Tiny Tim's One Year Anniversary

This was one of Black Pearls' kittens. I named her Shimmer. Who do you think her daddy might have been? Shimmer now lives in Salem with a family of four.


It was one year ago, Tiny Tim and I flew down to Huntington Beach, to his new home, with Kate and Ned. Tiny Tim was the cat who came flopping up the sidewalk in the dark, as I sat in the dark along 4th street in downtown Albany, again trapping strays fed at that location.

The couple had called me again. A pregnant female had showed up. They fed her. She had kittens under their house. I took in Black Pearl and her three kittens. I crawled around under that house after them.

Meesa, had had her first litter, and only one survived, a black tux male, whom I caught. He was fixed and returned. But when trapping unsuccessfully for Meesa, I spotted something bizarre coming up the sidewalk, almost rolling, more like flopping. It was Tiny Tim. I could not believe it. I caught him. I didn't think he'd turn out tame. But Tim was more than tame. Tim was wonderful.

Tim's bad leg, with a knee long shattered from a dog attack, was amputated. On Halloween, I was at the airport bright and early, after barely sleeping that night, and caught a flight to Huntington Beach.

My goodness what a beautiful city. What wonderful people Kate and Ned turned out to be in person. Previously, I'd only chatted with Kate online. But I felt like I already knew her.

We took a quick trip to the beach. It was just like Baywatch.

Three hours later, I was on another plane headed to Seattle. After a wait there, I boarded another plane to Portland. After retrieving my car, I also stopped in Wilsonville because the woman who had taken in Black Pearl and her kittens to foster, couldn't handle them anymore, after Black Pearl went to a home in WA state then was quickly returned. So back home they came with me too. I was so tired by then.

Tiny Tim's story ended happily, like I wish every cat's story could, who comes through my door. It is so rare to find such a home with such kind people. But, click that post title to go to Kate's blog and take a look at Tiny Tim now.

Cattyhop R.I.P. Her original adoption video.

It was so hard when she came to me, with the others. I lived in that slum shack, no heat in the miserable bathroom. I had finally ripped out the many layers, put one atop the other of vinyl flooring myself. Each layer had water trapped between it and the next layer. I redid part of the wood floor beneath those soggy moldy layers also, and replaced the cracked leaking toilet myself. The landlord was a slumlord you see. Mold was everywhere. I replaced the vinyl flooring with vinyl squares I bought in boxes at the dollar store.

I ran a space heater to keep them warm. There was nothing easy about it. But they all lived. They all got through it. It was hard then, but it was worth it.

Celebration

What a wonderful life Cattyhop had, once saved from sure death as a kitten. What a joy it was to know her, to watch her find friends and grow and flourish in love. Her days were short but she had no shortage of love or fun. Not here. No one, not even the wildest most beat up shaggy ragged ferals, wants for love here.

Cattyhop made so many friends. She loved the cat yard and the cat runs. She usually came in nights to cuddle on the bed with me and with her friend, Electra. She was in awe of Miss Daisy, but all the cats here want to be Miss Daisy's friend. Miss Daisy is a rock star here. So is Zach now. Sam is too.

Cattyhop will be missed more by Comet, my insecure big male, one of a bunch of kittens I took in from one driveway in Heatherdale trailer park, right as my back was failing. Then I had to have surgery. I was trying hard to adopt them all out before my back failed totally with the inevitable surgery. I was in such terrible pain. The kittens took my mind off that searing white lightening pain so bad I couldn't walk in the end. I was happy I found almost all of them homes. Except for Comet.

Comet's mom went to an old man in Corvallis, who later died, and his neighbor, a cat woman also, took in Molly, Comet's mother. Comet's mother had been adopted out unfixed as a kitten at Safehaven, then gone on to reproduce a zillion other cats, like Comet. I am so glad Safehaven is fixing their kittens now prior to adoption. That Heatherdale situation and Molly were a big reason I started bugging Safehaven about adopting out unfixed kittens.

Comet adored Cattyhop and they were rarely apart for the first couple of years. That didn't change much except Cattyhop added many other close friends to her circle. Comet also loves Miss Daisy and wants more than anything, a good grooming by her, should she decide to spare the time for it. Everyone wants near her.

I think about time and Miss Daisy's life and I can't imagine life without Miss Daisy. But that time will come too.

Cattyhop found her place here and she had a great life. She added her own nature to the mix, enhancing life for all of us here in Catland. We will miss you, blessed girl, beautiful soul. We certainly will miss you.

This morning, not long after Catty's death, the doorbell rang. I saw two kid bikes laying in my driveway and knew kids were at my door, so I did not even check through my eye spy door hole.

It was two Hispanic kids from down the block. The one kid and I have off and on battles. He likes to play in my yard. Sometimes I'm harsh chasing him out but he has a severe fascination with my yard.

"We're selling tamales," he said. "How much and where are they," I asked, skeptical. "At my mother's," was his reply, as the other little boy stood on his tip toes to whisper into the much bolder brother's ear. The younger brother had on a white hat with eye holes that he sometimes pulled down over his eyes, to hide them, if he felt too shy.

The older boy was persistent, but not about the tamales, about the cats. He'd asked me before. He said "Are you a cat woman?" With his question, I did not feel the usual hostility or mockery associated with the label. "Yes," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

I told him the short version. I told him I was homeless once and had nobody to love and that a family of cats came around me and gave me love and became my family, so now I help them.

I described spay and neuter to them, after asking if they knew what those words meant, which they didn't. I said "It's so they can't make babies anymore or fight, because I bet you know there are too many cats." They knew.

The older boy persisted, "Why don't you have any family? Where are your mother and father and all your brothers and sisters?" I knew Hispanics especially would be unable to comprehend the isolation of most Americans and the lack of real family values or love. "They died," I said, to make it easier to explain. And "I miss them."

"So you have cats because you don't have a family?" He wouldn't stop.

"That's sort of the reason." I then explained about going to people's houses and picking up cats to take for surgery. I asked if they knew what an animal doctor does and they did. I told them sometimes, when I pick up cats, I find other cats who will die if I don't help them and bring them here, get them well, then try to find them homes.

"Oh, that's really good," the boys said. But the littler boy was on his tip toes whispering into his brother's ear again, with urgency. I said, "You can talk out loud." The older boy said, "We have to sell tamales."

They're trying to keep afloat, I imagine, so their mom is cooking tamales and has sent the boys out to recruit customers.

I couldn't figure out how it worked. "If I want to buy a tamale, do I go to your house?" One boy nodded "yes" and the other shook his head "no".

A Death in Catland. Cattyhop Leaves Me.

Cattyhop has died. She died on the way to the vet. It was a frantic thing. I thought she was trying to vomit and pulled over. Then her eyes went blank and fixed and her gums went white, like in just a second.

Not like the Church Ditch kitten who died last week, whose gums remained pink for so long, even into rigor mortis, so long I tried to revive him and feared he was not dead and accidentally burying him alive.

I believe she had a heart attack.

I could tell her heart wasn't working right. It sounded like loop de loop in its beat. I could tell her blood pressure was high because even the veins on the backs of her ears were sticking out. Blood pressure, heart and kidneys are all tied up together.

I worried about that bag of fluids I opened and started on her last night. She seemed to crash afterwards, not improve. Was there something wrong in the electrolyte mix in those fluids, I wondered.

When she was examined in August the vet thought she would show kidney failure in the blood work and yet she didn't. Her kidneys were hard and as tiny as you could imagine. She rebounded after three weeks in my bathroom.

When confined this time, she ate, used the litterbox, had normal bowel movements but still would not drink water. She was dehydrated again so I began the fluids, which did not help this time, and only made her far worse.

She made it til morning but had the heart attack.

Her most treasured friends here were Comet, from Heatherdale trailer park and also a bobtail; Dex, who was abandoned three times before arriving here as a permanent; Electra, my elderly feral whom I pulled out of an electrical wiring box at an FCCO clinic in Salem, and Deaf Miss Daisy, whom Cattyhop admired, almost worshipped. I had Electra near her last night. I held Cattyhop while Electra head bumped me then Cattyhop. I'm glad Cattyhop got a last head bump from her best friend.

At one time in their lives, Electra and Cattyhop were not friends at all. In fact, Cattyhop and Comet had bullied Electra interminably. Until, that is, one day Electra turned the other cheek. After Cattyhop came at her, when she was trying to use the litterbox, Electra swatted at her, but her paw remained on Cattyhops' head. Then, Electra leaned forward and licked Cattyhop's forehead. From then on, they were best friends.

One of my best friends has died. From that little starving kitten with squirting diarrhea and no hope, to best friend and night cuddler. She lived five short years. She spent her last night being held and saying goodbye to her friends here.

Goodbye my blessed little girl. Goodbye.

Cattyhop is Dying

Cattyhop isn't going to make it. I doubt she makes it through the night. I had to contain her again, when she went suddenly into a downhill slide. She was severely dehydrated and again had lost weight.

Her initial slide began last spring when she lost weight. She went to a vet who thought she may have fallen and to hydrate her, but otherwise everything seemed normal. I contained her awhile in the spring and within three weeks, she had gained weight and was fine.

But...August produced another crash. Again, she went to the vet. I thought she was in kidney failure again, but her kidney function was normal. I did not have the money to do other expensive tests. I still don't.

Four days ago, she suddenly crashed again. She ate yesterday and an entire plate of the high energy easily digested cat food I got for the kittens. That only made her worse. She pooped and it was normal. Then she crashed. I gave her 200 cc of sub cu fluids. I'd already given her 100 last night. She is cold, wants to die. I have not let her, syringe feeding her some Karo syrup to keep her blood sugar up. She has the feel of a dead already cat as I hold her. After I gave her all those fluids, she seemed to go into shock and I put her on a heating pad and got her warmed. I didn't think she'd last more than five minutes more at one point. Then she rallied somewhat.

I dont' think she will be alive in the morning. I thought I felt a mass where her kidney should be. I think she has cancer. Tomorrow, I'll have to take her in. I don't want her in pain. Cattyhop is only four and a half years old and came from a colony out of highway 20.

An old woman wanted help getting adults fixed. Instead I trapped six extremely ill kittens, including Cattyhop. I also later trapped about ten adults. It was the old woman's brother who forced her to make a donation finally. He'd rescued cats, you see, and told her off for not helping with the cost of those sick kittens. She finally brought me $100. I saw her out in the driveway, when I still lived in Corvallis, just sitting in her pickup. I think she was thinking she might take off, not give a donation, to offset the extreme costs I went through to help her out, so it was a good thing I spotted her when I did. She was a very religious woman, a Mormon.

Cattyhop never got a home. She was the only one.

Greed, Foreclosures, Bad Vaccines and Voting

Lazy greedy capitalists got America into the trouble America and the world is experiencing. Nothing more.

I fell asleep on my couch early in the evening. I'd been unable to sleep well the night before, but had to be up early to pick up cats and deliver them to be fixed. So last night, I collapsed on the wonderful couch given me by some people I once helped with cats, when they got new old furniture shipped over when a parent died.

I was going to watch tv, but fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up periodically to a repeating news story on the foreclosure mess, how its not over and thousands upon thousands more Americans are receiving notices every day.

The notices are bogus. They do not identify the original lender and instead list as lender: Bogus Assignee with "xxxxx" listed as lenders address. Some list the lender as "Bad Bene", short for "Bad Benefactor".

Even the signature, often "Linda Green" signed various ways and listed as vice president of several different lenders, is bogus on these foreclosure notices. This is arrogance, laziness and greed. Just like when the frenzy of mortgages were written in the first place, without any due process, or investigation or procedure. The bundled mortgages then were sold, graded, as investment risk, by big companies who do that, and did that badly, then sold on wall street to investors.

Blind greed coupled with lazy practises all the way and continuing! Those people who did this in the first place all need to be in jail. Instead, I bet most are still fat and employed and laughing because of the little people they stomped and are still stomping, and because they got away with it and feel they can get away with anything.

If some hapless unemployed home owner gets one of these bogus notices, they ought to burn it and fortify to defend their homes from greedy impersonal big companies. Lock and load.

Don't be pretending this is the governments fault. Some of it may be, but only through lack of regulation or if someone's hand was poking into a politicians' pocket. Most of it boils down to pure greed, laziness, moral vacancy, incompetence and the belief, by these big banks, mortgage companies and wall street, that they still can roll over anyone they want to roll over. That only the wealthy matter.

When I see Wells Fargo's name in there, foreclosing badly, I'm not surprised. The bad vaccines I bought, with a Wells Fargo credit card, are fresh in my mind. I was stupidly confident they would honor their cardholder agreement, giving me protection against defective products bought with their card. They didn't. They held no shame in their dishonesty either. None. They don't care about honesty. Or little people, struggling daily.

When I voted, I remembered the fat cats and what they've done to our country and to me.

Don't forget that when you vote. They don't care if we have jobs or homes or food, or health care, those fat cats out there.

I also just read a story about how that Arizona immigration bill was really created in secret by a group who meets in WA DC to write "friendly legislation", and the lawmakers included get big perk "campaignn contributions" and includes a bunch of big corporations including the private prison industry.

We have become puppets dancing at the whim of the puppet masters.

I didn't want to vote, especially this year. I think they're all the same and sometimes that government is just one big party of managers and upper managers and politicians. I didn't want to vote for the democrats because of the consistent support of child molestor Neil Goldschmidt by the party and its politicians and its dedication to brutality, as in its failure to manage the state hospital to help patients or to keep staff safe. They have to work, those low level staff, unbelievable forced over time. The dedication to way less than satisfactory in running state programs, like the state hospital and child protective services, makes me disgusted with the party leaders and their lackeys.

On the other hand, Republicans watch out for big corporations at the expense of little people and seem to hate poor people and intermingle their supposed fiscal values with distorted moral values that become their main focus. And yet, their moral values are non existent, really. I mean, come on. We have no moral values. Look at our species. We are bloodthirsty and ferocious and we kill our own like no other species, steal, cheat, anything we can get away with.

Republican Christians are war mongers while, on the side, screaming "we're pro-life" and trying to save fetuses, but they defeat any tax increases that might help pay for services for those fetuses once they come into our world, and, when time allows, acquire more and more personal weapons. I mean, come on!

I fear them because I think they would if they could turn America into an Iran, a theocracy, and kill off those who don't believe in their brand of religion. Religious radicals are religious radicals and there's not much difference between those kinds of zealots. They like to kill people and hang some brand of righteousness over their blood lust.

Republicans are owned by big corporations, greedy rich people, and manipulators/puppet masters like Carl Rove, in tune with the psyche of the lower income masses and who effectively manipulate the vote to achieve greater wealth and power for themselves.

So I wanted to burn my ballot while laughing hysterically and call off my participation in this big joke. Guilt drove me to fill it out and turn it in. That's it, that's the only reason I filled it out--good old American guilt.

"People died so you could vote." Well, women sat in jail and were beaten so I could vote. Women didn't get the vote when all the nice "all men are created equal" stuff was being written and going down because our founders must have written that in literally speaking. Except they excluded black men then.

It's a wonder society functions at all. It functions because little people without any power, mostly without money, just keep on keeping on despite it all, doing all the drudge work, hard as it is, struggle as it is, that keeps everything together.

I'm in bad shape, you see. I'm supposed to be doing stuff, but I inflamed my neck nerve again and am in pain. I'm supposed to be cashing in my spare change to pay my water bill and buy a couple bags of cat litter to seeme through til the first. But I haven't gotten going. Messed up from falling asleep early on the couch, waking up in my clothes, disoriented, neck even further scrunched. I'm supposed to be working on a personal improvement plan, that might lead, I was hoping, to getting into physical shape and maybe, just maybe, finding even a teensy bit of human contact.

Then I bought two bags of candy to have in case the kids down the block show up on Halloween. I bought it too early and I ate it. Yup, I ate it once again. Made me sick.

Now I have to turn out the lights and hide on Halloween night. Again. For the same reason. I can't be trusted with candy.

Three Albany Cats Fixed Today

Three more Albany cats went up to be fixed today. They were a stray female taken in by someone over off Pacific, to nurse bottle babies found over near Davidson street, in someone's yard. The woman off Pacific who took them in became exhausted bottle feeding, and working, so sought a mother cat to nurse. This stray calico had kittens of her own. The woman took her in, and she nursed the bottle babies plus her own kittens despite being young herself. What a story, eh?

So she was fixed.

Then, a mother and her male kitten were fixed today too, from Geary street. The mother's white sister was fixed a couple of weeks ago. This white female had three kittens but she gave two away already. The one remaining, the black tux male, was fixed too today.

Geary street white girl, and her baby, below, both fixed today.
Geary street boy kitten.

The super mom, who nursed, altogether, nine kittens successfully. Two, maybe three, were not hers, and were instead found just born over on Davidson in someone's yard.

Boy, it is after 6:00 p.m. and I still cannot get ahold of one of the cats, fixed today, caretaker. She said she would be home all day, except she was taking her son to the doctor at some point. I stopped by. No answer. I've been calling. No answer. I hope they are ok. I wish they would call me.

Zorro and Flower

Ok, I've named those darn struggling kittens.

I hope giving them names will seal their survival. I hope.

Flower wants to live. She is precocious and curious and shows off to me and wants to please me. She really went into desperate show off mode, when her brother died. She was stressed, didn't understand, worried something bad was going to happen to her, too, and that maybe it was her fault and if she tried harder she'd be ok.

Zorro, the surviving brother, went downhill fast, and Flower became even more frantic for love, touching my face with her paws, curling up in my hair, and yes I got their sickness, been gut sick for two days.

Worth it, ok. Worth it. They're kittens. One has died. They need comforting. I won't apologize for getting sick myself.

I've kept their area clean, clean as a lab. Shit happens. Bacteria are teensy. Easy to miss one. Or two somewhere.

They are eating. Their poop is solidifying. I fight them at night to get the metro down. I know they hate it. I hate trying to give it to them. But its helping.

I have Cattyhop contained again. She's so skinny, but she eats and poops normally. No vomiting. No fever and maybe she just hasn't made up for the time earlier this fall when she wasn't eating. She's gained almost a pound since then, but still too skinny. She could have cancer, but I had feared she had dry FIP. She couldn't have that. She'd be dead already. Been too long. Not too long for slow growing lymphoma, hidden away somewhere, in her digestive system. USually there's vomiting with that, off and on.

Hopi would vomit. Then she would get these terribly pale almost white stools. I'd find them in the litterbox and show the vet. It was a different vet then I used. That was almost two or three years before she started losing weight. And it was another year after that before she died, maybe a year and a half. Like maybe she had cancer her entire life and it finally got her in the end by growing across boundaries that blocked essential services provided by her system.

So I don't think Cattyhop is out of the woods. She has energy. She actually doesn't mind being confined because it means lots of attention which she likes. She mainly otherwise spends her time in the garage and cat yard, rarely coming in, until the rains hit for the winter. This is why I didn't notice her drastic weight loss until early summer, then it got even worse mid summer. She was terribly terribly clogged with hair, however and even when she started pooping, her poop was like rubber, matted in hair. So she's getting further lubed now, for good measure, although she seems to be pooping normally.

My eye is on her now.

I got to let Hairy out. I have tried. He is so scared to come out. He likes me, though. See, when I picked him up, as an eartipped feral, at Heartland, he was starved nearly to death. I was headed straight up to Wilsonville with him from there, because that woman was going to relocate him, and, before I drove out of Heartland's parking lot, I fed him three cans of food, inside the trap, which he gulped. Ever since then, he likies me.

I brought him back from up there once I got varying stories regarding the relocation. First it was some old woman who fed table scraps, then it was a man and two of the five she'd taken there had already been killed by coyotes. And when I went to see Hairy, he was sicker than a dog, and she hadn't noticed, so he came back with me. So, what to do with one single feral, without friends. You can't really relocate single ferals. They have to buddy up for it to be successful. Well, think about it. Taking a cat who's scared of people to some completely unfamiliar location, man alive, no friends, no family, nothing to attach to, to cling to, to cuddle up to for reassurance when times are bad--that is cold! I won't do it.

He's in the garage in one huge cage, which I leave open during the day, but not at night because I don't want cat fights or any bullying while I sleep. I had a home I thought, for him and for Meesa, but then I never heard from the woman again. I had gone over to her place and she had asked assistance catching a male she fed, then, she said, we'd relocate them to this great place friend of hers owns, with all sorts of cat rooms to house ferals for relocation confinement. She was going to come over that next day, at 2:00 p.m., and we'd go for a walk, then go catch that male, and she didn't come. I tried calling twice, no answer, went to message and gave up.

Zorro and Flower, you hear me--you got names now. And you better live. I wonder how Hairy would like a couple of kittens for company, once they're well. He's long hair and he rumbles and that long hair would be perfect for those kittens to cuddle into.

So the woman who first took Zorro, the day I trapped him, then asked me to hold him for me while she was gone to eastern Oregon, well I never heard from her again. She met me with him in her carrier. I've been trying to call her, so she can take back her carrier. I can't get ahold of her. Her message box is full too. I can't figure it out. I saw her truck back at her place when I drove by on my way to Corvallis that Monday, so I know she came back. I hope she's ok. I'm not mad about her dumping him back on me, because he was so sick. It's sleazy, sure, to not even call. But I just want to get her carrier back to her. I don't know how long a person has to try to do that. Or even if I should. It's up to her, really. I have no idea what is going on with that woman.

Brutus, now Brody James, Doing Great in New Home.

I get down when I can't find homes for cats here. But, I am getting new photos routinely of Brutus, now named Brody James, from his adoptor and he is doing great and looks so happy and relaxed.

"May I Please Put a Gun to My Head and Pull the Trigger by Voting?"

It's voting time. I only vote out of guilt these last years.

I don't like the records or views of either Oregon candidate for governor. But getting ripped by Wells Fargo reminds me how little big companies care about honesty or about little tiny people like me. Dudley moves money around for wealthy people. He earned his millions playing pro basketball. When your business clients and your friends are the ultra wealthy, you are not going to forget who your friends are and who you owe once in office.

Dudley will run over us poor people without a blink. That's my opinion.

So I am voting for Kitzhaber because I am a nobody and Dudley is wealthier than wealthy and I'm scared of rich people and how they view poor people. I think they'd like to exterminate us all, like in ovens or firing squad lines.

I doubt Dudley even knows the extent of poverty in Oregon or how poor people try to get by. I think the poor, no matter which candidate wins, are going to be the ones thrown under the train.

I don't know why I bother to vote. Voting is a sham. Doesn't change anything. Doesn't solve problems needing solved. It only creates a circus atmosphere and money spent on nothing in campaigns, good money burned in stupid campaign ads and other nonsense. Kills me to see such waste of good money.

Then the face-glowing newly-elected reward friends with contracts and high paying do nothing state or federal jobs and its all just ridiculous.

I have no faith anymore. If Dudley is elected, he will use the office to better himself, his friends and his kind. Same with Kitzhaber. Voting seems a co-dependent approval nod for this behavior. I don't like being part of it. I don't like the guilt-laden Vote ads, because voting means nothing anymore.

Voting's deepest meaning, these days, if anything, would go something like "May I please screw myself by voting?" "May I please put a gun to my head and pull the trigger by voting?"

One interesting aside: There are two people running for city council my ward. One has been a councilor forever and the other, I don't know him. I read the voters pamphlet. I confess to that. It's often very entertaining, especially the measure arguments, who has written them. I imagine all sorts of underlying reasons for groups of individuals or just plain individuals for spending their money and time to promote or demote a certain measure. It's so much fun, with imagination added.

On this particular square off, the newcomer to the council politics has no voter pamphlet information. I can't find a web page for him or a single thing about him, except where he lives and a phone number. I call him up. I ask where I can find out something about him. He says he doesn't have a web page and it cost too much to be in the voter's pamphlet. He doesn't volunteer any information about himself either, by phone. I'm waiting for it, the spiel, anything, him asking for my vote. It doesn't come. "Thank you," I say, hang up, and mark my ballot for the incumbent.

Also, I make a habit of voting no on every single initiative. They are generally poorly written, confusing to enact and unfunded. I love the initiative process. You get low paid often out of state signature whores chasing you down at store entrances demanding you sign.

If they are persistent, I sign something like "J.P. McGoo", but usually I avoid them, run from them or take photos of them. State voter initiatives usually signal to me somebody has issues and is taking out their issues on the state voters and taxpayers when that person or persons should be in therapy.

Here is another pet peeve I have: Cities who won't pay to pick up leaves, saying it is the responsibility of the property owner to pay for leaf pickup if they have trees. This is like penalizing people who have trees in their yard. It's a double penalty because most cities won't let you cut them down. It's a triple penalty because trees are really good at sopping up all the crap we breathe out and otherwise dump into the air with our vehicles and motors of all kinds, turning it back in Oxygen. What's better than that? Cities should thank people who have trees in their yard. They should be so grateful they send workers to clean up the leaves for free, or bring those property owners home made pies or the property owner should get hefty tax deductions allowed for each tree.

Hell yeah. That's how it should be. I'm waiting here for my home made pie. I don't really own this property but I would eat the home made pie in my brother's absentia. (I like apple, cherry, pecan and pumpkin--whipped cream on top would really be nice)

Negative on Fiv/Felk

I took both kittens up to Wilsonville, but just got the male kitten tested, since is the one who crashed last night. Thankfully, I chugged him full of sub cu fluids.

I think I held my breath the entire time it took for the snap test to read. Negative!!! Wheh!

The vet believes it is a gut amoeba or parasite, coccidia or giardia, could even be e-coli she said, after I described the water they had to drink from. They will now have metronizadole added to Albon, plus easily digested wet food and probiotics and see if they will make it.

We discussed the possibility of panoleukemia, more commonly known as distemper. I felt if they had that, they would have already died. They had diarrhea from when I first met them, off and on, sometimes severe.

I did vaccinate them the moment I took them in, and that could be reason, if they have it, that it did not kill them quickly. EVen in under two weeks, one vaccine might give a degree of protection, the vet thought. In the end, I think she also believed even so, if it is panoleukemia, they'd be dead already.

Sage looks on the outs tonight, too. She is laying in the second bedroom, half lethargic. Could be however she's just sleepy. She has had a hard time finding a private place to sleep, amongst the hordes here. I will watch her carefully as she only had surgery recently, meaning she could be prone to infection. Her incision looks ok, though.

Ditch Kittens Fate

I have come to the conclusion the Church Ditch kittens will not survive. All three had diarrhea to begin with. I felt it was more likely from the bad water they had to drink down there, which is stagnant and smelly and infested with algae and nutria feces and urine. I treated each for three days with panacure, which is supposed to get giardia and roundworms.

I wonder if I should have been using also albon. I have no money to take all these rescued kittens and cats to vets who charge so much just for an office visit.

I would think distemper except they would all be dead now. The Siamese had to have fluids tonight. He was dehydrated. He's had two partial baths today alone, to wash off his tail and back legs.

The only thing that stopped the diarrhea temporarily was activated charcoal. I gave them more of that tonight and started them on Albon.

It is very possible they have an underlying something, like Felk, or FIV or FIP. They remain in isolation. I don't think it's Felk. I don't know why I would think that. I vaccinated these two remaining, the first day back here. That was after that woman took him in, on the 12th, the day I trapped them. Now it's two weeks later. Two weeks of chronic diarrhea. I don't even know why these other two are alive. If a kitten can withstand that long with diarrhea, and probably had it before I trapped them, they're tough kittens to last, sick like that. I will guess still they got something when forced to start supplementing mom's milk by drinking that crappy water down there. Since they were about seven weeks of age, when I trapped, they probably had only begun drinking that water a week or so before I trapped them.

I only knew there were kittens down there when I spotted the little orange one over where the feeders feed, scratching at the dirt, searching for food. They don't put food down but once a day, very early. Kittens don't stand a chance on a schedule like that. They don't put out water, so the cats drink from that horrible horrible stinking stagnant "creek".

I would guess most kittens would be dead within a month, maybe two of partial weaning. Whatever's in that water kills them. Giardia? Coccidia? Both? Other stuff? E-coli?

Would have been cheaper to test that fetid water, but now it's rained so heavily, a test would be skewed.

I don't think these kittens will make it. I think they have something I haven't the home med skill or supplies to conquer.

After long research on the web tonight, I'm changing my tune. I believe they might indeed be Felk positive. That's because their diarrhea is sporadic. And it's because of the tumor in the mouth of the kitten who died. I've seen throat tumors before in conjunction with kittens who had leukemia. Add in diarrhea, sometimes blood streaked. Felk. But, I will keep them on albon, in case it is coccidia, and get one tested somehow. The vet I use charges a fortune for a test. I might get away with a free exam because the kitten has not been seen there before, but if the one I take up isn't positive, that means a fecal, and more money and I don't have any money to spare. I have never had a fecal come up positive for coccidia, even though I am really positive a cat has it. That's because the little darn things aren't shed with every poo, so it's pretty a waste of money to get one done. If the kitten is negative, they're going to get both metro and albon. That's all I can do.

Day of Labor

Today, I labored. A windstorm has hit Oregon, along with, at times, extreme rain. It has not been cold, just wet and wild. I love Oregon storms.

The maple trees out back threw off their leaves in one fell swoop. Trees that shed! Oh for a furminator that works on a tree before their leaves cascade down into the gutters, clogging them, before those leaves blow in wild wind, all over the neighborhood, prompting my area yard nazis to shake their heads sternly and look away, should our eyes meet.

My yard has more trees than most in this city. My yard converts enough CO2 to O2 to sustain most of the cul de sacs humans.

I would think people would be so grateful they'd bring me gifts, really nice ones, on that account. What wishful thinking.

The trees will go naked for the winter, hairless. Seems like nature in reverse. My cats hair coats are growing in thick for protection, even though any of them could spend their entire time inside. I soon will don a coat, which is not normal for me, even in the coldest and wettest of weather. They're a nuisance and I leave them places and I'd be going naked like the trees if I wouldn't be rightfully immediately arrested for the act.

But their leaf shed is more like bears hibernating. They don't have to grow without leaves. Their sap slogs and thickens up and off to sleep they go. Darn lucky trees and bears.

Today I battled leaves clogging my ancient gutters, that leak anyways, in several spots. Today I battled the one day leaf blitz happily, chasing them across my driveway and through the cat yard with a rake.

There is no place for the leaves. The city's leaf pickup is practically nonexistant. I have not even heard when it might be. Usually there are four pickups, but knowing when, that's the mystery of it all. You don't know, during the spans of time given, when the pickup might hit your block. The yard debris containers are emptied by the pickup company only every other week and hold very few leaves.

Last year, suffocating in mounds of leaves growing to house height, I ran an ad on craigslist: "$5 for all the great autumn leaves you can haul. Don't have trees? No piles of leaves for your kids to jump into joyfully? No problem. Five bucks will buy you all the beautiful brightly colored fall leaves you could ever want." I got no takers.

So, in driving rain, I climbed my ladder and cleaned leaves from the gutter all around the house, climbing down, moving the ladder a couple feet farther, climbing back up. Water from driving rain had filled the gutter all around the house, creating sheets of water cascading off the roof around the entire perimeter, like a giant encompassing waterfall. While I thought it was beautiful, stern neighbor looks and knowledge of neighbor chatter drove me out into the weather with my ladder and some well used yellow dishwashing gloves. I could only find two gloves, two that fit a left hand.

I love the fall. It's my favorite season. I love especially the crackling cold bright black starry nights. I feel alive and close to the stars come fall. I love a good windstorm, too and I don't mind the rain at all.

King Football. Pampering the Aristocrats of Academia

The padded protected fat cat elite of academia, the football program, displayed it's excess to the peons, briefly, in an article in local paper. Click the post title to read about the football programs new "lounge", which cost, in private donations, 3/4 of a million dollars.

I know we are supposed to worship these gladiators, who carry a ball this way and that, for a few seconds in plays contrived by coaches, oops, kings and their staff of royalty. Many will go on to make millions in one year for doing the same. Some will go on to lengthy prison terms or frequent court appearances.

The peons, slaves and proletariat must not question the actions of royalty.

On the outside, society claims that we need better schools and brighter students. But we all know who garners favor in our world. Not brainiacs, not scientists or doctors or inventors or researchers or programmers.

Royalty and riches belong to football.

I say we drop all the pretentions. Cut the funding to useless academics. Who needs them? Parents, employ trainers not tutors. You don't need SAT scores. They don't matter if you can properly run or throw or tackle and wear a tight fighting uniform well. Practise those end zone victory hip swaggers. Or, fatten up that big kid even more, better to flatten the offensive line. Talk to your family doctor about muscle making drugs.

Colleges are for football not for learning. Winning means everything. And in such a society, where money is spent big on football programs, we, the riffraff, who cheer on royalty, or die, we shall take the heads of those who lose.

We are owed that at least.

Miss Daisy Makes a Friend and Other Photos

Peko from the N. Albany swamp (oops, wetland, my bad) has found a new friend in Deaf Miss Daisy!




Laser in the Water! Arghhhh! My cats enjoy dunking cat toys in water bowls, for some sick reason. Last night, the laser pointer died in this manner.
Shaggy, of the Lebanon hosed down mom and kittens group, with his reflection.
Zorro, the Siamees Church Ditch kitten, with his now deceased brother. Mowgli never moved much, never grew, and I knew from the start he would not make it. I had to try.
All three of the Church Ditch kittens.
Zorro is a laid back kitten. Poppa's president has a home lined up for him, but is currently on vacation.

A Death in Catland

I was not gone long. About 40 minutes. While I was gone, the orange kitten died.

I can't tell what happened, except the water dish is tipped over and his face was wet. I believe he tipped it, while drinking, inhaled water and drowned. I don't know that for sure, but with the dish tipped over, water on his face, and him three feet from the water dish, something happened in that manner.

He wasn't strong and probably wouldn't not have made it. But it was a shock to come home and find him recently deceased. He was alive when I left. I used the bathroom right before leaving.

He didn't move around much the last couple of days. His breaths were not fast but deep and infrequent and strained. I don't know what happened to him. He could have had heart failure. There's no sense wondering anymore. He's gone. Poor little guy.

His brother and sister were staring aimlessly at him, from a few feet and were relieved to see me. He's gone. Dead.

Rest in Peace.

I looked at him, after he was dead. He's abnormal in so many ways. His rib cage extends within an inch of his pelvis. He has too many ribs. Inside his mouth, at the back of his throat, on his left, is a tumor, the size of a pea.

I need to get these kittens tested. It's likely his abnormalities are inbreeding or birth defect but I need to be sure the other two are not Felk positive, before I go further. This colony has had virtually no surviving kittens. Except for last year, when four survived to breed this year. Both females had kittens, but the mother, the Siamese, of those four now adults, has gone missing. She lived many years there, however, having multiple litters. Unfortunately white kittens get killed by hawks and owls, foxes, almost everything. They stand out. I'm not surprised there have been few survivors. Only one of the four siblings, young adults, this year, was light colored. The light colored cats get eaten.

What I'm saying is just because there are no kittens doesn't mean there is leukemia prevalent in the colony. The male, the only adult male there, is huge in size, yet looked healthy. The colony is remote and isolated and he had no competition.

No fighting means less liklihood of disease coming in, unless he or the abandoned Siamese already had FIV or Felk.

They have excellent color to them, even the little guy who died, bright pink mouths, inconsistent with Felk. And yet, there was something I had noticied, redness along the gums, a spot of red on the top of his mouth, that made me think, from the start, 'I wonder if they were born FIV positive."

Time will tell. Tests aren't that reliable on kittens so small. They'll remain in isolation until I know. My guess is going to be that they're negative. I don't know why. Maybe it's the healthy pink gums and they fact they survived in a horrible location, which usually means they're tough and I do think the little orange guy got ruptured by his own mother when he was trapped with her. She probably panicked right at first and tromped him, rupturing something. That's what I think happened.

Sage's Adoption Video

She is a very gorgeous kitty. And brave.

Sheer Numbers Wear Me Down

I'm at the end of my Poppa Inc. budget for the month and there are so many cats waiting to be fixed and needing to be fixed. If only the owners would do so. Fat chance with most. There are five kittens out on Riverside needing fixed. There's another mother in Albany and a mother on Looney Lane with her kittens, needing fixed. There are two difficult catch feral kittens, in Albany, mom now fixed, needing caught and fixed. There over 25 still needing fixed at that one Lebanon location.

And then yesterday, someone contacted me from Philomath who has over 30 cats and the landlord wanted them gone by yesterday or they'd be evicted. None are fixed.

The man I got four kittens and their mom fixed for, in Corvallis, wanted me to take all five of those. He would donate a bag of cat food, he said.

Someone abandoned two lovely cats in Albany, who had been living with a boyfriend, who then was evicted. She had first abandoned them in Salem when she decided to move in with her boyfriend down here, then abandoned them again when she went back to Salem. Two different people called me asking if I could take those two in. Otherwise, the landlord is going to have them killed.

I can't take anymore in, and said "no" to all these requests, but the plight of these poor cats plays on my mind.

The woman who stayed a night in Detroit and was horrified at the numbers of roaming unwanted cats there has been e-mailing me. She can't find anyone to help. She doesn't live there, but tried to find someone locally to help but no one wants involved. She lives in Portland.

I have got to come up with more fixing money. If you are reading this, please click the post title to go to Poppa Inc.'s website and contribute. Thank you.

Church Ditch Kittens

All three are still alive, although its been quite the fight to keep the little orange guy going. I still give him fluids once per day, to make sure. The Siamese kitten was returned to me a few days after the woman, whose cats I'd taken to be fixed the same day I caught him, had offered to take him. She wanted me to take care of him a few days while she took a trip to eastern Oregon. However, she was back on Monday and has not called me, to arrange to come get him, so he's a permanent. Not that permanent. As you might expect with a cute Siamese, he already has a new home waiting for him, up in Portland. I'll get some photos of him later.

Slurpy, the Lebanon torti, is fabulously outraged over a tiny kittens' entry into the house. So are Echo and Fantasia. Boys are so much more accepting of the invasion. Zach loves them.

I don't let them interact much with the rest because I don't know their FIV/Felk status. It's a very very small colony, but has had high mortality. In the end, we trapped three adult males and two adult females. However, I believe four of the adults are siblings. The other adult male was older. There were two tortis, one muted, one classic, both with medium hair, one black tux long hair adult male, younger though, maybe a year or two old, an orange and white medium hair male, also young and with medium length hair, and then the mature black tux long hair male.

There were two litters of kittens, one from each torti. I trapped the three first, from the one torti, and the lilac point died in surgery. The other two, a flamepoint male and a torti were relocated up to the feeders barn.

Then there was the second torti's litter, two of whom I never caught, and the other three now in my bathroom. I returned her, in case her two remaining kittens were still alive. They would need her. It would be heartless to take her out of there and leave them to die without her. I doubt they have survived, but I can hope. It is awkward to search for them. It has been very hard on me to think of those two kittens out there, with the weather turning vicious and wet and cold.

So two adults, the first one trapped, the mature male, then the torti with the kittens maybe, remain. The feeders plan to retrap them, also, and relocate them to their own barn, to make it easier on them and to give the cats a better life.

But their poop, although it has hardened and is formed, is reddish. I believe it is from the dye they can't digest, in the wet food. They seem to go for the Nine Lives Seafood or Salmon which is bright pink with red food dye. They won't eat dry kitten food and they won't eat other types of wet food and I don't know why but they sure go for that. I've never had any cat that likes that variety. I use it for trap bait only, because it's stinky, but then most cats won't eat it.

Maybe their sense of smell is damaged and cats eat when they smell and not otherwise. So maybe the stinky nature of that variety of wet cat food makes it appealing.


This girl is growing like a weed.
Dirty face from slurping wet food.


Well, I"ve solved some of they mystery surrounding the kittens failure to thrive. They are vomiting up pieces of plastic. They'd been eating garbage out there, including plastic wrappers.

The neighbor boy complained yesterday about the 3 foot by ten foot section of grass on one side of my rental, but within their fence. I can't get my no good push mower into that small of a space and I don't have a weed eater. I'd like to dig it out and cover it in gravel, but money is always an issue and time. I asked him to weed eat it, since they have all the yard equipment, he's off school yesterday and today, but that went nowhere.

He told me I should buy yard equipment and I told him straight up, "With what money?" So I'll go out there and hand clip, I guess, to keep them happy. Life is tough and neighbors sometimes make things tougher.

I got no friends on this block. Not unless they want me to trap some cat or rabbit or something.

Shaggy Adoption Video

Of Sage's four kittens, Shaggy has the most intrepid personality. He is smart and athletic. Dickens also is outgoing and friendly.

Local Suicides

There have been two high profile tragic suicides in the news in the last two days around here.

Just today, a woman stepped in front of a train in Harrisburg. The report said she was walking along the tracks and when she heard the train, stepped right into its path, covering her face first. She was not from Harrisburg. They don't know yet where she is from. How sad.

It was yesterday or the day before that the body of a Portland man was found on a bench in Chip Ross Park in Corvallis. He was dead of suicidal violence, the report said. Nobody knew why he had come to Corvallis to end his life and his name has not been released.

Suicide rates in Oregon exceed the national average. I wonder why this state is so sad. It's a beautiful place. But, I've heard over and over, hard to make connections here. Maybe people are lonely.

I had some friends leave, once retired, for New England. She said they're so happy there and people are friendlier. They had not made significant friends during the time here. Another person I knew briefly was upset to be unable to find friendships here and wanted badly to move back to the east coast.

I have not been able to make connections either. But, at least, I have my cats. I do think often there must be somewhere to live where I could make friends easier. But I think it's more the fact people are so very busy trying to survive and tired out. I've met lots of nice people but everybody seems ultra busy and ultra tired.

Nice Kid and the Five Kittens from the Clover Ridge Feral

The folks off Clover Ridge, who feed the feral female Boots, fixed last week, have tamed her very last litter, who will soon be fixed, and they're sooo cute. Especially the black fuzzy male kitten Bear. I bet you can tell which one he is.






My neighbor's son is nice. He's got Asbergers I think it's called. His mother "volunteered" him last night, said he needed an outing. The kids are out of school again today, tomorrow, too. Teacher inservice or something. She says it's almost once a week they have a day off. He loves animals so along he went.

First stop, we picked up the traps at the Scravel colony. He saw some cats in their window when we arrive and wanted to see them, but she was busy. Even though I had a lot of trouble commmunicating with these folks there, I know they're good people because they love animals. Sometimes it's just a complete difference in background and the way people relate. Means nothing except communication is an issue and it gets hard. I'm glad most of their cats are now fixed and I hope they get those other two fixed and I"m sure they will.

Then we stopped in at another colony I'd trapped up there two years ago and he got to see their very cool place and cats there. Then we went to Millersburg and I showed him where Sam came from. He really likes Sam. We were going to go to some other places, but he got hungry and he eats on a specific schedule. In fact, he doesn't like to be off schedule at all, which I believe is a hallmark of Asbergers. So I brought him home.

Three Free Kitten Ads On Craigslist in Last Couple of Hours

Is it any wonder there is an overpopulation problem? These kittens given out unfixed go on to reproduce, wherever they land. On and on the problem goes. I can't keep up anymore. Sometimes I don't want to continue. There is little in it for me, nothing actually, and people are often quite mean even abusive as they are getting free help, like they are entitled to it, to me. It's hard to take day in and day out, to see nothing change.

I sure wanted to change things for the better around this area, for cats. Too bad there isn't a ton of money available to do it. Boy, would sure take off a lot of the stress if there was enough spay neuter money out there, and vehicles to use in transport. '

I have been trying to figure out a way to at least get those 30 in Lebanon fixed. I have no contacts anymore. I had heard the county gave out a cat grant this year. I wasn't sure if it was true and have been trying to find out. All I really know is there might be and if there is, Spay Inc. might be the only one with access to the funds. But I don't even know that for sure. Those folks in Lebanon, the neighbors, are trying to find out too, at least I told them to call Linn County and try to find out if there is a grant out there and if so, who can use the funds, and how do they get in touch with them. I did call Animal control, and left a message for the man who would be overseeing the grant, but I got no return call. Maybe I will tomorrow. Those other people, outside Lebanon, when they contacted Poppa for help, told me they'd contacted Spay Inc. but were told they charge $100 per cat and they could not afford that.

When I think of the massive numbers of miles I drove taking the Scravel cats back and forth to vets along with other cats in the last two weeks, and even in running back and forth up to Scravel Hill, over 1100 miles, I start thinking $100 a cat is pretty fair price so as not to break the backs and cars of those involved. Problem is, very few people would ever pay that kind of money or even a fraction of that. People with that kind of money rarely get in trouble by not fixing their cats. Well, one can dream.

I want so much to be out of here, to be somewhere I might have some human contact, not the contact I get, with, pardon the expression, crazy cat people. By that I mean the people who don't fix their pets, let them reproduce, then want the problem solved by someone else, while they sit on their behinds and the cats caught in the middle of this behavior, how they suffer.

These ads below represent only a fraction of the kittens out there now, in need of homes. I have four other litters I promised to help get fixed, before they are adopted out. It's depressing. I need some fun, some laughter, some recreation. I don't know anybody though. I really really need some normal human contact.



Kittens looking for loving homes! (Albany)

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Date: 2010-10-20, 4:21PM PDT
Reply to: comm-rmbmz-2016948776@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

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6 kittens who need good homes!
They are about 5 weeks old. 3 gray and 3 black/white.

(541) 905-6390


Free Kittens

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Date: 2010-10-20, 11:39AM PDT
Reply to: [Errors when replying to ads?]

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Two 10 week old kittens free to a good home in the Corvallis/Albany area. Mother has been tested for feline aids and leukemia and has a good bill of health. They are playful and spunky and need a good, loving home. Email me if interested.


Foster Kitties Ready for Forever Homes (Corvallis Area)

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Date: 2010-10-20, 3:55PM PDT
Reply to: comm-xvgm2-2016887013@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

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Foster kitties ready for their forever homes! Absolutely adorable 8 week old kittens. 2 strawberry blonde males (one long hair, one short), 1 light gray tiger striped female and 1 dark grey tiger striped male. $10 rehoming fee.

Ten Cats Fixed Yesterday. 19 Fixed Last Two Days.

BS colony torti Herschey, the one who pooped on my coat and peeed on my car seat, spayed yesterday.
Stray Albany female, Bitty, who turned out to be already spayed.
BS colony kitten Twix, male, neutered yesterday.
Sugar, the stray Albany teen torti, spayed yesterday.
KP, the ragdoll black and white big male, fixed yesterday who was also abandoned in Albany.
Lebanon 5th Wheeler colony male, Vince, a polydactyl Siamese mix, neutered yesterday.
Black tux teen female Precious, from Lebanon 5th Wheeler colony, spayed yesterday.
Hercules, big gray and white polydactyl splendid male, from Lebanon 5th wheeler colony, fixed yesterday.

Not shown: the two Church colony cats fixed yesterday, an orange and white male, and the dark torti.

My Poppa Inc. budget is used up for the month. And still, I have three dozen cats and 21 kittens in addition on the wait list to be fixed. Sad, eh?

I still have the Lebanon three here, two big polydactyl inbred males and a teen girl, who were fixed yesterday, needing to go home. EVerybody else from yesterday and the day before went home.

I had kept the Church colony black tux male here, after he was fixed Monday, for the night, and the first four Lebanon cats remained here Monday night too. In addition the three from Columbus were here for the night Monday night. But they all went home yesterday. It isn't easy to do all the running around, care for the hordes here, care for a dozen in the garage too, over night, then return them all, clean all the traps, do the laundry. Isn't easy.

Those Columbus three semi feral teen girls done Monday were chock full of roundworms. I worm the cats by mixing roundwormer into wet food I leave in the traps for the night if they're here the night after surgery. Usually they scarf it in the night and by morning, have pooped out loads of dead roundworms. That was the case with the Columbus three. I showed the old couple the worm laced poop in the traps after we released them and encouraged them to buy some roundwormer and mix it into the wet food for all the cats seperating out plates for each.

But only three of the ten fixed yesterday spent the night. That's the Lebanon three.

I didn't get hotos of the orange and white church colony male, nor the church colony torti fixed yesterday. Got so tired I forgot.

The rest, I'll get their photos posted at some point. Ten fixed yesterday. Except Bitty, a stray female who showed up down on Columbus, the downtown section, turned out to be already fixed.

A young stray torti plus a big ragdoll male she took in, from an another location in Albany, after contacting them off craigslist, both were fixed yesterday. She is trying to find the young fuzzy torti a home. She calls her Sugar.

The two BS colony cats were fixed, a torti and the only kitten they didn't give away, a silver tabby male, were fixed too, yesterday.

Three from Lebanon, a polydactyl Siamese mix male, Vince, and a big gray and white poly male, Hercules, plus the black tux teen female, Precious, were fixed.

Then the two church colony cats, whom they are relocating to their residence, were fixed. The second mother cat, another beautiful dark torti, mother of the three kittens I trapped first including the Lilac point who died in surgery, was fixed. Her surviving two kittens, the flamepoint and another torti, are already up at the feeders residence, contained in my rabbit hutch for relocation there. She'll see them again. Then the orange and white male, brother of the black tux male fixed Monday, was fixed. They will be housed together in relocation up to the feeders residence. That should work out fine.

Those are the ten who were fixed yesterday. All good catches and fixes, so I'm happy about it. I'm worn out too and I wish I could just immediately get the rest on the wait list fixed. I wish the money was there to get that accomplished. I like to get things done immediately. But, the money isn't there and that's just the way it is.

9 Cats Fixed Today

Church colony DMH Black tux. The colony feeders say it's a girl. Looks boy to me. This cat will be relocated to their residence once fixed.
Off Columbus in Albany, a man with a barn had three more teens show up. I got about 8 fixed for him one and a half years ago. I don't know this teen's sex, but I will guess girl.
The other two teens he caught, both black tuxes.
The second black tux from off Columbus.
This is a stray Albany male, who, if neutered, gets himself a home with the folks now feeding him outside.

Then there is the new big colony near Lebanon. Fixed income couple living in a small 5th wheeler with cats they feed outside, maybe 15 or 20. The first four, all girls, are getting fixed today. I told them I didn't know if we'd have the money to get them all done, so to start with the most prolific girls. They met me with these four:
Spikes, a little girl.
Pitchfork, an adult tabby on white female.
Princess, a very sweet brown tabby female.
Gimpy, a young black female with the cutest perfectly round face.