Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Blingo Adoption Video

More Violence in Albany

This is such a small town. To think of all the violence going on here, is difficult, but much of it is drug fueled.

Click post title to go to today's crime report.

A man is in custody after a struggle with his wife. She was shot in the chest with a .357 magnum, but survived. He drove her to the hospital and dropped her off, where she told ER employees she accidentally shot herself. The couple have a child, who has allegedly witnessed repeated domestic violence incidents in the home. Hopefully, if his mother survives, she will leave this man for good or DHS will get that kid out of there.

Another incident in the crime report indicates at 6:15 a.m. Sunday, a man reported his wife missing, but she was discovered dead of a gunshot wound to the head by a passerby, at the park and ride just off 15 at 7:20 a.m. That's not much difference in time. Supposedly the door to the car was open and the gun at the scene. It's listed as a suicide, but the time frame is a little strange and the fact the door of the car was open. I would consider this suspicious.

So much violence in just one small town. What is going on with our world?

Sprite Oldies

I called them today, to see if the cats were eating in the trap I left tied open, and she was in tears, said she was experiencing health issues. She's been off balance and seeing strange colored spots. She has macular dengeneration and can barely see anyhow.

She's been to a couple doctors just since this occurred and they do not think she had a stroke but she will be getting an ultra sound I think she said.

I really like this old couple and commiserate with the atrocities affecting their bodies with old age. They are so delightful, I just wish I had that magic wand to make everything ok for them. I love them.

I barely know them, and yet I know them. He has a wicked deadpan sense of humor and she has a kind good heart. They love their family and their animals. I think they've lived good lives, probably the same as most folks, a lot of good and bad mixed in over the decades. They've stuck together which always amazes me, the loner, and how people remain together, through thick and thin, forgiving all the little strange habits and faults of the other. I think it's beautiful, such commitment. The ability to do that is a great great skill I admire very much.

I tried to tell her to forget the trapping and that I will rig a stray feeder platform for them with a large self feeder, so that if she is ill, she can just forget feeding them for a week at a time or more. But she'd have none of that. She loves those strays very much and feeding them makes her feel good and is a highlight of her day. She is delighted she can now pet all of them, now that all but two are fixed. They love her, too, and regard her as their savior and guardian.

Oh, if life were not so short and if only the mind instead of the body said when enough was enough. If only she could jump into a young skin and occupy it another 90 years with that beautiful and kind spirit.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Crusty is Now Alby

Crusty's new name is Alby and he already met their dog, hissed once and now they're ok together. His adoptors think he's very special and he's already occupying their laps. Isn't that great news? He is headed in to the vet tomorrow.

I'm just thrilled he got such a great home, makes the toilet fiasco of last night no big deal. As a result, I didn't get to bed very early, taking it apart late as I had to. It's functioning perfectly now. I do think it was caused by the missing sponge. The good thing about the event, was that I got that toilet sparkling clean while it was apart!

We're having a warm storm. Warm temps, decent winds, torrential rains. Someone I know has a friend who is a weather geek and he added me to his forecast list. He said we could get some very intense thunderstorms, lightning strikes, and hail out of a system moving in, and to be on the watch for funnel clouds. I think that's with the next system coming ashore.

I am trying to finish all indoor projects, like vaccuuming out all the heat vents, not fun stuff, but goes with spring cleaning.

I try not to worry about my brothers, but I can't help it. They're men. Losing jobs or even employees is very tough on a male psychee. I do not want my brothers to go under. One brother told me in a brief conversation that he brought all his personal items home from work because he is unsure when things might go south very rapidly at his workplace. My other brother has had to lay off employees which bothers him immensely. He sees them as family. He is trying to find jobs to bid on, but it's sort of a dry barren landscape out there for contractors these days.

I could live homeless and be ok, but I don't think my brothers could, especially my older brother. I shouldn't worry about them and I try not to. I just try to think of ways I could help if either ends up losing their livlihoods completely.

I know if my younger brother goes under, since he owns this house I rent from him, I could lose a place to live. But I don't worry about that, because it is out of my hands. Just in case that happens, I'm getting ideas together and reducing any unwanted stuff I have here.

I've been working on a pop up frame idea that fits over and into the back of my car, that could convert it, with little effort, into a very nice living space. I'm also working on ideas for easy up very comfortable large-tent size temp houses, that are lightweight, fit together easily, include a floor, insulation, windows, slope roof for rain harvesting, and add on cooking/heating area. Tiny, complete, cheap, comfy and mobile.

Our economy is kind of a tough thing. It depends on people buying a lot of things they don't really need to live. And also on making things you do need so that they fall apart quickly so you have to buy another one of the same. Otherwise, if people buy only what they need and those are really well made items, money is not going to be spent and so there will be no jobs for the masses of people out there.

We really don't need that much to live. Water, sewage and garbage disposal, food, shelter, power, transportation, clothing, but not that much clothing, ability to cook, wash clothes, and medical care for bodies, eyes and teeth.

Transformations in power production and supply, i.e. creative systems, invented, built and installed by private industry, might really gung ho the economy. Same goes for transportation, even sewage disposal and rain water harvesting systems. Such private systems would not only boost the economy with jobs, but lessen tax loads on citizens opting out of public water, sewage and monopolized power utilities. Reduced demands for public water and sewage would free up city services and reduce their costs. They also just might be far easier on the environment and create all sorts of rippling good things.

The above paragraph is the result of me surfing the web last night looking for ways to fix the toilet. I stumbled across many sites about rain water harvesting, for garden and yard use, and even for drinking. Also, delightful uses for gray water, which otherwise, goes down the drain to the river or treatment center, in watering crops and fruit orchards. I found more sites about compost toilets and wondered if a business might start picking up and composting human waste. One site had toilets that automatically diverted urine, to a bucket, that then, diluted one part urine to three parts water, was used as a natural nitrogen fertilizer for yards and gardens.

Vertical gardens using walls of dirt interwoven into garden fabric and mesh, makes gardening possible in tiny areas.

I found alternate house material construction sites, like Honey Houses, so named because they look like beehives, once finished, make from rammed earth bags. These long tube bags are rammed full of clay and sand, or just dirt, or, anything available in the area, to create stable attractive houses, plastered, once finished, inside and out.

I was heartened to see all these creative sites, where ordinary people are doing these things now primarily because its cost effective and saves them money. They make sense, too. I'm going to make shoes out of an old tire. I found a video showing people making their own shoes. The rubber of a tire makes a great sole.

The fundamental issue, however, of people doing for themselves, and re-using, is that jobs are lost. We live in a human overpopulated world and if we don't buy stuff, people lose their jobs and their ability to feed themselves and yet they continue to reproduce.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Toilet Disaster

If it's not one thing, it's another. My toilet overflowed. I did dump mop water down the toilet today, when I was cleaning up before the Crusty adoptors came. I think there is a missing sponge. I used the same bucket with soap and water to hand clean. I remember dipping my hand down in the bucket to make sure the sponge wasn't there, but I bet I missed it.

I tried plunging. No help. I emptied all the water out using an old plastic container, then ran a piece of cable rope up, a fake snake. Nothing. Water I pour into the bucket will flush down but only so far.

I don't know any way to get a functioning toilet back but to take it apart and see if that sponge is crammed up in the ceramic bowl, before it goes down into the sewer pipe. I only know how to do this because I had to install a new toilet, well a used one from the habitat store, into the slum shack. That one had a cracked bowl so it was always leaking into the very poorly installed vinyl flooring that was many many layers thick, each with water, from the long leakig toilet trapped beneath the next. It was so foul and moldy. Slumlord thing.

So I unhooked the water hose so far, took the tank off and am about to remove the bowl. I do not have another bowl seal but for now, I just want to get whatever is clogging it out. I am hoping it is clogged and has nothing to with our excessive severe rain going on, or backup from the city sewer line due to excessive rain. There's supposed to be some backflow prevention valve in the line, but who knows when this house was built in the 70's if they actually installed it. That would suck so bad. I am very much hoping just to find a wayward sponge up in there.

Sometimes I wish I had the Lovable Loo!

UpDATE: I took the thing completely apart, then ran a home made snake up from the bottom hole and got it clear through to the bowl. No clog. No clue why it overflowed then did so repeatedly, after I turned off the water, and tried to flush it by dumping water in with a bucket.

I even dropped a bead into the bowl and manipulated the whole thing until it dropped out the bottom clean as a whistle. The sewer pipe itself, going down beneath the house was clean too. Nonetheless I poured some buckets of hot water down it, then dumped baking soda down it and added a half bottle of vinegar.

I could feel and hear wind whipping up through the sewer pipe into the bathroom. That was odd. It must have a vent pipe that was responsible and if so, depending on where it attaches, the sewer pipe also must be clean, to allow wind through like that. I've never seen the sewer vent pipe around the perimeter of the house however. Guess I never looked. It would have to be somewhere that it would catch wind.

So I put it all back together quickly enough. There's disintegration in the rubber components in the tank. Suppose I'll have to replace the tank components soon enough. But the float works ok and isn't overloading the bowl when flushing.

Well, I don't know why it overflowed like it did, with nothing in there clogging it. Strange stuff. But at least I cleaned everything out and up. And then I used it.

Grasshopper Explosion?

There may be an explosion of grasshoppers this summer, in the midwest. Click the post title to go to the story. But, in some places, this would be seen as a boon, places where grasshoppers are eaten. I bet I would eat them, too, if hungry. I bet they could be prepared in many different ways. Including chocolate covered!

If things went sour with the economy, I already have planned what I will feed my cats. I suppose many people wouldn't like it, but I will raise mice for them. Also, there is no need to go hungry, if the need was severe, I would eat nutria. Their fur would not be wasted, as it is waterproof and would make good boots. I do not believe it is right or wise to waste parts of an animal, if you find it recently dead or must kill to survive.

Anyhow, there is lots of talk from the right wingers about revolution and violence. This is scary stuff, to think fellow Americans would take up arms against other Americans. It's like what happens in Iraq and in Africa. But it is good always to know what you might do to survive, if everything collapsed, including transportation and hence the food supply, since almost nothing is grown and sold locally.

That Lovable Loo toilet is one way to have an indoor toilet and compost your own waste to then use to have good fertilizer to grow vegetables you can eat.

I think the easiest vegetable to grow is squash, from pumpkins to zucchini. They pretty much grow themselves. The good thing about many squash plants is you can also dry and then eat the seeds which have a lot of protein.

I don't like watching the news anymore. There is very little positive reported, but when there is positive, it is cause for celebration. Those who can maintain a sense of humor and kindness in our violent judgemental world, they're heros to me.

When I see bad news stories, like the impending grasshopper population explosion, I try to think of ways it could be good. Like eating grasshoppers. That many could feed a lot of people for a very long time.

New Moon.

I rented New Moon, of the Twilight series. I thought maybe this one would not be as much of a yawner as the first. But I had trouble, just like with the first one, staying awake through it.

They are beautifully filmed but depressing to the core and, I must say, boring. The gorgeous natural settings carefully camouflage the reality beneath the beauty, of a world inhabited by darkness.

I think the films portray excellently the angst and turmoil of youth, who are, in the age of change and independence, preyed upon, innocence and optimism butchered. Such a confusing monstrous world it is. In the end, one must make allegiances to one monster or the other.

Kids Hungry for Adventure. 16 Year Olds Sailing the World Alone

Click post title to go to an article about a 16 year old California girl, sailing solo around the world, about to embark into the world's most dangerous waters, rounding Cape Horn, at a time when weather can turn very very nasty.

She says she's not afraid. I bet her parents are going through some worried nights.

Another 16 year old girl from Australia has already gone around Cape Horn and continues her journey sailing solo around the world.

What drives kids to such dangerous treks? Adventure of course and the deep human longing to explore. There's not many places left to explore. Or adventures to be had. Even climbing Mt. Everest has become somewhat commonplace, with climbers facing traffic jams of other climbing expeditions in narrow spots on the trail up and down. Mt. Everest is said to be littered in left behind trash and oxygen bottles now, from climbing expeditions.

Space may be the next and only uncharted place for adventurers.

The two teen girls out on the ocean alone are a world apart from adrenalin junkees, seeking quick fix thrills. I suppose there will always be places to find fixes for adrenalin addictions. The most fascinating I find is the new sport of skin gliding which combines a skin tight suit equipped with wing flaps, base jumping and sky diving. These folks really fly! I can only dream of what it might be like to fly, as they do.

I rented the movie "Hurt Locker" which was filmed under the premise that war is a drug, an addiction. The film follows a bomb tech in Iraq, whose job is to disarm all sorts of bombs. He loves his work, which leads him to take risks with fellow soldiers lives. And, after shipped home, finds he cannot live without the adrenalin rush of that work. He re-enlists, leaving his young son behind at home. The movie deserves its Oscar.

I have been surprised to meet so many young people who signed up for the military because they want to engage in firefights. I had never considered such a reason. I had thought it was a patriotic thing. Many are eager to engage in fighting and feel cheated if that does not happen in their military experience. Maybe war is a drug. Or, at the least, a fix for adrenalin junkees.

If this young girl's boat flips in severe weather off Cape Horn, she will be a speck in the vastness and likely will never be found. She knows this and yet she continues. Like so many adventurers and explorers who have gone before.

Crusty Gets His Home


Crusty went to a new home today, with someone who fell in love with him online and wanted to help him. She had already shown his photo to her own vet, in Lincoln City, who will be doing his needed eye surgery immediately.

Thank you, Carla, and allergic hubby, for giving Crusty a very beloved home. And for getting his eye surgery done. What a relief it will be for him. These folks are real animal lovers.

Carla has promised to send photos, once his surgery is done, so I'll keep you posted here, on Crusty's progress!

I am so happy to at last find a cat a home. I mean a house cat home. The three homeless camp ferals are placed now, too, so that's good. That's four cats out of my spare bedroom, with one to go, the lovable Blingo. He needs a new name. In the end, he bugged Crusty too much, so much so that Crusty began growling at him, which did make Blingo relent some. But Crusty began avoiding Blingo. To pet Crusty, I had to put Blingo in the cage and close the door, which visibly hurt his feelings. I felt so terribly, I immediately took him out and carried him around. Man is he ever good at the guilt thing.

So I don't feel bad at all about seperating the boys because of Blingo bugging Crusty to death and hogging all the attention. Blingo is going to be happy anywhere with anyone who will love him like he wants loved. He is an extraordinary cat full of character and quirks.

Crossed Fingers

I have my fingers and toes crossed. The folks interested in Crusty are coming this afternoon. But, if he inflames the husbands allergies, it will be a no. I am washing everything in the house, cleaning, vacuuming. I don't want a flake of pet dander anywhere in the house when they come, to up Crusty's chances.

Yesterday, I finished up the dryer venting project. I had problems with the way the dryer had been vented and ended up removing all the long vent pipe because it was too long and crinkled material, so it had collected lint and nearly clogged. To run a dryer vent 8 feet it has to be smooth venting, I found out. So I replaced the old vent tube with a smooth one, rerouting it to exit closer, also. It was somewhat tough, because I lacked the proper tools.

It is now secured along the wall as is the water vent pipe from the furnace, which had been installed so water would have had to run uphill, which of course it won't. I'd had to cut parts out of it, and then reassemble the pipe at the proper slope then re-attach it to the wall. Now that's done, too.

I finally got some groceries. I love making leek potato soup in my crock pot. It is very very cheap to make and I love it. I add various spices, green onions if I have them, whatever I have, actually, and throw in some rice to thicken it. This last batch was drab brown. I didn't have any peppers or tomatos to add for color. I like colorful food. The week before last I had cooked a pot of black eyed peas, then used them for various concoctions all week long.

I ate the leek soup about four nights in a row, then used the rest as a dip for some chips I got at the Grocery Outlet when buying groceries. They were interesting chips, made with vegetables and low salt content. I don't like chips much because the high salt content burns my mouth and makes me feel sick. But the low or no sodium chips work just fine, or I make my own, out of tortillas. That way I don't have to add any salt.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

More Atrocities in the Name of Christianity

"The LRA is led by self-declared mystic and prophet Joseph Kony, who claims his insurgency -- which began in 1986 -- is aimed at replacing Uganda's government, led by President Yoweri Museveni, with a democracy based on the Bible's Ten Commandments."

The LRA in the Congo is a bloody awful cult of Bible weirdos. They are now attributed with massacring over 300 civilians including a 3 year old girl who was burned to death. Many others were tied up and hacked to death with machetes. Little kids were forced to form circles around children who disobeyed LRA rules and take turns beating them to death with clubs. LRA stands for The Lord's Resistance Army or some such drivel.

Had It!

I've had it with that trailer park. The people there complain and complain about the cats, but will not lift a finger to help and management will not create a fixed pets only policy but will claim that all cats there are supposed to be inside only. However, that's bunk. And people bring in and abandon unfixed cats all the time.

I watched two more unfixed males cruise through, as I sat in my car attempting to catch the two I knew of left, that the woman feeds, who claims she hates all the cats but feeds them. She is sometimes nice to me, but only if I walk on eggshells.

Tonight, I had to leave while she went out to dinner, then she called that she was back and the two cats were there. So I went over again, but they had left by then. I sat in my car an hour waiting anyhow, then went in to tell her they were gone and I wasn't going to sit in my car there all night. I asked her to find a friend in the park who might watch traps. That's when she started in about one guy was going to move out just because of free roaming cats. And about the cats in general. I asked her not to complain about cats. I'd asked her that before. I had told I'm a volunteer who loves cats, so the one thing I ask, is that you don't start in on cats.

I don't know what to do when I'm giving my time like that, and someone just won't shut up about complaining about cats to me. I'm going to defend them. I can't pretend I'm some inanimate object as some stranger vents at me about things I love. Wish I could, but I'm human and have feelings and all that. I'm putting out to help someone and all they can do is gripe? That's not right. They can gripe to their friends.

I said "That's pathetic." I went on to tell her that anyone here could have gotten involved to solve this problem and to demand of management a fixed pet only policy, but people just complain, never get involved, and expect outsiders to come in and continue to solve the ongoing problem on their own time and at their own expense.

It is a huge issue there, the entitlement attitude that is. They want cats but don't want to fix them, then abandon them. And people will not get involved because they seem bred to apathy and sit on your butt complaining. I told that lady, "Don't you think it's a little strange to have someone you don't even know, who isn't paid, out sitting in the dark in a cold car, trying to solve this, at her expense and on her time, rather than people here doing this?"

I said the same thing to those gripey complainy neighbors up at the Lebanon foreclosed upon house, where the woman foreclosed on had too many cats, and left them, when she left. Yes, she had a husband but he was lazier than lazy. Those neighbors were really whiney and complainy and I wished I could not hear them after awhile, or understand their language. I had to try to create a whole new reality for myself, to survive those whiney complainy sit on your butt neighbors up there.

Because they could have helped their neighbor get those cats fixed. Instead, they just sat on their butts and complained or huddled in little groups and complained or went to church and complained. And when she was foreclosed on, and the greedy house flipping company bought it, and that asswipe money hungry freak who worked for them was up there acting like an ass, they had to find someone new to complain to, so they took to trying to come complain to me, when they'd see me there, trying to save the cats.

The trailer park woman didn't see it that way. And then she began griping about the cats again and saying mean things about Crusty, like "if you don't want to pay for his surgery, bring the damn thing back then." That's when I walked out, collected my traps and came home. In my mind, I was seeing Crusty, who had needed help so badly, and now this woman calling him "the damn thing", and I just wanted out of there so bad I could have run like the wind to escape this talk I never wanted to hear in the first place.

The only way I can help cats in that trailer park is in the middle of the night when I don't have to talk to any of the people there. That lady I've been helping out is nice maybe, but not to me, unless, like I said, I don't say a thing to her. She could not care less how much time and money I've put into helping her out, just like the rest of the people there. It's an attitude that permeates a lot of this area and I'm really tired of it. She has a really nice car and a lot of really nice things and she should be more grateful for getting hours upon hours upon hours of free labor and help from a total stranger. So why couldn't she just shut up and not talk mean about the cats. She knew I couldn't handle it. I'd told her so at least three times.

As for the pregnant female, guess she's going to have figure out how to get her caught and fixed herself. Work at it some. Lift a finger. I'm done.

I wish I could catch her and help her, get her fixed and somewhere she could be loved and appreciated. I wish I could go into another dimension to do it, a dimension occupied by only me and the cats and no blabbering complaining people at all. None at all.

You know, that's what I want. I want to be loved and appreciated and I can't find it here. Sometimes I think to myself, "oh my gawd, how did I end up in hell?" Cause I think that's where I am at right now. In hell. Nothing's going to change here. I thought I could explain all about spay neuter and how much suffering is caused by too many cats and people would listen and then do some research on their own and make the same conclusion and things would get better. Ain't happening.

Might be the drug and alcohol culture. I don't meet anybody who doesn't do one or the other or both. The kids and the animals get caught in the crossfire, creating hell, because if the kids and the animals are suffering, then it's all wrong. Click post title to go to article on child abuse rates in Linn County.

I was so lonely yesterday evening I called both my brothers on their cell phones and landlines and left messages. But there was no answer and nobody called back. This morning, however, my older brother called back, but then his wife called him to breakfast and he said he'd call me later, but he didn't.

I just want to find a couple friends, is all, somebody to laugh with, to do things with now and then and I can't find a single soul out there with the time or inclination. I'm getting desperate maybe. I'm no good anymore. I can't find my reason to smile.

Lovable Loo, No Water Bucket Toilet Compost the Waste!

This is fascinating actually. Click the post title to go to the website of a man who makes and uses the lovaable loo, a snazzy looking box, basically to house a five gallon bucket that is where your waste is deposited when you go.

You cover your waste afterwards with sawdust. This takes away any odor and begins the composting process.

He has two compost bins and videos on how to make them. He composts the waste with other organic matter including fats and meat leftovers, which are generally no no's in compost although I've never known why. The waste composts for a year at least before he uses it on his garden.

In one video he made, he did a trial, planting peppers in three plots. One plot of nine pepper plants went in without any compost. The second nine peppers got humane compost made with wood shavings, which he generally does not believe are very useful, due to high surface area of the shaving, compared to sawdust. These plants fared far better than those planted without any compost. The third plot of peppers was planted in humane manure composted in sawdust and other organic kitchen and yard waste. This last plot of peppers did the best.

I have long thought it would be great to compost the cats litter, instead of putting it in the dumpster. I think I'm going to try it, since I use wood pellet fuel anyhow as cat litter, the kind with no added anything. This disintegrates to sawdust when wet. I am going to start a small project composting this waste. Would it not be great if shelters handed over their waste to composters? This would require a switch for some shelters to biodegradable litters like pellet fuel, but many already use wood pellets because they are cheaper and don't create such a mucky mess as do the clumping and clay litters.

Jeanne, I hope you don't mind, but I've decided to get you the Lovable Loo for your birthday. You're going to love it! So will your family!

British Veterinarians Kill Themselves at High Rates

Suicide rates among British veterinarians are high, according to the article you can read by clicking post title.

Possible reasons listed are the handiness of barbituates, since suicide is often an impulsive act, and that maybe since veterinarians practise euthanasia to end suffering that some veterinarians may see it as a viable way to end any suffering they might be going through.

Also listed as possible reasons behind higher depression rates in veterinarians are the recent outbreaks of diseases like foot and mouth that have required mass slaughter of farm animals. This is hard on professionals dedicated to saving animals.

Another thought is that the profession attracts the brightest people, who have personality traits that make them prone to depression, like perfectionism and dedication. And, a US vet suggested, the dilemmas involving patient care, in which owners often will not or can not pay for procedures that would save a life, can put vets into a position where they must kill relatively healthy patients.

The person who did the research on veterinarian suicide rates in Britain is a veterinarian himself, who went through a bout of severe depression.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Goodbye Martha, Peter and James

Martha in the containment cage at her new home.
James in the cage at the new home.
Martha and Peter in the containment cage. They were used to this cage because it was in the spare bedroom with them for the time they spent there.


The three went to their barn home yesterday. I visited them today, and added James in with Martha and Peter.

Crusty saw another vet and I got a great quote on price. He will have surgery Tuesday. That is, if the Lincoln City couple don't adopt him on Sunday. They love him already. If they do adopt him, their vet will do the surgery. The catch? The hubby is allergic so will have to spend time alone with Crusty, to see if he provokes allergic response.

This is not as uncommon as you might think. Toby's sister spent twenty minutes out in a car parked in front of my place with the man of the house, also allergic, before she was declared fit for their home. He'd even brought a book to read, during the twenty minute trial time alone in the car.

Initially, they discussed also adopting Blingo, but I don't think they are now considering more than Crusty. We'll see how it goes. Cross your fingers Crusty doesn't start the man into sneezing fits. Maybe I'll vacuum him right before they arrive. Wipe him down. Bathe him. Super glue his fur. Something!

Blingo is a fat cushy doglike cat, who follows me around almost making me trip. He is excessively friendly and eager to please but slightly needy and unapologetic and egotistical about requiring his needs be met when he needs them met. Blingo is not your ordinary cat by any means and is meant to be adopted by a not so ordinary human.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Best Country for Women and Three Cats Fixed Today

Click post title to go to article about the best country to be a woman and treated as an equal. It's Sweden! The US comes in at 17th, just above Costa Rica.

When I read the article, Sweden does sound great for women. I know life has sometimes been hard on me as a woman. It began being born in a small town where getting a summer job was very tough for me, but not for my brothers. Consequently, they bought themselves cars and all sorts of things, and I couldn't buy myself anything. I worked for my father summers, sometimes 12 hours a day, starting at 13, but was paid nothing. He gave me a camera one summer, allegedly in payment for working all summer for him, while my brothers raked in the dough working at mills or construction. But after a camera class at school, my father took the camera back.

I never had a car in my teenage years because I could not afford one and eventually bought an old low power motorcycle to ride at college. This fate did not befall my brothers, who even had the money for project cars and sports cars. My older brother traveled over seas as a teen.

My father viewed women as made for men only. I suppose that had more to do with my problems as a girl child than anything else. But in that town at that time, decent pay summer jobs were defended as for men only, because men supported families, it was claimed, and women had babies. Most men I knew didn't use their money to support families, just bars. So I knew it was bunk then. Just a power thing.

The article is interesting to read!

I took in three cats to be fixed today, clear up to the Wilsonville clinic, since I've not gotten resolution yet at the local one, over the credit card, check thing. They were two males and a female, all tame and from the trailer park where Crusty comes from. The boys were a brown tabby and a black while the girl was a brown tabby/torbi sort. All were siblings and seven months of age and now fixed.

I also took two of the homeless camp cats over to the relocation cage. Bad bad timing with the weather turning so rotten. I took over Martha and Peter, but James went bananas in my bedroom, tore through my net, then jumped off a shelf at the door, hurling himself, after which he dropped to the floor like a ton of bricks. So, I didn't push it, and he can stay here another day, to calm down, then join his brother and Martha.

So they don't want more than three, due to the cost of food and the fact no one there has a real income. I can understand that and it made me not have to make any decision on Blingo, since if they will take only three, makes sense to keep the tame one here because he has more of a chance of finding that elusive home.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Adoration: The Crusty/Blingo Love Story

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Sometimes I feel very very old. But my age has little to do with problems associated with the advent of high tech society. I am talking about scammers and whackos, using the anonymous cloak of the web or other tech devices to harass and defraud people or just to mess with people, because they are so unhappy or bored with their own lives. Or because they lack empathy or direction or such actions are harbored in their homes or upbringing.

I am happy to say the Oregon Department of Justice has been a friend. When I first got my tracfone, I was beleaguered by robocalls from debt collection agencies. It seems tracfone immediately sold my personal information, linking my land line and tracfone number. My land line was previously had by someone who must owe everyone in the world money. The calls to both my land line and cell were never ending.

The companies would not stop their illegal tactics when I asked they stop and informed them I was not the person whom they wished to target. One companies robocalls began with a loud obnoxious sound blaring over the message machine. This was followed by a threat. Even though it was a message, they declared if I continued to listen I was agreeing that I was the person, then the name, not mine, that owed them money. Everything about such calls are illegal.

To stop them, I filed a complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice against both debt collecting companies. The Department of Justice got these calls stopped!!!!!

A government on the ball agency? You bet they are! I'd like to send them flowers!

As for the people who contact me via e-mail about cats or donations and make claims, and try to mess me up or take my time and aren't who they say they are, man alive, that is not nice. It is so hard to know who, on the web is real or fake or playing games or a mean nasty vindictive issue laden stranger striking out at anyone. I never knew, before the world of the web, how many people out there have such huge issues with almost everyone else or who make a hobby of pretending to be someone they are not to mess with other people.

I know, at this time of year, spring break, there are teens online, playing jokes and kids will be kids. I remember making prank calls as a kid and thinking it was terribly funny, although it probably was not funny to the person on the other end of the line. You can't really do that so much with caller id anymore, and with overly serious people anxious to turn kids pulling pranks into criminals for such actions.

I try to remember kids will be kids. I also try to assume most of the weird or fake e-mails, or fake promises are kids playing kid pranks, because it's easier on me to think that, than to think it is some adult, issue laden and angry at the world, hunched over the computer in some darkened little room, being vile.

Delusions can be my friend. I want to think people are good. I really really want to believe, still, despite everything. I just do.

High tech devices and inventions like computers, broad band, digital cameras and cell fones have made connecting to people far easier. So helping cats find homes and support is so much easier too.

With the good always comes the bad. That observation does not result because I'm getting old and fear high tech devises. I embrace these new technologies that allow a person without any means to achieve far more than they could ever have done without web access and a relatively cheap camera. I now travel virtually, touring neighborhoods and far away places on google maps street view!

I say it because the bad people now have a whole new world of ways to exhibit their badness. Bad people will always be out there being bad--stealing, lying, cheating and trying to hurt other people. Not all of them are scruffy looking or in black hats either.

Life goes on and life includes a lot of hard things and encounters with bad people. Life includes all sorts of bumps, bruises and hard knocks.

I can't pigeon hole everything as bad or good, or even my own behavior as bad or good all of the time. The gray areas are just life too. I love the tech devises. I love how they help me connect to others far away and to people who adopt cats here waiting.

Crusty the Trailer Park Kitty's Video

Bling is Tame

Bling, the big black male from the homeless camp, who has been waiting here forever to go to a barn home, with three others from the camp, is completely tame now. He has cozied up to Crusty, in a subdominant manner, and wants petted all the time. Creates a dilemma for me, of course.

For sure the other three are going to the home today. I set up a table for the cage to sit on yesterday. Today I took the cage over and set it up. So everything's ready for them.

Below are some close ups of the two boys, from seperate hard luck stories, who now have bonded, although Crusty is annoyed somewhat by Bling's adoration of him. Crusty, is the tabby on white boy, nearly blind, who needs eye surgery, and Bling is a young huge black male born in a homeless camp.









Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Photos of the Three Males Fixed Sunday

This was the tame already neutered nervous natured Maine Coon male, trapped at the Sprite Oldies colony and then released.
The tame Maine Coon young male again, who immediately got released. Hopefully he has a home and went back to it.
DSH Brown tabby tux male, fixed at Sundays' clinic, from the Big Boys trailer park colony of males.
Huge shaggy Maine Coon male, from Big Boys trailer park colony, fixed last Sunday.
The big feral Maine Coon again.
White male, from Sprite Oldies, fixed Sunday.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Look at this, On MS, Possible Cure?

This possible MS cause involves the fact many MS patients seem to narrower, or more clogged or more branched out veins draining the brain. Click the post title to go to the story on a radical new causative theory and treatment for MS.

The new approach is to clean out those veins, stint them or angioplasty them open. However, this is experimental and no long term studies have been done.

My own theory has been close to this. My theory was that drainage from the brain of MS patients was slow or abnormal, but that this caused heat build up in the brain, since MS patients have to avoid heat, as it intenfies demylination and symptoms. I wondered if the skulls of MS patients might be thinner in spots, predisposing their brains to warm or if it was a blood issue causing warming in the brain which melted the fatty mylin nerve sheaths.

See blood flow helps cool the body. So my theory was based on that, that if heat causes MS patients greater symptoms and blood helps cool the body, then there must be something wrong with the blood flow in the brains of MS patients. Or, that their brains were being exposed to undue heat maybe because of thin spots in the skull, which also insulates the brain against heat.

Or, that their skulls are thicker than normal, trapping heat. You've heard the adage no doubt. Are you cold? Put on a hat.

I still think it might be caused more by brain overheating due to the drainage problems, rather than what the theory is in this treatment, that inadequate blood drainage due to faulty veins causes leakage of destructive cells into the brain and mylin sheaths.

Could it be that the cause of all the MS misery is mechanical? Some hotshot blood vessel specialist will get on this and invent something spectacular and life saving. I just know it.

Basket Case

I am a basket case, worn out, from dealing with too many issues, then the all nighter. The Ikea bed frame issue has been huge. $99 down the drain. I don't have that kind of money to flush. Plus, I'm still without a bed frame. I am going to dismantle it.

I was going to try to rig it with a home made frame beneath it to hold up the mattress, but now I'm just going to dismantle it and use the pieces for cat runs or something.

It is flimsy and held together on the corners by three flimsy wood pegs, that insert halfway into each board, about a half inch, then one screw. The screw is screwed into one piece, but only about a half inch, then inserts into the other piece, at each corner post through a hole. You then insert a half moon piece of plastic over the screw body between the head and the edge of a hole and tighten the screw against the plastic. It's really crap and probably would not even hold together with a mattress.

It's hard to think about wasting that much money. It's hard to think I went up there to get it, all excited, thinking I was going to have something decent, and then this result. I just want to sob today.

I finally mustered my courage and called the vet clinic, to see what could be worked out over that phone call, and the woman making those claims about me affecting their business, when paying by check or credit card or when donations are called in.

The receptionist doesn't know much, she said, just does her job, but said she would have another person call. She did say if someone calls in a credit or debit card, the bank charages them more, if they have to punch in the numbers, something like $4 more, but she wasn't sure of the exact amount. These big banks just take and take and take.

In many ways, I wish we could all go to a cash only society. Screw those greedy big banks.

I watched a show on China and how those supposed sweat shops operated when US companies go overseas, are not so bad, really, given the much lower cost of living in China. Many workers have saved enough to buy their own houses, in a relatively short time. In that story, the Chinese scoffed at the idea of getting a loan to buy a house, saying that's not owning a house, it's renting it from a bank.

Houses cost far less there to buy, of course, and likely there are not all the government permits required, inspections, fees, insurance. Here, there is no way anyone could save up enough to buy a house outright anymore. But when you take out a loan to buy a house, you pay so much more on the interest.

Houses there are likely also much much smaller.

We here must depend on banks for everything. I wonder how we could ever get away from that. Insurance of all kinds also drives up costs severely.

I heard about all the hoopla with the health care bill passage. I don't know if the bill will work but some of the loud mouthed Republicans are terribly annoying. What in the world is wrong with spending money to help Americans and to reign in incredulous profiteering that goes on, not only with health care, but with war. The Republicans never lifted a finger in all the years they controlled the white house to do anything to help Americans afford health care. To hear them railing now, that the American people don't want this bill, makes me want to vomit all over all of them, like they give a shit about the American people.

And the yell about "baby killers", like they're not, starting and supporting useless expensive never ending wars, sending our young people off to war where not just babies are killed, but chaos and ruined lives are created for generations and where big private companies like Haliburton, now renamed, profiteer relentlessly and shamelessly. They only care about American fetuses, and only when in the womb. Get born and screw you. Or someone will, like the big banks, with government approval, winks and nods.

I want to vomit on these outrageous assholes. Vomit relentlessly.

I don't know if the health care bill will make things better or if we can afford it. We could if we just pulled out of Iraq right now and closed a whole lot of overseas military bases all over the world. Why in the world do we need those everywhere?

We need to take care of America and Americans for a change.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

All NIghter

I pulled an all nighter, out after cats in the Big Boys Colony and the Sprite Oldies colony.

Right now, I feel like I've been run over by a bulldozer.

Getting old.

The responses from Ikea I believe now are automated. I believe this because there's no personalization, and the same thing is repeated over and over, without any heart or variation. I believe the responses are computer generated, software recognizing certain words, then responding. Either that or a very very cold impersonal person. They do not answer direct questions whatsoever, and insist I must buy seperate packages to make the frame functional, to hold up the mattress. It's really quite cold, like an icebox, and robotic. The whole experience has turned me off Ikea big time. They are a cold inhuman robotic big box store who care nothing about ethics or honesty.

I should have trusted my gut. They have this yellow line you are to follow. My brother, who took me there, would not think of going through the store in any manner other than to follow that yellow line through. That is like is a bunch of cows being herded, for a mechanical materialistic consumeristic money driven purpose. Scary yukko! Get off the line people! Dare to not follow the Ikea yellow line!

My last reply to computer generated customer service, was to try to invoke a human response, to see if they have any humans in customer service. I said, "Shall I then deliver the useless pieces of wood to your parking lot, so that I at least, also do not have to pay the price of disposing of this useless expensive wood you packaged and sold as a functional bed frame?"

I don't know if computer generated customer service would be able to respond to that. I got no response either, so my theory I believe has been proven valid, that Ikea's customer service is a machine generated response.

I wanted to tell computer generated Ikea that I had lamented my useless Ikea bed frame problem to the trailer park woman and that she has planned out and decorated that trailer fabulously, choosing artful colors and decor that would put Ikea's boxed splendor to shame, not to mention the fact the trailer park woman's abode is decidedly warm and human to boot, not a yukky mucky cattle yard, like Ikea. And that the trailer woman said Ikea provides cheaper shit than Walmart that is poorly built but packaged to be yuppie trendy is all. But their icebox machine customer service would never include recognition of the word "trailer"! OMG no!

So, all night it was, back and forth, to the two colonies. At the Big Boys colony, I first found the short hair eartipped brown tabby in the trap. I released him and reset.

At the Sprite Oldies, I caught two males, a long hair tabby and the white male. Then, I caught the Sprite Oldies own orange and white long hair cat, Baby, who had gotten out last night. He had been howling loudly in the trap, as only a pampered house boy can howl, which usually creates enough stir to ensure no other cats are going to be trapped.

I applied catnip to the area liberally, in hopes getting them stoned out of their minds might help. It didn't. The last cat I caught there, in a very long night, was the brown tabby tux I got neutered a couple weeks ago. This is the fifth time I've trapped him. He was so stoned he just sat there staring vacantly at me from the trap and I had to shake him out. Too much catnip!

The dogs on that odd street would start to bark, as I talked to the stars and any strays who might listen, sneaking around, tip toeing sometimes, trying to be invisible to the apathetic street, where I've spent so many nights over the last three years, trying to help the unwanteds there, and they are many. The old man came out on the porch at one visit, after midnight, hearing the dogs or seeing my light. "It's just me," I offered, waving from my open car window, "the cat lady," apologetically. I mumbled, "They all think I'm nuts here, even the Alzheimerics, and I don't care at all. I just don't care at all."

At the Big Boys colony I thought I'd caught the pregnant long hair tabby. But the big hairy Maine Coon lion looker looked very male to me and it was a big male. I also recaught the short hair orange eartipped male and released him. He looked at me with shame, as if being caught a second time made him feel stupid. But not that stupid. When I opened the trap, for him to leave, he seemed disappointed, and turned to gulp the wet food, before he would exit.

Probably thought he could freeload a good time off me in my garage for a couple days.

So I had four boys I thought, at least, until, the long hair little tabby from Sprite Oldies cut loose with the most mournful howling in his trap in my garage. I took him into my bathroom and let the worried little boy out. He is a beautiful previously neutered young Maine Coon, very nervous natured but loving and sweet. I fed him, held him, hugged him, then took him back. I hope he has a home. I told him if he doesn't, and he might not, this being Albany with Albany values which don't include much respect for little lives like his, that he needed to come back running, when he sees my car, let me know, and I will try to find him somebody to love him like somebody should.

So I went to the clinic with three big boys, two more from the trailer park Big Boys colony, where Crusty comes from, where I've either trapped eleven big boys or 12. See I've lost track now. And then the tough white boy from the Sprite Oldies. All three were neutered and ready to go by noon.

There weren't many volunteers there. It was cold and pouring. But there were enough. And the vets were hot shit, running through the 81 cats there, most of them anyhow, by noon. Tamara brought up 46 of those from the North Bend area in a big van. Impressive stuff!

I brought in just the three big boys and was satisfied enough and very happy to come home and fall asleep on my love seat, legs extending off a couple feet beyond its one arm rest, in some crooked enough position that I woke up five hours later completely numb in one leg.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Ikea Responds

I got a response from the customer service online e-mail form, from Ikea. Their response includes a paragraph stating their e-mail can be shared with no one, legally. That's so they can say they responded and lie about the contents I suppose. The gist of their response was "we don't give a shit", but what they actually said was that I could come up to their store and rummage through a barrel filled with common hardware components to try to find what might fit the bedframe and that these excess parts are free.

I replied that this was not suitable, that I paid for a functioning bedframe and it was not up to me to drive two hours up to Ikea to rummage through a bin to try to find parts that were not included in the item I bought in good faith from them.

I also sent them photos from the instruction manuel, on how to put the bed frame together, showing the parts that are missing, and asked that they ship the items to me.

These are the photos from the instruction manuel of the missing components.

The slats, shown in top left photo on page 23, were not in the box, although the pegs were. The pegs sit atop the metal pieces that attach along each side, (which I did get) and are screwed tight from the bottom, to seperate and space the slats. The screws used to secure the wood pegs also were included.


The metal pieces shown at the top of page 20, with installation instructions on page 21, that extend in an offset square, from the middle at each end, to the middle on each side, were not included.
This photo shows the piece of hardware that extends down the middle of the frame, from front to back. The brackets to hold this piece were included but not that metal piece.

Ok, now they are telling me that none of the hardware that makes the bedframe usable is never included with an Ikea bedframe, despite the fact their instruction manuel shows these pieces.

So I responded, "You mean you sell a bunch of pieces of wood for $100? But if you want the frame functional, i.e. hold up a mattress which is I believe the definition of a bedframe, that you have to buy hardware seperately, but Ikea does not disclose to people upon purchase that the huge heavy box does not contain what one will need to have a functional frame?"

The responses from Ikea don't even make sense, but they will not call me. When you buy a bedframe it's supposed to hold the mattress. I would expect that and I don't think it's unreasonable.

I sent them an e-mail stating I would be filing a complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice and Better Business Bureau, because I believe, I told them, that any reasonable person would agree, that if you purchase a bed frame in a distant city and take it home and unpack the box and put it together, it should work to hold up a mattress, as the name implies, without the purchase of further products required to make the frame work as a frame, unless told by a clerk that other products must be purchased in conjunction to make the product work as it is supposed to.

That is a reasonable expectation when you purchase a bedframe in a prepackaged box, that you can come home with that box and put it together and have something to hold up your mattress.

Two Cats Caught for Tomorrow's FCCO Clinic

These are the two cats fixed yesterday, both from Monroe, both females. The black tux was pregnant. I got ten or twelve cats fixed for this family last summer. These two were too small to be fixed then.



The Sprite Oldies are at it again, trapping for the two cats they know of there, left to catch. But, instead, they caught two others, another brown tabby, and the big white male, who now has taken up residence there, too. They're still after the other two, however.

I have five reservations at tomorrow's FCCO clinic. Am after also the two left at the Big Boys trailer park colony. One is the pregnant female and the other another brown tabby younger male.

And may try to catch an injured Albany male, fed by a couple who asked for help with seven kittens and two moms abandoned by neighbors last summer. They were all fixed through Poppa and many of them got homes. But now they have this injured new male arrival.

After the old coordinator resigned as organizer of Corvallis FCCO clinics, some young blood offered to take it over. They sound really organized and efficient and pleasant. Young blood, fresh ideas and new energy is always wonderful to welcome into organizations.

The two cats fixed yesterday in what may be my last contact with that clinic, due to the tongue lashing I got yesterday from one of the owners, over fees for processing checks and credit card payments, were two girls from Monroe. Last summer I got I think 12 cats fixed for a family there. I knew him because he works at Hull Oaks Mill where I trapped a lot of cats to be fixed and rehomed many. Two of the kittens then were too tiny to be fixed, but not now! So they were fixed yesterday and went home last night. Now all their cats are fixed. They're a really nice family, whom I like a lot.

Update: The trailer park woman caught another brown tabby tux, very wild, but not one of the two she wanted to catch. This will be male number ten caught at that location.

Two Cats Caught for Tomorrow's FCCO Clinic

These are the two cats fixed yesterday, both from Monroe, both females. The black tux was pregnant. I got ten or twelve cats fixed for this family last summer. These two were too small to be fixed then.



The Sprite Oldies are at it again, trapping for the two cats they know of there, left to catch. But, instead, they caught two others, another brown tabby, and the big white male, who now has taken up residence there, too. They're still after the other two, however.

I have five reservations at tomorrow's FCCO clinic. Am after also the two left at the Big Boys trailer park colony. One is the pregnant female and the other another brown tabby younger male.

And may try to catch an injured Albany male, fed by a couple who asked for help with seven kittens and two moms abandoned by neighbors last summer. They were all fixed through Poppa and many of them got homes. But now they have this injured new male arrival.

After the old coordinator resigned as organizer of Corvallis FCCO clinics, some young blood offered to take it over. They sound really organized and efficient and pleasant. Young blood, fresh ideas and new energy is always wonderful to welcome into organizations.

The two cats fixed yesterday in what may be my last contact with that clinic, due to the tongue lashing I got yesterday from one of the owners, over fees for processing checks and credit card payments, were two girls from Monroe. Last summer I got I think 12 cats fixed for a family there. I knew him because he works at Hull Oaks Mill where I trapped a lot of cats to be fixed and rehomed many. Two of the kittens then were too tiny to be fixed, but not now! So they were fixed yesterday and went home last night. Now all their cats are fixed. They're a really nice family, whom I like a lot.

Update: The trailer park woman caught another brown tabby tux, very wild, but not one of the two she wanted to catch. This will be male number ten caught at that location.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Ikea Bedframe Missing Much of its Hardware

The As Is Ikea bedframe I got, painted because it was an ugly yellow, is missing major and I mean major hardware components. I got it upright finally and attached the sides. Then went to install the hardware that holds the mattress only to find three major pieces were not in the bag of hardware for the bed.

I was told the frames were in the As Is department pnly because the line was discontinued, not because they were missing major components in the taped together boxes.

They had a display frame there, that did have the hardware pieces that hold up the mattress, then several boxed frames you could buy. I specifically asked why they were in the As Is department, if there was something wrong with them, and the clerk stated "no" that they were a discontinued item and that is why they were in the As Is department.

I have contacted Ikea on their customer service e-mail. No response all day. I did find their number and have called now five times. As soon as I hit the number on their automated customer service helpline that is to direct me to help with an item already purchased, I am disconnected.

So, I called the OR Department of Justice, who said they will take my complaint, as they have had other such complaints. I will also file a complaint with Portland's Better Business Bureau and will try to find one of those online complaint sites that sends your complaint directly to the head of the company.

I am terribly upset and disappointed. I have very little money and I saved for a bedframe. I hate companies that lie to a customer then do not stand up and take responsibility. It's wrong and there's no if ands or buts about it being wrong to rip people off.

I thought they had a good reputation but I never checked that out. I went there once with my older brother. I went up when I did, after taking cats to the Wilsonville clinic, to get that one bunk bed I had been saving for. They were supposed to have it there, according to their website, but they didn't. That's when I got the junker in the As Is. But I never thought I would get lied to, and that there would be missing hardware pieces in the prepackaged box. That I never expected. I paid cash, too, which sucks. I got scammed. Never feels good and I plan to share the pain with Ikea.

Online, on their site, I had a lengthy "conversation" with Ikea Anne, the robotic helper, there to answer your questions. I told her she was useless, in the end, because I wanted resolution on a faulty product I bought there, and she could not help. She said she was sorry and although she was an advanced computer program, she was not that advanced. I said I was sorry too, that she was far more friendly than the human Ikea employees who do not respond to my requests for help, via the online e-mail form, nor do they answer their customer service line. I suggested she ask for a raise, then leave the company. Poor computer generated Ikea Anne. And it's a sad day for the human race when computer generated people exhibit more humanity than real humans.

IKEA--YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON EXISTENT.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Crack Me Up Crime

From the crime report and soooooo Albany! Cracks me up!

"Two female members were returning two elderly family members to their home n the 1200 block of Hood Street S.E after a day of doctors appointments Wednesday when the two younger women got into an argument. April Angel Keasbey, 40, allegedly picked up an oxygen tank belonging to a relative and struck Chrystal Jones, 39, in the head, causing injury."

Crack Me Up Crime

From the crime report and soooooo Albany! Cracks me up!

"Two female members were returning two elderly family members to their home n the 1200 block of Hood Street S.E after a day of doctors appointments Wednesday when the two younger women got into an argument. April Angel Keasbey, 40, allegedly picked up an oxygen tank belonging to a relative and struck Chrystal Jones, 39, in the head, causing injury."

Corvallis Asshole Animal Abusers

Click the link. Go to the story of three more asshole animal abusers, in Corvallis, abusing dogs for fighting and, of course, selling drugs. I hope they're locked up and the keys lost.

Irradiated Food Causes CNS Symptoms in Cats

When I was researching what could possibly be causing Toby's problems, I came across articles about irradiated food and the CNS damage it does to cats. Click post title to go to one article. This is scary stuff. But, the cats often recover when taken off the irradiated food, within a few months. Symptoms can take from two weeks to four months to show up and include extensive demylination. However, once they are taken off the irradiated food, remylination often occurs.

What does this mean for people suffering from MS? I'm not sure, but I think it's hopeful.

What if MS is environmentally caused and symptoms continue because the environmental causation is still present or still present in the body?

When Michael J. Fox got Parkinsons, there was quite a stir. Why? Because he was part of cluster of early onset Parkinsons. He worked in a sitcom in Canada, as a teen. I believe it was ten of his colleagues who worked on that sitcom got early onset Parkinsons.

A vet I admire in Corvallis, who rides her bike in MS support events, and considers the disease epidemic in the valley, told me once a client of hers had a son enrolled at the U of O, who got MS. But the weird thing is that the next person, also a male, who occupied the room he had moved out of, also came down with MS. Coincidence?

Or do both disease reflect environmental causation to some extent? Research came out some time ago linking farmers and gardeners to much higher rates of Parkinsons.

The fact cats develop CNS symptoms and demylination after being fed diets of irradiated food is significant enough. The fact they can recover, when returned to normal non irradiated diets, is very very very significant and not just for cats. Even if the cause of MS demylination is not environmental, the fact maybe if the trigger is found, remylination might be possible is great news, too.

If you go to the article in the link by clicking the post title, also click the link in that same article to the one on remylination. Consider what this could mean for MS patients.

Irradiated Food Causes CNS Symptoms in Cats

When I was researching what could possibly be causing Toby's problems, I came across articles about irradiated food and the CNS damage it does to cats. Click post title to go to one article. This is scary stuff. But, the cats often recover when taken off the irradiated food, within a few months. Symptoms can take from two weeks to four months to show up and include extensive demylination. However, once they are taken off the irradiated food, remylination often occurs.

What does this mean for people suffering from MS? I'm not sure, but I think it's hopeful.

What if MS is environmentally caused and symptoms continue because the environmental causation is still present or still present in the body?

When Michael J. Fox got Parkinsons, there was quite a stir. Why? Because he was part of cluster of early onset Parkinsons. He worked in a sitcom in Canada, as a teen. I believe it was ten of his colleagues who worked on that sitcom got early onset Parkinsons.

A vet I admire in Corvallis, who rides her bike in MS support events, and considers the disease epidemic in the valley, told me once a client of hers had a son enrolled at the U of O, who got MS. But the weird thing is that the next person, also a male, who occupied the room he had moved out of, also came down with MS. Coincidence?

Or do both disease reflect environmental causation to some extent? Research came out some time ago linking farmers and gardeners to much higher rates of Parkinsons.

The fact cats develop CNS symptoms and demylination after being fed diets of irradiated food is significant enough. The fact they can recover, when returned to normal non irradiated diets, is very very very significant and not just for cats. Even if the cause of MS demylination is not environmental, the fact maybe if the trigger is found, remylination might be possible is great news, too.

If you go to the article in the link by clicking the post title, also click the link in that same article to the one on remylination. Consider what this could mean for MS patients.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Toby isn't Going to Make It

He is experiencing multiple organ failure. The vet believes he was born with many defects and problems, including a liver that does not process food well enough to give enough nutrition to grow normally, hence his diminutive size for his age. He does not have Felk or FIV, but she said it could be a display of non effusive FIP although it would be hard to tell until a necropsy. But, she does believe he was born with these problems, that have compounded, as his body tries to grow, and that they are many and that he really never had a chance.

Toby isn't coming home today. He has died.

It is very very sad. When he came back after being adopted with his mom, he was not active and he had the tail twitching thing going. I thought maybe he was just stressed out and getting used to things here, and needed some time to adjust. There is nothing that could have been done for him then either, however. It's one of those things.

When he first came back, he would lick a cinder block I use to hold up something. I could not keep him from licking it. None of the other cats showed any interest in it. I thought then he must have some deficiency and finally had to remove the cinder block from the house. I looked up that behavior today and found this:


The excessive licking of metal, walls and other
> objects has been associated with a
> number of conditions, including diabetes mellitus,
> hyperadrenocorticism, liver disorders,
> hyperthyroidism (cats), hypothyroidism (dogs),
> kidney failure, seizure activity and
> gastrointestinal
> disorders. Given the number of conditions that
> this behavior can occur in conjunction with, it
> may be
> just an unusual habit or it may be that it is a
> non-specific response to a variety of illnesses.
> To the
> best of my ability to research this, there is no
> vitamin or mineral deficiency that consistently
> produces
> this clinical sign

Actually, upon necropsy, it was determined Toby's pancreas was tiny and withered, as if it had been consumed. I asked the vet what would cause this and she thought maybe an autoimmune disease, like Lupus. But I looked it up, and this is usually caused by chronic pancreatitis, which is terribly painful. The scarring and inflammation prevents the digestive enzymes from entering the small intestine so instead, they digest the pancreas itself and spill into the abdominal cavity. It is a horrible horrible disease, of unknown origin in cats, and may be caused by an autoimmune ailment like Lupus.

In dogs, it is usually caused by over eating of fatty foods and age. If I had known his body had disgested his pancreas, I would have put him out of his misery instantly. My only solace is that his blood sugar and electrolites were so out of whack that he probably had no idea what was going on at all.

The only cats I've ever known to get this have had cancer or FIV. Hopi had this in the end. She died of Lymphoma that affected her liver, stomach, pancreas and small intestine. They could not even detect at the very end by X-ray or bloodwork, only with an exploratory surgery. They did not do an extended necropsy to see if Toby had cancer.

Photos of the Four Cats Being Fixed Today

I caught all four of the cats left unfixed at the Seavy Repeat colony. 17 in total. I drop trapped two and straight trapped two. All, by this evening, are now fixed. Last night, after picking up the last cat at near midnight, I spotted a black cat on the sidewalk, near Seavy and Walnut. Of course, I stopped, hoping it wasn't another homeless camp cat to be, recently dumped, but the cat is fat and tame and not interested in food. I think someone lets him wander at night.

Toby is at the clinic again. This time, he will be tested for FIV/Felk. It is very possible he has leukemia, as an underlying condition causing his problems, even though his mom and sisters were negative. His dad could have been positive. He's not going to make it either way. If he has Cushings, the prognosis isn't good either. If he has FIP, which is very hard to diagnose, he won't survive either. He's not got a chance, really.

I stopped by the Sprite Oldies colony, to see how the old man is. He will be having tests, his wife says, to try to determine what is going on. I tried briefly to catch either of the two cats there still not fixed, but they didn't show. Just as I was leaving a huge all white unneutered male sauntered through. He's on the roam and I'm hoping he finds no female receptive.

Black cat on a sidewalk late last night.

Black tux, Shadow, from Seavy repeat, being fixed today.
Sunburst, the torti from Seavy Repeat, being spayed today.
Butch, a tabby tux, female I think, being fixed today.
Samantha, a torti pt. Siamese, being fixed today.
Sprite Oldies colony black and white female (now fixed) and brother, one of two black tuxes, this one fixed, outside the house.

Dog in the Road

 I went to get groceries yesterday morning fairly early. I was expecting visitors, brief ones, pop in and out, so I wanted to get done with ...