Friday, February 19, 2010

More Glitches

Bling, the black long hair, and Martha, whom you can't see, in the shelf hidey hole thing I made from various pieces of scrap wood from here and there tonight. This is a cage someone gave me years ago, but it's no good on it's plastic roller bottom stand because it falls off and there's no useful space with it upright on the bottom. So I put it on it's side, removed the rollers on the bottom, drilled some holes in the former bottom and attached it as an end to the cage, using zip ties. To insert this shelf hidey hole, I cut the zip ties and took the back off, after first closing Martha and Bling in the carrier. Now, they can spread out and relax much more.
Bling is a huge cat. But then, so is Martha.
This is James, one of two gray and white boys from the camps, fixed today. According to the homeless, whose word is often not accurate, this cat is the mom cat of a zillion litters. Except that it's a boy. And a teen boy at that.
This is Cassie, Peter and James' sister. She is so tame, she's not going to the warehouse home.
Peter, a cute little guy, but kind of nervous. He too was fixed today. I should have named these three Richard, Pete and Stacy, after the three homeless campers but I'm so worn out, I'm blinded by my own self pity, over my worn outedness and soreness and losses of equipment like jeans and sunglasses, so screw that.

Anyhow.....


My old auto insurance company was set to increase rates this year by 25% despite me not having an accident or ticket. They had also mysteriously quit billing me monthly mid summer, until I finally remembered I'd not gotten a bill for some time, called my insurance broker, then went in and paid the balance. I figured "time to dump this company" and contacted the broker about finding me a different company, which they did. The old company is sending me bills, claiming the policy was never cancelled and I need to contact my agent if I want to cancel because I'm now in default on payments due. Well, my agent was supposed to have cancelled the policy in January. The old company says, in a statement I got today, due to failure to pay monthly premiums, my policy with them will be cancelled late March and unpaid premiums to that date will be referred to collection. For gosh sakes, the policy was not renewed in January.

I immediately tried to call the broker, to see WTF is up with this! But they are closed. I sent them an e-mail.

I am very worried that either this old auto insurance company is terribly dishonest or that my broker did not cancel the policy for whatever reason, probably forgetfulness if they didn't. They were supposed to. I'm caught in the middle. What do I do now?

I don't need more crapola in my life. I have enough, thank you very much.

My teapot boiled dry tonight too, while I was in the garage, in a teensy space, trying to construct shelves for the containment cage out of boards from other things. I have about three feet, not square, not even clear of other things, to try to make things. I shouldn't have been doing it so tired, but the cage had no shelves and the two huge cats from the camps, Martha and Bling, where trying to use one small carrier as a bed. My other cage size carriers are with the Adair boys at the barn. The caregiver was supposed to get my stuff back, but hasn't yet.

I'd put on hot water to pour through the love seat cushions, peed on, while I was gone today, by who knows who. I sat down, to try to watch the news, and sat in pee. I am sick of this. I forgot the pot was on, when in the garage, until I heard the smoke alarm and the bottom of hte pot was stuck to the stove elment, which now also has to be replaced. Bad day. I currently have nothing to sit on, thanks to the cats. I am sick of them, and about to give them away in from of Walmart.

Bad week.

I have not had an adoption forever. I don't know how to find homes for some of these cats. Toby is very adoptable. So are Tugs, Matilda and Mums. So is Poppy. So is Teddy. But I can't find homes for them so far. I have not had any hits off petfinder for I don't know how long. I can't even find useful places to post fliers.

I am having trouble dealing with the spot I'm in, with cats I can't adopt out, and people calling all the time.

But I'm tired out, so tired I can't sleep. Once rested, things will look better. I don't care about the fried tracfone. I got another one today, for ten bucks. I don't care about the melted teapot, because I got it in a junk box at a garage sale for free anyhow. I can heat water in a saucepan.

The ripped jeans, sure, that bothers me, since I have only two other pair, but that kind of forces me to deal with my clothing issue, or lack there of. It's high time I try to find some cheap clothes again. I HATE shopping at thrift stores or anywhere, waiting and waiting to try things on, then taking it back to the rack and trying to find a different size. I just hate it. Thrift stores are much worse. The checkers are slower than molasses. It is difficult sometimes to get access to a changing room to try something on.

The racks are packed with clothes so tight if you touch something, several items fall to the floor. They are not sized right. It takes forever to see if they have anything not pretorn up or stained that fits. It pays more to buy jeans new at Kmart where they are only three or four dollars more new than they are old and worn out at Goodwill. And it takes far less time.

As for finding cats homes, I have to think up some creative new approaches.

2 comments:

  1. Bummers.

    I have the same problem with adoptions; it's been a while. Eventually unadopted cats either become my pets or get blended back into the feral colony. I don't know what else to do.

    I'll be running classified ads again in a couple of weeks: The local cat group has an adoption fair coming up and I don't want to conflict with them.

    Which reminds me, do you associate with any of those non-profit cat groups and if so, do they do adoption fairs?

    United PAWS gets full page ad spreads in the local paper and stuff on the radio - pictures of dozens of cats and they have it at the fairgrounds. All that publicity results in some cats getting homes anyway.

    On another topic, I've been meaning to ask you how you handle getting a cat acclimated to a new home. I have told people to keep them indoors at least several days until you're sure they feel at home but I don't know if that's the right approach and also it doesn't really fit for cats that are meant for outdoor living.

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  2. If it is a tame cat, it needs to stay indoors at new home at least a month, preferrably two, at new home. They take a long time to get to know their new owners and surroundings. If a barn cat, I try to get people to contain them at least ten days, at the minimum, because they have NO idea where they are, where food is, what's dangerous in the area, nothing. If not contained, it is akin to dumping them. Containment gives them security too while they watch their new surroundings. I ask that people spend some time with them, even if they are feral, talking to them, reassuring them, that they keep the containment cage litterbox clean and feed them special food during that time. I call it "the indoctrination period". And if people want the cats to stay, then they need to do it. People often just turn them loose anyway, or will not keep a litterbox clean, which makes the containment cage "the enemy" and the one containing them the enemy. I don't know what is so fricking hard to understand about why a cat would want a clean litterbox. It's why I hate to relocate ferals, absolutely hate it, because it is so hard on the cats to be ripped from everything familiar, taken from their family and friends. I only do it now if the cats are going to die otherwise, because it is always better for ferals to stay in the area where they were born, with their family and friends. I never relocate unless friends from the same colony go with them. I just hate relocating cats. It rarely works.

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