feed herself and couldn't possibly feed kittens, too. I mean, how could she?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Who Likes Plumbing?

I don't like plumbing repairs, even if they're just under the sink and it's all PVC. When I removed the clogged up nonfunctioning garbage disposal a few months ago, I replaced the sink drain. The sink, afterwards, leaked slightly, underneath, at junction of the lip of the new drain and the sink. It was just a teensy leak, nothing major. I never got around to fixing it.

When my brothers' guys came up shortly thereafter, to do some repairs, the sink was one of the repairs they tackled. Unfortunately, they only made matters much worse.

The PVC pipe just below the drain extension has leaked like a sieve ever since. But that is not the only place the leaks began. There was a leak also at the junction of the pipe Post-trap and the pipe it joined with, at the back of the cabinet wall. Ugh!

Sure, it's been disgusting. I did take a look at the one pipe that joins with the sink drain, to see why it was leaking. It was a straight piece of PVC with a plastic screw joiner and washer, but the piece was so short (extended only a fraction of an inch into the pipe it met), and the plastic washer too stretched, so when the joiner was tightened, the plastic washer was just pushed off that end and was useless. So the pipe was just barely nesting into the sink drain piece that sicks down through the sink, with space all around it to leak when I ran water.

I sat a bucket under it all and put off repair.

But I'd have to empty the bucket daily and sometimes twice daily and if I forgot, yukko! I forgot lots.

So I got the proper piece of PVC at Home Depot. I cut it to fit today with a handsaw. I fixed the other piece also, that was not attaching properly because an old distorted screw joiner (I have no knowledge of correct plumbing part terminology, so I make up names for parts) whose distorted diameter disallowed the plastic washer to seat properly, so it would then not screw onto the adjoining pipe.

So far, no more leaks. I've got the cabinet doors wide open under the sink and plan to leave them that way for a few days to thoroughly dry. It is seriously soggy under there and has been for awhile.

I hate trying to fix plumbing. I ain't no good at it and have no clue what I'm doing. But...who's going to fix that leaking sink if I don't?

Nobody, that's who.

Soggy wet underneath sink.
The bucket I'd have to constantly empty from the leaking pipes.
The old piece of PVC, without a lip, that extended up (barely) into the pipe protruding down through the sink from the drain.
The new piece, with lip, and cut to fit.
Jigsaw puzzle of PVC pieces beneath the sink to drain both sides of sink and end up together, as one, to take that journey on, to the stormwater system, into the river, down to the ocean, evaporated into the atmosphere, returned as rain, into a reservoir or canal, if not intercepted by some other city for its own water, and maybe one day back out my own kitchen faucet again! The melodrama and secrets of water life. I'd like to be a fly on the wall, hahahaha, to find out what water really does and where it goes when I'm not watching it! Hohohohoho.
Distorted old "screwer" without proper inner diameter to accomodate a washer AND the diameter of the mating threaded pipe. Hence the leak there.
Done. No more leaks. At least, not yet.......

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 ...