Late Night Trapping Stints

This is one of the strays, a male, young, about 8 months old, born, the feeder people say, to an abandoned mother cat who has since disappeared, as have a couple of the siblings. The one left to trap is the surviving sibling. This guy was neutered yesterday, vaccinated and, I hear, is going to live with a farmer who took another cat from the same group some time ago.


I've been burning the midnight oil of late, trying to save some Benton County cats. They have been fed by three people and there are a very small number of cats, five to be exact, three of them tame caste offs from Adair.

But one person complained. ONE whiney complainy person who wanted them gone, complained to the county, who gave the people feeding them two weeks, or they would be killed.

So there's just one left to trap. I spent half the night out there last night trying, after catching the last monster male, a tame brown tabby tux, poor fellow, probably left behind by someone.

At 1:30 a.m. she was about to go into a trap and suddenly a huge skunk shows up and the cat moves off as the skunk tries to enter my trap. I ran him off, not wanting my trap "skunked", then had to take up the two other traps for same reason. I left one set, and the cat came right back. That's when the mob of raccoons showed up. I heard them fighting way up somewhere on the Christian school's grounds the night before.

So I failed at catching the one last cat, but I hope I can catch her, before the county moves in, intent on killing her, because one person complained, when they drove by in their car.

I'm not fond of the area. There is a very very loud RC plane park nearby and those loud whining revving engines are not music to my ears, or the ears of anything alive I would guess. Must really be detrimental to wildlife with their sensitive ears and to the birds.

It is terribly interesting to me, when I was told it was a biologist who complained about the handful of strays, due to "environmental impact", as he or she ignored the RC plane park, the taking out of habitat for a frisbee golf course and the ever expanding school too. Blind to all those things, including the car he or she was likely driving that is a bird killer by nature, which labels such people to me just plain cat hating complainers, tunnel visioned and mean spirited.

Or they feel out of control, and the one thing people feeling out of control do often, is complain And sometimes, people feel out of control when a world is going to hell. When the natural world is being eaten alive by development, concrete, cars and pollution, all out of one's personal control, and what they could change, like personal habits to make things better, might be too inconvenient to change, such people then make themselves feel better in this damaged world, by placing blame on five stray cats.


I understand people who feed strays sometimes are messy about it and irresponsible about it. They need to try to rehome the tame ones and any kittens and fix the rest. They need to be discreet and clean about feeding them too, and atune to concerns. That doesn't happen much either, I know.

Well, at least these five will be gone from the sight of the complainer person. They will be fixed and hopefully places will be found for them. You would not believe the MONSTEROUS size of the last male I trapped there. He is tame and lovable, skinny for his monstrous length and size, but a gorgoues and beautiful cat. The feeder people said he showed up about a month before.

I was so exhausted today, after waking up at 8:30, six hours after I went to bed, I could barely function. I was going right back to bed, but when someone called offering a ride to Costco to get cat food I accepted because invitations are hard to come by. I usually feed the cats here Costco dry food, because it is decent quality and cheap enough. They also have a $10 16 pound bag for sale at Costco, but the first ingredient listed on that brand is corn. Cats don't eat corn!

Anyhow, I got five bags which should last me awhile. But going out into a terribly crowded and rushed store, was not something my exhausted body and mind tolerated well. The moment I got home I collapsed on my mattress the wrong way and fell alseep for six hours. I woke up freezing cold and I think I'm getting sick, but at least I'm rested!

The big guy is going in to the vet in the morning. I have not even had a chance to see if he is neutered already. Big unneutered males don't hold well here, not even in the garage, because Sam is so sensitive to unneutered male smell. It starts him up with the pee marking.

Whether this guy was abandoned or wandered off looking for love, is a point in question. I already have him posted as a found cat, to see if anyone responds, and will suggest to the feeder people, who will be holding him, that they run a found ad and make a report at Heartland. They already plan to have him chip scanned just in case. But if he isn't neutered, he won't have a microchip. Most shelters microchip now, registering the cat to the shelter itself. If the registration is never changed, at least the shelter finds out, if a cat they adopted out lands at another shelter. I would like to find an economical place to get all the cats here chipped. I got Electra and Hopi done long ago, when I had only three cats. Hopi is gone now but Electra isn't. She's still with me.

I got to see two old river cats, which took me back in time, from the colony I lived with, when homeless, along the banks of the Willamette. The feeder lady for this colony adopted Scratch as a teenager from the colony along the Willamette. That colony was fed by an old man who didn't get them fixed.

When I wandered into it, I was homeless off and on, and when not homeless living at a hellish old low income hotel along the river. I spent less and less time there. I had problems with the manager who came on to me even before I moved in. My roof leaked in 8 places there. I moved out in the end to homelessness and it was an upgrade.

Anyhow, I took to living with a colony of cats along the river, the colony the old man fed. Despite the fact I had no money and no car, I hooked up with a Corvallis couple trying to get area cats fixed, who loaned me a live trap. Then they bought me one. I kept a wild cat fund for fixing the cats, at a local vet clinic, fed by poor people and bus drivers. I'd trap a river cat and walk back a half mile with the cat in a trap to my place, then hitch a ride out to the clinic. I got 30 cats fixed that way. Scratch and Half n Half were two of them. A city bus driver took in Scratch.

In the alley down near where the old man fed the river cats, an old woman fed some alley cats, who were hated by the two businesses flanking the alley: Allan Brothers warehouse on one side and Mater Engineering on the other. There were three siblings in the end: Muddy, Half n Half and Stripe.

Muddy and Stripe both were killed as a result of the river project. I'd gotten them fixed long before. Half n Half and Muddy had defended Stripe, when he was badly injured along the river in the riprap dumping. He had crawled into the Mater warehouse. I thought Mater Engineering was going to let me into the warehouse to get him out and save him. I went there, armed with catch gear, after calling to ask permission and was told "no", by Scott Mater himself. Stripe died a horrible and slow death. His brother and sister would station themselves at either end of the alley after the old man would put out food for Stripe at the edge of the huge doors, which had enough space under them for cats to slip through. This was to defend him, so he could eat, from a big unneutered tom, that came in from a neighborhood and was likely owned, and who would attack Stripe over the food.

It was a horrible thing to not be able to help Stripe. It nearly drove me mad, after being denied entry to be able to help him. Worry and horror and sadness overcame me for weeks then years over the plight of the river cats and their fate with that project.

Muddy was next to die. That left Halfie alone and miserable and afraid. I spent Christmas Eve that year retrapping her. The old man was in the hospital with a long misdiagnosed staff infection that nearly killed him. I got Half n Half out of there alive. She joined Scratch at the home of the city bus driver, one of the kindest most honest people I have ever met. At last, a another family member was safe.

I got to see both Scratch, now 15, and Halfie, a couple years younger, last night. Scratch is still Scratch in her old age. Halfie, adopted as an adult full out feral, is now a loving purr bug couch potato. Scratch, Halfie and Vision who is even older than Scratch, are the last surviving river cats.

Of course I am spending nights out in my car to trap those otherwise doomed cats in order also to help someone who saved two of my river cat family of long ago. And was kind to me back then, when I had no kindness or any light in my life.

I Couldn't Help

A woman called me yesterday. She had a business client who told her about cats, 16 or so, maybe more, somewhere in rural Linn, that an old man used to feed, but no longer does. She just wanted them fixed and I said I could help with that. So she gave my number to the woman in the know about it who finally called today.

But she wants them gone, not fixed. Nobody will feed the cats, even if they got fixed. So, she really was hoping I would agree to take in 15 or more cats. I told her I was very sorry but I can't take that many cats on, that the expense of taking in that many cats was too much for me, and that finding homes is very hard. I told her if they would find htem homes, I could then help, get them fixed and to their new home and set up. But that was more than she wanted to do.

I asked if anyone would feed them where they are, if they are fixed, and she said she couldn't imagine anyone taking on feeding 15 cats.

I am still trying to think of a solution. I called the original woman back who is also trying to think up some solution.

Ridiculous

I get a call. The woman wants information about the situation with the woman taking in cats. Something sounds very off. Why do people have to lie?

She says she lives near the woman and wants to get rid of three cats to get some breed of aggressive dog I've never heard of, so the cats have to go, because she's not really a cat person and the dog might hurt the cats. She claims she's had other problems with dogs in the past hurting cats.

She wants to know all these details about the place where she wants to take these cats. I tell her to go check it out herself. I tried to be polite but it isn't polite to steal someone's elses time. It's selfish.

I tell her to ask the woman to let her come out and check the property. I warn her about predators in the country and tell her about those poor people on Lacomb Drive, the ones I helped get about 24 cats fixed for, that have been killed one by one by predators in horrible fashion. I tell her the cats are always better off to stay where they are. I tell her that over and over, but she keeps on asking things. In the end, I tell her I'm busy, and have to go, and I wanted to know who is handing out my number. She said it was an e-mail address, something like don't even something mister at yahoo.

I'm so tired still, from the warehouse situation. Why can't people leave me alone? I have helped many many people and used my own pathetic money to do so, and the reward is, well what is it, I can barely justify getting out of bed anymore.

When she hangs up, I check what number she called from. It was actually the woman herself, from the situation, lying, to bait me. Such behavior takes away my faith in humanity. Has she not cost me enough, with those other cats? I do not know anything anymore except that I am so tired I can barely function. And, that I want to run away more so than ever.

Here is something I learned that is useful: if you act crazy people will think you are crazy. If you lie, people will regard you as a liar.

One message to the woman who called, since she indicated she reads this blog: if you post around Oregon, where people are passionate about their animals, that you want to take in 90 or so cats, people will question you on motives for doing so. You should expect that, as I would. That is one brave proud trait left alive in Oregon: passion and compassion. I hope that this value remains celebrated and never becomes a ridiculed value.

Photos of the Six Cats Fixed Yesterday

All six were Albany cats. Four females and two males. In addition, Teddy's umbilical cord hernia was repaired. No more stomach bubble for him!

All six cats fixed yesterday are very beautiful, I think.

Oreo, aptly named, Front St. male, fixed yesterday.
Front street girl, fixed yesterday.
Another Front St. female, fixed yesterday.
34th Street male, neutered yesterday.
Beautiful muted calico, spayed yesterday. The woman said she took her in, after neighbors beat her and tried to set her on fire. They were evicted, thank goodness.
Russian Blue female, in heat, spayed yesterday, from 34th st.

Tired of the Drama

UPDATE: The deputy says everything looks good there, that she showed him the loft where there are blankets out and bowls of food, and that he sees nothing that isn't just fine. I told him, "Good" and removed my post about it from craigslist. I'm done with it! (see below for full story)

I am tired of the drama of a Lebanon woman, posting ads in craigslist throughout Oregon that she will take in 90 feral cats. I've dealt with this woman, but only once, almost two years ago. Another Albany woman got involved e-mailing her in response to an ad she placed then on craigslist, wanting all the cats in her barn gone. She claimed to be moving. She really wasn't moving.

The other Albany woman finally asked me to drive up there with her. I think that was mainly because she sometimes gets lost on rural roads. She told me she had told the woman she was just coming to look at the situation.

When we arrived we found 8 cats in a blue plastic storage container. The woman would only peek through her blinds at us. We had to take them, in such a situation, then come back a couple more times and get the other 8. Most ended up in my bathroom for quite some time, waiting for placement. It was very very stressful on me and on those poor cats.

That is the only contact I had with this person, who wasn't really moving to Canada or S. Africa. She even told someone at the Lacomb store she worked for or with me. I don't think I ever even talked to her once.

The stories too bizarre and conflicting to tag this anything but a very nutty cat case in my memory. And very sad, for those poor cats involved, and for me, because I got very very worn out and stressed in dealing with those cats.

EVen the FCCO e-mailed me to find out if I knew anything about the Lebanon woman posting in Portland wanting to take in 90 cats.

I am so tired of this drama, I can't say. So...to hopefully end it once and for all, I called the sheriff's office, and told them the story of the craigslist posts, told them to check out her craigslist post, told htem my experience with her of almost two years ago, and asked if they felt it odd behavior, if they would check it out, which they agreed to do.

This was after I tried to get ahold of someone at SafeHaven, to ask advice on what if anything should be done about this. No one was there who knew anything. Most were at the "other shelter" which I took to mean, possibly, the brand new one they're building, somewhere in Tangent. But the woman who answered the phone said I should call the sheriff's department over it. But I conceded it might be the only way to put an end to the questions over this. Let the law check it out.

I felt this was the only viable option to stop all this drama going on. If the sheriff's deputy feels something neglectful is going on, it is then their job to stop it. And if not, then fine, but it will have been checked out and then maybe the drama will stop and it's not my problem to deal with. I don't' have the time or energy for it at all.

Tonight, I got a condemnatory e-mail from the Eugene people, for having the law check it out, so I blocked the Eugene people's e-mail addresses. I suggest they don't make claims then turn on someone who has the law check the situation out, although the reason I asked a deputy to check on it was based only on my prior experience with her, then the craigslist ad about taking in 90 cats.

I suggest if they make true claims they stand their ground, and if someone then calls and makes threats, they file a police report, instead of turning on me, for having it checked out by the law.

It's turned into an ugly thing. Maybe I don't really want any human contact at all.

For me, it's over. The deputy said it looked fine up there and animals they have are cared for just fine. That's good enough for me.

I can't claim I"m that good at figuring out these complicated dramas. I'd rather deal with things directly and I felt I did that today. When I could take no more of the e-mails from people, and opinions, I asked the law to check it out. And they did and I"m grateful. I'm happy he said the animals there appear well cared for. What's not to be happy in such an assessment? It'd done with for me. History. I wouldn't take a cat up there, if she won't confine them for a few weeks, so they know it's home. That'd be dumbness on my part.

In good news, there are six Albany cats up being fixed today, from two situations. Both women are very nice. One is disabled and the other needs to rehome her cats due to a divorce after two decades of marraige. I told her I was unable to take them in but I could at least get them fixed, which might might help her find them homes.

And Teddy, from the homeless camp, is at the clinic today. He has an umbilical cord hernia that was never repaired and I thought I should get that done, just in case I can ever find him a home.

The other thing going on that is stressing me out is this. That copay check from the seed company is useless paper. That's because the guy won't call in the clinic with his driver's license number and the clinic can't process the check without it. I told him it needed his license number before he gave it to me, but then didn't check it out. When I realized it needed that number still, I called him up. That was yesterday at noon. I asked he call it in to the vet clinic where the check is at. He has not done so, rendering the copay check for $500 on that $1219 bill useless paper.

I called again an hour ago and the secretary was apologetic, said she would have him call it in, and I sure hope that happens.

Stroller Collides with Truck---Strange Words

An article about the accident that killed a little boy in a stroller used these words to describe what happened:

"jogging stroller his mother was pushing collided with a semitrailer"


This phrase conjures up in my mind a vision of a really really big hefty dangerous stroller careening recklessly down the road, until it finally collides with a truck.

What really happened is not yet completely clear. The stroller, being pushed by a woman, whose son was inside the stroller, was hit while on the sidewalk by a rear tire of a semi making a turn.

Seed Warehouse Final Tally

The seed warehouse made a nice contribution back to pay for about half the cost of the fixes, to Poppa Inc., which was more than Poppa expected and a great outcome!

Fixing Day One: 8 females fixed at Countryside last Thursday. One was in heat.

They included two black and whites, a tabby, a Lynx Point Siamese and four all blacks.

Fixing Day Two: Friday, 13 cats were fixed at Village at Main Vet Clinic. 8 were females; 5 were males. 11 of the 13 cats were black. There was one tabby kitten and one very sweet tame Siamese female kitten who made up the "off color" fixes for the day.

Fixing Day Three: 6 cats were fixed at Countryside vet. These were 4 females and 2 males, one a crypt orchid. Four of these cats were black, one a tabby and one gray and white (the one normal male fix).

Costs were high. $927 for the first 21, then, due to the one male being a crypt, raising costs there for the lost testicle search, $292 for yesterday.

Total fixing costs to Poppa Inc. for 27 seed warehouse cats: $1,219 Costs were also high due to the high numbers of females in the mix.

Here is a nice thing to think about. These 27 cats were fixed at private vet clinics. That means that $1,219 dollars went into the hands of private businesses which is one of the great things about working with Poppa dollars. The gas I used to drive to and from the warehouse and to the clinics, got bought at gas stations privately owned, although I know gas station owners get very little per gallon sold. The cat food and bait I bought to catch and care for these cats was bought at a local grocery store who employs local people and that is shipped to the store by someone who needs that job in shipping, etc etc.

My out of pocket expenses to me, personally, came to about $90 for gas, bait, food and Advantage. If you add in the $76 cost for a long term antibiotic shot for one of the cats done up in Wilsonville who peed pure blood, it's a bit higher. The vet clinic begged for me to approve that shot for her. It will last two weeks. I did, thanks to a donation from Kay of New York! I also kept her here, in a rabbit hutch, where she remains. She will go home today, as she is doing great.

I did catch the cat with the bum leg, I had been told was out there, as I see one of the cats this morning in the trap is favoring a front leg. I had no idea the cat had a bad leg and it would not be apparent under anesthesia. I'm debating what to do on that one.

This month, in celebration of Spay Day, the FCCO is doing feral fixed for half price: $15! I am hoping to get reservations and round up area ferals and get them done at such a great price.

A Mother's Son is Killed

A terrible accident occurred today just south of Albany on 99E near Wilco Feed store. A Baranburg Seed truck made a right turn, from old 34, onto 99E, heading north towards Albany and somehow clipped a jogging stroller on the sidewalk with a rear tire, killed the toddler in the stroller, ripping the stroller from his mother's hands in the process.

Witnesses described a mother's screams, a crushed stroller and a plastic tarp laid across the little boy's body.

How shocking and terrible to even consider this accident and know what that mother is going through.

That truck driver is likely going through his own kind of hell.

It's hard to imagine how it happened but it could have happened this way. I can see the stroller and mom waiting for the truck to turn, so they could continue south, and realizing too late, the truck was cutting the corner and not being able to get out of the way.

It's happened to me in a car, with a truck cutting a corner and me having to try to back up so as not to be clipped. Maybe she'd set the stroller brakes while waiting to cross the street, and couldn't unbrake the stroller quick enough. I think it was double trailer he was pulling with the rear one empty, meaning lighter weight and jumping around.

Nonetheless, the truck drivers who do not judge corners well and feel everyone else should get out of their way are an issue on our roads.

I don't know that he cut the corner with the rear trailer. It seems such an unlikely accident. If the mom with the stroller was headed south and he was turning north, how in the world could they not see each other? The news reports are now saying the stroller was not in the crosswalk when hit but on the sidewalk.

What a horrible tragedy occurred today, just south of Albany, on a rainy dismal day. A little boy was ripped from his mothers hands and crushed beneath the wheels of commercial truck as his mothers screams pierced the already gloomy damp winter gray.

Girls. Girls. Girls.

The last six cats from the seed warehouse were fixed today. Four of the six were girls. One was a normal male and the other a crypt. The tabby was a girl and so was the black and white with the mustache along with two of the blacks.

I haven't returned them since they were fixed just today.

I arrived at the warehouse early this morning, to check the traps, before taking the six to the vet, and the manager said, "Get your traps. We're done with this." There was no reasoning with him, that there were more cats out there, since the marker plate food bites had been eaten.

That was all he said. I asked when he was going to pick up the kittens and he said I could bring them to him anytime. I felt like talking back, like saying "Well Mr. King of Everything, slavery was abolished some time ago." But I didn't say a word.

I was way too worn out.

I delivered the cats to the vet and came home. I was nervous all day, couldn't sleep, over the two kittens he was supposed to come get last weekend, but never came and got. And the exhaustion and pain of nerve inflammation from doing too much heavy lifting and awkward heavy carrying. Those kittens are so sweet. The little Siamese girl loves to be petted!

If they pay me nothing, not even reimburse my gas and all the cat food and bait I used to help them out, at least the area will benefit, because they were handing out kittens from the mothers, who went out to reproduce also. Twenty females in the 27 fixed means in the first batches of kittens born to all these females, if they had just four each, would result in 80 more cats. 80 More, in just the first litters born this spring.

20 of the 27 cats I caught and took to be fixed were girls. Twenty of them!!!!

That is an unusually high percentage of females.

My neck and shoulders hurt My knee hurts. My foot hurts. I got several cuts and bruises in the whole process. But mainly, I would like to sleep for about 24 hours straight.

I can't do that as long as I'm caring for all these warehouse cats, plus my own here, but by tomorrow, they will all be back home at the warehouse.

I already have six cats lined up for Wednesday so I don't have to do any other work tomorrow except return these ten cats and clean all the traps and do laundry. I have to get cat litter because I'm out, and I'm almost out of dry cat food. At this point, I start trying to find anybody who will slip me into Costco to buy some dry cat food there, and that is not easy either. To find anyone willing, that is, who will actually make the time to do it.

I fell asleep tonight, across that darn love seat, which is four feet long if you count the arm rests at each end. That is a bad thing. Bad bad. I woke up at 10:30 stiff and crooked.

I worry about my brothers. Both are having trouble staying afloat in their businesses. I think one brother has laid off two thirds of his employees and I don't think he has work on the horizon. He's had to cut back health insurance for those handful of employees left and his family. My other brothers' company he said dropped health insurance for its employees as of today, in an effort to save the company and its remaining employees, which is about a third its original workforce before the decline. My brothers are about my age, not spring chickens, and if they go jobless, the prospects of them finding other jobs isn't good. I feel for them.