Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Good Thing

The good thing about being publicly slammed in lies on craiglist is several other posts have appeared saying nice things about me, even thank you's from people I've helped. There's even a post from someone on one of the two streets where I got over 70 cats fixed and a pair of women got another ten or twelve fixed, thanking all of us for bettering their neighbhorhood.

Well, I'm down to one cat to take in today. The pregnant stray a woman feeds didn't show up and she always shows up, the woman said. She is worried the cat was hit on the road.

So I'm down to one cat to take in today, a male.

I have some folks interested in kittens coming this weekend, from Corvallis, so I am excited about that. I still have five kittens here needing homes. All are sooooo ready to go. I think the girls are totally over their ringworm, too. Hard to tell, however. If a kitten has had or has ringworm, or anything else, I'm into full disclosure. I don't want an adoptor to have any surprises.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Remember This Sentence......

I have found lately this sentence to be useful. If someone is yelling at me, in person or over the phone, I can interupt with the magic sentence...."Can you believe the price of cauliflower?"

If they stutter on....I inject further, "No, I mean it. Come on, I mean, a year ago, I could easily afford to buy four or five heads of cauliflower a week, and now...." I shake my head in sadness.

This can also help when I am obsessing on something that has happened, some outrage, that really, in the larger picture, is unimportant. I have to say to myself, or even yell it out loudly in my car while driving, "CAN YOU BELIEVE THE PRICE OF CAULIFLOWER?"

Remember that sentence. It could save your life.

11 Cats Fixed Today

Eleven cats went in to be spayed today! Four went north to Countryside Vet--3 females and one male. Two females came from rural Benton County, while the other adult female and one male are from Albany. The caretaker of HTN colony took them and even picked them up, since I was tied up with the other seven cats, who went to Eugene.

A woman I'd known for awhile from the FCCO clinics, decided a few years back, that it may as well be her, to start a spay/neuter clinic in Eugene. So, she systematically did just that. The clinic opened I believe this January. I told her today I was very proud of her. I told her I remembered those words of hers from years back, when she said she didn't see anyone else stepping forward to create a low cost clinic so it may as well be her. And she did it. The Wag clinic is beautiful and the crew down there today was very fun.

I had been offered five free fixes. I took seven cats. I told Jill, "You know I'd never undercat you!" She laughed and they did all seven. Fortunately the caretaker of five of the kittens fixed, from rural Linn, donated $150 to help out. Because the clinic constantly struggles for funds. So, four girl kittens and one boy kitten, all severely infested with earmites, from rural Linn, were fixed. And two more girl kittens from an Albany complex also went along and were fixed.

In total today, 11 cats were fixed--9 girls, two boys. Four were from Albany, two from Benton County, and 5 from rural Linn County. All even got Revolution and distemper vaccinated! Getting nine more female cats fixed is a huge plus for the cats of this area, that's for sure.

I got home late, and returned the seven kittens, then came home and saw that craigslist rat post. Then it was off to pick up the others, at the HTN man's place and return them. Then, I'd gotten a last minute invite to dinner in North Albany and enjoyed that immensely.

Now I'm home and darn it, have only two cats lined up for tomorrow. I thought I'd get home in time to trap, but didn't. Two is better than none.

Now I'm Being Lied about on Craigslist

I get home from taking seven kittens to get done free in Eugene, to find someone had e-mailed me the following post, about me, posted on Corvallis/Albany craigslist pets. I told you craigslist was full of drama. I quit posting on craigslist, after posts would be flagged within seconds, posts about spay/neuter clinics or fixed cats needing homes. So I just quit the whole craigslist posting thing. I did try a few days ago with a post about a situation another trapper is facing in Oakridge, and she needs barn homes, but it was flagged in less than a day. I haven't even trapped in south Corvallis as this stupid liar alleges for months and those were all those ferals at that duplex, fed by the disabled couple.

I will say this: A woman who used to live in Philomath, then, last I ran into her, which was years ago, at an FCCO clinic held at the Fairgrounds, and had moved to Kiger Island, allegedly went around that area briefly pretending to be me. She also kept a scrapbook of my letters to the editor. I didn't know whether to be disturbed or flattered when she told me.

I hope she's not out there pretending to be me again. My guess is not, that this is a crazy person, or my stalker from Lebanon, or just some hateful mean awful person, a breeder maybe who hates spay/neuter, whom I probably don't even know.

Anyhow, the following post is all lies. I would love to sue this person for liable. I don't get nice press coverage or stories done. I'm tired of getting stomped on. I get the following hateful pile of lies from somebody with issues. Nice to come home to following a hard day of volunteer effort.

Beware of Jody Harmon
Reply to: comm-776192891@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-07-30, 10:34AM

A woman named Jody Harmon is stalking the south area of Corvallis.

She is stealing neighbors pets (most times out of peoples yards) and taking them to a feral cat service to have them nutured/spayed. The Animal Control people know of her very well. She has been causing complaints for a long time. Apparently no one has pressed charges "yet".

After talking to my neighbors, the last time she came through here performing her "public service"
6 of the cats she stole were already nutured/spayed half of those had micro ship implants and nearly none of them made it home again.
Two of those were Prize rare breeds that used to be worth hundreds of dollars.

If she trespasses onto my property and steals my animals I WILL get the police involved and press charges. And if my animal ends up surgically altered I will also sue for damages. (a recommendation from the animal control office)
I recommend you do the same.
This is a loooong way from a private feral cat service.


Location: south corvallis
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Original URL: http://corvallis.craigslist.org/pet/776192891.html

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Thoughts, on Plastic Bag Tax, Bikes and Cars

When I heard Portland may tax residents $.20 per plastic bag they use at stores, I thought, "What a bunch of baloney." I suppose this will include every store, not just target those poor grocery stores. It should be all inclusive, if the creators of such an idea are sincere.

But if they feel the plastic bag is so deadly, why not just ban them?

Why impose a tax, that is costly to retrieve and cumbersome for those who must collect it, i.e. retailers. If plastic bags are evil, ban them.

When a city taxes them, then I begin to wonder. They want money not results from decreased plastic.

Ban them if you have the guts and are not really motivated by that tax money. Have the clothe bags by check out for people to buy if they didn't bring their own. If some nonprofit feels sorry for people who won't buy their own, or claim they're too lazy or stupid to, then fine, they can buy them from the store, and have a nonprofit booth there to hand them out. If you ban them, no more plastic bags in the landfill and the stated intent of keeping them out of the environment is quickly achieved. Stores don't have to deal with the tax crap and can make money selling the clothe bags.

Taxing the plastic bag is ridiculous, causes consumers more angst and is a stupid cumbersome idea. Cut it out, government. If the plastic bag is bad, ban it.

What happened to reason and intelligent debate? Talk about deliberately dumbing down the public, by making choices for them, without debate. Talk about force of government.

If you want to make such a change, banning plastic bags, then debate it intelligently, with facts to support your desired ban and make the intelligence and facts of the case for banning, to the public. Don't assume the public is stupid, because if that assumption is made often enough, the public will tune out and expect the government to rule their lives, for better or for worse.

But don't be daddy knows best government, taking choices away from the citizens of a free country. The citizens should make the choice based on facts and, I believe, they would make the right choice, with unbiased unlittered public debate, such as could take place at places like the Corvallis Open forum.

There could be public debates between teams of common citizens, and a team chosen as winner of the debate, whose facts and arguments are best.

As for bikes sharing the road with motorists, bikes need to obey traffic laws. And they should respect the auto. Even a tiny collision with a car because of weight difference is going to turn out badly for the biker. Also, bikes aren't paying a gas tax, which maintains the roads the bikers are riding. So, a little respect for those autos.

People driving cars know about how long it is going to take them to get to their destination. Sometimes getting to a destination on time is very important. When bikers cluster in front of cars and slow them to a standstill, purposely, they are saying to everyone, "Our agenda is all important. Fuck you." It's a form of dictatorship, fascism, forcing their will, their values, onto everyone else.

Again, we live in a free country. Sure, riding bikes is great exercise and reduces carbon pollution. But, when we cross a line and try to force our lifestyle on others, because we think it is better than theirs, that is the same thing as inflicting force on others, over-riding free choice, taking away freedom, and the slope becomes slippery into fascism.

It is far better to win others over with the intelligence of the argument in favor. Not only is this the peaceful way, but it promotes thought and reason, which is a good thing.

Here is something else I find interesting. The relatively few neighbors of the Country Fair held in Veneta for three days once a year, complain every year, about the noise, traffic, trash and just in general.

The Fair responds by going out of its way to try to get fair visitors to be polite to fair neighbors, even giving neighbors signs for their driveways, that request people to be good neighbors. Yet still the complaints, every year. So why does the news even print neighbor complaints?

I ask this when you compare it to the trashing of neighborhoods, noise, traffic and mayhem created by football games. I know very well the problems, because I lived in the Fred Meyer district, then near the stadium. It was hell every home game, neighborhoods trashed, drunken behavior, noise all night. And you know what, complaints, if any are totally ignored.

So what's the difference? The Country Fair is the the alternative crowd's once yearly rendevous, largely scoffed at by the testosterone driven big moneyed football crowd. In our society, money and testosterone still talk loudest. Testosterone has to be heard by nature of its nature.

I say, Leave the Country Fair alone. Neighbors of the fair, how about you being good neighbors to the fair? It brings lots of money to your area. This is exactly the line given anyone who complains about the vandalism, drinking, drunk driving, littering, noise and drug activity that comes with every football home game.

197 Albany Cats Since April

Since Poppa Inc. received the grant from the City of Albany, to help get Albany cats fixed, I've rounded up and taken in 197 Albany cats to be fixed. These all have to be within Albany city limits. The cost has been, to fix the 197 cats, many of whom have been pregnant or in heat females, which ups the cost, $6437.

In other words, there's not much left of the grant money.

Tomorrow, one Albany female and five rural Linn cats, will get fixed for free, in Eugene, at the Wag clinic, partially in exchange for "a mission" although I have not been told what this entails yet. Six more cats, three from rural Benton, and three more from Albany, will be fixed in Jefferson and hopefully I will find a transporter.

It is nice the City of Albany kicked in the funds. Poppa Inc. has been spending close to $20,000 a year and sometimes considerably more, subsidizing the fixes of Linn County cats. That's a lot of mula, to be sure, gifted to Linn County residents through the hard work of a handful of volunteers, working at Recycled Gardens. Now that Recycled Gardens has closed, Poppa, if it is to continue, must find money elsewhere.

Think of all the money and hard work that could have been saved, had people just fixed their own cats to begin with. Well, when that doesn't happen, at least there are good people out there working their butts off to find ways to take up their slack.

Guess Who Went Swimming!

Me, that's who! I dropped off Blueberry at the home where her mother is confined, for now, with the four just fixed girl kittens of the deceased stray mom. The farmer was concerned that she was still scared and the kittens still hiss at her sometimes. Blueberry was just what she needed. She was very happy to see her and Blueberry was happy to see mom. Now Betty, the mom, will have somebody she knows and will feel better. She felt better seeing me again, too. I could see it in her eyes, although when she was here, she mostly hissed at me, if I even looked at her.

We have a connection, however, and I love her very much.

After dropping off Blueberry, I headed to Lebanon. A woman had called. She had trapped a feral mother, after trapping her five six week old kittens, all boys, then the cat got away from her, twice, when she was attempting to transfer her out of the trap in her shed. So she'd been in her shed, living in the space in the rafter overhang, inside, where it was blazing hot. She wasn't eating and was scared to death, had even pooped all over herself when the woman tried again to catch her. This had been going on for a week.

I netted her in less than five minutes and set her up in a rabbit hutch for the woman. She has an appointment to get her spayed Wednesday and hopes to get the kittens done through the county cat grant and KATA.

After that, I began stopping at every market and gas station, looking for bulletin boards to put up Neuterscooter clinic fliers. I ended up at McKercher Park, had shorts in the car, and so into the water I went.

I adore that swimming hole, although it gets a little tepid late in the season. There are shoots down between smooth rocks of fast water, waterfalls you can stand under, even duck behind. I love standing in the waist deep water against the rocks at the biggest waterfall, and we're talking only three feet of water falling. But the force of the water is very strong and it feels like a massage. I also worked my way up beside an even stronger lower fall, and laid on my back, holding onto rocks with my hands, so as not to be swept away from the gushing water, and let the forceful water act like an extreme jacuzzi. Woohoo I love that.

There's one high rock to jump off of, into the main swimming hole, still deep enough to do so safely. It's about ten or twelve feet down to the water I suppose. That swimming hole on the Calapoia gets low by mid August, so low it often gets closed due to blooms of algae or fecal contamination from houses and livestock upstream.

I went swimming in Brownsville proper in the Calapoia once, during Pioneer days. I was horrified to see the horse people from the Pioneer Days horse event crowd, ride down and into the stream right amidst the swimmers, allowing their horses to poop and urinate right amidst people into the river. I thought it dumbshit hick rude.

Well, at least I can say I got to swim once at least this summer. People told me Foster Reservoir is pretty much closed up, due to the corp lowering the levels to check a problem with the spillway gates. I haven't heard if they found a problem or what it is if they did. People up that way are bummed about it, especially with the big country music festival this weekend arriving in town, the Jamboree. But, not much you can do about it.

I have 12 cats lined up for Wednesday--six for the free Eugene fixes offered me and six for Countryside, although I need to find a transporter. I am counting on doing that, because otherwise, well, I'm up shit creek.

The six free fixes come with sort of a price. The Wag clinic manager says to be prepared, that she will be sending me on a mission. I'm pretty sure that means trapping some untrappable cat.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Blueberry will Join Her Mother

Betty, Wrecking yard mom, in containment at her new home.
Betty in the background while one of the four girls, fixed Friday, who live at that location, bottle fed since tiny, noses into the photo in the foreground.
Another of the four girls fixed Friday, who now share their space with Wrecking yard mom, Betty.
Another of the girls fixed Friday. All four kittens, born to the deceased stray, were girls.
And another of the four female kittens, fixed last Friday, who now share the containment cage with Wrecking Yard BEtty, in hope they'll bond. They will get some help today, when Blueberry, Wrecking Yard Betty's own girl, will join the mix. Blueberry was also fixed last Friday.


Since Betty is having a hard time adjusting at her new place, not bonding with the kittens, who have known only a human mother, the farmer's wife, who bottle fed them, Blueberry is going to go join her there. The farmer's wife said, "What's one more?" I said "I love you guys."

It's a great place for the cats. This will make mom feel better. Blueberry will bond with the four other girl kittens, which will help them bond with mom. And besides, I am not getting any calls from people wanting to adopt kittens. I have six here, ready to go. So Blueberry leaving to be with mom is just fine, for her, for her mother, and for me.

I had an offer of five free fixes in Eugene Wednesday and already have six kittens ready to fill the five spots. Maybe I can squish two into one, or maybe two will look enough alike, so that when questioned about bringing six, I can bop myself on the forehead and say, "Oh my god, I thought I just had five. They all look alike, you know."

I have three lined up also for Wednesday at Countryside and maybe four, if the rural Linn lady catches her stray this time around, which I hope they do. I hear from them the three Shedd boys are doing fine there. Their sister Sashi Silver, is still here, having a grand old time, but irritating all the older cats. They've been pissed off since I let Wily and Cajun out of the bathroom and Rocket, Pokey, Sashi and Blueberry out of the bedroom.

I thought they'd be happy to get their treasured spaces back, but their happiness is mixed with digust that they must share their air with exuberant kittens. Electra, whose tail twitches constantly, is an unfortunate target. The kittens cannot resist that tail of hers. I try to bury her moving tail beneath the covers, so they won't attack it at night, but they still see it move and leap for it. It's something a kitten could never resist, like candy on the counter for a kid.

So Electra, who doesn't mind kittens really, despite being an old lady, gets slightly irritible. But, contrary to her age, days, she is fascinated by their antics and cuts loose all of a sudden to charge around playing with them. Miss Daisy is the bitch of late, very angry about the kittens and this is not like her.

I still hope her mood change is due to hairballs and not something worse, but I got a whiff of her breath last night and it was foul. This can be a bad tooth, or stomach problems or other issues. I hope to get her into the vet tomorrow.

Below are grass seed harvest photos I took when returning the kittens once fixed to their rural Linn home.Just burned fields in rural Linn. Field burning is very controversial in the valley, due to the health problems it causes some residents. Others claim if crops were rotated, instead of grown in monoculture, exclusively for grass seed, burning fields would not be necessary because the soil would be far healthier. Farmers argue burning the stubble left after seed harvest is the most economical efficient way to kill off insects and molds etc.

Field burning was halted during the Olympic trials in Eugene, as a health hazard to athletes, who complained anyhow, about the severe allergins in mid valley air. It is true. Growing grass seed in this valley produces astronomical amounts of pollen in levels that drive many running from the area. But to protect the health of athletes and ignore the health of born and raised Oregonians, this riled many people. Field burning continues, fouling the summer air, but it also continues to be a hot topic of debate.


After the winrowers and columbines go through the fields, what is left? Devastation--dead and maimed animals and birds by the score! Here vultures pick at remains.

Miss Daisy

Miss Daisy has never breathed easily. Ever since I picked her up out at that seed warehouse, after she was dumped along the road in extreme heat, deaf, sick and pregnant, she has had rough breathing issues. I've taken in her in several times over this. She has a flattened nose. Not from the abuse she likely endured from some lousy human being who tossed her like trash out on that searing country road. Heredity is to blame for flat nose. This causes her some of the issues.

Miss Daisy is deaf and sometimes loud, because she cannot hear to regulate her tone. Lately however, she's sounded raspy and hoarse. In times past, this has been due to stomach acid, most likely, the result of backed up hairballs and pressure on her gut.

I am worried this time it could be a different cause. She opens her mouth wide sometimes, like her jaw is hurting her. Sometimes it seems to lock open when she opens it so widely, just briefly. She is and always has been defensive of her mouth. I can't get a good look in. She's always been extremely difficult also with trimming her nails. I have to catch her drowsy, very drowsy and quickly trim two or three before she wakes to see what I'm up to.

She has what I term, a tight neck response to medicating. She tightens the skin on the back of her neck so that she cannot be held by the scruff to aid in getting medicine down her. She goes into backup mode to escape, which can throw me, too, arching her neck and back while doing snakelike backing and flipping manuevers. It is artful and effective.

I dread taking her to the vet. She's been to the vet a lot in her relatively short life. She was sick when that farmer found her, miraculously, in the the ditch out on that country road in 100 degree heat. She was hungry and very very thirsty. Her paw pads were burned from walking the scorching pavement. She still has nightmares about her life before me. Must have been a horror.

Here, she has been only a joy. She will charge around literally screaming in happiness. When she used to see my car pull into the driveway, at the shack in Corvallis, I could see her dancing around through the window, on the cat runs I'd made for the cats there, mouth moving in screams of delight that I was home.

Miss Daisy has always been an optimist, unapologetic about her love of life and everyone in it. She, too, is unapologetic about doing what she wants, sleeping when she wants and enjoying the luxery of naps to the fullest, without guilt. She loves racing around the house at full speed, chasing things, planting herself across my face or head nights, to utilize my body heat for her enjoyment, and entertaining visitors with her happy super friendly attitude.

She's been sleeping more lately, maybe she's lost some weight, too. Her problems still could be hairball caused. I hope they are. But she's going to the vet this week.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Iowa Kosher Meat Factory Raid

I just saw some coverage of this immigration raid. The town says it lost a third or more of its residents. To replace the workers, the factory even tried busing in homeless people from Texas. The thing is, the reports from inside this plant depict it as filthy, in major violation of many many standards and laws.

The raid does little to rally people against illegal immigrant work, but it does certainly paint a sordid picture of exploitive dirty American plant owners, exploiting voiceless labor to the fullest. This would be the norm in America without labor laws. This is why such business owners drool in lust over illegal immigrant labor.

They can't exploit American labor forces, well, maybe they can the homeless, so they hire illegals because these plant owners are criminal pigs themselves, looking for a labor force they can exploit.

Sexual harrassment and exploitation, wage violations and child labor law violations are just some of the allegations against the owners of this Kosher meat plant. A pastor was describing frequent trips he took with children from there to the doctor, who had cuts. There is a child missing three fingers, another missing a hand.

I would hope the owners of this plant go to jail and do some major time, for being ruthless and evil. Not to mention endangering public health if this plant is indeed as filthy as described.

I suppose this does make a case for keeping out illegal workers. We Americans are just not morally sound enough not to exploit them, in my opinion. For their safety, they should seek other borders to cross to reach their dreams. Or better yet, create a land of opportunity and honesty out of their homeland. Of course, their homeland is corrupt also and run by drug gangs and complicit politicians and police. Boy. Aren't Kosher meat plants usually owned by Fundamentalist Jews? I thought those folks were so religious. For gosh sakes.

Cabin Fever

I feel like I am dying, suffocating, from confinement, here in Albany. It's like being in a cage I can't escape from.

I am a nature girl, from birth. I do very poorly in places such as this, confined in concrete, nowhere to get away.

I love to swim. It's second nature to me. And yet I can't find anywhere to do that. I used to go at least two or three times a year to Foster Reservoir and swim in the 5 mph arm, although that was difficult, due to the high boat and jet ski traffic. And yet it was something.

This year, the water level has been lowered due to problems with the dam spillway gates, so I doubt it's much for swimming right now. I haven't been up there in ages. It's a long drive and I don't want to waste that kind of gas, if it isn't swimming accessible.

So I don't know what to do or where to go anymore and I'm going crazy confined here. It has been building and building, the loneliness combined with isolation from nature. Until I'm about to break. I can't find anything online. I am very frustrated.

I am looking for a swimmable lake or swimming hole. I know there are swimming holes in places above Green Peter, but I don't like going to that remote area alone. I know about the parties and drug stuff that goes on up there. If I could find someone to go with me, that'd be wonderful, but I don't go that stretch alone.

Other than that, I don't know where to go.

If anyone does, please let me know. I am looking for a swimmable lake or river or swimming hole. I can't travel too far, because of gas prices.

I know, I have to get out of Albany. I sit inside day in and day out. The only people I encounter are those I encounter out helping cats, and its' often not very pleasant encounters or very stressful at the least. I get no exercise, nothing anymore. I've been in extreme doldrums of late due to these factors. There must be places nearby, that one can get away from it all, to swim. I'm going nuts.

The embedded playlist, having trouble

Who is tech smart out there? I thought I had the embedded playlist off my youtube account for the rescued cats here needing homes, nice and firm in my template for this blog at the top. Was there awhile, then suddenly reduced to showing only the most recently added video on the playlist. So I tried to reinstall, and now it doesn't fit and boy I don't know anything about doing this.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

New Video of Cajun and Wily!

Teacher Pay Intiative

There will be an Oregon ballot measure on the November ballot that ties teacher pay to student performance. I have mixed emotions about this. I suppose I would be far more willing to support such a measure if parents were equally held to task---increased taxes or fines for parents whose students do poorly in school.

Do the people of Oregon know how many parents out there do not really behave as parents at all? Why should teachers face the consequences of dealing with kids, who have had no parenting, who lack self-discipline or any form of consequence for not studying, at home. This also gives lousy parents fingers to point away from themselves, martars for their own bad behavior.

So, I guess I would support such an initiative if it also included consequences for parents of children who do not come to school prepared to learn or who get no help at home, of any sort.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Betty is Gone

Betty, formerly known as wrecking yard mom, is gone. She went to her new barn home, with the horse people who have four female kittens the same age as her own kittens. They were spayed today as was Blueberry, Betty's last kitten here without a home.

It was hard to take her out there. I have respect for her. She was scared. It's a good setup, the best I could hope for, for her, especially with four girl kittens, like she had. She'll be well cared for, has a lot of places to roam, food, and she's set up in a great large containment area for a couple weeks.

Still, I suppose my exhaustion was hitting me, and I could do nothing but sob, driving home. I drove past the warehouse on the corner there on Seven Mile, the former Koos warehouse, and I know when he sold that the new owner likely killed the cats left there. So I hate driving by it. I want to avert my eyes, close them, look away, yell, something. I spent two years out there getting over 200 cats fixed and rehomed probably over 150. I never got paid anything for all that labor and all those fixes. Then, the farmer, in deep financial shit, from ill managed farming and money, sold it. There were still 30 cats out there. And when I go by, I don't see even one. So I try never to go by there, because I want to look over, then the sadness overtakes me, the despair.

Where are all the good people?

UPDATE on homemade hydrogen extraction from water: All sorts of people have told me now this is a scam, that hydrogen cannot be extracted that easily from water, etc. etc. I'd like to see the newspaper, that reported it, engage in an experiment of making and installing one on a car that they have carefully checked prior mileage on, then reporting on the results after adding one of these systems.

Update on Kitten with Throat Torn Out

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Where is Buster now? Buster was the young teen I trapped late last fall, who had that horrible injury to hs throat. Well, he and his sister did go home with the kind seed warehouse man and his wife. They took him to their vet and Buster slowly healed from his throat wound. He faced another challenge however, when he was diagnosed with a heart murmur.

At the advice of their vet, the couple took him to a cardiologist at the OSU vet school, who said he had not one, but two holes in his heart. The doctor recommended open heart surgery, but had never done such a surgery before. He said without the surgery, Buster's heart would enlarge and he would live only a couple of months.

Well, the couple opted against the surgery. Now months later, Buster is still doing just fine and a recent X-ray of his heart showed no enlargement at all. This is one poignant tale that still brings tears to my eyes to think about it.

I remember how the man even called workers, when gone for Thanksgiving last year, just before I trapped Buster, to make sure someone was feeding him at the warehouse. This is a man who used to hate cats.

I trapped him right after that and when I lifted the cage cover to look at the teenager, I saw the horrendous injury to his throat and recoiled. I didn't think he would live. But he did and look at Buster now.Buster healing.




Switched to Mozilla Firefox and Homemade Hydrogen To Increase Car Mileage

I made the switch. It's so much faster and easier than IE. I love it. Love the shortcuts and opening multiple tabs. Should have switched long ago.

Well, bad news in Eugene with the chip plant closing and 1100 good paying jobs down the drain. Very sad. Well, the governor talked about creating green stuff to sell in the state. Not really sure what that meant. Personal wind generators would be my choice, ones you that you could stick the little windmill part down below the license plate to spin, with the 12V battery just inside the backhatch of the car, that would be charged with the PWM (personal wind machine).

To use 12V batteries, you have to convert appliances to 12V or the other way around. How do you do that? I need to figure these things out to survive in THE NEW WORLD ORDER.

Hey, I had this thought once. If things get really bad, for heat, people around the world have used dried cow or buffalo dung, to burn as fuel. How about dried people poop? I could certainly look at the poop in the litterboxes in a different manner.

There have been reports in the local paper about some local people increasing the mileage on their deisel and now gas powered vehicles using hydrogen created with baking soda and water and an electric current. Allegedly the latest guys' gas powered truck, formerly got 15 mph, now gets 30. People say this isn'tso/can't work, but does it? Anyone out there know, because it also said he converted to this for about $80 and if it works, I want to create it for my car.

Well, anyhow, I should look that up or contact the guy somehow. There are people already calling it snake oil and scam. But who wouldn't want to know if this really works? I want to know.

If his truck doubled its mileage, I already get over 30 in the Scion. Could I get 60? Boy, woohoo for that! I'd hate to ruin the engine though in vain attempts. That'd be bad. Click the post title to go to a blog review of the jar system, for producing hyrdrogen from water. Baking soda is simply a catalist. Apparently you immerse a steel coil into the water connected to electricty through your ignition, so the only reaction that takes place is during ignition. You use a vacuum tube from the jar, filled with distilled water and pure baking soda, and the coil, to your air intake manifold. You have to punch in that for the tube.

But, carry a fire extinguisher. Hydrogen gas is flammable. With this method, you are not carrying hydrogen in a pressurized tank, however. You can purchase the How to manuel at the blog you go to when you click post title. I'm into this and will likely try it.

Click here to go to another site that reviews simple water to fuel systems/manuels offered out there for: ease of installation, fuel efficiency, and economy.

If this really works, why aren't we burning hydrogen in furnaces for heat and cooking instead of Natural Gas, especially in light of recent announcements from the natural gas companies that rates will be hiked 28% or more. I think water is a relatively cheaper alternative. Also, much cleaner.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

8 Kittens

8 kittens will be fixed tomorrow. Four girls from rural Linn. Three boys from Albany. And Blueberry here, from Wrecking Yard mom, who also will go home with the rural Linn four girls, and hopefully take over as their mom, and live there, with them. I am conflicted seeing her go. I admire her, love her, even though all she does is hiss at me, from the window ledge in the spare bedroom.

Aces went to his home yesterday. I wish him well. Of 14 kittens I once had, now there are six still in need of homes. Four girls, two boys. The ringworm outbreak never really broke out beyond a couple small patches on a couple of the kittens. Maybe it's the antifungal baths or meds, but nothing major has become of it.

I kind of enjoyed viewing the work of a different species of fungi. The normal species I see is the one that floresces green under blacklight. This one doesn't. What I noticed, was this species turns the skin dark, from scabbing maybe, but nonetheless, showed first as a dark spot, almost black. And, instead of the regular hair around a cats eyes and ears and chin the usual ringworm species goes for, (technically, the dead skin and dead hair cells at the follicle base) and of course on the paws, this species prefers the base cells of the strong large diameter, by comparison whisker and guard hairs. Yeah. Interesting. This species does not spread as quickly nor as easily either.

Well anyhow. Aces is gone. Betty, the wrecking yard mom, is leaving tomorrow or Saturday. And I still have six kittens who need homes. All will be fixed as of tomorrow, when Blueberry gets spayed.

One of the three boy kittens from Albany was thought to be a girl. I was flea treating them here tonight, and checking sex for sure, and looked at him and thought, "What the????"

It's a boy all right but neither testicle has descended and these kittens are real close to four months. Double crypt, I wonder. It will be interesting to see what the vet has to say about that. And what it will cost to find those testicles. He has slight penile bleeding too, which is not a good sign, so I wonder where those lost testicles are stuck.

Vision's Artsy 'Do

Isn't Vision's new hairdo beautiful? Don't you love the tuft left on the end of her tail? I do.



These three cats, in photos below, all from Albany, were fixed today:
DMH gray and white female, preg at spay, whose owner was threatening to dump her out along a road somewhere.
Another female, from the Albany complex, spayed today.
Two to three job woman's orange male, neutered today. His brother was fixed yesterday.

A Trap Too Small

These are all photos of Vision, my own cat, the last of the river cats, up today at the vet getting a haircut and a check up.



After dropping off three more Albany cats at the vet today, to be fixed, I stopped by the street off Queen I've been working on, to return a woman's carrier. I spotted the long hair white male I'd been told about, and he looked hungry. I had only a very small trap along and didn't think he'd fit in it. But I set it and tried. It snapped down on his haunches, when it sprung and he vamoosed out and gone. A trap too small.

I then when in through the closed chain link fence, to try to talk to the woman whose four adult females I've taken in. She has that ten year old female, who just gave birth to three more and she has three 8 week old sick kittens. There was no food to be seen and they were all hungry. I went back to my car and got food and put a lot in their bowls. Two of the adults immediately broke out into loud purrs. She did not answer my knocks, so I left.

There are two houses within two blocks with unfixed cats. The one is the man who became angry at me for even suggesting I could get the kittens fixed too. And one block up, many cats lay in the yard beside another residence. I left a note and my card, but have received no response.

I was also called by a woman who had found a tiny kitten. I couldn't take in the kitten, but she told me about her neighbors, an older couple feeding strays who also have unfixed house pets. This is not far from the Front Street Felines location either, another area over run in unfixed cats. So she gave them my number, but they never called, so I called them and left a message but they never returned my call.

A Lebanon woman had called yesterday. She is an animal lover, that's for sure, and was very worried about a cat in Albany, unfixed, whose owners declared if she wasn't fixed they would dump her in the country.

So, she called them up, after calling me, to get permission to go inside their Albany house and get the female. They were, for some reason, in Eugene, but they gave her permission and the cat is being fixed. She also told me about a female roaming a complex in Lebanon who has had a lot of litters and a friend of hers, who hates cats, wants to kill her, but not if she's fixed. She failed at catching her yesterday, but she tried and will try again.

The second orange brother from the two-to-three job woman was in their house when I returned the first orange male and the little teen torti last night, after they were spayed. So, she lured him into a carrier and he's being fixed.

Then, the folks at the Albany complex, where the disabled dialysis woman cares for the abandonees there, rounded up yet another unfixed female. This is the third from that complex.

I also took in one of my own cats today--Old Vision, who needs a haircut. She is so overgrown and lately, twice now, has taken to urinating and defecating in a cat food bowl. Yes, it is a new smellier type of food someone gave me, Eukanaba or something, that seems to make some cats want to use it for a litterbox. It's all gone now. Most of my cats loved the food, but some, for some unknown reason, wanted to poop on it.

Vision will be shaved. Her mouth will be checked. Her rabies shot updated and her abdomen palpitated for any tumors. Her claws will be trimmed, too and her ears cleaned. Vision is a very old river cat from Corvallis, the daughter of Captain Courageous and only surviving member of my river cat family.

I first trapped Vision for spay down below Mater Engineering back in 97 or 98. I returned her to the river but when the river project happened, and so many cats were dying as a result, I determined to retrap her and save her. She would play nights on their bulldozers. I finally "rented" a live mouse from Petco to get the job done, securing the mouse in a wire cage behind the trap. Using this tactic, I retrapped her in five minutes.

I then returned the mouse to Petco for a full refund. I told them I was dissatisfied with the mouse, that he wasn't the mouse I'd thought he was. They happily, but with sly looks and rolling eyes, refunded my money.

Poor little guy. Probably was bought as snake food later.

Vision then went to a self-proclaimed rescuer in St. Helens. Her brother lived behind me. She had taken in many ferals for high level FCCO volunteers in the Portland area, so she came highly recommended. Her brother took Vision up. She promised to keep Vision in a large 12x16 foot cage on her porch, until I could come for her. I had just moved into a duplex in Corvallis, after living homeless. My neck was failing from the psyche ward beating. But, I later learned, instead of keeping her in the porch habitat, she released her immediately into her large feral area.

For a year then, I went to St. Helens once a month to clean for that woman and to try to find and catch Vision. She was no legitimate rescuer. She was a hoarder and I could not believe those FCCO volunteer people would place ferals there. There was not a place you could step on her one acre of fenced property that was not feces piled and not just the volume of feces, it was all filled with worms. Vile. HOrrible. I could not believe I had made such a mistake. I had gone on the word of others.

She had a feral containment area, of low wire, and various bed houses, all hooked to a filthy old trailer. You had to stoop to be inside it and every litterbox was overloaded in cat poop and cat poop all over the ground, alive with roundworms, and even inside the filthy housing boxes. I could not find Vision in that large acreage for an entire year of travelling up once a month to clean her filthy yard and trailer. she had 14 or so big dogs too. She could not stop taking in more. She would pull out a shoebox filled with pot when I'd be there and begin smoking pot, which is one reason she never got anything done on the weekends.

I began talking to a former Navy three star colonel about it, who had begun helping animals once he retired and had worked as a cruelty investigator for a few years before he began to trap cats for spay/neuter. We were set to turn her in. But he confided the plans to an FCCO volunteer, one of the big ones, he trusted in Portland. When he told me that, I freaked, because I knew she would not hold her tongue. I rushed to St. Helens, to try one last time to find Vision. While I was out in the filth with my net, the woman came out on her trailer porch screaming at me. She'd just gotten the call from the rat-me-outter, who told her I was turning her in as a hoarder, and ordered me off her property. At that moment I caught a glimpse of Vision out of the corner of my eye, was able to turn and net her. Within two minutes, I had her and we were driving away. I looked back, at the other cats there, and felt extremely sad that I had no place I could take them.

The support by some FCCO high up Portland volunteers of a hoarder whose animals were kept in filthy conditions astonished me. What were they thinking?

She said they would use emotional stuff that she couldn't resist about ferals needing homes so she would take them. I don't know if that happened or not. They would promise to help her clean up and stuff, but never would, she said. I said "Why don't you just say 'no'?" She said because she knew they'd be killed otherwise, and the feelings of the volunteers who placed cats there, I guess, was that they were better off in filth than dead.

I beg to differ. If you're going to place cats with someone with that many, you have to check it out, and help maintain the rescue, at least until you move them somewhere else.

Anyhow, she was a very kind woman, but a woman who couldn't even see the filth, thought it was normal to live that way.

I brought Vision home. It had taken me a year to get her back. Vision is an old cat now. She adored my Moby whom we lost here a few months ago, whom we all still badly miss. She's funny, and still very feral. She's my baby. She's also got very very long hair which mats after time, and I can't give her a shave by myself. So she's going under today and will be checked out too while they're at it and oh how I hope she's not going to have lumps or something.

I've lost so many this year. My dear Hopi and Moby. River cat Scully, whom I loved so, too. And Old Butterscotch. We lost Bart and some kittens. It's just been tough the last few months on everybody here. I know how Electra, Hopi's best friend, is still having a tough time without Hopi, as I am.

Miss Daisy and Vision miss Moby grandly, as do Brambles, Shady and Mooki. Mobi was my official greeter for the fosters. He just loved every kitten and cat I brought in, even for overnight. He loved other cats so much. Moby went easily, washed in the dementia of electrolyte imbalance brought on by kidney failure.

Hopi's death was horrible. She was filled with cancer. The regrets are large in my mind, at night sometimes, with Hopi, wishing so much my beloved Hopi was still with me, that I'd been there with her when she died. She had exploratory surgery that day. The X-ray showed nothing, but the vet felt a lump.

When I got the call that the tumor involved many organs, including her large and small intestine, her kidneys and liver, and because I knew she was so frightened of everything, and of the unknown, I didn't want her to have to wake up and be scared anymore, so I told them to give her the injection and I had no time to get up there. I regret that. I should have been with her. It makes me cry still.

I know Vision's time left is short, due to her age. I know Electra won't be with me much longer either. Dex, too, is an older cat now.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

All the Houses are For Sale

If I were rich, I'd buy most of Albany. Sometimes it seems most of Albany is up for sale. The houses, that is. So many with For Sale signs. Every block almost. The house behind me was for sale and two across the street from that one. Just so many
For Sale signs.

A rich person could buy them all and create the sort of town they wanted. If I had loads of money and bought all the For Sale houses, I'd give them to everyone I know who is very much struggling to survive, so they wouldn't have to worry about that anymore. It'd be like Christmas, handing out houses and with that would come freedom from all that worry and pressure for those people, those families. Weights lifted from shoulders. Like that two and three job woman.

Like the two women in Las Vegas losing the mortgage battle. I've never met them, but they sent me a Christmas present and they love animals, after one of them began periodically reading my blog. I met them online, you see, and they have encouraged me when I am down and out and sent me the printer I still use and I can't stand thinking now that they are falling down.

I wish I could figure out a way to pay off their mortgage. Maybe get them on Good Morning America? Oprah? But how? They both lost their jobs. Their interest rate went skyhigh and they have both been in severe depression, worried about losing their animals and a home to live in. Both have severe health issues, too. I should be able to figure out how to save them. I thought about starting a Paypal account specifically to help pay off their mortgage and somehow engage the country in saving them. But how to get such interest. And how to do that legally, with the IRS and all. I can't just turn my back on them. I'd like to let them live here. I could live anywhere, really. In a car. In a hut. In a tent. In a shack. Under a rock. In a cave. I have lots of practise. If you have friends, where you live isn't that huge of a deal, if you can stay dry and warm, that is. And safe.

I don't have a lot of money, but this house is very very nice. I complain too much. I complain because I'm lonely. It is the root of all my complaining. Lonliness. But as far as everything else, I am extremely blessed.

Every block in Albany mirrors their struggles. So many houses on the chop block. And faces back there, behind the closing curtains, and eyes and souls. I wish I wish I wish.....

I've wished for a roommate or two, but I've been alone all my life and am very eccentric by now. I don't think anyone could put up with me. The cats do. Maybe they think I am a little odd, but that's ok by them, as long as they can sleep with me, play with me and be fed on time.

People say cats are so aloof, and yet, if they are so aloof, why do they love me so much, a person whom people stay clear of? I would have to say people are far more aloof than cats. I would have to say cats are far more Christian, also. Until a mouse appears. I say they are far more tolerant and nondiscriminatory than any liberal. But they don't back down from a fight either, and if they could own guns, they certainly would.

Well, I've strayed. It's very hard for me to think of the plight of the families and people out there. I heard the railings today against the government bail out of Frannie and Freddie by Congresspeople and Senators. One of them pounded his fist and said "If I pay my mortgage faithfully, I don't want to pay for the mortgage of a neighbor who didn't plan well and the responsible Americans, why should they have to pay for the mistakes of their neighbors?"

Well, I wish I could bail them all out, Senator, all my neighbors, anyone. I wish I could. I am brother's keeper after all. I'm not very good at it, I know, but I would never turn my back on a suffering neighbor without giving them whatever I have. I know what you're saying. That's probably one reason why I have no money in my pocket to even offer up. You'd be right on that one.

Five Cats Being Fixed Today and Front Street Felines Caretaker Tells me to Go to Hell

I took up five cats today, for fixing, three females and two males. One male and two females hail from Albany, while one female comes from rural Linn County and the other male is from Corvallis. Afterwards, I stopped by the Front Street Felines colony, hoping this time she'd hand over the one unfixed female and maybe even the four kittens, now ten weeks of age.

No such luck. She told me to go to hell, that they were done getting cats fixed, that nature would fix them for them because the black adult female hasn't gone into heat and she should have. So nature is going to help them now, she said, not me.

I had suspicions about the adult black female the first day I saw her, atop one of two junked cars, filled with junk, in the driveway. She had a right eartip, cut straight and clean across. I asked them who took her in for them. They claimed her ear got cut like that when one of the big males bit it off in a fight over him wanting sex with her. But the cut was so clean and straight. For proof they said she had kittens. Three of them. Two black males and a Snowshoe Siamese female.

I let it go and got the other ten or eleven adults fixed. I have been over there and over there, to get that last female. They claim they'll have her, then when I go to pick her up, they'll say they let her out, but they never call to tell me and I've wasted a great deal of time on this.

Today, the decree that nature will help them and also, that I go to hell. I looked at those kittens in sadness. They are flea and worm ridden. One of the black male kittens is badly hurt, can barely walk and she poohooed his injury as nothing. The orange male kitten has a closed over eye and she poohooed that, too, saying it's from birth, but I could see the drainage and pus. I walked away without another word to the woman. What could I say? I can't steal those kittens and I am not psychic to know if that female, with the cut off right eartip, is spayed or not.

Three houses down, I got about ten cats fixed, including, I think a black female and I did get those cats eartipped. Those folks claim this cat can't be their cat down there, but of course it could be. Of course, in the last three months time, someone else could have grabbed her and taken her in to be fixed, after just giving birth. I'll look up the dates, when I first started on that bunch of cats, when I got the black female three houses down fixed, and if it is possible that is the same cat, due to the age of the kittens.

It is also possible those aren't even her kittens.

The neighbor beside that house sometimes is angry about all the cats his neighbor has, and sometimes comes down on me for trying to get them fixed, like it's stupid or useless, so I don't know where they really stand. Today he was more like "it's always been this way, with them having too many cats and always will be that way." I said, "I had hoped I could solve it for them, for the cats and for the neighborhood."

So I just came home. I am disappointed. There will be more reproduction if any of those kittens survive. Anyhow, I'll see if I can figure out if that is the cat I took in from down the block to be fixed, and if not, if it might have been another cat fixer or neighbor who might have taken the cat in to be fixed somewhere.

I checked my records and the black female from a few houses down was in heat at spay, on February 29. Unless she was not actually spayed, but eartipped, that's not her. I began there mid May. So, since I saw the cat's eartip then, the most likely time of her spay would have been the early May Philomath FCCO clinic. She would just given birth. This narrows the search for answers down.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Door to Door Salesman?

This guy came to my door and was insistent I open the door. I couldn't really hear what he was saying through the closed door. He pointed to some id hanging from a lanyard around his neck, like that gave him legitimacy, but I saw nothing on it but his photo and one word, which seemed really weird. I told him to move on, that I wasn't interested in buying anything.

I snapped this photo of him for kicks at a neighbors down the street. But then I looked at it. His left hand is by something that looks like a cord going up his back. Doesn't it look like a cord? He carried what looked like a cell phone or blackberry and what looked like a small laptop. He was writing in the blackberry or texting as he was wanting to come in to my place, which made me very nervous.

Right there, above the water bottle cap below his hand. What is that?He appears to be fidgeting with it, with that left hand, or adjusting it. It's not suspenders because he's wearing a belt, and the cord droops below his beltline. Shadow? Photo distortion? Or???

Three females fixed yesterday and Fetus Loving Kitten Killers

I wish I could have taken in more yesterday but had some folks bail out. One female is a stray on the same street as the alleged collector who isn't a collector. She's been a stray since kittenhood, and is fairly tame. She was pregnant again. Her three kittens from the last litter will be fixed Friday.

Another female comes from contacting someone giving away free kittens, unfixed of course, gone by the time I called her. She has two unfixed females but wouldn't let me take the second because her husband thinks she might be pregnant and doesn't believe in abortion.

I again laboriously explained to her how at this point, you are choosing between not killing fetuses or not killing live kittens, because if you let a cat have even more kittens, when there are not enough homes, the result is, like it or not, dumped and dead kittens and adult cats result.

But see, this is sight unseen to so many people, that they can happily live in their fantasy religious self-r;ighteous hands off bubble world, if they can give away the kittens born to their own mothers. "Not our problem anymore. We're not affected now!"

I explained to her also, that giving away the kittens unfixed means other kittens won't get homes and it also means feline overpopulation gets a big boost from them, because likely, those kittens will go on to reproduce and be part of the problem. I explained to her how this behavior adds also extreme costs to those trying to clean up the problem.

Sometimes religious beliefs are blind to reality and the suffering, death and expense these head in the sky beliefs cause.

No deal, though. The woman said she saw the point but didn't know if her husband would.

One female from them got fixed. And I even kicked myself afterwards for doing that for them, when, upon returning the now fixed female, she told me she'd spent a hundred bucks or more at the fair Sunday. A hundred bucks at the fair? Who has that kind of extra money and then won't get their own cat fixed? Oh my god, I thought to myself. Oh my god.

I have an extreme respect for the volunteers who try to earn or raise this money and this is an affront to those volunteers and to me. Bottom line, however, they had the money and still didn't fix their cats. I believe that's a sin or should be.

Modern religion's sole focus seems often to be anti-abortion. Anything and everything else goes! Woohee!

Religion has fouled the morality of many people.

The third cat comes from a very physically disabled woman who takes in the strays left behind by tenants at an Albany complex. She had only two of over a dozen that were not fixed. She'd gotten the rest fixed, god bless her. So she went off to be fixed. Tomorrow, a cat owned by this woman's caregivers will be fixed. I don't mind at all helping such a woman.
Someone near the alleged collector feeds this stray female, who has roamed as a stray since she was a kitten, I'm told. She had one litter already and was pregnant again at spay. She'll never have another, at least.
The disabled rescuer's young tabby female, in heat at spay.
The female from the people who don't want the pregnant cat fixed.

Well, in some heartening news, the only folks who did not immediately back out of kitten adoption with a great big "eeeuuuhhhh" when I told them the cats broke in ringworm, is adopting Aces, the most sverely affected due to his whiteyness, anyhow. They poohooed concerns with the unsightly fungi, citing upbringing on a farm. Boy, did I immediately love them, sight unseen.

Yay for people who aren't afraid of fungi. So, with any luck, one of the seven will leave here tomorrow. So far, Sashi and Blueberry show no outward signs of ringworm, while Pokey and Rocket each have one small patch. They're all getting the full treatment and I mean full treatment including the every other day baths, which isn't easy.

And the other good news is this: a trade of sorts with another farm family. I get the four female kittens fixed they found by their dead mother when they were barely born and they take in, in return, feral mom from here, who, no doubt, during her confinement time, will take over as mom of the four girls. What a coincidence, isn't it? Wrecking yard mom had four girls and these are four girls without a mom.

There are spooky angelic things involved with this dead mother at the farm. The farmers didn't know she was out there, until they found her dead. She'd crawled out of the kitten nest, skin and bones, to die in plain sight. Her kittens crawled out and were crying atop her.

And, the only reason the farmer's wife found her was because she had a mare giving birth that night. That's why she was out in the barn. If the mother cat had crawled behind the hay to die, the kittens would never have been found. They don't know if she died just of exhaustion and malnutrition, from too many litters and no food and how long had she roamed unloved, unfed in a savage world before she found this barn. How horrible it is to cause such suffering, by abandoning an animal.

She'd roamed in apparently, found this safehaven, this barn just in time, where she could at least give birth. She had her kittens and she died, but her last act seemed to have been directed towards saving her kittens. She crawled out into plain sight in that barn and died, where she would be seen and where she knew her kittens would come out and also be seen on her body.

The farmer's wife refused to even name them, fearing they would die. She bottle fed them, worried over them and saved them. And now, Wrecking Mom, the fierce protective wonder of a mother, who also suffered so, trying to feed herself on her own and her kittens, after she was abandoned, she'll take over with the four girls, saved by a kind farmer. And she will have a permanent home there and so will the girls.

I am happy, very happy, about this offer, and the subtle similarities. I am happy a farm raised husband and wife are going to take in Aces anyhow. It's like these two events help me, too. I've been in the doldrums, suffering from isolation, lack of fun and menopausal symptoms (severe). So this has made me happy.

In other news, the garbage man made a mess by pulling out too soon, leaving some of my trash, including used cat litter, on the street. The neighbor had a smaller mess, but one also. This time, I called the garbage company. They're making good wages and charging hefty fees. They should at least clean up after themselves. Finally the truck came and cleaned up, sort of. I had to finish the job with a broom and dustpan. Later, a supervisor called to see if he'd come and said the driver said he isn't the one who made that mess. Yeah right, buddy. Guess I'd say that too, in these days, if I had a good paying job, and messed it up.
So I have five cats going up tomorrow. It took me all day to line them up. I know, I was going to take a big break, but not til next week.

Those going include a Corvallis male. I asked them to bring him over themselves. They did. It's a grandma raising her grandkids, so I felt bad in a way, because it hurts them to come over then go back, and do the same tomorrow night to pick him up, due to gas prices. She said "It's only a 20 minute drive, since they live in North Corvallis, but that's still significant gas money, if coming over and back twice." People are struggling, even to go short distances. I didn't know what to say.

Another female from the Albany complex. This one from the caregiver of the disabled woman who takes care of the abandoned cats there.

One from the triangle between Albany, Brownsville and Lebanon, of farms. A female, with kittens. But the kittens are too little to be fixed yet.

The fourth and fifth cats are two more from the harried recently divorced woman working two and sometimes three jobs in a probably losing attempt to keep up. A friend of hers meets me at the house. He said she told him she didn't think she could keep up such a pace. I told him I thought she was going to drop dead of exhaustion the last time I was up there and that she ought to just give up and go live under a bridge, because sooner or later, she'll drop under such a load and she won't make it anyway. He said "I know" and that lots of people were telling her that.

Then I felt guilty and said to the friend, "Look who is talking. I don't have any money, nothing and I'm giving out financial advice! HA!" Then i apologized for sticking my nose in. But I feel for her and she's fighting a battle I don't think she can win and I hate seeing people up against a wall pounding their heads on it and bleeding. Sometimes you just can't win. Better to cut the losses.

Actually I see a desperation and exhaustion in her eyes that seems life threatening to a stranger from a distance.

Taking these two leaves one more male who needs fixed. She got torn up again trying to catch him. I told her friend "Don't let her try that again. Let's just trap him." This is the second time he's bitten or slashed her when she's been grabbing at him and trying to stuff him in a carrier.

When her friend hesitated on the phone I quickly added, "Or she can just keep trying and keep getting torn up." Then I tried to giggle to break the awkwardness of being knowitallish to strangers.

I don't like driving up to that area now. I'm afraid I'll run into Mr. Mansionhood who hates stray cats and apparently me, too. His mansion was so large I bet he's some big wig and will have me strung up the way little ol ragged me dared talk to him like that the other day. So I'm keeping an eye over my shoulder for Mansionhood and maybe his buddies tailing me in fleets of bright new sports cars and Mercedes.

Idiot Gun Shooter Stole This Life, Gets Nothing

This redneck stupid idiot shot his gun out his truck window, at some animal, he thought. Instead he hit a U of O student, playing paintball with friends. He should never be allowed to touch a firearm again. Instead, he gets pretty much nothing, while the kid is paralized from the neck down and lives in an adult foster home now, at extreme expense, and will for the rest of his life.

This type of person should NEVER have been allowed near a gun, because he's too stupid. He didn't know what he was shooting at, he just shot out his pickup window. He stole a life and he got away with it. Click post title to go to story.

This story reminds me somewhat of a nurse who used to work on the Good Sam psyche ward. She got fired. There was some big blow out between her and another nurse, both drunk. The other nurse left a note that with the supervisor that if the nurse she'd been partying with didn't come in to work, that they should check on her. Well, she'd left her friend nearly dead out in her rural home with massive head injuries--seven skull fractures.

She was not expected to live after she was found, when she did indeed fail to show up for work. Later, she claimed the other nurse attacked her with a pipe. That nurse claimed her "friend" really fell down the stairs to her basement, but then, how did she get back up the narrow stairs from the basement and into her bed with such injuries and why didn't the second nurse call for help for her? That second nurse should have lost her license at the least, that's for sure. I bet she's still working up on the psyche ward.

I found out about the one nurses' life threatening head injuries from yet another psyche ward aide, who is dead now, who saw me in Rite Aide, drew me to the back of the store, and whispered that I should go out and see her. He knew we were sort of friends. It all had to be on the sly. He wasn't supposed to talk to me, because I was a former patient and I wasn't supposed to be friends with any staff members and none were supposed to talk to me.

That is a hard rule for psyche ward staff because I bet half the town's been recruited up on that psyche ward. I think half HP staff has, because of their million dollar mental coverage that makes psyche ward managers drool to think about.

Anyhow, before that even, a lot of the psyche ward nurses knew I helped out cats. I was often on the psyche ward. They'd call me, want help with some cat issue. None of them were supposed to have contact with former patients. But it's a small town really, and there was only me who did the dirty jobs like helping stray cats.

Anyhow, I stopped by the residence of the nurse who later would be badly injured/beaten by the other nurse, for whatever reason. I think I was checking on cats she'd taken in. She was drop dead drunk, and very emotional. I was shocked actually. I didn't know she was alcoholic. She wanted to go into Philomath to get something to eat and meet some real estate agent. She had a device installed in her pickup however, that she had to blow into, and if she wasn't sober, her truck would not start and it wouldn't start that night. She tried to coerce me into blowing into it for her, to unlock the ignition. Unbelievable.

Even though she was supposed to be sane and me supposed to be a nutcase, of course there was absolutely no way in hell I'd do that, nor allow her to drive drunk.

I felt sorry for this woman and I hope by now she's worked out her alcohol issues. She's very kind hearted.

A lot of the psyche ward staff were seriously on the edge. This one guy, he thought he was 1000 years old, and a shaman. He worked up there on the psyche ward. So who is nuts?

There was a office worker on the psyche ward who purportedly slept with cops, even married cops, liked to boast about it, and kept their photos on the sunshade of her car, so if she got stopped by one, she could flash a photo and get out of tickets.

Allegedly her brother's wife shot herself in the foot so she could get disability or something. I heard he finally took off, left both his crazy wife and sister and was free. But I can't remember all the rumors now, and it might have been the anemic looking pastel brained psyche ward manager, whose wife shot herself in the foot. Too much time has passed since I frequented psyche wards to keep it all straight. The psyche ward staff came complete with Desperate Housewives type staff drama. It was like watching a soap opera for us patients.

The head shrink also was an alcoholic, according to the rumor mill, who was sleeping with the overly tanned highly made up nurse. I think he finally divorced his wife to marry the mistress.

People talk in front of psyche patients like they are village idiots or like they can't hear or even if they could hear, they'd never understand real sentences. So I used to learn all sorts of things.

Monday, July 21, 2008

BS Colony Hits Me Again

The three BS kittens have broken out in ringworm. I suppose they had it, but were fighting it off, then got spayed and neutered and now it broke. Then the two black boys broke out with it, too, even though they are in another room. So far, Blueberry and Sashi show no signs but they will. These kittens will now likely be with me forever because they won't be kittens by the time they're over it. Nobody will adopt a teenager, when there are free kitens everywhere. And I'd like to go jump off a cliff screaming.

Good intentions, kindness will only kill you, drive you nuts, keep you in total lonliness, isolation and broke. You'll have no fun, no companionship and you'll be fed off of, like a bleeding fish amidst the sharks. Everyone will feed off you. It isn't worth it.

There is nothing that could salvage my life now, I don't think. I have no joy left. I have not a real friend in the world. I have no family. And I want to take these kittens back to those mother fucking freakazoids out there and leave. Let them take care of them. They have cost me so much and the cats so much suffering and they pay nothing of the costs, just sit out there smoking and cracking off color jokes in their garage and let someone else do everything.

I am going to disconnect my phone. There is no one I want to talk to anymore. The calls I get are those who want me to do something for them. And I can't anymore. My life was taken over by a desire to get as many cats fixed as I could and help them that way, not by taking in cats. I never wanted to do that, because of the costs involved and the work and the difficulty in finding decent homes for cats and kittens.

How I became a slave, well, that's a sad thing. I resent these shelter people sometimes, who are well paid and do nothing to solve the overpopulation problem. And they make the spay/neuter people out to be freaks too, on top of it. They try to pretend everyone is in this together. Excuse me?

They go on nice vacations, collect nice salaries and we're not in this together. I read the lies on SafeHaven's website about if they don't take in the cats, then statistics show people don't really dump them, that they wait until they can get them into SafeHaven.

Boy, what a pile of bullshit. What happens to those kittens is they are dumped or abandoned, or the owners call people like me or Safehaven gives people KATA's number, that's what really happens. But they don't say that because it would take away from them, their donations.

I let it go when they lied in the paper, saying they trapped some kittens over behind the Arco, when it was really me sitting out there half the night, at their request.

When they wouldn't take in some half grown kittens, the woman dumped them along the highway right beside SafeHaven and Gretal is still here from that. I spent three nights out in a windstorm after Gretal and Hansel, her brother, after seeing them walking side by side along the shoulder of Highway 34. Turns out, SafeHaven began receiving calls about them not long after the woman dumped them, but they did nothing.

Panda and Solomon are here because SafeHaven requested I trap some cats fed by a relative of one of the salaried workers there, in Lebanon. She said her neice fed four. I trapped 11 and the kittens were so matted they couldn't raise their heads from their chests. I couldn't return them because the relative really wasn't getting food from SafeHaven, like Safehaven said they were, to feed them, and there were so many, some with pellet holes through their ears where they'd been shot at. SafeHaven promised to find the four homes and they never did. That's how come I have Panda and Solomon.

They asked me to help some old people in a trailer park feeding strays, too, but one of the cats was very old and tame, but ill with diarrhea. I was overloaded and asked that SafeHaven take him in. They kept him one or two nights, since it was freezing and I was in the process of moving and extremely stressed from that, then said I had to come get him because he was too old to ever adopt out. I was so angry at them. I was under such stress with the move from Corvallis during that eviction. Ebineezer Geezer finally did get a home, no thanks to SafeHaven. And I trapped 18 cats in all for that old couple and took them in for fixing, no thanks to SafeHaven.

It was a SafeHaven board member who contacted me wanting help with the strays she fed. She had my number because I'd called her and left a message an entire year before, when calling free kitten ads urging people to fix the mothers. This was a Safehaven board member, and a major contributor to the overpopulation problem in Linn County. She was feeding 25 unfixed cats. Can you believe that? She had every opportunity to get them done, through the likes of the FCCO and never did. She promised to pay me back, every month, for the cost of the fixes, until it was paid off, and never did. She lives in an extremely fancy house. She did resign from the board, which I thought was only reasonable, since she'd caused so many problems for cats out there.

Look, I don't begrudge them getting paid to help animals. Good for them. I'm upset because I work hard at helping animals and I don't get paid. There you have it.

And that they use me, for their own benefit, while they are paid and I am not, and that sucks. I get used because I'm lonely and want to fit in somewhere and people know that and I am a target for that. It's my own fault.

But they shouldn't lie, and should own up and give credit where credit is due.

A Corvallis person just called, woke me up, after 11:00 p.m. I wouldn't talk to her, refused to, told her it was rude to call so damn late and it is. She wants something from me, always, she calls when she wants something of me for free. This time it's likely the same, something for her dog or cats, something free, that I would have to pay for, so I won't even talk to her. I won't talk to anyone who calls after 11:00 p.m. For gosh sakes, that is rude. She's on disability but has a gym membership for gosh sakes. A gym membership. I told her not to ever ask me for anything free when she has a gym membership. I think that's over the top. So cancel your gym membership, lady, and then pay your own way with your pets.

I need to get meaner. I need say "no" more and I have been. I am going to cancel all fixing appointments for next week and maybe the next and unplug my phone and take away the stress by not having to deal with all the unwanted cats just in Albany, OR.

I need to pretend this is a real job, if I continue it, and set hours and stick to those hours and not go over them and take at least two days off a week. I'll pretend it's an hourly job where you watch the clock and go home when the clock strikes the magic hour. Then the phone goes off and work is done for the day with the public. I can't survive doing this unless things change.

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 ...