Thursday, October 01, 2009

Too Much

I've been getting too many phone calls lately. Injured cats. Unwanted cats. Strays people feed they now want gone. I'm ready again to turn off the phone. I haven't slept well in ages.

I don't think any of the other valley groups are doing much right now. Broke I think. Or worn out too. Maybe that's why the outrageous numbers of calls in the last ten days. And I mean outrageous.

I haven't any adoptions for way too long, which means I have no space here. I have Dirt Eater in my bathroom, meaning again, I can't really do laundry or take a shower. She's going back tomorrow, sadly. She was a starving new arrival there, tame and sweet, but I can't take even one more tame sweet teenager. No room. No adoptions. No money. There's someone wanting a companion for their outside cat. But the other cat disappeared, likely killed by a predator, and I just can't adopt out anymore where there are predators. I don't sleep afterwards. I'm telling them I can't help them.

I just heard Rio got the Olympics. It would have been great if Chicago had won, but there's something romantic and exotic that comes to my mind when I hear the name "Rio". I know there is horrible poverty there, like everywhere, but congratulations to Rio on their win and I bet it will be spectacular and help the city out, maybe even the poor.

Also, I wish I could help ease somehow the suffering again going on in Indonesia and Somoa after those natural disasters. How horrible. We are lucky here, to have few natural disasters hit, but that could change at any moment I know. Oregon is way over due for another large quake here.

I've been through two small quakes in Oregon. Both occured when I lived at the Benton Plaza, a low income "projects" type building in Corvallis. One quake felt like a gentle rocking, back and forth. swaying like a tree branch in a gentle wind.

The other was violent shaking. My cat of the time, Wrangle, woke me up before both quakes, panicked. There was nothing to do but hope for the best on the violent shake quake. The building shook violently for what seemed like ages. After it was over, I put my cat in her carrier and ran out into the street.

The other one, the gentle sway one, no big deal. It was like being on a boat experiencing the gently rocking of the waves.

I was in a quake in Alaska too, when working in Seward for the summer. I was climbing when it hit, on Little Marathon mountain. I didn't know what was going on, only that suddenly shale rock was cascading down around me. I dodged behind the biggest rock I could find for cover. I thought it was just a slide or something, but when I got back to the basement apartment where all the workers lived, 12 of us, sometimes more, I discovered almost everything had been knocked from shelves and that a quake had hit the region, although it was small.

5 comments:

  1. isn't that always the way? You have plenty of cats you need to get adopted out, and yet others keep calling wanting you to take this one and that one...what burns me up the most are those who feed the strays for a while and then decide they don't want to anymore. Will dirt eater teen be going where she will be fed at least? I know you were stretching it when you kept Jade...and here Summer and Tara got adopted, but you still have the other kittens, too. Its a shame someone couldn't do a weekly local series, like "wednesdays cat" featuring a tame stray teen or adult who needs a home. When people do want to adopt, they usually want a kitten. But kittens are a lot of work. One of my neighbors who wants a cat due to mice issues wondered what to do - because he's out a lot during the day - so i told him to get an adult cat from the shelter. He can spend time at night with a cat, but not during the day. That would work out perfectly with an older cat. And the mice - gone..gone..gone...

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  2. I hope your neighbor does that, Jeanne. Yes, Dirt Eater will be fed by the old woman, if she returns. The old woman thinks she's a left over from the 45 cat collector, who lived nearby. I'm sure some were so scared by all that, that they have been desperate and on the roam ever since. There may end up to more arrivals from the collector, at her place. The Lebanon collector lived three blocks from this old woman. She's a kind old woman and I wish there were more people out there like her, especially over there in Lebanon. Well, I can always hope.

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  3. yes...i am just relieved that dirt eater (we should call her "DeeDee" for Dirt Eater) wwon't suffer for food anymore - will she know to hang out in that area? I know once you feed a stray they tend to stick with you for dear life - just want to be sure she doesn't wander off again and end up in a bad situation....I hope my neighbor does that, too...I thought - perhaps after Fran gets Creamsicle fixed and shots he might want that cat....can't hurt to ask!

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  4. I put her on craigslist and will give her two more days here, I decided. She's just happy to be resting in a carrier, with food, and attention when I go into the bathroom. She acts like she's been on her own a relatively short desperate time, like say two weeks to a month. Or lost. I listed her also as Found but no contacts yet. The old woman, like I said, believes she is from the collector cats, which might make sense. I know there ones we didn't see or get, due to the extreme chaos that was going on.

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  5. and look - now our girl has a home! What a lucky cat - and what wonderful people they are for adopting her and treating her well.

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