Friday, April 30, 2010

Five Cats Being Fixed, and OMG! Driver Going Wrong Way

Gray tabby tux female, fixed today, from the DR.
Stubs, buff female, pregnant at spay, fixed today, from the DR.
Gray tux male, owned, a block from the DR, fixed today.
Blue Pt. Siam female, fixed today, lives a block from the DR. The man who owns these two Siamese females doesn't want them.
Same female again.
And the other Siamese female fixed today, lives a block from the DR and the man wants them gone.


Five cats are up being fixed. Three are from one household a block from the DR situation, all owned and tame. Then two are from the DR itself. The neighbors contained the abandoned little gray tabby tux female, so she is being spayed, and then Stubs, the buff preg female, is being spayed.

That leaves only the long tail buff female in immediate need of fixing, with two other females with kittens (out there somewhere), and a black male not fixed yet who comes through once a day, usually at night.

I returned the torti this morning, who was fixed on Tuesday.

Stinod is returning to the vet today, also. This morning, her snortling from the URI was intensely worsened.

When coming back from the vet, about to make an exit off Pacific to come home, I was faced with a big huge pickup truck coming the wrong way on Pacific right at me. I wasn't sure what to do, so I made the exit and moved over, figuring the woman was drunk.

After the truck sat for a time at that stop sign, having come over the overpass, driving the wrong way in the one way south lanes and making the exit, from the complete wrong direction, the driver and truck turned to follow me onto Jackson and went right by the cop shop. By this time, I was quite a distance ahead and safe, if she was drunk, which I can't figure out any other reason someone would be going the wrong way on the one way overpass.

I didn't get a plate number in all my worry, wanting to avoid being hit, but I did try to call the police. By the time I got through, and tried to explain the location, the truck was long gone. I'm sure the police found my description very helpful: big huge pickup! Yeah, like there are not a zillion of those in Albany.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Me Wrong!

I was wrong about those people at the DR. They caught one of the two preggies left. And they called to make an appointment for the FCCO clinic to get the tame abandoned black and white female in there. See there's something wrong with her. She drinks way too much water. But, they said she has done that ever since she was abandoned, almost two years ago now, and has not gained or lost weight. I would have guessed diabetes or hyperthyroid problems with a cat drinking water like that.

Anyhow, I was wrong. They did catch Stubs and are really into getting them all done now. And they did get out of bed to get it done. They told me tonight, due to all the meds they are on, they don't sleep well, so are up all night usually, but they usually only sleep part of the day and the guy says he often only sleeps three or four hours per day.

The neighbors have pledged to catch the now in heat tabby tux, who is tame to them. She was abandoned by other neighbors. She is being pursued by the male, who lives across the street, whom I got fixed the day before yesterday, but he doesn't know he is fixed yet.

I'd also called some guy advertising kittens and their mothers on craigslist to offer to get the adults fixed. But, he said, KATA had called first and taken in the two remaining kittens. I think they intend to take in the moms. The guy told me so, when I called, offering to get the moms fixed, but then today he calls and asks if I can get them fixed, but hedges around when I ask if KATA is taking them in. I don't like getting played, that's for sure, and the guy wouldn't say if KATA asked him to ask me to get them fixed or not and tried to avoid the question.

Anyhow I decided tonight 'what the hell' and to go ahead and get them done.

These cats are only a block away from the DR situation, come to find out. Funny thing.

Well, at least one more preggie down at the DR situation. One preggie to go. Two lactators to go, and their kittens found, if alive. And one in heat teen abandoned to go. Then there's a black male, too. But getting closer to completion.

Stinod still is not eating. She has a snarfling URI and I hope that is the reason, because her cheek lump is all but gone now. I had a hard time alone giving her push fluids sub cu today, but finally got her 35 cc, at least. Not much but it isn't easy to do push fluids alone when a cat doesn't want it done and is squiggling all over the place. She still has six whole days left on antibiotics and she just hates being in the bathroom alone.

She has become a little love bug who wants to be petted and held constantly. And yet, it can be dangerous.

She only sees shadows with that one eye, but wants to rub her cheek against my face. And that is when things get dicey, because if I move my eyes, she can panic and suddenly startle, slapping at my face lightning fast with claws out.

So I wear eye protection now, when I hold her. Then I can completely relax and not feel I might lose an eye if she suddenly sees a shadow movement and takes a swing in panic and that movement turns out to be my eyeball which I need.

So I got one deaf cat and one blind cat and they're my favorites. They have the most personality and the most courage and pluck like you'd never believe unless you know them. They also have trust and if they didn't, they'd have nothing.

Debt Collector Scamming Scumbags

I get maybe 20 calls per day from the same number. That number is: 866-526-7795. I don't know who they are. I've answered it once, and the person immediately wanted my capital one credit card number. Only I don't have one. I told them so and asked what company this was, calling me a zillion times a day. They became rude, vulgar and finally after I repeated that question about ten times, they hung up. But the calls continue.

Today, I answered again and the woman wanted my card number. I said "Who are you people, thieves?"

She finally said they work for a debt collection agency. I said "That's nice. I don't have a capital one card and don't owe anybody. So take off your fucking harassment list." "No," she said glibly, with some other woman laughing in the background, "and you're a liar."

I called capital one then. They confirmed I have no account with them. I closed it when they rate jacked me from 9% apr to nearly 30% apr, without warning. This was not because I didn't pay on time, which I did, but because I live in Albany, where apparently a lot of people default on debt. They were rate jacking by zip code.

I filed a fraud report with capital one, letting them know scam assers were using their name to harass people. That's also in case it is capital one approved scam assers, and these scam assers are really really stupid and again linking my current land line to its previous owner, the woman who owes everyone in the world, who has not had this number for over three years.

On the web, this number may be linked to a notorious heartless debt collection agency called Allied Interstate. They are notorious because they use illegal tactics, cursing, intimidation, and threats. And by the way, they're really stupid debt collectors if it is them, to link the wrong person to a debtors old old number. They don't care who they harm, and I very much want to take this to court and sue them to hellfire and brimstone where they belong. They have been harassing me interminably for weeks.

I also want to sue tracfone. Because if this is a debt collector calling my cell phone number, the only link out there to my land line number, which was had by the old debtor, would be if tracfone sells my personal information, which they, in their contract, vow not to do. What fucking liars. And I'm sick of fucking liars. And the toll it is taking on me.

Call the number above. Give them hell but don't do it without first blocking your own number.

Well, I wanted to try to solve this one on my own, since the OR department of justice has helped me so much lately. But in the end, they're all I can think of to turn to, to stop these calls, so I did just file a complaint with them. I seem powerless to stop such harassment. But they sure get the job done. I got my Ikea refund! I used it to pay off Stinod's bill. That was sure darn helpful.

I also just filed a complaint with the FTC against them, as recommended for any out of state business you might be having problems with. I will also file a complaint with the state of Florida and the Florida Better Business Bureau.

Haul Your Ass Out of Bed

Must be nice.

The DR situation people have a live trap. Do they use it or will they, to catch the cats they feed to be fixed? Nah!

Too much work. OMG way too much work.

It's almost noon. I call them up, just to see, if some enlightenment has occurred, like a lightning bolt, change!--if they have decided to participate, do some labor, to solve the situation they created. Like set and watch that trap they have.

No. They're still in bed. "We stayed up all night," she says, sleepily. I said "Well, good, trapping is good at night, you set that trap then and checked it last night?" Of course they had not.

"Well, it was raining." I was ready for this excuse.

"Your garage is perfectly dry and they go in and out of there. You also could set it under your trailer or you could put a tarp over it."

She tries to change the subject by saying another female is now pregnant. I said "All the more reason to haul your ass out of bed and get to work on it."

"Aaahhhhh," she said, "but I'm sleepy."

"So am I," I said, "from hauling your cats to and fro, finding them homes, getting them fixed. How about some effort on your part?"

"Ok. We'll try." I don't believe her. I want to. But I don't. This is practised encouraged laziness I'm witnessing.

Nobody's called them on it. I will.

Somebody needs to.

Nobody is doing them any favors by keeping silent on that.

PC speech keeps most of us silent on what should be said. We just can't offend someone these days or even risk maybe offending someone. This is a real problem of our time and inhibits progress for individuals and ability to become tough. So what needs said doesn't get said and instead, it gets stuffed down inside somebody else, where it festers and becomes vile.

Lately, I've decided 'to hell with PC everything'. I think it's a good decision. At least it works for me.

Price of Blue Jeans

Water pollution. In China. Click the post title to go to story from CNN China.

I guess I thought denim came blue, for some reason. I never thought about cloth being dyed on that large of a scale. Or where that water afterwards might end up.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Drug Pushing Doctor Whores of Pimping Drug Companies

The drug company Astrazenica settlement over non approved pushing of Seroquil is huge. Will Oregon get some of the settlement money? Click the post title to go to the story.

If so, why should any state get money in a drug settlement case? Why in the world would a state get their hands on money in a settlement against a drug company that gave kick backs to doctors to push an anti psychotic drug that is extremely dangerous, causing weight gain and diabetes?

I want to know where the list of doctors who took money to push a drug is? That should be made public. If your doctor is dirty, you should know about it and have a right to know about it.

I resent the states getting their hands on such money because states run state hospitals, like Oregon State hospital. I was there and that is one house of horrors, managed horribly, patient abuse commonplace, where nobody gets better and where drugs are handed out like candy.

The state of Oregon should get no money handed to it from the Astrazenica settlement because this is over a dangerous psyche drug pushed for profit, when the state of Oregon has long abused its mental patients, long before astrazenica decided to also.

What is Wrong with People?

I want to know what is wrong with people?

This guy calls, wants to adopt a cat, but I can tell he would not be experienced enough to handle any of the cats here. He sounds decent, talks about rescuing a kitten he found in the road, wants to rescue a cat, says the two he and his wife have now are fixed.

So then he calls some guy who had called here saying his roommate left behind a mom cat with kittens. But now apparently the cat was at his brother in laws and the brother told this guy, who wants a kitten, that the mother cat jumped out the window or something and took off with two of the four kittens, but that he wants the two remaining kittens gone. So this man meets him at the Darimart, and takes both of the other two kittens.

He calls me. He only wants one of the kittens and can I take the other one, the black one of course. He feels they were in a bad situation, and that's why he took both of them, he says.

I tell him I can't take the kitten, to call other adoption groups, like SafeHaven, where he says he got vouchers to fix his other two cats.

I tell him I'll get the two kittens fixed, but now Mr. Responsible Rescue man is saying he is going to let the kitten have a litter of kittens herself first. He claims he has already talked to his family who will take kittens if the kitten grows up and has a litter and he talked to his friend with an unfixed male and they're going to breed them.

I said "And you're telling me, you're now going to let this kitten you just got, have kittens, but you can't even find a home for the second one you took in?"

I told him people like myself and KATA up in Sweet Home, etc. etc. don't have lives because of people who do not fix their cats, sacrificing our time, as I did taking his call, to try to clean up after people who do not fix their pets. He hangs up on me.

Unbelievable. It's why this seems to be a hopeless endeavor. People don't listen, don't learn, indulge themselves in selfishness and thoughtlessness and feel entitled to do it and don't care what the consequences of their behavior will cost anybody else.

They feel entitled to get help financially once they finally do fix their pets. And if they don't, they'll just move and abandon them, or dump them out somewhere like trash.

Like the woman whose two males I just took to be fixed, one on Monday, one on Tuesday, from the DR situation. I'd gotten cats fixed for her before, when she lived somewhere else in Albany, but she got more, and now her female is pregnant and she won't get her fixed, not until she has this litter, she says, in just under two months. Then she'll hand those kittens off to like minded people, and call me wanting me and Poppa Inc. to pay for her female to be fixed, while those kittens she handed off to other entitlement people, will go on to reproduce until they get in trouble because there are too many.

Entitlement attitude is a terrible thing. Sometimes it is best to let people suffer the consequences of their actions and they should pay to resolve the problems they cause.

It is far more complicated when the problems such people cause involve lives. The woman whose males I got fixed has kids who will grow up to behave in exactly the same manner. What are they thinking? They can't afford to live without assistance anyhow, why bring more barely noticed cats into this world, who will never receive any care unless someone else pays for it? This is so common around here and, I will guess, almost everywhere.

All I'm saying is, I'm getting taken for a ride. People are not learning that spay neuter is valuable not only as a responsiblity to the cat world but as a responsibility to the community and to taxpayers. What people in Albany seem to be learning is they can do what they want and have someone else pay later. In the case of unfixed cats, it's me and Poppa Inc. I'm not sure this manner of controlling the overpopulation problem is productive.

It helps neighbors who are angry at the numbers of unfixed cats in their area. That is for sure. It reduces the spread of disease in areas that I work, because anytime you reduce the numbers of unfixed cats you reduce the spread of FIV, Felk and even distemper.

But it makes me angry to encounter people more than once. It riles me no end to realize they learned nothing and were just getting a free fix job and don't give a shit about responsible pet behavior.

And this guy calling me up, I don't know if anything he told me was true. I don't know if his cats are really fixed, or anything about him other than what he claimed. I don't even know that he got two kittens. In a way, I think I was getting my leg pulled completely by this caller. All I know is responsible people who can't afford to get their cats fixed don't go out and get more, then let them have litters and if he's doing that, that's not cool.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Seven More Albany Cats Fixed Today

Tails, from 34th street, neutered today.
Tails again. He's just so darn cute. The mother of the woman with him found him at a rest area on the coast.
And Tails once again.
Jack, a 34th street boy, neutered today.
Lyons street tabical, spayed today.
Lyons Street orange tabby male, neutered today.
Lyons street brown tabby, neutered today.
The torti from DR, spayed today.
Male, from DR situation, across the street, neutered today.

Seven more Albany cats were fixed today. Five males and two females.

Two 34th street owned males were fixed. Tails and Jack. Both very cute.

Three cats from Lyons street were fixed--two boys and a girl, who has two six week old kittens.

Another male from the house where Socks lives was fixed. Socks was the long hair black tux fixed on Monday. This male is black and white too but short hair. I forget his name. Both live in the Nightmare on DR situation, but across the street from the woman who feeds strays.

The pregnant torti from there, formerly pregnant, also was fixed today.

Also, someone in Cottage Grove was able to get three of the six teens from Nightmare on DR, who needed homes, into Greenhill, so when I heard this news, I drove them straight down, even though I'd just been in Wilsonville, then had to drive all the way back to pick up the seven. Was worth it I think, to help that woman get three out of there. THANK YOU JANETTA!

So far, 12 cats from the DR situation have been fixed in the last two days. Before that, another woman got six of them fixed and three of those, today went on down to Greenhill and hopefully will get homes. There are about six left needing caught including two pregnant females and two females with kittens out there somewhere, alive or dead. 3 of the 12 fixed in the last two days have belonged to close neighbors of the situation.

Here's some good news. The Corvallis couple who were feeding five strays had kept one of my traps and tied it open and were feeding in it. They went out to check to see if the cats were eating in it and there was their black female with kittens she had just given birth to.

The woman said they quickly closed the garage door, but then she told her husband, "We have to do something now." So they went back in, picked up the newborns, put them in the back of the trap and mom followed them right in and they closed the door on all of them.

Their daughter is going to foster them all. She is somehow associated with SafeHaven so they will get the mom fixed once she's done nursing and return her to the couple, once she's fixed, and take the kittens in to adopt out. The daughter went out and bought a rabbit hutch and is housing the new family in style. The trap is back in their garage, tied open. I told her "I am so proud of you for doing that. Good for you! Keep at it. Catch the others!"

I am proud of them. Four to go there. They're both very soft hearted. I told them to keep the trap as long as they needed to. And to get the cats caught at their own pace. I don't want to pressure them because it stresses them out to even think of getting the cats caught and fixed. But they caught the new mom, didn't they, like pros, using the kittens as bait. Absolutely Cool!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Ten Cats Being Fixed Today

Well, ten of the eleven cats from that one street and situation are being fixed today. Six at one vet. Four at another. The torti I thought was trying to have kittens this morning but she did not have them, nor is she eating.

She does not seem overly stressed however and lets me pet her ear through the rabbit hutch mesh.

She's just a teenager. The reality of her, as a malnourished worm ridden teen, having kittens is if she'd had them in the berry vines or in a garage, she likely would have walked away from them. Teenage pregnancy in cats is bitter for the kittens born.

I've wormed all 11 of the cats. I am so trying to find some place for the bad eye teen, the torn throat teen, the pregnant torti and her sister, the lighter colored torti.

The other two I'd like to find homes for are the two abandoned tame cats, a little gray tabby tux teen, very cute who acts totally lost and alone, and a black and white female. I have not caught them yet. The little teen runs right up to me, but stays just out of reach when I try to pick her up.

Stinod this Morning

I put Stinod back in the bathroom yesterday and really worked at giving her sub cu fluids and nutrition. Also, got a waterless vaporizer! Thank you Connie for the heads up on those. This morning, she greeted me by stretching, rolling around, and racing up to eat! I also found the Baytril pill I thought I got down her last night stuck in the hair on one leg. This time, I made sure she got it down.

That isn't easy.

So today, the Albany woman I met, also intent on saving the feline world, is getting four of the cats in to be fixed whom I trapped/rounded up and I'm going to try to find somewhere else to get the rest fixed.

The torti seems to be about to give birth this a.m. so she will not be going along.

Someone who reads this blog and lives, let's see, in Baltimore, is about to have a birthday!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

11 Cats From NIghtmare on DR

I caught this torti and she will be fixed tomorrow. She's just a teenager.

Owned unfixed DLH black tux, being fixed tomorrow.
One of three black cats, being fixed tomorrow from Nightmare on DR.
A calico, being spayed tomorrow.
The teen black and white, with the injured eye.
Teenage brown tabby tux with skinned up throat.
I've got 11 cats now from this new colony, which is a nightmare in many ways.

Two are owned cats, one a female, and one a neighbor's male from across the street.

The other nine are: Three all black short hairs, a gray mottle torti teen, a pregnant classic torti, a calico, and gray and white male, a black and white teen with a bad eye, a brown tabby tux teen with a skinned up throat.

There are lots more to catch and more neighbor cats who need fixed.

There are two more tame abandoned cats roaming around whom I very much wish I could find homes.

There are at least six more females I need to nab and another black cat. I guess seven more is not so bad.

I was also called finally by a guy who has a bunch of cats. I've been by there twice in two years, when they said they'd have them ready in carriers, for me to take to be fixed. Then the guys wife will pull them out and not allow it. I guess he got a few fixed. Then I got one of his males fixed who roamed into my yard. Then I hit the same male with my car when about four cats following the man and his two dogs, out in the middle of the street, raced up and into my tire without looking. Fortunately, I had come to almost a complete stop after seeing a bunch of cats in my rearview mirror and trying to figure out what was going on.

The cat was not injured.

So the man has four adults needing fixed. He also still has two five week old kittens, from the females last most recent litter.

Stinod Again Going Downhill

Stinod is going down hill again. I knew some of her sudden recovery had to do with the steroid shot. She now has a URI and I had to fight her this a.m. to give her sub cu fluids. She feels very hot. She will only lap at a little KMR and not eat on her own. I was up until 2:30 a.m., setting in the 8 cats I trapped to be spayed, then taking care of Stinod. As a result, I slept til 10:00 a.m.!

The pregnant torti, now in a rabbit hutch in my bedroom, is very feral. I am going to have to tell the woman if she hasn't had kittens by tomorrow, she is going to be spayed. I can't deal with more cats here. I have to say no. I don't have the money to care for them, test the mom, vaccinate everybody, worm and flea treat them all. I just do not have the money to take on a feral mom and kittens.

I gave her a lot of ideas for finding the six teens homes and I hope she does that. She does need help with that and they are beautiful cats who should be in homes.

I thought Stinod was going to make it. I'm not so sure now.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Six Cats Caught. Make that Eight Cats Caught.

I went out to help on another colony tonight. Wasn't going to trap, but I couldn't help myself. The situation was out of control and needed contained immediately.

So, the other woman, who had tried to help, and got six fixed so far, who all need homes, and I came back and I got the drop trap and some live traps and we went back. I didn't catch the one very very pregnant torti. (UPDATE: yes I did catch her)

There's another orange and white, who allegedly just had kittens. There are many other females. I caught a lactating calico the woman said had babies only a few days ago, in the briars somewhere and sure enough, she was lactating, so I let her go.

I caught a neighbors unfixed male, but she agreed to him being fixed. Some other neighbors marched over with their unfixed calico in a carrier and I said I would pick her up tomorrow night and they said "great".

It was wild and wooly!

I drop trapped a big black male and little teenage torbical. The male was hard to transfer out of the drop trap.

Then the big hairy long hair owned black tux, caught him in a live trap.

Then I drop trapped a big dominant gray and white male.

Then I drop trapped a mostly white calico who is the mom of six teens, now tame and fixed, inside the woman's house who need out of there and into homes a.s.a.p.

After that, I drop trapped that calico who was lactating and turned her loose.

Then I caught a little black and white, with a solid white dead eye, who probably needs that removed. It's just a teenager.

Six cats and I called it a night. There are lots more needing caught and two females already with kittens and one about to have them, that big classic torti.

The woman who owns the black tux long hair, has another unfixed male and a pregnant unfixed female, but barely pregnant, was in heat only days ago, but she won't let me get her fixed. Darn it. Too many kittens right there in a tiny area.

But, I've got at least three dominant males trapped which sure will help and a female who hasn't had kittens yet, at least, not that I know of, and the little female torbical and the dead eye teen. And they just called me, to say, another black cat is in the trap I left set. Good deal, man! This is getting taken care of fast, just the way I like to do things.

And when I went to get the second black cat, I caught the pregnant classic torti.

That I know of: one more black, two more calicos, one buff full tail female, one buff short tail female, a black and white female, who is tame and was abandoned by neighbors, a gray tabby tux female, also abandoned by neighbors, a uniquely colored young torti, then the two mothers, an orange and white, and the calico, and then their kittens, if any survive, which, the woman who feeds them, says is rare, due to raccoons and worms and people killing them. So, quite a few left to get in.

I don't think this torti will last til Monday. I think she will have her kittens. The last thing on earth I want is to take on more kittens. I can't afford it. I just can't.

Stinod Still Improving

Stinod continues to improve. She is trying to eat now, but has difficulty chewing. I still wonder if she has a tooth root problem or jaw cancer. The infection is going down, at least. She howls half the day, wanting out of the bathroom badly! I finally put Bling, a.k.a. Zach, in there because he longs for a friend. She bumped into him suddenly however and swatted. She didn't know he was there!

I have been suffering from allergies, sneezing, congestion. I never had much trouble when living in Corvallis. This is allergy central with grass seed expanses that go for miles and Albany is surrounded by these on all sides. Last year I got the usual tickle in my throat and drainage down the back half the spring but this year, it's been worse. I hear pollen counts all over the US are far higher this year.

I am hoping Stinod makes a full recovery. She has 11 days to go on Baytril. Her tongue is not hanging out today, which means her mouth is not as sore and that is a good sign.

I do think I see a puncture wound entry point now on her cheek, where the abscess may have begun.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Stinod's Video



She is doing much better today. She wants out of the bathroom very badly!

TV Shows

Survivor this season features a delicious blend of true villains and naive heroes. Ruppert tried to warn good ol boy JT that Russell is a snake and can't be trusted. Last episode, the eager to please younger man slipped the snake his own immunity idol, after the immunity challenge, which the villains lost, so Russell could protect himself and vote out Pavarti, a villainous women feared by the heroes, before the tribes merge. JT and some others on the heroes tribe, thought there was a women's alliance amongst the villains, when in fact Russell is the kingpin on that tribe.

In last night's episode the tribes did merge and that idol JT gave to Russell was used to vote out JT. He deserved it. Being that stupid and trusting. Pirate Ruppert had tried to warn his tribe members that Russell is a snake.

However, Pavarti had hidden something from Russell, the kingpin who likes to be in control, that she had her own immunity idol. Russell was not in the know, for once, on last night's vote out and handed his idol, the one JT gave him, to Pavarti, to protect her. In a brilliant move, Pavarti gave away both her idols after the vote before the count, to both women on the villains team she knew would be targets of the heroes tribe vote that night at tribal council. No votes could count then, for either of those two women, one of whom, the heroes had targeted for the vote out. So only the votes against JT counted, and JT went home.

However, Russell was shocked to see Pavarti had two idols, and not just the one he had given her. You can't have two evil control freak kingpins. There will be blood.

The chef show, Food Revolution, was interesting, too. I saw it only once. The Naked Chef has come to America intent on changing the way Americans eat. He went to a town rated the worst for obesity and in season one, has been trying to change attitudes about eating there. In the one episode I saw, he was trying to change school lunch menus, despite set in their ways angry women running the kitchen. One woman in particular wanted no change.

He held a kids quiz. He showed them common vegetables and asked the kids what they were. I was astounded! The kids could not even identify a potato! Nor could they identify most of the vegetables he showed them. They could of course identify a piece of pizza or a french fry. That part of the segment was a jaw dropper to me. When kids don't even know what a vegetable is, there's something real real wrong.

He decided to show a handful of kids what actually is in chicken nuggets---the yukky ground up leftovers from various carcasses, including entrails, skin and bones--not real meat. He said with most kids, showing what is really in the nuggets is enough. Not with these kids, however.

I think he's brave to try to change American eating habits. Good luck on that, though!

I have been half disgusted myself. Go into a supermarket and I wonder where the real food is. It's all prepackaged and canned this and that. High salt. High fructose corn syrup, corn in everything in fact. I think corn should be banned as an intrusive pest plant.

The modified corn kernel of today has almost zero nutrition, and is just a huge empty kernel of starch.

It's fed to all the animals killed for meat too and most animals don't have systems designed to eat corn so they have to add antibiotics to the corn fed to animals.

I also saw on TV a woman chicken farmer fed up with Tyson who gets farmers in debt setting up their disgusting chicken houses, in part, so the indebted farmers keep their mouths shut on what goes on. She was talking to cameras while picking up the daily load of dead chickens and saying "This isn't raising chickens. This is a factory production. Do you want eat this?"

She showed the catchers loading them onto trucks and said the big companies like to hire illegals to do these jobs because they have that over them, so they keep their mouths shut and just load the chickens, throwing em on the trucks like you'd toss wood onto a fire, the sick and dying ones, too.

She'll likely lose her Tyson contract and she didn't care. She was fed up with what is going on and how it is kept from the American people. But do Americans even care anymore, how their food is produced or what is in it, or if production methods are humane to animals?

Later it said she did lose her contract when she refused to install the "dark tunnel" method used by Tyson chicken houses, where the chickens never see the light of day.

I've passed these chicken trucks, headed to the slaughter houses. The sides are open, even in winter, with horrible cold and rain and wind pounding the chickens. Born to suffer and die. I forget. We're God's creatures. Only us though. Not them. Only us.

I don't think we do care. I think we're just dead brain consumers now.

When conservatives talk about getting back to basic values, I think about our food system in the US. Getting back to basic values might mean, to me at least, not eating any of this prepackaged crapola food or the meat, produced on factory meat farms, that is neither healthy in its manner of production nor humane.

I know what the conservatives are talking about, however, when they say "basic values". At least I think I do. It's different from what I think about with those two words. They hate homosexuals and abortion. That's all I equate Republicans with anymore.

I get my sound bites of information on everything from TV, you see.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Lucky

The two vets, in two different cities, who looked after Stinod were very kind and encouraging. I appreciate both women very very much and their efforts to help her. I'm lucky to run into so many really nice people. The techs and receptionists up in the Wilsonville clinic are wonderful as is the receptionist in the Jefferson clinic. Just regular people trying to make it doing their jobs.

I'm lucky in many more ways than that. I live in a great house right now. I have two brothers I love, even if I never see them. I'm counting my blessings, you see. I have to remind myself how lucky I am sometimes when I'm feeling blue.

I'm happy I was born in America. I know half the world hates America but we are a standard for the world, hated or loved. In so many countries I would have had such a horrible time of it, been virtually a slave. I am lucky I think. And I love Oregon, too, and I love the fact so many people want to make it better or solve problems. They're brave. Because it isn't easy.

The valley is so beautiful this time of year, busting out in green all over and new life. It's just gloriously beautiful. The rivers are thundering out the melting snow.

Sure, I know, we humans are messing everything up with our habits. But the young people, born fresh and noble, are still trying to make things better.

Whatever happens, happens. I can change some things. Other things, I'm just a sideliner to. As I get older, I'm more of a sideliner to most things.

I stick with what I can do, what I know. And that's helping out the mid valley cats. I want to take more risks. The older I get the less I have to lose.

I don't have many readers here. Those I have, thank you, and take care of yourselves in this confusing world. It is also a very beautiful work, if you look close or even from a distance. Especially in the spring.

Stinod is Home, Still Alive

Stinod is back home after her trip to the vet. The vet drew out fluid from a pocket she found on the lump and found it to be full of bacteria. She also now has a fever of nearly 103. She's now on Baytril and got a Baytril injection. She got a steroid injection and fluids, too.

The vet does not know if the infection is secondary to cancer. She said to see if she gets better on the powerful antibiotics and to force feed her.

She said 90% of the time, these are just infections but they are usually from an infected tooth root but her teeth are fine. So she can't rule out cancer. However, it is possible the chin puncture was the original source of the infection. It could also have been from a tiny puncture wound on her cheek that closed over, but infection grew inside.

She's up in the bathroom now, and crying at the door. I'm going to bring her out and hold her, and watch TV or something. I'm so worn out from being up all night with her. I didn't know what to do. I looked up emergency clinic numbers in the night, then didn't call them, knowing I did not have the money for that.

Stinod is dying

Stinod is not improving with antibiotics. Well, she is improving in that the swelling on the side of her face is going down. But, she will not eat or drink, is having difficulty breathing, acts like she is in pain, and I believe she is dying.

She's going to the vet again today. I was up most of the night, with her in the bathroom. I don't know what is wrong. She may have fallen, broken ribs or could have tumors. But, my guess is, since she had the abscess on her chin, that she fell out in the cat yard.

I also found a small round object imbedded in that large swollen area. It feels like a BB. I could be wrong. If it is a BB I'm not going to be a happy camper. I know who has the BB gun around here and I know those kids have snuck into my yard on multiple occasions. If she was shot and fell, as a result, I am going to be looking up some Spanish swear words and breaking a gun and putting up a big huge fence.

I shouldn't "jump the gun" on that assumption. But, it sure feels like a round bb under the skin on that swollen cheek. I would be surprised if a bb could ever penetrate her heavy hair load, however. Guess I'm looking for something or someone to blame. I'm tired and I'm sad, because I don't think she's going to make it. It's likely she fell, off a shelf or out of the tree, in the cat yard.

If I pick her up and touch her stomach she goes into fits of heaving type breathing. She's not going to make it, I have to realize. Whether she fell or has cancer, I don't know. She is suffering. She will be visiting the vet this afternoon, but I have doubts that she will be returning with me. This is very difficult. She was doing fine even a week ago, running around the cat yard, when I was out there, to clean litterboxes or pick up.

I decided to give her a clip job after I gave one to Matilda and because Stinod has extremely heavy long hair. I gave her a haircut, not a full one, in December, too, to give her some relief. A few days ago, I noticed she was sleeping too much, which was another reason to bring her into the house, to find out why. I thought she maybe had a cold. I certainly did not expect to find that huge lump on the side of her face, when I clipped her or the cut on her chin.

Did she fall? Are her breathing problems the result of a rib puncturing her lung, or a diaphramatic hernia, or blood loss from a ruptured blood vessel from the fall, or does she have cancer? I don't know. All I know is I think it's too late to save her.

It's a problem having a blind cat among scores of others. She wanted to play, climb the tree in the yard, despite her disability. But I have some bully cats who could have forced her off the shelf in the cat room or in the yard, where she loves to sit or lay in the sun. She did not like to be in the house because she couldn't learn the intricacies of all the rooms, furniture, and the other cats, some of whom are not that nice.

I am assuming she has been badly injured from a fall when in fact she could have cancer. She's gone downhill very very rapidly however. She's not skinny like this has gone on for even a month. These things make her problems more consistent with a traumatic event that occurred recently. I'm going to ask first for an X-ray which would show broken bones, maybe tumors if she has them but not soft tissue ruptures or damage, and secondy for bloodwork, to see if she shows signs of internal bleeding, from her bloodwork, or other issues that might explain how a cat seemed very healthy a week ago, and now is dying and why she now heaves when touched on the stomach and goes into fits of difficult desperate gasping breathing when she didn't do that even yesterday.

I knew a cat, owned outside Millersburg, that was hit by a car and who had some immediate symptoms but afterwards seemed fairly normal, until suddenly, two weeks later, he died, of internal injuries and bleeding.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Republican Governor wannabe's Debate. Snoozer!

Tonight, I mustered up and watched the three Republican candidates who want to be governor. One behaved and talked like a polished smooth talking politician. One was moderated in speech and inexperienced. Another, sorry to say, seemed very hard core and sincere, but I couldn't understand much of what he was saying due to an extremely heavy Asian accent.

The debate was boring to the core. No fireworks. Short on substance. Lots of generalities. Snoozer!

All three, especially the accented one, expressed respect for the taxpayer. This is something I'd like to see out of Democrats. It was refreshing.

The one thing all three agreed upon that will rile up the inevitable opposition: PERS reform. All three said PERS is sinking the ship of state and must be changed.

Only Dudley, I believe it was, said this can be done with all parties at the table, not as if the public employees/retirees are the enemy, and responsible for sucking the life blood right out of Oregon. Pretty much that's what the other two made PERS out to be, a vampire, especially the one I can't understand well. Sorry, names escape me. I know Dudley's name because he towered over the two, looking twice their height. He's the ex Blazer center. Everybody knows Dudley.

I'm not much of a Blazer fan. I was once. That was when Clyde the Glide with his spectacular grace and gentleness, was my hero. Before that, way way before that, when I was young, Bill Walton, the outspoken environmentalist and liberal, whom my father hated, was the Blazers center when Portland won the title.

I was riding through a neighborhood in Portland right after they won. I'd been up in Washington visiting my brother who was in college. The streets of Portland erupted around the car I was riding home in, with a family from Corvallis.

People poured champagne over the car's windshield, or they shook bottles of beer before popping the tops and spraying the foam out over one another. There was dancing in the streets and our car could not move an inch. It was beautiful!

And Bill Walton led the team. My father didn't know if he should really celebrate the Blazers winning the NBA title. He hated Walton but so much wanted to be happy the Blazers won the title. But how do you do that when the team is led to victory by some liberal loud mouth, as my father called Walton.

Chris Dudley? Some people called him "the dud" as a center for the Blazers. My father was one of them. An opinion on everyone, he had. He said Dudley looked asleep all the time when he was playing. My father didn't like sports much and I think he resented athletes their huge salaries. Rightfully so.

He might have been right about Dudley looking sleepy. He looked half asleep tonight in the debate. Never seen a less lively group of three. Like I said before, twas a snoozer.

The Democrats debate next week I think. I think it's Kitzhaber and oh I forget the other guy. I met these two young guys when I hung out along the river with the river cats and lived in a seedy dumpy converted hotel. I met lots of people along the river in Corvallis back then. These two swore they had sold coke to Governor Kitzhaber when they lived in Salem and dealt. I didn't believe them. They described being in his office and handing over coke to some gay aide of the then governor's. I still didn't believe them and I told them so. I told them if it were true, why not go to the press? They said they would not be believed.

Later on, when I became homeless, mental health put me up in the motel along the river for a couple of nights. I went outside my room, and there was the younger guy of the two, squatted along the wall, strung out. He told me his wife or girlfriend had come over from Albany with their child and they got a room and that the van I asked him about, with WA plates was a WA drug dealer who brought them down some real hot shit heroin they were all doing. I said "With a child in there?" I told the police, because of the child, but I don't think they believed me.

And later on in the years after that, I saw the younger guys photo staring back at me from the paper. I am pretty sure it was him, at least, not completely sure. He was murdered out near Summit or Blodgett, lured out there by some guy over a drug deal that went bad, and murdered.

I think the guy who did it tried to mutilate or burn his body. I can't remember exactly the details, just remembered seeing his baby face in the paper as the murder victim and remembering, if it was the same guy, how he and his friend came to my converted hotel room apartment that first time I met them along the river, and how he carefully and gently picked up the feral river cat I had up there, following her surgery, and held her against his chest to calm her. I told him then, "You're so good with animals. You could get out of this life you're in, and become a vet." He could of. But he's dead now.

Do I believe those two really sold coke to the governor or the governor's aide? No. I don't. No proof, other than stories from a couple guys trying to impress me with powerful private knowledge of shady dealings with the rich or famous, and that's what they came up with. I was impressed by the younger one. I was impressed with his kind heart and wished very much he could get away from the drugs before they killed him.

Make Your Own Laundry Soap Or Don't Use it At All

This, from a money saving website.

"The Recipe

A quick search online will show you that there's no shortage of homemade laundry soap recipes: Here's one from The Simple Dollar. And we've got 10 more at Money Talks News. But below is one that seems to work pretty well. You'll need:

• 4 cups of water.
• 1/3 bar of cheap soap, grated.
• 1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda).
• 1/2 cup of Borax (20 Mule Team).
• 5-gallon bucket for mixing.
• 3 gallons of water.

First, mix the grated soap in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, and heat on low until the soap is completely dissolved. Add hot water/soap mixture to 3 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket, stir in the washing soda and Borax, and continue stirring until thickened. Let the mix sit for 24 hours, and voila! Homemade laundry detergent.

Of course, who'd post a recipe without trying it out first? I made and washed several loads of clothes with the homemade detergent. And I, like many before me who've traveled this road, couldn't tell the difference between store-bought and homemade.

Total cost per load? In the neighborhood of 2 cents. Store-bought detergent, depending on what you buy and where you buy it, can cost about 20 cents per load -- 10 times more.

So, there are at least two alternatives to the agitation of paying too much for laundry detergent: Ditch it altogether and use nothing more than water in your washer, or save to 90% by making your own laundry detergent."

Lonely Ewe and Wild West Colonies Now

Years ago, in 2004 and some in 2003, I trapped two colonies south of Harrisburg. The Wild West colony turned out to be about 70 cats and was reported by a rural route mail carrier.

The old warehouse and barn were full of cats, mostly black cats, and kittens. Some were very ill. I remember having about a dozen or more of the kittens in my bathroom, in that old tiny place of mine in Corvallis. Some tested positive for Felk, about 16 and were euthanized. Others, living right beside the positive cats, were negative. The positive cats seemed to be females and their offspring and a couple males. Other than that, the disease was limited. The colony changed my perception of Felk spread.

I rehomed probably 40 of those cats I caught and every single kitten there plus some teens and adults. My last contact with those folks was when I was driving by once a couple years after getting them all fixed, just to check for unfixed cats. The couple were both at work. However, I heard tiny mews coming from the loft of the barn. I borrowed a ladder from a neighbor and climbed up into that rotted and dangerous loft. There were large vacant holes in the floor boards beneath the hay. I had to be very very careful.

The screaming grew more frantic as I approached a mound of hay. I parted the hay to find a tiny ten day old Lynx Point Siamese kitten. I could not believe it. I carried him down in my pocket, returned the ladder and went to find KMR. Later, the couple said he'd been crying up there for several days. Apparently his mother was hit and killed on the road. He got a home down near Roseburg. He went to the same people who adopted Mercy, a terribly starved Siamese female I trapped on 13th and Lafayette in Albany. Mercy would have died had I not trapped her the vet said. She was skin and bones.

I trapped at a house farther down, too. I called it the Lonely Ewe colony. A kind old couple lived there and boy were they characters. The man just loves sheep. He used to raise them for food, but then he became attached, he said, and aware they had feelings. One day, they were sitting at dinner, his kids, his wife and him, eating mutton, and they all just looked at one another. Then one by one they emptied their plates into the trash. Never again did they kill another sheep.

He had a ewe there, an old one, alone then, as a pet who adored him and he adored her. The old man was famous for waving at everyone who passed on the road. He'd even sit by the road in a chair with his fiddle and play to anyone or anything, including the birds and the cats. I took a shining to that old couple. Then things went south with my living situation and my car. I had the old corolla that was dying then.

It was right about the time Brook Wilberger went missing also. Because my old car died a few days after she disappeared and that Monday, when she was taken, I passed very near that complex she was taken from, when, exhausted, I was returning cats to the West Warehouse and Lonely Ewe colony fixed the day before, at a Eugene FCCO clinic. I felt so terribly guilty over being exhausted that Monday when returning cats later on, when I found out she'd been taken that day at the time I was driving near there. I'm usually so very aware of everything. What if I had not been so tired, maybe I would have seen something. I passed right by the complex at about the time she was being kidnapped. It hurts to think about it to this day.

Anyhow. I got all the cats fixed at the Wild West colony and at the Lonely Ewe colony, but I hadn't been back for years. Today, delivering fliers around and about in rural areas, I made a point to stop by both locations.

The Wild West couple are both unemployed now. They both lost their jobs. They have 12 or 16 of the cats, now old, still there that they feed every night. There have been no kittens since I got the cats fixed, and no new arrivals.

I went on down then to the Lonely Ewe. That ewe is still alive. I asked old Jim how old she is now. He said "About twenty I think." She sleeps a lot and has to have a lot of attention from him, he said. A few years ago, something chased her, in the night, into the creek. She fell down the bank. He found her there the next morning and got a neighbor, who brought over a front loader and they put her in the bucket and hauled her out. She survived but he says he hides aspirin in her food and that helps her, but if she smells it, she won't eat it. I went out and peaked at her laying in the grass, sleeping in the sun. About that time one huge black and white eartipped cat peeked out of the shed. All his cats are still there, old now, too, loved by him.

His wife died a few months ago. He said she had wanted to see me before she died, but I'd had to move, in the years between, and they could not find my new number. She died of heart failure, he said. In the end, her heart couldn't pump enough oxygen to keep her going. I said "That must have been hard on you, losing her." He looked down and said, "It was harder on her." He had a relative there helping him clean.

He's the same Jim, optimistic, funny, smart, witty and full of life. I got a bag of cat food out of the car. I told him, "I was going to give this to somebody else, but I got mad at them, so here, you have it." He packed it off.

I stopped by the Catmans' place then. I couldn't find him at the door, so I went to the office, which is now a quilting center. His partner is an excellent quilter and all the ladies in the area meet to quilt. It's a hub of fun, I think, a club kind of, and the humor is sometimes wicked!

So Roger finally came around, and he didn't want involved in trapping his old employee's cats. He said he had no time, but he'd leave her a message and told me to stop by the warehouse out there, near where she lives, and tell Harry I was going out, since he owns the property, and that nobody would care, including his old employee, that I was getting the cats she feeds fixed. So that was good news and good help.

He says he's got another male showed up needs fixed. I said "Well, you know the drill well enough by now. Tie that trap of yours open and feed in it, then cut that line." He said, "Yeah, I know the drill. I'll call you." They loaded me up on cookies, said to stuff some in my pockets. I objected, citing my waistline. But they would have none of that.

I think about that old man down there, who loves his ewe, sitting in a folding chair, along the road, fiddling away, to the sky, to the clouds, and to the birds, for the hell of it. The thought of it is enough to warm any cold soul.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

One Cat Day

Photos below are of Adair, formerly of Adair village (real creative name I came up with for him, right?) now lounging in luxury and love up in Beaverton with Poppa's president who adores him. Adair goes nuts on catnip! He's one lucky kitty.

Someone abandoned him. He then got fed by a group of three separate kind hearted souls, who also got him neutered a year ago. None of the feeders could take him in, so he was returned to the berry vines where he lived, and fed there, until a few months ago, when the county was going to kill them if they were not removed.

So, one feeder took Adair to her pump house. Her husband would not let her have another cat, so it was temp living in the pump house. She loved him dearly.

Meanwhile, I trapped the rest of the cats, six more. Big Ben and one other tame cat, both abandoned, tested positive for FIV. The feeder took one of them to her vet who tested positive and that cat was sadly euthanized. I told her FIV does not have to mean a cat gets euthanized.

Poppa's president agreed to take any more who turned up FIV positive. I knew Big Ben would be, being huge, unneutered and dominant. I told the feeder Adair would be positive too and I was right. Adair and Big Ben went to Poppa's president. Big Ben hangs out in the garage, while Adair lounges inside and has the life of a king. Meanwhile, the feeder trapped another cat, at another Adair location, also an unfixed male. He too tested positive but she decided to keep him. I believe all unfixed free roaming males in Adair are likely positive for FIV. Tragic and preventable.





I thought I would have five cats to take to be fixed today. Instead, I had only one. And she turned out to be already fixed.

I delivered traps to a Corvallis location, where, the woman said, they feed four cats. But they didn't catch any and have decided they can't get them fixed now, due to the woman's health issue and the mans' work and sleep schedule.


I headed up with that cat and with Stinod. The Lynx Point long hair female turned out to have been already spayed.

Stinod had a bad swelling on one side of her face and that chin bloody cut/puncture, which stunk and was the source of the swelling. It was an abscess but it had drained when I brought her in to give her a clip job and began petting her under the chin, which broke off the scab and allowed all the drainage.

Hence the sudden fluid and blood all over hands and clothes while I was holding her. It still stunk enough when she was at the clinic today that they put her under, in case she would need it surgically opened. Instead, after a thorough examination of the inside of her mouth, jaw, and teeth, they decided to just put her on antibiotics. They did several cell aspirations of the swollen tissue on the side of her face, but no cancer or infection cells were found in the swollen area. The area also could be swollen if she fell and whacked the side of her face. She'll be fine. She got her shots updated while there.

Anyhow, I also visited Poppa's president and took some photos of Adair, the FIV positive Adair male, who is just beautiful. I climbed up on a ladder in her garage, also, to coax Big Ben down. He is the other FIV positive Adair male. I was petting him from the ladder, and went to climb down the narrow tottery thing and really messed up my already lousy knee, so bad I could barely walk and had to haul out the old crutches to walk when I got home.

Isn't Adair beautiful? I think he is. And Big Ben is now Bigger Ben. It's actually good for me and my bad knee that the Corvallis folks can't work it out right now to get their cats fixed. I need a week off for my knee to heal up again.

If Stinod does not improve within a week, the vet says her face should be X-rayed to see if something is imbedded in that large swollen area. I hope she gets better without the need for an x-ray. I cannot figure out what happened to her.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Violently Ill Raccoons on Video in Woodburn

I just saw a news report that included video taken of raccoons circling violently on their hind legs, violently ill. Both raccoons exhibiting this behavior were shot and unfortunately, their bodies were burned. The question was raised on the news: were they rabid? Click the post title for story.

Witnesses say the raccoons were spitting violently, snarling, and shaking. This almost sounds like they ingested a neurotoxin. But, such symptoms would be common to rabies and to distemper which causes a high fever.

I will guess, if they weren't poisoned, which is common in trailer parks, they were suffering from distemper. I say this because raccoons get both canine and feline distemper. Canine distemper is more commonly known as parvo.

In the mid valley, circling behavior in raccoons with canine distemper has been witnessed on many occasions. Perhaps this is because of the high fever that develops in their brains, affecting their inner ear.

I am going to guess this is distemper because to get rabies, a raccoon must be bitten by another rabid animal and then the virus must fester in the wound before taking hold. Two raccoons with the same behavior were shot on the same day. Distemper spreads like wildfire between animals, once one has it, and can affect and kill the animal within 24 to 48 hours of exposure.

The fact two raccoons in the vicinity exhibited the same behavior at the same time makes it far more likely to be distemper. It is however possible that it is rabies. Raccoons eat anything. We have bats all over this area carrying rabies and when they become disabled by the virus, but are not yet deceased, these bats are on the ground, and can become prey for any animal scavenging for food, as raccoons do.

But the likilihood of two raccoons contacting the same bat or two bats with rabies on the ground at the same time, bitten while being eaten by two seperate raccoons make it more implausible.

If one raccoon was bitten eating an infected bat, then became symptomatic with rabies and bit another raccoon, they would not be simultaneously showing the same symptoms of rabies, is my thought on the matter, making it more plausible that this is an outbreak of cannine or feline distemper. These outbreaks are common and become more common when raccoon populations in an area become large, and thus, weaker because there is not enough food to go around.


I do not know why in the world the bodies of two strangely acting raccoons would be burned and not tested for rabies. One reason would be that these raccoons were poisoned and evidence needed destroyed by the perpetrator. But that may not be the case. It may be the case the bodies were burned because whomever did so feared whatever they had.

Australian Town Makes the Best of Locust Invasion

If locusts invaded this area, this is exactly what I would do---celebrate! It's food from the skies and good food!

I've offered to help tutor the neighbor boy. He has Asbergers and is struggling in school. His mom, who is single and works very long hours, is worried he won't make it through high school, which effectively limits a person in this world and what they can then do.

I've been reading up on Asbergers trying to figure out a way, if she decides she wants to try me tutoring, to motivate him. He's very smart, but hides inside almost all the time he's not in school. She started taking him to Safehaven to volunteer, which she said is great for him just because of the social interaction he gets when they are there with other people. He is a big time animal lover. He is not 16 yet, or I would take him to the FCCO clinic in May, to volunteer. He's gone on cat jobs with me a couple of times and is very helpful.

I guess with Asbergers being on an exact schedule with very defined tasks and goals, is important. Linking a task or study to the real world and how it is useful is also important to Asbergers, his mom says, because if he sees no use for information, he refuses to study it.

So, if she decides she wants me to try my hand at tutoring, I will do it. I hope she does. I've never tutored before, but I want to try.

Australian Town Makes the Best of Locust Invasion

If locusts invaded this area, this is exactly what I would do---celebrate! It's food from the skies and good food!

I've offered to help tutor the neighbor boy. He has Asbergers and is struggling in school. His mom, who is single and works very long hours, is worried he won't make it through high school, which effectively limits a person in this world and what they can then do.

I've been reading up on Asbergers trying to figure out a way, if she decides she wants to try me tutoring, to motivate him. He's very smart, but hides inside almost all the time he's not in school. She started taking him to Safehaven to volunteer, which she said is great for him just because of the social interaction he gets when they are there with other people. He is a big time animal lover. He is not 16 yet, or I would take him to the FCCO clinic in May, to volunteer. He's gone on cat jobs with me a couple of times and is very helpful.

I guess with Asbergers being on an exact schedule with very defined tasks and goals, is important. Linking a task or study to the real world and how it is useful is also important to Asbergers, his mom says, because if he sees no use for information, he refuses to study it.

So, if she decides she wants me to try my hand at tutoring, I will do it. I hope she does. I've never tutored before, but I want to try.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Bad Hair Cats

Matilda got one of my bad haircuts two weeks ago. She had to be in my medical confinement cage for two weeks, to receive ear antibiotics and cleaning. She loved all the attention. I feel bad I gave her such a bad haircut but I am famous for those. No wait, I really don't feel bad at all. The cats need to deal with it!

Today I brought Stinod in and gave her a bad hair cut, along with cleaning her ears and treating an absess on her chin. She'd hooked one of her own claws into her chin. I also trimmed her claws. She's in the medical containment cage right now for some babying! She also likes the extra attention!

Next up will be Angel and finally Vision. Get ready kids! You are next for bad, really bad hair cuts..Stinod does not know what to think after getting hit with her yearly bad hair cut. I'm sure she loves it.Matilda shows off her very bad haircut. I have a rechargable Wahl clipper I got a few years back at Walmart for $12. People told me it would not last, but it has. People told me I would not be able to afford the blade sharpenings, but Densons' will do them for $5. They have some Fed Ex guy, who does it on the side, I think they said. How cool is that? $5! Sure helps me out. I do need to get some more blade oil. After clipping a cat, I clean the blades thoroughly with a brush and then apply blade oil, to keep them protected and lubed.Tweetie is all grown up now. She now looks much more like her sister Button, the torbi. She and Button are from Columbus Greens trailer park.

Tweetie again.
My backyard.
Backyard cat house,
Jade, relaxing. Jade is the young mom who had kittens in the corner of a Millersburg garage last spring.
Button, Tweeties sister. Both are from Columbus Greens.
Honey bullies Zach, formerly known as Bling, even though he was her elder at the homeless camp where both came from. Just a rebellious rude teenager, she is! He goes way around her, to avoid her confrontational boxing. Teddy, on the other hand, has taken a shining to Zach, until he's done with Zach's neediness, then Teddy swats Zach. However, Tugs the torti and Zach are great buddies.

Stinod has something on her chin, but I can't figure out what is going on with that. And she is sticking her tongue out somewhat. I cannot for the life of me, with my bad eyes, tell if one side of her face is swollen. All that hair makes it tough. I hope she has not broken her lower jaw, like Electra did. I have worried about her out there in the cat yard, blind like she is, even climbing the tree, but she does not like to be inside, where she can't navigate the complicated pathways and startles if she runs into one of the other cats.

The other thing I noticed, that eye that was removed, its open. Those lids did not grow together. It's fascinating but really morbid to see the slit, see her blink, that empty eye socket, moving the upper and lower lids, knowing it's a black hole in there. I think that needs some attention there, because, my gosh, it's like a horror movie in a way. Makes me recoil.

Farmers' Markets are Fun

Click the post title to see a story in today's Gazette Times about local farmers markets. I used to go every week when I lived in Corvallis. The Corvallis market, along the river, is something else, like a huge community gathering every week.

I love it, at least when it isn't raining.

I went to the Albany market only once. The atmosphere was not like the Corvallis one, so I have not been back. Since moving to Albany, I don't get to the Corvallis one much either anymore and I do miss it. It is hard, if you go from a distance, to find anywhere to park.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Ikea Delivers!

Ikea left me a message last night. They had received a letter concerning my complaint about the useless bed frame and the lack of customer service response, I believe from the OR Department of Justice, since that is where I submitted the complaint, after I could not get ahold of Ikea, except for computer generated customer service, to find out what I could do.

They are going to refund $75 of the $99 I paid for it. That is because I said I would rather keep the wood and use it for alternative purposes like cat runs, than make the awkward trip clear up to Portland with long boards that barely fit in my car, to return the frame components for a full refund.

This is a satisfactory resolution and I am very happy about it. I was thrilled.

The Oregon Department of Justice rocks. And I'm pretty happy with Ikea right now, too.

Also, click post title to check out a Junction City family farm. Family farms are getting more and more interest. I just read today in the Oregonian of a new website IFarmOregon.org, I think. Don't quote me on that site. The website matches up would be farmers with farmers who have land to rent out. There are lots of people who want to farm, but do not have land. It's a great service. Anyhow, I was reading on the Junction City family farm blog, that they even did experiments on no soy fed chickens. Soy is thought to alter or add hormones. Soy isn't the wonderful thing some might think. Only fermented soy is really very healthy.

Spring Cleaning

I have been throwing stuff out. Spring cleaning. Like clothes I've never worn given me by people. Or clothes I got at garage sales that I never wore. These are clothes that never did fit or that had holes and tears and missing buttons.

And old records and papers. I've gone through some of them. I found a will I made in the late 80's. I think that was when I had multiple near death experiences from some psyche drug and the stupid shrink still was pushing it on me. I should say "homicidal shrink".

I knew I was going to die. I almost did. I shredded that will tonight.

I have now petered out on the spring cleaning. Some of that stuff needed thrown out years ago. Procrastination. Sure makes life easier!

I found the old column, written by Wendy Madar, entitled "Undo This Absurd Trial" when the City of Corvallis tried me for yelling at the river barge when the river project's barge, dumping riprap, resulted in the deaths of many of my wild cat family and my wild animal and bird friends along the banks of the Willamette, where I lived too. I got arrested for yelling at the barge. That was when I first met Wendy. She'd heard about the incident and came to the trial and was appalled. She wrote that column. We became friends.

Later on, despite not telling me, the self-appointed attorney filed an appeal and the city completely expunged the case from existence, probably out of embarrassment. The attorney threatened to expose the city for all that had been done to me in my decades living there and that was a whole lot, if you're talking about diversity friendly Corvallis, that was not friendly and smoochy and civil rightsy at all. In fact, I'd gone through hell in Corvallis for a couple of decades. So had many others.

Dirty little horrors and violations of rights are best kept in the dark, in a city that fancies itself so very enlightened and progressive. So my case became a ghost case. I knew I saved the column somewhere and tonight I found it, tucked into an old journal.

Wendy has a lot of guts. She used to get nasty e-mails sometimes after her columns came out, she once told me.

I think she's the perfect writer. She's little and quiet, very observant, and she never gives up. She's very witty, too. What I liked most about Wendy was that she is very up front about things. I always knew where I stood with her. If she didn't want to talk to me, she'd say so and she'd say why. Up front like that. Just very open about anything. I never had to guess...refreshing it was, I remember. I haven't seen her for a few years now. Not since moving here to Albany. She doesn't like Albany I don't think.

Brought back the memories. I think she was the first person I'd known who stood up for me--a complete stranger! She saw something wrong and she made it right, along with that attorney who insisted on representing me. The flack the city took after her column, then with that persistent self-appointed quirky attorney stepping in to stand up for me too, well they saved me a criminal record.

I may never see or hear from Wendy Madar or Steve Black again. One's a witty quiet intelligent honest writer and the other is a quirky attorney. I'll never forget either of them. Never will.

Wendy Madar is a warrior. Her shining sword of justice is a pen.

Friday, April 16, 2010

My Cage

I've been trying to retrieve my cage from the location where the three homeless camp cats went. But the folks don't answer the phone, neither party (one out front, one out back) nor respond to e-mails.

I don't know what to do.

The relocation did not go well. The cats have not been seen since. They did not put out extra food after releasing them, as I had asked. I told them they would not come during the daylight times they feed, at first. My instructions were ignored. Just breaks my heart and makes me want to cry. But I want my cage back. Getting ahold of them to do it has been an issue.

I got 20 cats fixed for them. Three the first time, about two years ago, then 17 this time around. Plus, I paid out of pocket $50 for antibiotics for the guy out back's cat. He said he would pay me back, but that didn't happen. In all, they got about $1000 worth of cat fixes and about $250 worth of labor, bait, driving gas, Advantage, worming, etc. for nothing. I also gave the front and back people each an 18 pound bag of dry food.

I think they could arrange to get my cage back. I think that is not too much to ask.

I am so lonely these days. So hungry for some good conversation, some laughs, a hike. Sometimes I want to explode from the lonliness.

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 ...