Monday, June 30, 2008

One Free Kitten Ad Called. Six Adult Cats Being Fixed as Result

One free kitten ad call yesterday, produced six adults from one small Albany apartment complex needing fixed. There are two pairs of mothers and sons, who have been mating. The sons are kittens the mother cat owners could not give away last year. One cat owner, who has a female, a male, and three kittens from the mother's latest litter, desperately needs a place for those three kittens. She and her roommate do not get along and she says the roommate may dump her stuff out the door today.

There are also five kittens, including the three mentioned above, at the complex needing fixed. Three need homes.

DMH gray male, being neutered today.
DSH white female, with one blue eye and one yellow eye, mother of above gray male, (they have been mating) being spayed today. She also has three kittens from latest litter, who desperately need somewhere to go today. Seems mother cat's owner and her roommate do not get along and the cat's owner may be kicked out today.
Siamese mix male, from a different apartment.
DMH gray tabby on white female, who is the mother of Siamese mix male (they were trying to mate), being spayed today.
DSH calico female, being spayed today.White male, being neutered today.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Field of Cats

I took these photos at the BS colony this evening, as darkness fell. I was in search of the unfixed cats out there. I did identify at least four, maybe five who may or may not be fixed. There were cats everywhere. These photos are of a field of tall grass, alive in cats, where they love to chase one another and lounge.




Free Kitten Ad Calls Today

Today's free kitten ad calls produced two males, a female, and a stray needing fixed, besides the three kittens she has left. She had given away all but one of her mother cats' kittens but was somewhere else in Albany and saw two six week old kittens running around outside a house. The people got them from some family member, out of town, then kicked them out immediately, so this woman took them, too, and is trying to find them homes. She's very nice.

Her mother cat is mating with her adult son, from last year's litter. She calls this "kitty porn" and it ain't pretty. Then she laughs after telling me this. I said "Well maybe the fixed cats like watching it." She laughs again. She said it's not fun to wake up to, with the mother and son doing that beside your head on your bed. I said "I bet that isn't pleasant to wake up to."

So they are getting fixed tomorrow, along with a tame stray she feeds outside the apartments, and maybe a neighbor's problem male.

Another kitten ad I called turned out to be a landlord who took kittens left behind when a tenant moved. She could not locate the mother, said the mother ran off and she never actually has seen her again. She had found all the kittens homes and hopes very much the new owners will get them fixed, something she says she made the adoptors promise to do.

The third ad I called, I had to leave a message. Nobody answered.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

BS Deterioration

I had to return Ringworm, who was well over his long term pneumonia, to the BS yesterday. He couldn't stay in my garage any longer, because of the extreme heat inside the garage. I would like to have kept him one more week, for good measure, but he no longer blew out bloody snot and snarfed and gagged on mucous.

He had pneumonia for a good six months. The BS caretakers, his lovely owners, would give him antibiotics of unknown origin and unknown dose, now and then, but never follow through. Then, they decided he was too sick to ever cure, and that they'd shoot him, but the old man missed.

I couldn't stand it when I would go out to that place for other cat issues, to see him suffering so. So I told them to take Ringworm, as they dubbed him due to a chronic ringworm infection, to the vet, that donations would pay for a visit and his euthanasia if the vet said that was the only way.

On the side, I told the vet, if he was curable not to give those people any of the medication, because they don't give it to the cat, or do for maybe one day and give up. These are people who should never have access to antibiotics of any kind.

Instead, I asked they call me. So, after his appointment, where it was determined he had long term pneumonia, I picked him up and brought him here. I wish he never had to go back to those people or that place.

He was here a little over a month. The vet had him on daily Baytril, internal fungacide and I steamed him thrice daily for the first two weeks, to help him cough and sneeze up the congestion in his lungs. His improvement was astonishing.

When I returned him, the old woman again told me she was upset for the same reasons I get upset, that nobody fixes their pets. I said "You know, don't give me that crap. You don't go out and do anything for anybody and all these cats, they come from you and the ones you never got fixed."

She is always pulling the bullshit crap, that she does so much and none of their cat problem is her fault. It's all her fault. Along with the old man's. She tries to pull this crap for sympathy, usually when she's about to tell me she wants me to do more for her. It's a scam sort of thing, an emotional con.

Seems the horse barn neighbor of hers found a female and more kittens there, on her property and wasn't happy at all and called the BS woman up to tell her to get over there and get her cat and kittens.

The BS woman had screamed back at her "It's not my cat, it's yours." The horse barn woman said "We don't have any cats."

They don't have any. I told the BS woman, "You got no ground to stand on with a claim like that. They don't have any cats. When your barn emptied of hay, the cats back there had nowhere to hide or sleep, so they go over there. That's your cat all right."

Then she went off on how none of the neighbors will get together and help solve the problem she created by letting me know if there's a pregnant cat, so I can get it fixed for all of them. I said, "Well have you tried to get together about it with neighbors?"

Of course she hadn't. She hadn't done a damn thing. She hadn't sat out there watching for any unfixed ones. None of them on that street have lifted one finger or opened a wallet to help. They're a bunch of complaining moochers.

I don't like to even think of the name of the street they all live on. Makes me tighten up all over and get queezy in the stomach and breath fast and want to run, bolt for cover, head for the hills.

Today, I called the HTN man, to see how the three BS kittens, in his care, were doing. "Not well," he said. "They have colds."

I went over and now they're here, too. 13 kittens. Too many. I will need to get very creative to find them all homes, once they are all well and very quickly, too. Boy what a mess I am in.

Today I did nothing. I've been horribly lonely and depressed. Just a bad day.

Coccidia Kittens Now

Pokey, one of Bad Black Mom's three boys.
Rocket, one of Bad Black Mom's boys, and Joytoy, one of the Wrecking Yard kittens.
This is the black and white wrecking yard female kitten.
Smokes, the hardest hit with coccidia. I didn't think he'd make it and he still might not.
One of three brown tabby males, from the Shedd seven.
Dilute calico, from the Wrecking Yard. Three of her four kittens are still among the living. I do have a home for her and she may go there soon, since she no longer nurses her kittens.
Another of the three brown tabby males from Shedd. I took two litters from Shedd. One was comprised of four kittens, three brown tabby males and Gidget, a silver tabby female. These are the four that brought coccidia to the others.
This is beautiful Gidget, a sleek, smart, savvy, fun-loving outgoing silver tabby female kitten.
Gidget and one of the three wrecking yard female kittens love to play wildly. The three wrecking yard kittens include two gray tabby on whites and a black and white---all girls.

Photos of Cats Fixed

Blurry photo of the long hair orange female fixed Wednesday. These folks live off 226 and the woman woke one night to hear a car stop out front of their place. She got up and was about to take a look, to see if someone needed assistance, when the car took off. Next morning, this cat, then a bag of bones, was on her doorstep, looking confused and scared. The cat came to her when she called her, then when she got her food, the cat would grab a bite then run to her lap for petting, unsure of which she wanted more, love or food. She was badly in need of both. They thought the cat, who is very hairy in the rear area, to be a neutered male, since most orange cats are males. Then, later, she delivered kittens, four of them, which is how I came to know this cat. I called the number on the free kitten ad. Now she's fixed.
This is not a very good photo of the muted calico from rural Albany area, fixed yesterday. My camera batteries were dying. Her two kittens were fixed the day before, in Tigard.
I located this muted torti, pregnant again at spay, also by calling free kitten ads. She is a neighborhood stray and her caretakers are very nice people. They were horrified, however, to hear they would soon have been the proud parents of yet another litter, when they have not found homes for her first litter of the season yet. Her three kittens, two girls and a boy, all brown tabbies, were fixed Thursday in Tigard.
This is a very cute little orange long hair male, neutered yesterday, from another Albany location.
This girl, and her sister, both spayed yesterday, come from the same home the orange male above comes from. Both females, around five months of age, were in heat.This is the sister of above cat, and she was also spayed yesterday.

Kid in my Yard

I came home last night late, to find a kid in my backyard. When I asked him what he was up to, he said he was looking at something, then he took off. I'm not sure which house he comes from.

A few months ago I saw a Hispanic woman running up the street, two or three kids in tow. She came into my backyard and I asked what was up. She didn't speak much English but one of her girls did and told me they'd been watching their cousins dog, a miniature doberman chihuahua mix, and he'd run off.

About that time the dog shot out of another neighbor's yard and took off further down the street. I followed them after him. He ran under a chain link fence into where a neighbors big boxer resided. I figured the boxer would swallow that little dog whole.

But, seems love was in the air. The boxer seemed to be an in heat female. That little tiny nondescript male wanted her. And she wanted him. We tried to call the little dog out. He was small enough that he could get under the fence. But when the little kids would try to coax him out, the boxer would try to dig out from under the fence, growling so fiercely at the kids they would scream in fright.

The mother was trying to get a response at the door of the boxer owners, but no one seemed to be home. So I came home and got a can of wet cat food. When I cracked that open outside the fence, boy, that boxer wanted through that fence to get that food too, but the little dog came charging under the fence to get the food and the boy grabbed him.

I think it might have been the same little boy who was in my backyard last night. I'm not sure because the other incident was several months ago.

Anyhow, the woman wanted to know where she could get her cousin's dog fixed, after witnessing the reason why he was running off. We were able to communicate with bits of English words she knew and some Spanish words I knew and hand motions. So I gave her the number for Countryside, since they are the cheapest vet I know, even for dogs.

He was a very polite little boy so I don't think he was up to anything bad in my yard last night. I could be wrong. Kids fool me all the time.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Taking it Easy

Taking it easy tonight. Worn out. Returned all the cats. No cat calls this weekend. Need a break.

Well anyhow. There are certain blogs I check on occasion and I checked one two days ago. The blog post concerned chemical castration for twice offending rapists and child molestors. The blogger, who is liberal, was against it.

I don't know why some liberals seem soft on crime and seem to lack empathy for victims of crime, siding with, even appearing to empathisize with the criminal, who may have grossly harmed another life. I don't understand this at all.

I don't believe in locking up drug addicts unless they turn to crime, stealing from people and hurting other people or children. Some people would call that soft. But when it comes to rape and child molestation, I am hard core, knowing what such crimes did to my life and do to the lives of any victim of such crime. There is no excuse for rape or molesting a child. They take away the life of that person, destroy it.

People who sympathize with the rapist, that's sick. I can understand the squeemishness of men about chemical castration. As a victim of molestation and one rape, I'm all for it.

I remember a story in the paper about an OSU music professor. He'd led a long life of abusing young girls, from school to school, to university to university. He was tracked down finally by a persistent caseworker and charged. He never denied what he did all his life to so many girls. At his sentencing, dozens of people, many from Corvallis and OSU, testified glowingly about his character, how wonderful he was. Not one person stood up for the victims, including his latest, a little girl.

Do you know what that kind of behavior does to a little girl, already damaged from the abuse of an adult she should have been able to trust? It destroys her, that's what it does.

That's why I hate it when people defend rapists and child molestors or claim they should get light sentences or easy punishment, or that their lives should not be destroyed by the punishment.

When you do that, even though you probably don't mean to, you put down the women and girls who have been raped and molested, as nothing. Whether you know it or not, that is what you do because that is what happens to children who are raped or molested---they no longer feel worthy or valued.

It is the "gift that keeps giving", as it is called, sarcastically, when a child is abused.

It isn't as simple as he asked me, when I commented on his post, that a repeat offender rapist or molestor destroys lives. He then asked, 'So why should the state then destroy his life?"

To stop him, that's why, to prevent more ravaged lives.

Why in the world should we become such a society that shoots itself in the foot, by not defending children and by allowing people among us who destroy the lives of others? This is not only cruel to victims, but it's stupid. It's expensive, too, when the damage done by such criminals produces ongoing costs.

Abused children sometimes go on to abuse others or have damaged self-esteem. With damaged self-esteem, men or women often attach to abusers and the deadly cycle continues, with further generations. That's ridiculous. If a person cannot control themselves, which is evident if a repeat offender, then they need their behavior stopped, to halt more damage to others and to society.

Five Cats Being Fixed Today

I took five cats up this morning to be fixed. Two are mothers of kittens fixed yesterday, located by calling free kitten ads. The other three are Albany cats, offspring off a mother fixed a couple of weeks ago, although they are older offspring, four to five months of age. Four females, one male. Another week over.

KATA called about a woman needing help retrapping an injured older fixed feral female. She's been bitten on the throat by something, has been bleeding, slowing down. I gave her trapping tips, for mechanical selective trapping and if that doesn't work out, I'll go out and try drop trapping her.

This always sparks, not only my sympathy for the cat and caregiver, but also my curiosity about what predator inflicted such an injury. Rarely does a cat get away from a bobcat or coyote, but they often get away from a fox. Cats fall prey also to possums and raccoons. Not only are these ground predators a threat, but also are predators from the air, like eagles, hawks and owls. The most common predator/killer of the outside cat is the domestic dog, however, if we are talking other animal. Humans take the worst toll on cats. For example shelters, kill thousands upon thousands of cats. The auto also could be listed as one of the most deadly of all predators, not only to cats, but to many many living things, including birds and amphibians not to mention humans.

This woman is way outside Lebanon, however, and, due to exhaustion and gas prices, I am hoping very much she can catch this kitty herself. She plans to get the cat immediately to the vet and is very upset about the cats' injury. Sounds like a real nice woman.

Dallas Texas Passes Spay/Neuter Ordinance

DALLAS, TEXAS PASSES SWEEPING MANDATORY SPAY / NEUTER LAW

Dallas has passed a broad new law that requires dogs and cats in the city be spayed or neutered, unless they are used for legal breeding or law enforcement. In doing so, Dallas joins Los Angeles and other cities across the country who are paving the way to a better future for our pets.

According to the Dallas Morning News, "Dallas Animal Shelter Commission Chairman Skip Trimble insisted that the city must move now to reduce the stray and feral animal population. 'It can only be done through sterilization,' he said. 'If we can't control the flow of water, we'll never stop mopping the floor.' The ordinance passed by an astounding 10-3 vote, and "the majority of council members hailed the changes to the animal ordinance as an important step toward reducing the tens of thousands of stray animals roaming city streets, and improving quality of life for pets."

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Worn Out

I'm worn out. I took seven kittens, all from free kitten ads, up to be fixed in Tigard. I wanted them to be fixed before the people with them, adopt them out, so that at least these few kittens won't be overpopulating the planet with cats and so at least I won't ever be chasing down the kittens of these kittens. I know. It's only seven kittens, among hundreds upon hundreds being given away free in the mid valley. But, at least seven are fixed. At least seven, I thought, won't be reproducing more kittens in a three or four months.

I figured I'd sleep during the day at the rest area, but last minute, I headed over to Keni's, figuring I would sleep there. But she was headed off to a job. She does landscaping and weeding. So she asked if I wanted to go so I did. Poor decision. I ended up by this golf course pond, cutting out dead blackberry vines. I got all scratched up. Then the woman came home and yelled at me, that I she didn't want to waste her money paying to have that done, since the owners of that development are supposed to clear that but haven't. But I didn't know that.

But I told her she got my labor for free, not to worry, that she wasn't paying for what I did. I then went to wait in the car for Keni. Shitty day, and the golf course golfers would hit balls that would fly by me. There were literally dozens in the bushes and even on her porch. She puts them all in a big bin then donates them to a high school. Me, I'd be selling them and I'd be wearing a hard hat whenever I sat on my porch.

I meant to sleep the day through, needed to sleep the day through. Finally got the kittens and came home, took five to their two places, and now I'm taking two from that disintegrating Pine Meadow situation, to KATA, in Lebanon.

I'm so worn out everything is funny. Except my life really isn't very funny. I do way to much for people. If I were pleasing myself, instead of helping everybody else, I"d be finding a way out of Albany for good, is what I'd be doing. So tomorrow, I'm going to start a plan of action. The phone will be off the hook.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Welcome Home, Mrs. Crocidile Hunter. Terri and Bindy Irwin in Corvallis Today

Welcome back to Oregon, Terri Irwin. We love you. We are proud of you.

Terri Irwin, Steve Irwin's wife, and children, will be in Corvallis today, to sign over a million dollars to Bruce Mate, another local hero, for whale research. Bruce Mate has been a hero of mine forever for his research efforts on whales. Steve and Terri Irwin and their children have also been heros of mine.

Terri Irwin is originally from the Eugene area and once upon a time, helped cougars, which takes a lot of courage in rural Oregon. She went to Australia on a trip and there met Steve, her future husband, before he was ever famous.

I had heard about the Croc Hunter series before I knew how to even use a computer, in the late 90's. I didn't have a TV either, so I had never seen his show, just bits about him on regular news. I didn't know he was married. I was still in the mental health system. I wrote him a fan letter with poem (below). I suppose the end of the poem was prophetic of his end in some ways. I did get a glossy photo in the mail months later in response. Later on, I found out he was married, to an Oregon woman, no less, and I was embarrassed.

When Steve Irwin died, it took my breath away. There are others who could have died and the earth would never have felt it. The earth felt the passing of Steve Irwin. I cried and I didn't even know him. He was so full of life and passion.

Then, Bindy his daughter stepped up and into his shoes. I felt for her. This was just a child. People criticized her mother for letting a child behave so maturely. I believe it was meant to be and no one should be judging Terri Irwin. I believe the manner she handled herself after her husband's death, in the public eye, was very graceful and couregeous. I believe she did Oregon proud. When Steve Irwin's father was mourning his sons death, he said something to the affect that the animals had lost their warrior. It was a great tragedy.



My Maniacal Animal Man

That dude on Animal Planet
Has hooked up to one awesome gig.
He’s all the rage, on national TV!
His insanity has made him big.
He confronts herds of charging elephants,
and follows really poisonous snakes
He hangs out with Gila monsters.
In his show, there are no retakes.
He swings on jungle vines
while pounding on his chest.
Half a dozen baby orangutans
are hanging off his vest.
I want to swing through wild jungles
and get paid to do just that.
I want to hang out with man-eating crocodiles
and play with fierce jungle cats.
I want to bind up my own wounds
when I’m accidentally mangled
or when I fall a thousand feet
off some cliff from which I’ve dangled.
I want to do all th0se things that he does,
and not hear my psychiatrist yelp.
I don’t want locked up in some cold, bare room
and be told It’s me who should seek help.
That Animal Planet guy is just cool!
But, I’m afraid if he lived here,
in this boring human zoo
where we lock up all our fears—
He might go stark raving normal.
He might sit around at Starbucks talking
while we all sit at home
with nothing on TV worth watching.
So, when you meet that last deadly reptile
on one of its really bad days,
I bet you’ll be revved to your last millisecond.
I wonder, ‘How much does that pay?’
Hey mate,
you’re crazy as hell!!
so our brainwaves are perfectly matched!
Let’s swing together through howling jungles
with absolutely no vines attached!

In other news, I see that Obama is asking his donars to help Hilary Clinton pay off her campaign debt. I know some will see this as a political move. I see it as an act of kindness, reconciliation, and of decency. It makes me happy to even think about it.

In yet other news, when I picked up a mother cat in Crabtree, to be fixed this morning, the woman told me of a huge problem house with over 50 cats nearby. Inside I sighed, resigned to the never ending battle.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Eyes

I went to the eye exam. There was not much to it. I thought, hoped, I would be tested for glaucoma, but no such test I don't think. There was an eye chart, of course, on what almost looked like a mirror. Then he swung what looked like binoculars in front of my face and I told him which vision of the chart was clearer. Then he'd ask if it was clearer in red or green, and actually the letters looked the same in both red and green.

Then he held a pen light and shined it in my eye and then looked in each eye for a second with a handheld magnifier.

Then he had some small instrument, size of a pen, he briefly tried to put on each eyeball which was quite awkward in many ways---him trying to hold it against my eyeball with a shaky hand and my head moving, too. Made my eye sore, whatever that was. Just now, I read about four different ways to test for glaucoma and this isn't one of them, so what that was he put on my eyeball to test for what, I don't know. But my right eye hurts from it, whatever it was.

Actually both my eyes are now hurting and watering from whaterever that thing was. I am going to wash them out. Anyhow, I guess I would have had to go to a medical eye doctor, you know an opthamologist, to get glaucoma tested maybe.

Then he said I needed bifocals. I pretty much knew that already.

The receptionist then told me if I didn't get the Oregon health plan frames I was going to be charged a copay for the exam. I said I was told by both my medicare HMO and the first receptionist that medicare covered the cost of the exam. She told me not if I didn't get the OHN frames and lenses. I thought "Well, this is a different story than I understood at first." I felt totally under pressure and confused at this point and didn't know what I should do.

I don't know anything about glasses, but what I do know is I do not think I could live with bifocals. The lenses they had there are so small. If you cut those in half, for bifocals, that leaves you with almost no visual field for most of life. I don't use close up vision much and can use dollar store lenses for reading close up, I figure.

Here's the bad thing: I did get a prescription, but was too uncomfortable under the pressure of the receptionist to make a decision on what to get. So I left with just the prescription. I don't even know where to get advice on what to do now. I should have been better prepared.

Funny Comment After DH Nuclear Power Editorial

This is hysterical:


exiled wrote on Jun 23, 2008 9:26 PM:

" There's nothing like a bunch of lay-people arguing about nuclear power. "

Mooki is Coming Back

I believe Mooki is coming back. He is apparently yowling all night. I bet he's lonely, having had so many friends here. Cats are very social creatures and normal cats love other cats. It's the abnormal cats who want to be single cats. This is something I've learned from exposure to so many cats. The idea that cats are solitary is a big fat myth. Abnormal cats want nothing to do with other cats, cats with issues, cats seperated from their mothers too early and isolated, single kittens, that sort of cat.

Normal cats get along with and want/need the company of other cats. Mooki is lonely is all, for all his friends here. The woman who adopted him lives in an apartment comoplex. They required a large deposit, too, so I am feeling bad for her, that it didn't work out. I will retrieve him today, I hope. I hope I can help her find a cat who wants to be a single cat and live inside. She is a very good person, the perfect adoptor, but, it is important to find the right match.

I've never heard Mooki even meow, let alone yowl, and he is yowling, she says, so badly neighbors are complaining. That's bad.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Taking Care of Business

My eyes are bad and they've been bad for a long time. I don't see that well. I don't see real bad, but, I don't see well. Many years ago I had my eyes checked at a downtown Corvallis location and got glasses. The glasses were horrendously ground and refracted one light into a dozen. Same thing in rain. They were not only unusable, but they were dangerous to wear if driving at night or in the rain.

I tried to return them, get justice since this was an exam under the Oregon Health Plan but they said I was nuts, and imagining the refracted lights. At that time, I had no self-esteem to fight back such claims, which were common when I was in the mental health system--dismissing what I said with "You're crazy. Go take your meds." It was an Oregon Health Plan fraud thing going.

Anyhow, I've also gotten glasses to wear from my tow truck company friends, by going through boxes of things they remove from unclaimed wrecked cars, including eyewear. I found a set of glasses that improved my vision greatly, in the box and wore them until they broke.

Finally I decided I'd just get my eyes checked again. It's been a long long time and there is a lot of glaucoma in my family tree. Lots of it. So I made an appointment. I might get the prescription and buy frames elsewhere, like at Walmart. Also, I saw a story about $7 lens and frames, bought online from overseas and likely from some of the same places local eyeglass suppliers send out prescriptions for lenses to be filled. The reporter then had his own eye doctor check the grind of the lens and it was perfect. So, I will likely get some frames and lens that way, so if I lose them, it won't be such a great financial loss.

Tomorrow I get my eyes checked.

I also called the Footwise Store in Corvallis. See about three years ago, when I was struggling with shoes to wear, which has always been a struggle for me, someone left a gift certificate on the steps of the shack where I lived for the Footwise Store and said to get some decent shoes. I have very oddly sized feet. I wear size 10 1/2 narrow, in women's. Men's shoes don't fit me and it is very rare to find anywhere with women's shoes that long. And narrow, too.

I'd get K-mart tennis shoes, that would have holes in the bottoms of them within two months or rub my feet into masses of blisters. Because they didn't fit. I have a very hard time finding shoes that even come close to fitting. There used to be one model of Norstrom tennis shoes that fit, and one year, I even bought two pair, but then that line was discontinued. Sad.

So, I went to Footwise and tried on all their shoes. Nothing fit and they had my size in very few shoes. Then, I saw the Keens and they had my size and they fit. So that is what I got and I've been wearing them, day in and day out, ever since then--about three years. I also have some boots but I don't wear those, as they hurt my feet if I wear them for more than a couple hours. And I have some water shoes, and they are from K-mart, to wear when swimming, and some sandals that are also falling apart and some flip flops from last summer that are still in ok shape.

But, as things do, the Keens have worn out. They have worn very thin, almost all the way through, on the bottom, and the stitching on the sides has pulled out of many seams. They've about had it.

So, I thought I'd call them up, surely they could be resoled and the seams resewn. After all, it's the Footwise store and I figured they'd be selling things that could be worn forever. Not so lucky. They told me the Keens are not designed to be resoled, that when the soles wear thin, they're goners. I was disappointed, but then, I"ve never had a shoe before that I've worn every day for three years and had them last that long. I think they will last another couple of months, however.

Photos of Cats Fixed Friday and Today

Today, four cats are up being fixed. Two come from a duplex in Corvallis. These folks are moving. The woman has been accepted into medical school. They have found a home for the blue male, but not for the gray tabby female, who is the blue male's mother, from her first litter. Her second litter, six girls now six weeks of age, are also in the duplex and they plan to take them to Heartland.

I am worried about this adult female. She is a delightful loving very intelligent kitty, but got extremely anxious in the carrier. I had picked them up last night. So I let her and the male out in my bathroom for the night. She needed reassurance. I hope she doesn't end up at Heartland. She would be too nervous and worried in a cage and so I fear, due to this being kitten season, with all shelters overloaded, that she would be one they would euthanize for space. To think of that being done to her, of her life being taken, is an abomination.

The second female is also lactating, although that woman, on Peoria road, had already given away all her kittens. I located her also by calling free kitten ads. She is a very beautiful long hair calico.

The fourth cat is the swirl tabby I trapped last night at Millersburg Country.

Those are nice folks out there. I talked to the colony caretaker, the daughter of the older couple who live in the house proper, while waiting for any of the unfixed cats to slide under the drop trap to eat. Hordes of fixed cats appeared, would eat, then disappear, including the two silver tabby females, spayed last summer, whom I call "The Glutton Girls" because whenever my car rolls into that driveway, they are there, wanting more food. Yes, they are chubby. If I leave a car door open, I have to sometimes chase a dozen cats out of it. They enter, without permission, and pillage.

Just like at the BS. Last time I was there, I thought I had gotten everyone out of my car, when I drove to the back barn, to trap. But, suddenly, as I'm driving, a cat charges from the back, over my shoulder, onto the dash and startled me. It was one of the white calico's. There are many of them, with white bodies, orange or calico striping on their tails, and either orange or calico markings on their faces. I stopped the car and opened the door and she shot out. The cats like my car and if I'm at the BS and forget to close all the windows completely, my car will be full of curious cats, checking everything out.

Anyhow, at Millersburg Country last night, I was asking J how she felt. The last time I was there, when my battery died and my car wouldn't start, she had her grandkids there. The little girl attached to me immediately, proclaiming she was going to help. I usually like the company of little kids. They ask me all sorts of questions and often are a big help. I asked where their grandma was and she said "sick". J finally came out, looking for the little girl, and told me she was extremely ill. It was sudden onset violent vomiting and diarrhea. I had asked "Did you eat some of those bad tomatos?" I meant the tomatos giving people salmonella.

She couldn't remember what she'd eaten. She doesn't eat out and takes a sack lunch to work. She was white as a sheet and would also get so dizzy she'd have to sit down or she would fall down. And to be babysitting three little kids, when so ill, boy that's hard. She told me last night she did call their father and ask he come get them, which he did. Her daughter was at work.

It had to be food poisoning, but she was better last night. She said her stomach still hurt and felt like it was twisting and irritated.

She works a minimum wage job and has worked the same job for a couple of decades. She said it's kind of lonely now, because all the rest of the employees are Mexicans who do not speak English so she can't communicate with them and so they seperate themselves from her. She said it didn't used to be that way, but she figures since it's minimum wage and anybody who works there knows it, that there are no benefits and no raises and never will be, that only the Mexicans will work there because nobody else could really support themselves on such wages.

She makes it because she doesn't pay any rent, just utilities and doctor bills. She has a lot of those because she has some chronic conditions, so pretty much all her money goes to utilities, gas and car insurance and doctor bills. She says she's lucky to not have rent to add to the bills. She with her mother create a huge garden they work all summer. Then they can vegetables for the winter and this helps them survive. They know how to do all sorts of things and I try to pick their brains, when I'm there trapping, for tips and how to's on everything from gardening to mending things.

I asked her what her favorite thing to do for herself is and she said "go to garage sales". They do love that and look forward to it. The whole extended family goes every Saturday. Their yard is full of knick knacks and unique treasures they have found at garage sales. They have a gazebo with a roof made from a discarded satelite dish decoratively painted. It's very creative. They make bird houses out of dried squash, too.

They have many things in common with the old couple at the BS. That old couple, at least the woman of the couple, have a huge garden and she cans a lot of produce for the winter. She also stores potatos in a shed, but it doesn't stay cool in there, so they don't store as well as they would in a proper root cellar. I also get gardening tips from her. It is a normal activity for many people who have lived for decades even generations in the same house, to have a big garden and to can vegetables for the winter. They feel sorry for people who have to live crowded in towns without the space for gardens. The older couples especially feel sorry for their peers who have had to move into small apartments in town, away from the land and some peace, privacy and quiet, that living out a ways, provides.

J says she has not been to a movie since her kids were little, which would mean twenty or more years ago. They buy movies at garage sales, often for as little as 50 cents, to watch. They also warned me about ever going to a movie in Albany and parking my car at the movie theater. J said an officer warned her that lot was the hardest hit by vandals and theives in town.

I asked her if she ever hoped to do anything in particular before she died. She thought a few minutes, then shook her head "no", that she couldn't think of anything more she'd hope to do. They are quite content, I think. Almost every night, a dozen or more of their extended family gather for an informal dinner. Another of J's sisters lives just up the road and a brother and his family live less than a mile away.

For some reason, it is relieving to be there. These folks have no expectations of others, that they conform to anything, change the world, become "somebody", be successful or do anything more than live the best a person can. They acknowledge mistakes, their own, those of others and laugh about which relative got drunk and did something that landed them in jail but hope for the best for them, in the end.

I've learned a lot, or have tried to, just from sitting there listening to their tales, while I watch a trap.One of the Glutton Girls, two silver tabbies, trapped and spayed last summer, who love their chow.
Drop trapping last night. Photo taken through patio door. All these cats are fixed. It can be tough to spot the cats without eartips, in the approaching darkness, from a distance, when many look the same. I was after two swirl tabbies, one very skinny, the other not as skinny, whom I thought I'd seen without eartips. These latest twenty or so cats I've trapped there, all used to live at the dairy, which was most recently a goat farm. When the two women goat farmers left, they left behind at least 22 unfixed cats, who migrated to the all fixed Millersburg Country colony.
White male, owned, from downtown Albany, fixed last Friday.
Female, fixed last Friday, from downtown Albany. She had several kittens. The owner found homes for two or three and may keep the other two.
The swirl tabby from Millersburg Country, being fixed today.
Medium hair calico, from Peoria Road, being spayed today.
Female, from Corvallis, who needs a home, but is being spayed today. She has six gorgeous female kittens, six weeks old.
Corvallis male, and actually the son of above female, from her first litter, up being neutered today.
Friday, three owned Albany cats were fixed, two females and one male. I have photos of only one female and the male, from a downtown Albany apartment.
One of the goat farm abandonees, fixed in the last few weeks, waiting for a turn to eat beneath the drop trap last night, while I waited for any of the three unfixed cats we've spotted out there, to show up.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

I went and collected three cats needing fixed from the Corvallis area today, after calling free kitten ads. These are the mothers of the kittens in the free kitten ads.

Then I went to Millersburg Country again, to try for any left there unfixed. I determined I should leave early, while the colony caretakers were still up, because I'm still having the battery problems and if they were still up, they could jump my car if it failed to start. So I didn't stay very long.

I was able to drop trap one of the swirl tabbies. I call the tabbies that, who have longitudinal stripes and swirls on their sides. I bet there's a more accurate long used term for this coloration.

So I'll have four cats going up to be fixed in the morning.

I come home and there's a not very nice comment on my blog by a person who, when he or she leaves a comment which is extremely rare, it's negative. There are two such Corvallis people who rarely comment, but when they do comment, it's mean or critical.

I don't know who they are, but they must occasionally read my blog. I think they're both women but I'm not sure. I would think if they dislike my blog so much they would just not read it. Or, if they ever do like some things, they would at least once in awhile leave a nice comment. Instead the only comments either of these two have left are negative.

With some people, I can't do anything right and never will be able to. I don't care that much anymore. You can't please everyone. People disagree. I have quit reading many blogs because some are disgusting, hateful and vulgar while others are just not my cup of tea or boring. But I don't keep reading them, or reading them sporadically and then leave a negative comment.

What that says to me, is someone likes trying to hurt me, or wants to make me feel bad. Or hopes to. Seems mean spirited and you two women in Corvallis probably know I'm talking about you. I don't know you. I doubt you know me. I believe you would be happier not reading this blog. I know I'd like you to make that decision. Thank you.

Well anyhow, I got a lot done around the place today, despite my knee. It is getting better, but I still can't walk on it that easily, without occasionally it giving way.

Debate on Energy Policy Today on TV

George Staphylococcus, (woops, sure messed up that name, didn't I?) led a roundtable discussion with democrats and republicans on some news show today about energy and what will America do, to solve the energy crunch created by the gas crisis.

The Republicans were calling for more drilling in America, creation of nuclear plants, investment in alternative energy research. However, the democrat there, and I did not catch his name, was against everything, and wanted to point fingers at the Bush administration for doing nothing.

Well that's a pile of nonsense.

We are in this mess and we must solve it somehow. I wanted George, the discussion leader, to ask that democrat this: "Well, we're still consuming massive amounts of energy in America. If you don't want to drill in our country for oil and you don't want to build nuclear plants, where is this energy going to come from?"

I was just cheering for him to ask that, because there is no grand plan from our leaders. They want to partisan bicker. The American people will not change their consumption ways, without massive upheaval in our current lifestyle.

That leaves two choices: change or come with a way to get energy.

If we are to change, then we need the plan mapped out and implemented. If we are to come up with energy to maintain our lifestyle or even a lesser consumptive lifestyle, then we need a plan to get that and we need to implement and that is the job of our elected leaders.

That democrat talked like he's an idiot, just wanting to blame somebody else, and against everything the Republicans suggested. It was eye opening.

One figure quoted stood out. The average consumption of oil per year by every single American is 25 barrels per person. The average consumption per person in India and China is 2 barrels per person per year. This number is expected to rise, for both China and India. This average is created by dividing the total consumption by a nation, including for industrial use, by the population of the nation.

Can you believe how much we Americans are using? It was an astounding eye opener for me.

Penile Ego

A friend of mine called yesterday. She was telling me a story about going for a walk with an older guy she's known awhile. He has health issues, some alcohol issues and as a friend, she was going for a walk with him. So they stop and sit down and what does this guy blurt out, to a much younger married woman? He confesses that he would have hit on her long ago, if he'd been smart.

How did my happily married friend respond? Well, inside I guess she was laughing her head off and incredulous.

What is up with some men, that the highest compliment they feel they can give a woman is to declare how they'd like to stick their penis in them. That any woman would be so lucky, so honored, to get laid by even older pudgy men with issues.

Gosh that's so pathetic.

These are men with penile egos. They are blind to reality and guided only by the tremendous ego of their penis.

I have read married bloggers comment about women they see and the comments revolve around how awful or good that woman, despite her age and the fact the blogger is married, would be as a sex partner. What is up with that? Again, very pathetic and funny.

There are men out there, however, who function with the brain in their heads, who learn self-disclipine regarding their lower brain, and these men are heads above the those who function at the lower brain level.

I've seen the reports out, that men can't even register very well, the higher frequencies of a woman's voice. The "my husband doesn't listen to me" complaint of many women is actually no fault of men, just their biology. But, that biological study done, does raise questions?

Should men counsel, as in counselors, psychologists, shrinks, women if they truely can't even hear or listen to them? Should women teach men, in high school or college if males are unable to really hear a female's voice frequencies, and same thing, should men teach women and girls?

When science makes discoveries, regarding differences between the sexes, we never seem to implement change to reflect discoveries that might create improvements. And there are differences between the sexes. We aren't made the same.

I would love to one day see nurture, a woman's strength, regarded, in status and pay, equal to muscle. We worship muscle--exampled in professional sports and all sorts of other ways. But we don't worship nurture. Why aren't those who help children, old folks, hospice workers, the sick (caregivers, nurses aids, even nurses) and even homeless animals, regarded as heroes and paid as nurture heroes?

Women nurture. We shouldn't call such a virtue "weakness". We should celebrate it every bit as much as muscular strength is celebrated. Otherwise, balance is lost and the world created is one overwhelmed in the virtue of power. What virtues attach to worshipped power? Greed and violence.

There is need in our world of both strength and nurture. We should pay equal tribute to both.

Forgetmenot Not Forgotten Yesterday!

Forgetmenot didn't slip by yesterday. She is spayed now for sure! So, the second and hopefully real "Last HTN Colony Unfixed Cat Now Fixed" celebration is on!

WhoopedteedoodooYAYHOO!

What would be a fitting celebration? HTN colony caretaker is a subdued man, and won't consider even going out to eat. He's frugal and kind, but looks down on making merry or wasting a dime on making merry, or even making merry at all. Nonetheless, I'm very happy about the last cat being spayed. Smiling away.

Smokes the coccidia kitten whom I do not believe will make it, is racing around today. He drips from his rear end, and now is tinier than even the wrecking yard kittens and he is two weeks older than they are. I try everything. He gets sub cu fluids three times daily. I give him kaolin, trying to stop that drippage and with it, the fluid loss. He still gets Albon. He gets Pro Bios active bacteria. He gets nutrical, too, to add calories and vitamins but he's not going to make it.

I fell asleep on my couch last night after falling asleep in the garage room. I was worn out from going to bed too late last night then having to get up real early to get all those cats to Tigard on time. But I'm caught up now. My knee is slightly better although I won't be doing any extra walking for a few more days. No walking anywhere I don't have to, not until it's reliable again, my knee.

I think I might have twisted my knee when my car battery died and I was trying to push my car, in neutral, out of a field where I had parked to trap, onto a gravel driveway, so the jumper cables would reach from the other car to the battery on my car. This reminds me, I need to get a new battery. I hope it is the battery and not the alternator or something. The alternator belt itself feels tight but looks worn.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Another Kitten Dead

Bootleg, from HTN, one of Forgetmenot's boys, died in surgery today. For unknown reasons he began bleeding from the mouth and nose, right after surgery. This can be caused by improper intubation, but they said he was not intubated. So, the reason is a mystery, but Bootleg is gone. The other three boys were taken in by a tech at the clinic, who does what I do, and suffers the same things. I felt guilty her taking them in, when she already does so much.

And Forgetmenot herself was really spayed today. She had been opened up before. They didn't just forget to operate on her in March. Today, a different vet there found a very long spay scar. So why, in March, was the job not done, and she just opened up but never had her ovaries and uterus removed? I don't have a clue. But it's done now.

I took up 13 cats in all. Forgetmenot was done at no cost, due to the mistake in March as were her four boys, because they would not have been born if the job had been done in March. Two of Forgetmenot's kittens are now dead---the little girl and now Bootleg. Three survived.

The other 8 I took up were 8 of 11 kittens at the Pine Meadow situation, which isn't a good situation, with that woman moving in a month and there being six adults and 11 kittens she cares for. All these cats were abandoned by a different neighbor when that neighbor moved. All but three, three female kittens, at least are now fixed. I took up four black males, two brown tabby males, a blue tabby male and a torti point Siamese.

After leaving the clinic, I went to the rest area south of Wilsonville and slept awhile in the back of my car.

When I got home just now, there is a message on my machine from a Salem family who adopted Simba and Willy Wonka, two Siamese kittens, back last fall. The man wants me to call him. Nothing good will come of calling him. He likely wants me to take them back, for some lame reason, after all these months. And I can't. I just can't.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Knee

I have been unable to walk today, on my right knee, without it suddenly collapsing, the collapse accompanied by severe pain. It's not every step, only certain steps when I use certain muscles or tendons or ligaments that causes the pain outburst and my knee to collapse, inward. Yuk.

So, if I had to get out of my car, or go outside, I had to be leaning on something, to prevent ending up in the dirt or on the pavement. I believe I tore something, or popped something out of place yesterday when I was trying to manhandle that awkward, unweildy heavy bed frame out of the coccidia kitten room and into my car. My car is short. That bed was long. So, it is difficult to get it inside. It was also a painful endeavor but I didn't think I badly injured anything. Today, my knee said otherwise.

I"ve had ice bags tied to my knee with bungee cords most of the day. I had to resurrect my crutches, hanging from a garage rafter. My knee is swollen on the outside, right where it pops horribly and I feel the pop, if I put my finger on the outside of my right knee, and move my knee slightly. What the hell is that, I wonder.

I wonder what is wrong with it.

I hope it is nothing serious. All I know is I am not looking forward to the walk tomorrow. That's walking 14 cats, two by two, from my car, in the parking lot, about 500 feet to the vet clinic. I'm taking 14 to Tigard including the one that wasn't spayed in March, and the four boy kittens she never would have had, had she actually been spayed when I took her up to be spayed in March. I'm taking 8 more from that bizarre situation in Pine Meadow.

Just three were fixed today. Unfortunately I trusted one Albany woman to take up and pick up her own cat, although the cat grant paid for the spay.

She was told by myself, by the morning receptionist, then by the afternoon receptionist (the vet's mother), that she had to pick up the cat before 6:00 p.m. because they closed at 6:00. The vet clinic called me at 6:15. She hadn't shown up. I tried calling her but no answer. Finally she showed up while I was on the phone with the clinic again, at 6:30. They wanted to leave, go home, it was Friday after all, but this woman just couldn't get there on time. I asked the receptionist to let me speak to her, so she handed the phone to the woman, and I did speak to her. I told her how rude her behavior was towards the vet clinic staff, to make them wait like that, when she'd been told when to pick up the cat and no one else, not one other client, had made them stay open an extra half hour on a Friday because they were late like that.

She hung up on me. Well it is rude. It's entitlement white trash rude. I wanted to tell her to apologize to the vet clinic staff, but she had hung up on me before I could tell her that, so I apologized to the vet clinic staff for her behavior instead.

So that was kind of a bummer. I don't want the vets to be upset with me. So I'm back to original policy. If they make an appointment through me to receive help with spay/neuter, then I transport the cat.

Interesting Craigslist Spelling

******Pure Bread Golden Retriever****** (Monmouth)

Mooki Goes Home

Mooki, one of the Spicer Boys, who has lived here almost a year now, finally got a home today with a Salem animal lover who has had her eye on him for over a month.

I trapped Mooki and his brothers, Machi and Meeko, on Spicer Drive, here in Albany, along with their mother and couple stray males, for fixing. A kind old woman was feeding all of them, but was in over her head and asked if I could find the boys homes. I agreed to try.

Machi was first to get a home, followed by Meeko, before Christmas last year. And now Mooki, the final Spicer boy, got his home. All three boys are delightfully laid back and sweet--super nice boys, I'd have to say.

Good luck, Mooki.

Mooki.
Mooki and Machi.
Meeko.
Machi.
Mooki again.

Don't Think Overpopulation is a Problem? Check out all these Ads.

From craigslist, today:

free kittens (lebanon)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: comm-726575968@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-20, 10:21AM PDT


we have 11 kittens ready for homes!! very friendly, playful, and as cute as can be...they are about 8 weeks old

Well, darn it, I went back to copy more of the free ads on craigslist and people, who are probably angry about all the people who don't fix their pets, are flagging them for removal. Takes five different flaggers to get a post removed, so lots of people are disapproving of people not fixing their females. They've been removed. Hey, it wasn't me. I try to contact people advertising free kittens and help them get the mothers fixed and often they need help.

But the other thing that occurs, is when a person posts their kittens, they sometimes flag all the other free kitten posts, so their free kittens are the only ones on craigslist. Kind of, well, there is just a lot of drama on craigslist.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Forgetmenot's Boys



These are the boys of the mother cat, the last cat unfixed at HTN, who I thought I got spayed, mid March, but then had kittens in late April. I couldn't believe it, but mistakes happen in our world, if you've noticed and that's just the way it is.

Maybe these four beautiful boys were supposed to be born. Maybe they'll change the world!

My car battery went dead tonight, while trapping out at Millersburg Country colony. The colony caretaker herself is extremely ill, came down with something suddenly, today around noon, violent vomiting and diarrhea. Wonder if she ate some of those bad tomatos. Her parents, who live up front in the house proper, have severe health issues and her mother had minor surgery today. So I figured I was up shit creek and would either have to spend the night in my car or walk the ten miles back to my place.

But, the teen in the camp trailer, also injured, was home and her car, barely running itself, at least has a great battery. So she got up, despite her recent shoulder injury at work, and jumped my car. I need a new battery, at the least. But the wierd thing is, all the dash lights were on and bright, so I am worried something else more serious may be going on. At least I got home. I didn't catch any cats, however.

Coccidia Fest Continues in Spare Bedroom

The dripping diarrhea continues, in the spare bedroom. Today, I'm taking the metal trundle bed to the metal recycler, to get it out of there, because it's hard to clean. I had to remove and throw out all bedding I had on it, because the sick kittens were climbing up on it and dripping the coccidia laden diarrhea onto the bedding. Coccidia is hard to remove from bedding or even the environment. Have heard the only thing that kills it is ammonia.

The safety of the particle board floor, after they're gone, if these kittens are ever gone, is in doubt, since the particle board isn't sealed. I just painted it with primer, two coats, then floor and deck paint. But with ammonia I am sure I can kill any coccidia left. Steam also kills it.

The floor is bad anyhow, and soaking it in ammonia isn't going to hurt it anymore than constant mopping, which has disintegrated the particle board floor and deck paint I covered it with, in spots, to sawdust. This floor can't be painted, I've determined, and should have been covered with vinyl flooring or fake wood flooring, but that is expensive and time consuming.

Particle board should never be used to create a floor that is mopped. It's stupid. Really stupid, since moisture turns it to sawdust. But there are a lot of stupid building practises out there, unrooted in common sense, used because it's the cheap way.

I have become depressed dealing with this coccidia. Smokes is not thriving and has it the worst, but the others are not improving greatly either. At this point, I do not believe the three younger boys will, in the end, survive, and maybe not the tabby four either. Perhaps I should cut my inevitable losses now, and have all seven euthanized. The Wrecking Yard Mom's three survivors are the healthiest of the ten. It might be better to suffer the devastation of their loss now, rather than watch them die one by one.

Coccidia has a 28 day cycle.

The kittens scatter the clumping litter particles everywhere and I have just a dollar store broom and a mop to combat the daily stinky carnage. I have returned to using wood pellet fuel as litter since it is cleaner and doesn't make such a horrible mess. I wish I had some stainless steel cages of decent size, in which I could confine these kittens and the cleaning then would be far easier. I wish I wish I wish.

Saturday, I'm taking the four HTN kittens and their mother to be fixed in Tigard and I am taking up 8 of the eleven Pine Meadows kittens up also to be fixed. That Pine Meadows woman, who took in three allegedly abandoned females and their litters and also feeds three neutered stray males, tells me this morning she is moving in a month and can't take any of them along. I told her she needs to start advertising them all then, immediately. She seemed to think I'd take care of finding them homes or KATA, who referred her to me, to get the mothers fixed, will. I said, "Well have you talked to KATA about this?" She hasn't, of course. I told her I would not take in any of her cats or kittens and that she needs to start advertising them, especially all six now fixed adults.

It's dismal out there for the cats. Dismal.

Well, I took out the metal trundle bed and took it to the metal recycler. Got $6 for it, more than what I bought it and the other half of it for, at a garage sale. I'm getting rid of the bookcase also, and the little desk I got at one point along a curb somewhere. They are in the way of cleaning. Most of my books, journals and even photo albums were destroyed by the kittens pooping on them. I didn't think that would happen, but it did, so all those things, part of my past lives, are gone now, too. Kind of like having your precious things, photos and journals, things you can't replace, destroyed in a flood or fire. But, it's water under the bridge now and nothing I can do about it.

Oil Drilling

Should we drill for oil off Oregon's coast or off the coast of any state in America?

Why shouldn't we? We're still gulping oil and its products. Why should we use more oil than any other country in the world, and import most of it, to avoid the nasty effects of oil drilling off our own shores?

We should drill here, I think. It's the responsible thing to do, if we are going to continue our energy gulping ways here in America. Deferring any damage to other nations by importing is ridiculous and self-centered as we continue to consume petroleum products.

Out of sight out of mind doesn't work so well with big oil rigs out off say Newport and the occasional windstorm knocking over a drilling rig. If we drill here, maybe we'd be less likely to consume so much, in order to keep the damage and unsightliness of our habits down, although I doubt that.

At least we wouldn't be under the thumbs of middle eastern freakazoids, or fighting wars to control countries so we can keep getting oil from them. It's like we're addicted and we have to kiss the feet or belly crawl up to the oil pushers, to beg for our fixes. It's pathetic. You know, even meth addicts often build their own labs to produce their own noxious substances to avoid the obvious dangers, costs and obstacles of buying it off distant producers.

The only other viable alternative is immediate habit change and innovation. Do you see that happening? I don't. But we are an innovative society and my hopes go with innovation. Would oil drilling kill innovation? I hope not. Innovation kicks into high gear when our backs are against a wall.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Quick Trip to Portland

Yesterday, a dog rescue person, asked me to go with her to Portland today, to pick up broken bag dog food, at a warehouse, in her van. I had said "yes", but then regretted doing so when I didn't get to bed this morning until after 2:00 a.m.. I was out way too late trapping at Millersburg Country.

But I went anyway, after returning the Corvallis male, early, then dropping off three cats at the vet.

However, the van this woman recently bought for a grand, was severely infested with mold, because it leaks and has an old carpet inside. The stench of mold was extremely significant, so much so that I had to hold my shirt over my nose all the way to Portland and back. She needed help loading the bags of food. Turns out, she wouldn't have needed me because another group there, also to pick up broken bag food, had some strong people, who loaded the van for her. We didnt' lift a finger. They were really nice people. Now and then, she also gets cat food, some, not much and this time, none, but the other group gave me some cat food, which was nice.

I was exhausted. The woman suggested stopping by the vet on the way home, to see if the cats were ready, but it was just past noon and I figured they wouldn't be close.

I get home, however, and there was a message from the vet, that they were ready. They had given fluids to the lactating mother and reversed her. I'd asked them to do that, because I had laboriously flushed out and netted, in the people's garage, one of her kittens, to see how old they were. He stayed the night with his mom, in the trap, then I took him out and put him briefly in a cage, in the garage room, with two of the three kittens from the BS back barn, today, while his mom was spayed.

But I took him and his mother back, this afternoon, and turned her loose, which is always a crap shoot. But, her kittens were too young to survive another night without her. She allegedly has four, living under the house. I could only catch one, but had seen another.

I had been told they were older and then I was told they had disappeared altogether. Anyhow, it's always hard out there, in overpopulation land, suffering catland, not knowing if my decisions are the right ones or not.

I took the Millersburg Country male back home, too, and asked that they monitor him after surgery, releasing him in the morning. I took the Heatherdale stray black male to the kind old couple caring for him. They paid for him to have shots and are going to try to find him a home. He is the latest abandonee there.

Then I came home and promptly fell asleep on the couch, waking only now, near 11:00 p.m. I hope to get the mom and four male kittens from HTN fixed this weekend, so the boys can be put up for adoption and the feral mom released, although currently she is also taking care of the third BS back barn kitten, the female I found yesterday. The other two back barn kittens are in my garage room in a tiny little cage, but all I have, currently. The HTN man is going to foster them, once the four boys are fixed and can be out of the rabbit hutch.


Millersburg Country gray tab on white male, fixed today.
Millersburg C&G lactating torti, spayed today.

Long Long Day

I spent today after remnants of colonies, mostly at the BS, wasted a lot of time out there. I didn't return the Corvallis male yet. The woman who had requested help with the kittens at Crystal Lake and the mother, has not returned my call about continued feeding of this male. I'm sure she will feed him, but I need to know that and am surprised she has not called back. Maybe she's out of cell minutes or something. I"m up in the air, over what to do with him now, and kicking myself for ever getting involved in that.

I also went to the Millersburg C&G, to trap that female. They'd called about ten days ago, said another torti had showed, unfixed, and had kittens and they wanted the kittens gone and I'd blown up at them. But I did go out and trap that torti, and netted one of the kittens, to see how old they are. They are about four weeks. I saw only two, one other besides the one in the trap with his mother. He'll go back there tomorrow night, with her, because I don't want the other one or others if there are more than two, spending two nights without her at that age. But for now the colony is contained, until the kittens get bigger, that is.

Then I ended up late at the Millersburg Country colony, and saw four more unfixed cats. I drop trapped one of them and waited until after 11:00 p.m. hoping one of the others would wander under the drop trap for a snack but without that luck. So I only have three cats to take up tomorrow, the female from Millersburg C&G, the male from Millersburg County and another male from Heatherdale. These were hard fought cats to get. Remnants in big colonies always are.

Two of the now fixed Front Street Felines, dozing in today's sun. I stopped by there hoping to drop off a carrier to the woman, so she could put the final unfixed adult, a female with three kittens, in it to be fixed tomorrow. However, she had a swollen eye and said she didn't feel well and couldn't do it.
Front Street Felines Fixed Torti's.Front Street Felines fixed torti, arches her back, as she rises from a nap in the sun.
Checking cats for eartips at the BS. This orange tabby on white has one, thankfully. There are lots of cats out there who look just like this one.
I don't know this gray and white, but I believe it to be a cat already fixed by the colony caretaker. She did not get many of the cats she got fixed eartipped, which can make things "interesting", especially when so many look alike. I will print this photo and show it to her and ask her if this cat is fixed.
I believe this to be the one remaining unfixed female. Again, I'm not sure, because so many look alike and because the colony caretaker got some fixed before I came on the scene, without getting them eartipped.
I stopped by the HTN colony also today. I had a third kitten from the back barn at BS, a little girl, and the HTN man agreed to foster her with Forgetmenot, the longhair black mother, allegedly spayed March 15, who then, mid April, up and had kittens, despite her right eartip. Guess they missed her up in Tigard, where I had taken her to be fixed. Her four boys, including Bootleg, above, are now two months old and two pounds. I am hoping the vet clinic will neuter all four for free, along with spaying their mother, because these are kittens who never should have been born, had everything gone as planned on March 15, when their mother was supposed to have been spayed. They're very cute playful boys! And now they have an adopted sister from the BS.
Mowgli, another of Forgetmenot's boys.
Dynamo, another of Forgetmenot's boys.

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 ...