Hell Hath No Mercy

I live in a town called hell, where pretty much nobody feels the need to fix their cats. And hell hath no mercy on my soul.

I can't help myself. I drive by the Bengal Man colony. He called me a couple months back, wanted help again, but same old, never followed through. Animal Control had been called on him by a neighbor. That's the only time he ever calls, but then never any follow through, no more returns on phone calls or e-mails.

I guess it was posting the photo of Shaulin and my ever increasing desire to get out of this town for good that led me down a path today. I drove by his place. I hate leaving jobs unfinished.

Nobody was home. Except cats, lots of unfixed cats. I saw an unfixed short hair orange male, an unfixed long hair orange male, an unfixed black and white long hair male with a flea collar and a very pregnant short hair gray female. Seeing that female propelled me into action. I left two more messages on his cell phone. My messages were not returned. I still have the number from two years ago, when I got two dozen cats from there fixed and took out three very roundworm infested kittens. Shaulin was one of those three.

This man is a collector.

I went by again this evening, with traps. The teenage son was home. He badly wants an end to it and them all fixed. He is a delightful young man and thanked me over and over. So I sat there and I trapped seven adults, bing, bing, bing, and he handed me four kittens, five weeks old, that were in junk inside the very smelly garage.

He showed me another mother out back, with three more. I told him I'd take them too, but not tonight.

I watched the neighbors unfixed male, that would be the black and white long hair, with the flea collar, relentlessly pursue a teenage spotted Bengal. She tried to climb into bushes to get away. At that point, a black long hair male attacked and mounted her. She screamed and raced across the street, with both males following. God almighty, these poor females.

The females propel me. They have no choice.

KATA will take in both litters. I was also supposed to try to help out at another Albany location early in the morning, a woman feeding four cats, now adults, from a dumped off black tame female, who disappeared after bringing her kittens to that yard. I happen to know exactly where that black female now calls home, sort of home. She lives under some apartments a few blocks away and at least is now fixed because I got her fixed.

Three of the four she feeds are males and the fourth is a female, now with four kittens of her own. KATA is going to take on those four kittens, too, if I can locate them, and get them.

It's a hard world out there for cats and for the little people trying to solve this horrible overpopulation problem. Meanwhile, the big huge shelters rake in the donation dough and their staff get paid. Must be nice.

Hell has been burning hot lately, too. In just the last ten days, two businesses in town have burned. The first was a truck parts business. The owner was sleeping inside the business for unknown reasons, in a motor home. He claimed to hear hissing noises and come out of the motor home just as the blast exploded into flames. But later I heard he lit a cigarette and there was gas in the building from welding equipment that had not been turned off. How he escaped unscathed is another big fat mystery.

The welding supply business that sent up toxic fumes when it burst into flames claims the barrels of toxic chemicals were not properly sealed. They were under a tarp and they were chemicals that if exposed to air and water, could ignite. Well, the tarp leaked in the rain and the barrels were also leaking. Kaboom. Toxic cloud of fumes sent out over south Albany. Yes, I reside in south Albany.

Then there was the house fire. One dog died in the fire. The house was a complete loss. Then there was the next house fire that completely destroyed the house. Cause under investigation. Then, in one night, there were two fires, one in Albany and another a mile away in Millersburg.

I called up my Millersburg friends and asked if they were near the latest fire. Their neighbor's house burned to the ground not long ago, just few hundred feet from their house. They slept through the sirens. This fire also was very close to theirs, a big shop went up. Had a boat in it, she told me and the man's property was under foreclosure I think she said. Man alive.

So, six major fires in ten days, in this tiny town. Seems more than coincidence.

Someone told me, "God's starting over here."

'Really?' I said.

"Yeah," she continued, "we all need to sleep with fire extinguishers cause he's mad at Albany and fire is God's vengeance."

"Yikes," I thought again.

Then I said, because I could not resist, "I think it's because people don't fix their cats here. If everybody really quick gets all their cats fixed, God will spare Albany."

She didn't buy it. "No, it's the baby killing liberals that live here," she said, in a very serious tone. "They're evil."

"Oh," I said, "sure....yeah, right, whatever."