Slept Half the Day

I was worn out. I caught up on sleep today. I got up normal time, did all the chores around here, which can take about an hour and a half. These include cleaning all litterboxes, washing and filling water dishes, starting any laundry that needs done, sweeping, mopping, medicating cats, and doing the dishes. Sometimes it seems to be an endless cycle but I have it down now and do the chores without even thinking.

The chore list gets me down, because it must be done twice daily, when I add trapping and transporting to the mix. This means I'm up earlier and later than I probably should be. I compensate often by taking naps during the day. I have to.

Today I slept a good three hours during the day. I got over underslept this week, taking in so many cats, driving such a long distance to the clinic I took 20 of them to, and taking on the care of so many extras for a few days in my bathroom. Kind of did me in somewhat. But I am recovering. I'm getting old I guess.

I got cat food today, in Salem. And I got my paint for the other wall and I painted that wall today. Didn't take long. The paint store I bought it from had helpful polite employees who even carried the paint out to my car for me. I could not believe the difference after the two bad experiences at Home Depot. I've had great experiences at Home Depot also, over the years. But it is nice to run into polite employees who know their stuff and are even happy to answer questions. It was such a change from Box Store customer relations. Sherman Williams, that's the store I went to.

The color looks great on the wall I think. I like it.

Tomorrow, a friend from WA is coming by, to take me out to lunch for my birthday, which was a week ago. I also got a package for my birthday in the mail, from the east coast. Jeanne, I loved those Mentos! I have a few left, but a very few!

I also got a donation from a Florida woman in the mail for my birthday. Thank you, Connie. Connie works to help manatees in Florida and used to work big time at TNR there.

Jeanne just had a friend end up in the hospital and he has now been taken off a ventilator. Is he still alive, Jeanne?

I'll take a picture and post it tomorrow of the "green wall".

Requests to Take in Cats Skyrocketing

It is dismal to get so many requests to take in cats every week. I don't take in cats and I state that clearly both on my petfinder site and on my phone message. That does nothing to stop the requests. It's so hard to get so many.

I now have three Jefferson situations, all of whom wanted me to take in the cats. The Desperate Woman colony has those three teens, not that wild either, whom her elderly mom wants gone. The Desperate Woman herself understood how I just could take in more and took them back, even that last male the elderly mother demanded "be put in a pen and taken away". The daughter who is near my age, says she will try to tame them and find them homes and hide the fact she is feeding them, from her mother, in the meantime.

I would love to have taken in some of those Pink House cats, so underfed and underloved, but the burden of caring for so many cats is overwhelming. I got an e-mail from a woman moving who wanted me to take in her cat too. The Columbus colony folks wanted me to relocate at least half of the 8 they feed. They backed off when I told them just how many I already have and how difficult it is to find even a tame kitten a home right now.

A Corvallis woman e-mailed wanting me to take in an undesignated number of cats, saying someone told her I take in cats and that these "just showed up". I was not that nice in my response to her, telling her, after she offered a couple bags of food, to take them all in, just how much expense is involved in "taking in a bunch of cats". These expenses including getting them fixed, testing at least a couple, flea and worm treating them, vaccinating them, treating them for earmites, and litter and food costs, the difficulty of meshing more cats into a small place, and the expense and frustation and extreme lengths of time involved in finding even one cat a home. She never e-mailed back, which actually made me quite happy.

Then the four Jefferson cats the DD woman owns, none fixed, and now the house she lives in is getting torn down. The group working to find her a mobile home now is trying to find a barn home where those cats can go, if fixed. I was very happy about that.

I went yesterday to Winco and was dismayed to find their small cans of cat food close to $.50 per can again. I didn't buy any and hope the price comes down somewhere.

I went to Rite Aid, who was advertising the small cans at two for one. But the price is jacked to begin with and two for one still made them close to $.50 a can. I didn't buy any.

I went to Fred Meyer then, to find their prices sky high per can, which did not surprise me. I didn't buy any.

I went to the Grocery Outlet and bought a few Friskies kitten cans, for 3 for a buck, but the cats have never liked that canned kitten food and will ignore it, which is why it probably ends up often at the overstock store. I won't buy more. I thought 'well, maybe they'd eat it.' But they won't.

I am holding out. People weren't buying cans at such high prices at Winco. They used to be reasonable but no more. I will try Walmart, although they are not known actually for reasonable pricing on cat food or any grocery items, not in this area at least.

I used up all the Advantage I had left, on the scores of cats that went through my hands the first few days of the month. The other clinic I take cats to, in Wilsonville, requires they be flea treated before they come. I flea treated three dozen cats in the last few days. That leaves me with the remnants of one tube of Advantage. Yikes! I also wormed them all, mixing Strongid into wet food and that takes a lot of strongid for all these cats going through. I'm out of everything.

It's expensive doing all this. Maybe the good thing is I've burned almost through my Poppa allotment for the month, so I won't be needing to flea treat and worm hordes of cats until next month.

I wrote a letter to the paper yesterday, in part to let the public know about the private individuals the paper never does stories on, out there trying to solve the overpopulation problem. There was a front page story about an old couple given a free roof by a local roofing company and comments afterwards, from people, about how they didn't think people help each other out anymore, especially in these times, how nice that is to see.

Well they don't know about the extreme volunteerism going on by cat fixers, all around the state, sacrificing greatly to help people and their cats and in the process improving the livability of entire neighborhoods. People need to know this goes on and the hundreds upon hundreds of hours volunteers, like myself and so many others, put in. But I also wanted to plug Poppa Inc. So many thousands of dollars have gone into this area from Poppa, I was hoping that a plug for Poppa maybe would generate some donations to Poppa, which would be wonderful!

I am hoping if they print it I don't just get trashed. It happens a lot to letter writers in the local paper. Well anyhow, I've been trying to think of ways to raise money. Not easy in hard times.

Worn Out

I'm worn out. I overdid it with the trapping, hurt my shoulder, neck. It'll be ok, I"m sure, just need to do a bit more sleeping. I am having trouble with the comments on the blog, or commenting that is, with this new computer. If I click on comments, on this blog or any other, not one, but three windows exactly the same except different sizes, pop up. I have to X out two of the windows. The one left then goes full screen. What in the world causes that, I wonder. It's annoying.

Well, I still have two of the Pink House cats in my bathroom. I have been communicating with a woman trying to help the developmentally disabled woman whose house is going to be torn down. She is actually part of a group that first formed when the woman was being taken advantage of by the Pink House woman, who was trying to get her to sign over her property and did so, until an attorney got involved.

That attorney and the woman calling me for help with the DD woman's cats are part of the group now arranging the demolition of the falling apart house and also trying to find a cheap or donated mobile home to move onto the property for her to live in. That's a lot of nice people to try to help her out like that. I suggested maybe getting a TV news crew to do a story, that maybe that would hook them up with people and what they need to get it done.

They are really nice, that's for sure, to try to help this woman out. She's trying to find a home for the four cats the woman has before the demolition takes place the end of next week. The woman will briefly live with a disabled relative, as they try to find a mobile home to move to the spot and volunteers that can hook up plumbing and electrical for it. It's quite a project they've taken on, and they have to get all the necessary permits, too.

Well anyhow. The two sick Pink House black cats are doing better and now in my bathroom since I returned the other 8 to the Pink House. I hated taking back especially one of the Lynx Point Siamese females who very much wanted to be in a real home.

I Hate......

I hate returning cats to bad situations. I have to with the Pink House cats. I have six of them in my bathroom right now, recuperating from surgery, eating everything in sight. I have two in a hutch in my garage, the two sick ones, getting antibiotics and vaporizing. I have two in traps in my car still, who were fixed yesterday. So I am about to bite the bullet and despite the rain and cold, which makes me even more reluctant to return them to outside living, I must return them.

All six in my bathroom. Then I can take a shower again. The two just fixed will get a day in my bathroom, so I can treat them for all the parasites they all have, unfortunately.

The smoke female had a polycystic uterus, which, the vet says, can sometimes mean FIV infection. She, the caregiver claims, came from some guy named James, whom she said lives in eastern Oregon, LaPine, then changed it to living maybe around the corner from her in a falling apart house. He left her there, she claims.

She told me about her friend, a retarded woman, who lives down the block in a disgusting house that was never maintained that she owns. She claims the retarded woman, and she calls her retarded because she claims the woman can't make jello, sold her that house a few years ago, then they had a spat and she got a free attorney and took it back. Now her brother or uncle is going to tear down the house. Thing is, this friend has a bunch of unfixed cats.

I said "What will they do, when the house is demolished?"

Pink House woman said she didn't know, that maybe they'd wander off or, well she didn't know.

Then I get a call later, from the caregiver of the soon to be demolished house woman, who wants me to take the woman's four cats. She got my number from Desperate Woman colony caretaker, not Pink House woman. I said "I don't take cats in. I get them fixed."

"Oh," she said, "I was told you'd take them. Maybe I can talk this woman into coming to feed them still. She'll be living with her brother, only a few blocks away from her old place."

I said "If she will do that, I will at least get them fixed, so they're not reproducing."

She said she'd try to arrange it.

The area is over run with irresponsible people, is the problem. Cats aren't the problem. It's when you get an area overrun with people who don't behave normally or responsibly. We should be fixing those sorts of people instead of the cats. I think it'd be far more effective.

Anyhow, I have to return these cats like it or not. I hate this part of it.

UpDATE: I returned 8 of the ten Jefferson cats. Poured out a ton of cat food for them. The other two aren't fixed yet, since they were sick. I took back the Columbus colony orange tabby male, too. Those are nice people out there. I like them.

I'm going to get into trouble for spending too much of Poppa's money too fast. I'm trying very hard to dig up more money for Poppa. It's not that easy, but, I got a donation from the Columbus people. A good one. I'll funnel it back into fixing more.

8 More Cats Being Fixed Today

And 8 more cats are up being fixed today. Grand total for just the last three days: 36 cats.

Yikes!

The cats being fixed today are: five more from the Lacomb colony. Only six more need fixed there and we hope they will all be done on Friday. Yahoo!

Then, the orange tabby from the Columbus colony is up being fixed. Nine cats done on that little piece of road and the colony is now fixed. Six males, three females.

And then, after returning the tame stray male to the Desperate Woman colony, and asking her if she has talked to her mother about the fate of the three kittens, which she has, I returned to the Pink House colony.

I was going to return the four fixed, the two brown tabby kittens and the two black ones now fixed, but this morning, when vaccinating the tabby male kittens, I saw their ears were full of mites. So I didn't return them yet. I have 8 cats here currently from the Pink House, all fixed but two, the two sick black ones. And I trapped two more this morning, a brown tabby male and a black female, who are up being fixed right now. There are at least two more there, a gray male and a Siamese male, whom I have not seen. Ten so far from there.

I will return six of them tomorrow. In the morning. They will have received the works, from worming to flea treatment, earmite treatment, ear cleaning and vaccines. The woman of course has not donated a dime. But the neighborhood folks are very happy about the cats there being fixed.

Eleven More Cats Fixed Today

From Columbus colony, one of two Siamese mix females fixed yesterday.
Siamese mix female, fixed today.
Siamese mix female fixed yesterday, both from the Columbus colony.
Columbus tabby on white male, fixed yesterday.
Siamese mix male, who bloodied his nose on the trap, fixed today.
Desperate woman colony gray tab male fixed yesterday.
Tame owned torti point in heat Siamese mix female fixed today.
The tame torti point again.
Desperate woman colony male kitten we dug out the piled high junk today. He was also neutered today.
This is a tame female, owned by some friends of Desperate Woman, fixed yesterday.
Pink House Lynx Point Siamese, fixed today.
Second female Lynx pt. from Pink House, fixed today.
The two male tabby kittens, from Pink House, fixed today also.


I got a call late, from the Columbus colony, about another cat in the trap. They thought it was the female, but it was the big Siamese mix male. I picked the cat in the trap up this morning, on the way to the clinic and left another set. But after I saw it was the big guy, I figured we had them all.

I stopped in Jefferson and picked up the in heat owned female, too. Then on I went to the clinic with nine cats. Included in the nine--four from the Columbus colony, the tame Jefferson female, and four from the Pink House colony, the two Lynx Pt. Siamese females and the two brown tabby male kittens.

I picked up the 11 fixed yesterday, after unloading the nine to be fixed today. I then headed to Jefferson to drop off the two owned Flamepoint males, the two gray tabby kittens, their mom and the black owned female. I had hoped she would have that third kitten contained. She had lured it into her bedroom yesterday.

She did not have it contained at all. Another stray male she's been feeding after finding him trying to eat out of dumpsters was right at her feet, too. She stuffed him in a carrier and then said the kitten was in a closet. The closet, like her bedroom and the room off her bedroom, is piled high in junk.

I told her to put out some effort and catch that kitten. She'd stop to say she was having an anxiety attack and I'd say "that's an excuse. You're just telling yourself that. Tell yourself you're going to get that kitten." So she went at it, all right.

EVerything had to come out of that closet, to be piled atop the already piled high bed. There isn't room to move in there. There's stuff crammed under the bed and everywhere. She's a collector of stuff!

The kitten finally bolted out into what she called "The Goodwill Room", which is piled at least waist high with stuff she meant at one point to take to Goodwill but never did. You couldn't walk into the room, you had to make yourself a trail first, by clearing it. Most of the stuff is ancient clothing piled into laundry baskets atop laundry baskets reeking in mold.

We finally spotted the kitten, but there was no room to net him and he bolted back into the bedroom, under the bed, with a rabbit she got somewhere. He's black. Her elderly mother hates teh cats and animals. She wants the cats all gone and they fight over it. She has found a home for that stray mother of the three kittens now at least. At least there's that.

We had to block the sides of the bed and try to manuever and get that kitten to bolt out into a trap I had there. We had his mom in there, still in the trap, hoping she'd call him out. I'd brought her back. She'd been fixed yesterday. All she was interested in doing, however, was grooming and eating the food I'd put in there for her as I left the clinic.

I was lecturing that woman as we tried to catch him. I told her "You need to get rid of this shit in here, most of it, everything you don't use and can't sell. And I mean start today."

"I can't," she said, trying to cry that she was stressed and tired. I would take none of the excuses, however. I told her it would make her feel better to take back her life and that there is nothing like action rather than just talking about problems. She got into it then. She suddenly reached down through the side of the bed and came up with that kitten by the scruff. I could see he was a male.

I told her to turn his head away from me. To remain very quiet. I pulled up my trap and had her drop him into it. I closed it. She was ecstatic and high fived me. We'd had to work for two hours to dig him out of the accumulated junk. She got to work immediately on the junk. She was happy, for once, saying it took a kitten to inspire her and she began hauling out boxes of junk to the burnpile. I took a bunch of old blankets, to wash and give to Heartland for dog blankets.

I left with the kitten and the stray. I headed straight to Countryside and asked if they could do a couple of males. They said they would.

I then headed to the Columbus colony. I first turned loose the huge chocolate point Siamese, at Rogers. He wasn't home.

I then went down to the old couple's place. They've agreed to just feed them and are not pressuring me to find them homes. The two younger Siamese tan mixes were both females, while the tabby on white was a male. I told them to put out dry and hopefully, if the orange tabby showed up, he would smell the bait in the trap and go for out, while the other three should still associate the trap with unpleasantness and just eat the dry and stay out of the trap.

That is indeed what happened. They caught the orange today. I'll pick him up tomorrow. That's nine on that road, all fixed in the first three days of this week.
Their other four, fixed today, were three big males and one female, the dominant reproducing female. Yay. That colony is done. All fixed now. Well, will be when the orange is fixed.

I went home and began cleaning traps and doing laundry. I had the black female and black male, fixed yesterday from the Pink House, in my bathroom. They're doing well. The two brown tabby male kittens and the two Siamese lynx points from the Pink House, were fixed today, while the other two blacks with URI's are in a rabbit hutch in my garage, eating up a storm, getting antibiotics and getting vaporized thrice daily. They're much better already.

I"ll be returning at least four Pink House cats in the morning and trying to trap the last two, both males, there.

I went to pick up the cats then, in Wilsonville, but there was a wreck on the freeway just north of Jefferson. The traffic pileup ended at the rest area off ramp, so I darted off it, and went around to the south bound side. I asked somebody who had just exited from going south where the wreck was and they said about at Talbot Road. So I went south on the freeway to the Jefferson exit, took it, and headed north on old 99, getting back on the highway north of Ankeny Hill. An ambulance raced up behind me, lights flashing, fresh from the wreck. Other than that, the freeway was vacant to Salem, due to traffic being halted at that wreck.

I picked up the nine cats, four females, five males, then headed to Countryside and picked up those two. I'd gotten donations to cover both of their neuters. Then I stopped and dropped off the just fixed tame Jefferson female then went to the Desperate woman colony, wanting to hand off the stray male and kitten, both just fixed, but the woman wasn't home.

Her old mom came out and she didn't want that male kitten back and said he'd need to go into a pen so she could take him somewhere. 'Where?' I thought to myself. 'To the humane society who would kill him as feral? He's just a little boy.' After we just paid to have him neutered? I came home with him and the stray rather than deal with an eighty some year old animal hating woman.

So I've got three in hand needing fixed. Most of the rest will be going home tomorrow. I'll hope to catch those last males at the Pink House and I've done a great deal of work these first three days of this week. I've stopped a lot of suffering and a lot of breeding. This is why access to Poppa funds is so incredibly helpful to communities, improving neighborhoods, helping people and of course, helping cats.

Please donate to Poppa Inc.

Rags is Sick

Rags' cold is worse today. He's not going to the home in Portland. The woman seems nice but doesn't have the money or a car to access vet care for him. He got the cold back a couple weeks after being neutered, which is quite common. He wasn't likely all the way over it before he was neutered. I have reservations about the home now, too. The woman would not fill out my adoption application and seems to go by several names, which is a red flag. It's just as well, since he is sick again.

I am running on empty. All these colonies just keep on going. The Desperate Woman did lure the third kitten into her bedroom, but so far, hasn't caught him and may not have even tried to catch him.

I stopped by the Pink House colony and trapped two Siamese. One looks pregnant. Two of the black cats from there are too sick to get fixed right away. Two others, a male and a pregnant young female, were fixed today and I paid to have them get Profender. I have six more in my hands from there needing fixed. There are two more males needing caught and fixed at the Pink House colony. All my traps and then some, are in use, however.

I don't have enough money through Poppa to get all these cats fixed. I'll be through my allotment this week. Really, I'm not kidding. The Lacomb Drive people still have 11 needing fixed. Ten as of today of theirs at least now are fixed. They brought in three females and one male today. Two of the females were in heat and one was pregnant.

After catching two more today, for a total of six, at the Columbus colony, they thought there was only the one Siamese mix male left, besides the seldom seen orange tabby male. But they called just now to say they caught yet another one, who might be a female, and there are at least two more, besides the orange tabby to catch. Just keeps on going.

I am picking up an in heat owned Jefferson female tomorrow morning before heading to Wilsonville with I don't know how many, because I've lost track. I only have appointments for 8 more but I have way more than that in my garage and now in traps to pick up. I have six from the Pink House colony, two of whom are too sick to be fixed, so that's four that need to go tomorrow. I have four also from the Columbus colony needing to go and one from Jefferson, the in heat female. So I guess that is only nine, one more than I have appointments for. They should be ok with that.

I will probably have to go net that third kitten when I get back at the Desperate Woman colony. She's not keen on doing much to get that kitten caught I don't think. And I"ve overdone it, am grouchy, my neck and shoulder are killing me and I need to do some serious sleeping.

I'll feel a lot better when I get those two Jefferson colonies caught and done--the two males at Pink House and that third kitten. I'll feel better when I can get those two black cats well enough to be fixed, from the Pink House, too, and back. As for the Columbus colony, that needs finished tomorrow, because I start taking cats back there tomorrow, and then, trapping a onesy or a couple, is very much complicated. 17 cats got fixed just today alone. 9 more tomorrow. Two days. 26 cats.

Cats Being Fixed

Pink house colony black, not sure the sex yet, being fixed today.
Pink House colony male, being fixed today. The other four Pink House Jefferson cats will be fixed tomorrow.
These are the tame Flamepoint males being fixed today, from the Jefferson Desperate woman colony. She got them from backyard breeders next door, who barely care for their sad looking raggedy matted cats.

These are two of the gray tabby kittens born to a stray mom. The caretaker has not caught the third.
This gray tabby feral male is being fixed today also.
This is the mom of the three kittens and she is being spayed today.
Caught this guy today, off Columbus. I've six now at one place. Then catman Roger caught the big Siamese, who is up being fixed today. The two caught today will be fixed tomorrow. There are two more to catch. HOwever, the orange male is rarely seen.

Of course the old couple feeding the seven, don't want them back. Catman Roger helpfully told them I'd find them all homes. Today, when I saw him, I told him not to be telling people that, that I'm not going to find those seven cats homes. "Sure you are," he replied. "No, I'm not, Roger," I said back. "They need to find them homes. Or you can."

These two, plus the tame black trapped late last night, will be fixed tomorrow. Hopefully I will catch the seventh cat, also a male, still on the lamb out there. The 8th cat, an orange tabby, is missing and likely off impregnating somewhere.
There are four that look exactly alike, all strange tan and white Siamese mixes. Very beautiful.
Big feral Siamese male Roger caught, being fixed today.
The Siamese blood on that street comes from backyard breeders who long bred Siamese. They are Menonnites and did not even know the point colors and let many out to go wild and overpopulate the area. They caused a lot of expense to everyone else and took zero responsibility for their actions.

Miato Gets a Home

Miato got a home today with a very nice couple from Monroe. They had been interested in Matilda, who slept nonstop through their visit here. They took a long time, getting to know all the cats. They adored Sam, of course. Everyone does. And they loved Doc, too. Doc is impressive and sweet. In the end, they chose Miato, as a better candidate as a buddy for their four year old male.

Good luck, Miato.

Tomorrow, I take Rags to his new home. Rags will become the companion of a disabled military vet, in Portland. I think they will be wonderful for one another.

The vet clinic called, the Wilsonville one. I took 11 cats to them this morning for fixing. They included two tame Flamepoints, a black tame female, a stray mom and two of her three kittens, and a stray gray tabby feral male==all from the Desperate Woman colony, in Jefferson. Her eighty year old mom told me this morning "You're an angel for helping us out."

Besides the seven from that situation, also along for the ride and to be fixed, were four ferals from off Columbus street. Catman Roger caught the big feral Chocolate Point Siamese male, and, several houses down from him, I caught four of the 8 they feed. The first three went up this morning: a tabby on white and two Siamese mixes, both young. The fourth caught in that barn, late last night, is all black and will be fixed tomorrow.

In addition, two of the six Pink House cats are at Countryside being fixed, along with four from Lacomb. 17 cats in all, just today. I have five more in my garage, to be fixed tomorrow, four from the Pink House and the black cat from off Columbus. I will also pick up another Jefferson female, owned, in the morning. And traps are still set in the Columbus colony, and in Jefferson for the final kitten at the Desperate Woman colony.

I have several more also to catch at the Pink House.

The Wilsonville vet clinic is running way behind. So they called and asked if I can pick up the 11 being fixed today, tomorrow, when I drop off the next 8 there. I asked if I could drop off the 8, then first take Rags to his new home, before picking up the 11 being fixed today and they said that is just fine.

Overdone. Extreme Bullshit.

Well, it is my birthday. I celebrated by trapping 15 cats. Update: Make that 18. I'm supposed to pick up five, in addition, in the morning, but now I can't get ahold of them. Their phone--busy all day.

I went first to the desperate woman colony in Jefferson and pretty much picked up the "feral" mom. Then I set traps for the three teens, mediated a neighborhood myth, that a man down the street had a million unfixed cats. In fact, his are all fixed and well cared for.

This is a fifty something woman living with elderly parents. Their house is cool. The old woman collects things. Like she has a dozen or more stuffed Kermit the Frogs. She has a Christmas tree collection, an elephant figurine collection, you name and she collects it.

The desperate woman is truly desperate. She was in a car wreck that nearly killed her a few years back. Before that, she was in an abusive marraige and got beat up routinely. Now she has a boyfriend who isn't very nice, she says, and will only come over at night, making her "feel like a whore". I said, "well then don't see him." She went over to somewhere he hangs out to ask if they wanted to get their cats fixed and came back sobbing and mad both. She said the man yelled at her for spending her money feeding cats and he was just going to get a skinner down, from somewhere, to catch the cats and skin them alive. She said he said that only to make her cry, and it worked. How mean.

Anyhow, she told me about lots of skinny kittens at the pink house. I knew the pink house. When Marta the Mormon still worked at the paper office, she wanted help catching cats at the pink house. So I went with her, in her car, and we caught a few, for a clinic. That was a long time ago.

So I cruised by again. Looked exactly the same. Lots of cars parked out front. House in disrepair. Cats around it. It looked exactly the same as it looked years ago.

I knocked. A woman's voice yelled from somewhere inside "Come on in."

I cautiously pushed open the door. I saw no one in the large kitchen and said "Hello?"

"Well, I can't see you, I'm in here," the voice said again. I replied "You don't even know me."

"That's ok," came the jovial reply, "this is the cat house and I bet you're here about cats."

I thought to myself "that's pretty good."

She was propped in a chair in the corner by the window. The area was crammed with stuff falling off of stuff. Old pop and beer bottles cascaded here and there. One of the Lord of the Rings movies was running on the TV. Gandalf was making a speech at Frodo's party. "I loved those books," I said.

She began chatting like we were old friends. In fact, we were complete strangers. I told her I was indeed here about the cats, that a desperate woman who had cats needing fixed said she needed some fixed, too, and so I came by.

I knew she was a bullshitter from the moment I sat down. She started in about the cats, that the deputies had been there two months back, because she got reported as a cat house and they laughed and liked the cats and adopted three, then came back the next day and strung blinking red lights all around the eaves of the house and told her, "now the neighbors can talk about the cat house even more." She said they were very cool red blinking lights, but she took them down.

Well, she can't even stand long, due to being quite overweight and arthritis. Taking down lights strung at the eaves, probably not something she would undertake. But I said nothing.

I pressed on. "So, how many cats do you have now? I was here before getting cats fixed. I figured you'd have them all fixed by now." I was trying to play on her know it all attitude about cats.

She diverted. "You were here? When? I don't remember you. And you took some to be fixed? Well that must have been from across the street. They had a zillion and they just didn't take care of them."

My mind skipped to the hungry skinny kittens I'd passed on her own front porch, some with runny eyes and noses.

"So how many of yours are fixed?" I went on, undeterred.

"Oh, I got appointments for three of them next week up at the Jefferson clinic, the three little ones." I didn't believe her, but said nothing.

"I got 13 in all and all but two are fixed," she said, straight faced. "My cats have won awards you know." She nodded importantly. "And I didn't have to put em in no show or nothing. Nope. The award people were just driving by and saw em and came in and told me how wonderful they were and wrote me up an award on the spot."

I didn't even blink. "That's wonderful," I said, "doesn't get any better than that!"

"I got two black bobcats coming in the morning. They must weigh 50 pounds each and they're pure black."

"Black bobcats, eh? I'd like to trap them, just to have a look at a black city bobcat," I went on, getting into the bullshitting spirit and running with it. "I bet my vet would love to have a look at a pure black bobcat too."

"They got the tufts, the hairy tufts and they growl and they only come really really early morning, like at 4:30 and they ate a couple of cats already."

"I know what you mean and I want to catch them bobcats, just out my own curiousity now," I said, "but right now, I got to deal with getting my quota filled of house cats, for the clinic tomorrow and the clinic for tomorrow, won't do bobcats, sorry to say."

"Now, how many may I help you get fixed tomorrow, because I got spaces I just cant' waste, you know?"

"Oh I know. Let's go see em." Out to the front porch we went. She wanted to show me what happens when she rattles the front doorknob from the inside. The cats get excited and swarm, hoping for food. She filled an old tin can with cat food and we went out. We were swarmed. At least four black cats, most young, a pregnant Siamese she first claimed to be fixed, then that she was nursing newborns under the house, a brown tabby male, some brown tabby kittens, and a gray tabby male, all just starved.

I said "Let me get my traps." At that point, thankfully, the husband walked up. He's Hispanic and speaks no English. They began fighting in Spanish. Then he looked at me and waved over all the cats and said "Todos". That I understood. I now had the edge. He was on my side. So she said "Take em all in." I knew none were fixed. I grabbed six. I only had room for that number. The two adult males and the pregnant Siamese disappeared. I told her I'd be back tomorrow, to get the rest. This time, the pink house, the cat house bullshitter, needs to cut the bull and fix the cats.

So I got six from there, four all blacks and two little tabby teens. I got the mom and two of the three kittens, plus a feral male, a tame black and two Flamepoint tame males from the desperate woman colony. And I trapped two so far down at the Columbus colony. 15 cats.

I just caught two more down off Columbus, bringing my total today, my birthday, to 17 cats. Taking 17 cats out of the reproduction game was a fitting way for a obsessive spayaholic cat trapper to spend her birthday. My only regret is that I didn't catch more.