38 Cats Taken in So Far in January to be Fixed

38 cats I've taken in so far this month to be fixed. 38 fewer cats out there breeding. This has come at a cost of $1040 to Poppa Inc. I just got a call from someone who lives near Crabtree with seven needing fixed and the man trapping at an Albany complex caught, he thinks, the female, mother of the latest three teens he's trapped and who have been fixed as a result. I hope it is the mom cat.

That's 8 more who will likely finish out the total done in January.

I have 2 more to catch at the 34th street complex and three more to catch at the 4th street colony. I have one more to catch over on 13th. And the rest area tabby on white, if the cat is still alive.

The mother of the three teens from Lebanon, fixed today, will need fixed in a few weeks. Right now, she is nursing her second litter, five kittens just ten days old. One of the three girls from her last litter was already in heat.

This mother came over pregnant with her last litter in tow, as a stray. The woman there, cares for her disabled son. Her daughter, whom I met today, lives in Halsey and said she finally began trapping all the cats in the neighborhood where she lives, owned or not, and got them fixed. She was disgusted with the behavior of her neighbors in the area who did not fix their pets and finally just took matters into her own hands.

Beyond that, I have no other cats on my list. That is, with willing owners. There's a colony on Tangent Loop and I've known about that colony forever, but despite the fact I've had to get overflow cats from that colony fixed, on the properties of upset neighbors, who have also contacted her about getting them fixed, the woman remains aloof to the problems she is causing in the area and does not return phone calls.

There is a colony cared for by the parents of a woman who is a neighbor to the BS colony. She has repeatedly tried to get her parents to get the cats, most sick with herpes, fixed, to no avail. I stopped by there too, and tried, but they refused and were also very rude about refusing. It drives the daughter nuts because when kitten season hits, the parents try to get her to help find the sickly kittens homes. I told her to just say no.

The caretakers of these two colonies have let the problem go on for years. The cats and the neighbors bear the pain of their behavior.

Speaking of pain, that Portland under 21 club shooter appears to have not known any of the victims. He wrote a very brief suicide note that included a will, but no explanation as to why he decided to kill people, and then himself. Apparently he was a quiet young man, and, unemployed currently, perhaps unable to pay the next month's rent. He spent his time playing violent video games, but showed no outward sign that he would commit such a horrible act in his end.

Reminds me of the Chinese guy who befriended a lonely Chinese student at Virginia Tech, whom he just beheaded in a campus cafe. He had made a claim to friends that he was so angry, at losing a lot of money in the economic crash and stock market, that he wanted to kill himself or somebody else. So he chose the weakest most vulnerable of victims, like a coward would do. He should have killed himself instead.

I think men might have a tough time seeing themselves as unsuccessful or as failures and maybe some people want to make a statement before leaving the world and are willing to settle for a negative violent legacy. I wonder, with so many job losses, if there will be a lot more violence to come here in America. In other countries, poverty leads to unrest, to religious fanatics twisting religion into a reason to kill, to violent factions fighting each other and committing atrocities on innocent victims of their rage. I wonder if America is headed down that path. I think that is why President Obama is desperate to try to find some way to lessen the economic horrors to come.

Our government, for decades, has slipped into corrupt ways of doing things. Senators and Representatives being bought out basically by lobbyists, overspending and ineptitude allowed in government agencies who barely do their assigned jobs anymore. This has been going on forever, and eating away at our nation. We like to pretend its a government problem only, but it isn't. We've lived beyond our means, on heavy debt and exhibited no discipline in our own lives. This national behavior is haunting us now, but does not have to beat us.