Congratulations in Order

I got invited to my nieces graduation from U of O, down in Eugene.

So I drove on down early afternoon and joined my brother and his wife, his wife's parents and his wife's sisters' family in watching my niece get her degree.

The venue got changed last moment to Hayward Field. Hayward Field, U of O's historic track, is impressive. Hayward Field is where Steve Prefontaine ran and in Oregon, Steve Prefontaine is a sacred name. He was a long distance runner from Coos County, where I was born and raised, and a very good runner. He died young, in a car accident outside of Eugene. Nike's history is rooted in Steve Prefontaine and Hayward Field.

My father hated Steve Prefontaine. He called him mouthy and opinionated. I remember his rants against "Pre's" politics and mouth, from childhood.

My brother and I joked no graduate should receive a degree on Hayward Field if they first could not complete a six minute mile or less.

Unlikely as it might seem, seated as we were on bleachers, I dozed off during the ceremony, which ran on and on, with graduates receiving degrees so far off in the distance they were specks, one indistinguishable from another.

Unable to sit on those hard bleachers any longer, after my niece received hers, with her name announced over the speakers, I wandered off and around campus, walking around for over an hour. Another hour later, when I could not re-connect with the rest of the family, I got in long long lines waiting for buses that would take visitors back to the football stadium where our cars were parked. But not mine. I had parked at my nieces house. I was prepared to walk the mile or two from the football stadium to my car. But in the end, the wait in line for the buses was so long, my family showed back up to also wait. There we re-connected to wait some more.

Once back at her place, I got talked into going to dinner with them. I was already very sleepy. I didn't sleep much the night before.

But I don't get much chance to see my family so I didn't turn down that.

My niece has a plan for her life. She was accepted into medical school in southern California and will be leaving in about a month to move down. The medical schooling and school expenses like rent will be paid for by the army, whom she will then owe four years of service once out of medical school (four years) and residency (another four years). She will emerge, 12 years later, debt free. I probably won't see her again for years.

I think her move is wise, also, given the job outlook. Her brother, who graduated last year from U of O, still has not secured employment and now works in Haiti for a pittance on a church mission. He had hoped to make future job contacts doing so and hopefully he still will. Otherwise, he'll likely be back in Oregon next fall.

It's a tough outlook for these young folks, graduating from college this month. Good luck to all of them with their energy, enthusiasm and dreams.

I got a message left me two days ago by the woman who runs the adoption group in Portland who took the 8 kittens from me a couple weeks back. Six of the kittens were from that Albany female who had 8 kittens. The other two were the black kittens farm workers slid out of a pipe into my net out south of Corvallis.

She wanted to know background on them, in the message she left. I freak out in my head immediately, thinking she wants to return them or that they have ringworm now or something like that. I left a message back, then never heard from her.

But last night, when I returned from graduation very late, I had about ten messages from the woman fostering the kittens, who is not the same woman as the one who runs the group who will adopt them out.

I called her and she said they had diarrhea and that the rescue group woman didn't want the black ones. Something to that effect. She described the diarrhea the six from Albany have and it sounds very much like coccidia, yellow and dripping, but that not all of them have it now. I could not really figure out much over the phone. She was also letting the two black ones run the house, wild, so they will never be tame. The Albany six with diarrhea were also running loose in the house. At last I got that impression from the phone call.

I told her to cage both sets and to cage them separately. I told her to get in touch with the rescue group woman and get those kittens to a vet so they can get diagnosed and started on Albon if they do have coccidia. I was miffed I got drawn back into it, maybe because I was so worn out. I was supposed to be done with it, I had thought, once I turned them over to that rescue group.

Nobody wants sick kittens. Nobody wants black kittens either. They start trying to pan them off. I have no idea how bad the Albany six's diarrhea is. Hard to tell over the phone. I didn't have them here but a few minutes, picked them up on the way up with them.

The rescue group up there had paid for their mother to be tested the day before, when she was spayed. She was negative, but she and the two adult males were not cared for very well and she had 8 kittens in one litter, so they were going to be compromised. The people who owned the adults, elected to keep two of the 8 kittens, even though they haven't the money to care for the cats they already have.

This woman fostering them for the other group lives an hour and a half drive from me. She said the black pair do not have diarrhea. At least she doesn't think they do. I have to pick the black ones back up by the end of the week now. Drama, eh?

I'll get them fixed, as they should by now be well over two pounds, then try to return them to the warehouse, if I can find their mother out there.

Bad call on my part to even try to catch them. I was trying to catch their mom to be fixed and finally did. The foster woman was unable to tame them and doesn't want to end up with them for good.