Leave Clint Eastwood Alone!

Leave Clint Eastwood alone.  Please! I don't watch Republican speeches, gives me PTSD, flashbacks, nightmares, of a childhood filled with sadness, a father who couldn't keep his hands off me, paired eternally in my mind with his right wing rants.  So I don't watch Republican speeches and I don't vote for Republicans, as a promise, as an adult, to a little child, me, to never be anything like him.  But this morning, the news was full of stories and mockery of the Eastwood speech at the RNC.

Mocking Clint Eastwood is not acceptable.  I love his movies.  Not the early ones, not the "I'm a bad dude" ones, the later ones--The Unforgiven, Gran Torino, and Million Dollar Baby.

He's an icon.  So what if he blew a stupid speech at a gathering of politico groupees.  Who the hell cares?

I don't.

Leave him alone.  He's made some great movies.  I love the guy.

White Girl and Her Kittens

I was called to a Corvallis situation, asked to help catch a mom who had showed up, and her three kittens.  There are also a couple of males in the mix, one white and probably the mom's brother or adult son.  After walking the block last night, while white mom was being fixed, I found out she was once owned and named Tiny.  Her owner, an old woman, had died.  Now a group of "interesting" souls live in that trashed out house, and said they still feed her. They have an unfixed orangish male, whom I had already met and they want to get him fixed. Thankfully,  the people who contacted me also feed Tiny, the white mom.

I caught her the same night.  Yesterday, thankfully, Heartland had a surgery opening and she was spayed.  The people who contacted me were off on a short last of summer trip to the coast.  So I offered to try for the kittens anyhow and they agreed.  I caught the two boy kittens.  They tamed quickly, in the car.  I pulled them out to feed them, comfort and hold them after catching them.  I took them immediately to Heartland.  But the girl kitten has eluded me, hiding in brush against the back of one yard or jumping through two yards joining that one at its middle, both fenced.  I can't jump fences, but she can go through them.

I tried to catch her in one of those backyards.  I'd called and called, my best mother cat calls, and got her to come almost to me, but with a fence in between.  She would not come through the fence to me and I could not get over the 8 foot tall offset board fence.  You can't even see through the cracks of such fences.  You can only see a bit of space to the side.  I understand people want to fence out even the sight of their neighbors, but this seemed like overkill.

Course I was a frustrated soul trying to catch a little kitten, gilding my opinions.

I went around the block to see if I could get someone to answer their door at the house with the yard where the kitten was crying.  They were not home.  So I knocked on the door of a neighbor's very nice house.  A girl came to the door and was really wanting to help.  She took me around through the fence of the neighbor house, and told me to knock on their back deck door, way up some stairs.  But they were not home.  I asked the girl if she could help me. She'd already said those folks would not mind me catching a kitten in their yard.   She agreed to help however, since it made me nervous to be in someone's yard when they were not home.  These are fancy yards and houses, by my standard, and well off people might call the cops, I reminded myself.

Stereo types die hard.

Rich people to me seem to live in a completely different world.  To me, this neighborhood is high end, but the people who live there probably see themselves as middle class.  High end people aren't as approachable or as friendly as low enders, in my opinion.  Makes me feel off kilter to be around them much, not comfortable and on my guard.

We tried to catch the kitten.  That kitten was so good about running this way and that, in a chaos of shrubbery, trees and native plants, that made it impossible for the girl to steer her towards me and my net.

I had a can of wet cat food and dropped it, at one point.  When I reached to pick it up, I felt a sharp pain on my finger.  I'd been stung.  I saw no bee or wasp, but something stung me right on my left inside middle finger joint.  It began to swell and soon looked like an overdone hot dog.  I was hopping around, trying not to curse, because the girl helping was an unblemished teen from a well off family (didn't want to say sheltered)--well brought up.  Not like most Albany teens and even toddlers I encounter, who can curse like sailors.  So I made some pathetic little "ouch" noises, interspersed with phrases like "Darn that hurts but I'm ok!"

Her mother was calling, demanding she come home by then, after just a few minutes helping.  The kitten ran off.  Some other young man entered the yard and asked what I was doing there.  I was holding my stung swollen finger, a half full can of cat food, my net and had dirt all over me.  I said "Um, trying to catch a little kitten."  "Oh," the fresh faced spotless teen goes, "Is that something you do for a job?"  A technically correct answer would have required much to much effort on my part at this point.  I said "Self appointed.  No pay."  He grins big.  I leave.  Home owners arrive home just afterwards and I think the guy will tell them about the kitten in their backyard and there will be a neighborhood effort to help her.  Yeah right.  Must have been the wasp sting and poison circulating to make me think that.  Ha!

Dream on, cat girl!

I spent another hour hoping to catch her.  During that time, I banged my face on two low hanging bird houses in the dark, spilled tuna down my pants, did a whole lot of cursing as my finger swelled to the bursting red zone and called it a night.

Alby, white male kitten now at Heartland.

Opie, also all white, and a boy, now at Heartland.

So far uncaught and unfixed white male, either White Mom's brother or adult son.  Also, daddy of the kittens.  In bred boys!!  I told them not to wear that label too heavily, as a lot of the folks around here are inbred.

White Mom, real name--Tiny, fixed yesterday at Heartland.

This morning, a young possum hissed at me from one of the traps I had left set and the girl kitten cried from three feet away, nestled safely from me, two fences in between.  Moments later, she slipped by me into the wasp sting yard.  I eyed their 8 foot fence, wishing I could sprout wings.  I can't.  So I came home.  Her mom is recuperated enough to go back and that kitten doesn't need me at this point, she needs her mother.

I will take that kitten her mom.

She'll be caught eventually, probably within a week.

Her brothers tamed instantly and are at Heartland.  All white.  Alby and Opie.  Darling boys.  But not as bright as their sister, that's for sure.  That girl kitten is impressive!

Ditto Still Resting Here. Get Stood Up on Kitten Adoption

Ditto, the pregnant Lebanon muted calico, fixed Saturday, is still here, resting after surgery.  I returned the rest of the Lebanon cats yesterday, but she wanted to sleep.  So I decided to let her  I needed to sleep also and came home, after returning the other seven cats, and slept the rest of the day away.

I reposted the kitten ad on craigslit too.  Sasha came back yesterday, from a very brief stint out in foster.  Boy kittens!  He had immediately gotten himself in a pickle.  He stepped in a Scentsy candle and got wax all over one front leg.  The fosterer was very very worried and tried to cut some of the hardened wax off and ended up cutting him.  He does now smell very nice!  So he's back here, doing fine but he has wax all over one front leg.

I had what I thought to be a terrific adoption interest.  She made an appointment to come up late morning.  After sleeping the day away yesterday, I didn't get to bed until after midnight, but finally did get to sleep.  When I got up, I cleaned house, got their records in order, took a shower and waited, expectantly, hopefully.  And I waited.  The clock seemed to mock me as the minutes ticked away, past the time she said she would be here.  And on.  I fidgeted.  I became upset that someone would waste my time like that.  Not even call.  I made up excuses for her.  "She's lost," I said to myself.  Then I became darker.  "She must have been in a wreck," I tell myself, trying to justify human rudeness.

Finally I call her.  I ask quickly, "Are you lost?" trying to sound light, helpful, ready and eager to give directions.  But it was not the case.  She was not lost.  She wasn't coming and just had not bothered to call.  Makes me feel stupid, used, like people do not value what I do or my time.

Bitch, I think.

My mood turns dark and gloomy.  I had been so hopeful that this was going to be a great home for the two boys.

I spend the day playing with the kittens, cleaning up, trying still to recover from Saturday's marathon.  I'm still exhausted, can barely make myself move.

I'm still gloomy.  Heartland says they'll post the kittens on their site.  I get no traffic on my adoption site at all.    All of my last adoptions have come because someone first saw them on Heartland's site.  I am invisible.

I have no way to get the kittens seen, no adoption venue but craigslist ads, and craigslist is full of freaks.  I have gotten several  good homes off craigslist ads but the effort is vastly labor intensive because there are so many freaks who respond, who would be terrible cat owners.  One very disturbed woman contacted me using three different e-mails and names, but there were two similarities in every e-mail.  God, that scares me, that such people are out there and want kittens.  However, you mention an adoption fee or an application and they're gone.  And fast.

It's scary to post pets on craigslist.  But what choice do I have?

I don't like doing adoptions at all.  Handing off a living breathing soul to a stranger is like playing god.  Too much responsibility for little old me to bear.  I love these cats and kittens.  Their safety and lives depend on how well I match them up with the right home and screen out the freaks.

People sometimes think an adoption is an adoption and the cat or kitten got their forever home.  That's delusion.  So many adoptions don't work out and the cat gets handed off over and over and ends up on the streets and dead.  Or they just get abandoned.  Or they get thrown to vicious dogs or chased down by hounds in training. Or killed by a neighbors lonely angry dog or disturbed child or some issued up control freak who traps them and delights in dumping a little life out in the mountains.

 It's very terrible to hold the fate of a life in your hands.  Or bathroom.  Or to put that fate out for grabs on a site like craigslist.

Ditto will be leaving tomorrow.  In the meantime, she's getting the spa treatment here, the works, just like I'd want, if I'd ever been loved.

The Marathon--20 Local Cats Fixed, Sasha Steps in Scentsy

I didn't think I could round up 20 cats, after two situations cancelled, for Saturday, to fill the 20 reservations I'd made.  But it wasn't hard at all.

Four, in the end, came from Corvallis.  Teenagers.  Their mom was already fixed.  Two boys and two girls.

Bug, one of two black male teens from Corvallis fixed yesterday.

Peanut, the other black teen fixed yesterday.

Marshmellow, torti point siamese female fixed yesterday.

Patches, torti teen fixed yesterday.

Seven more cats, all kittens, were fixed from Albany.  A disabled couple had rescued their precious babies from two locations. Three girls and a boy.

Ginger, buff tabby girl kitten, fixed yesterday.

Jack, org tab on white boy kitten, fixed yesterday.

Jill, Albany torbi on white kitten, spayed yesterday.

Zoey, Albany gray and white kitten, fixed yesterday.

Three more kittens came from the mom rescued pregnant off craigslist who had kittens immediately.  Two of them had already been fixed, along with mom.  The rest were fixed yesterday.  One girl and two boys.

Mr. McDowell, Albany orange tabby male kitten, fixed yesterday.

Sam.  Albany red tabby male kitten fixed yesterday.

Mr. McDowell and Princess, an Albany brown tabby female kitten fixed yesterday.

Then, Cat Bob, a massive and good natured male, from Oakville road, also made the trip.  His owner also has a female with kittens.

The Impressive and Kind Cat Bob--neutered yesterday.

I took along 8 more from the Lebanon situation where the five kittens in my bathroom came from.  I got swarmed when I arrived over there by neighbors bringing over their cats and stuffing them into my car.  There was Ditto, the pregnant muted calico, mother of some of the cats I had already taken to be fixed.  There was Percy, the Lynx Point Siamese teen.

A little girl came up with a huge gray tabby on white long hair male scruffed and hanging almost to the ground because he was as long as she was tall.  I called him Henry.  He is owned and someone yelled at the owner and she yelled back, "Go ahead and take him and get him fixed."

I trapped King Tut, the feral flea crawling Siamese male who has created a zillion Siamese mix babies in the area.  I caught Missy, the mom of the kittens in my bathroom.  I caught a black and white, unfixed but owned, and the young adult owner yelled "Yeah get him fixed" as he went by, on a bike or skateboard, I can't remember which.  Then I caught another black and white who looks exactly like the one we thought was owned and put him in the car.  One of the two is the owned black and white and the other, well he was so starved, don't know.  Both are fixed now.

The whole cat population in that area might now be fixed, except Percy's people,who have an unfixed female who just had kittens.  It was a great effort there for the cats.  Today they all go home.  There were only two real ferals in the bunch--King Tut and Missy, the mom of the kittens in my bathroom.  But if that family had not caught Missy's kittens, and she and those kittens had bred more, the population quickly would have exploded.  So fixing this situation was a "save", if you put it in baseball terminology.

Boulder, tame and owned black and white male, one of two I caught at the Lebanon situation yesterday, in a trap, then got owner permission to get him fixed.

Henry, DLH gray tabby on white male, fixed yesterday and a very likable sweet cat.

Meowmeow, youngish orange tabby tux male, fixed yesterday.

Meowmeow again.

Percy, young Lynx Point male fixed yesterday.

Stones, the twin in looks of Boulder, one of whom is owned, but we're not sure which.  Both Stones and Boulder are fixed now. The owner of one of them (we thought it was the same cat) gave permission for fixing, after he was caught.

Ditto, pregnant muted calico, from Lebanon, fixed yesterday.

Wild boy King Tut, who has spawned many area Siamese mix kittens, including Sasha, Willow and Wasabi (in my bathroom) is now fixed.

Missy, mm of the kittens in my bathroom, now fixed.

I'd handed off Sasha, the seal point kitten, to a friend, to socialize more, the day before yesterday.  But she started texting me yesterday, while I was at the clinic, to say the poor little guy stepped into a Scentsy candle in her bathroom, getting wax hardened all over one front leg.  She was frantic over it, afraid I'd be mad.  I kept pulling over somewhere when she would text, to reply, since I was finally on my way home with the cats last night.  Then she tried to cut off some of the wax and ended up cutting him and was so upset with herself.  She called my vet, even though it was off hours, but my kind vet called her back, and told her I could take care of it and not to worry.  So Sasha is back here now.  She brought him back when she picked up her three kittens, with the woman who had adopted two of them, a friend of hers.  They were both so nice.

On the way back, I stopped by the Elk rest area, to use the restroom and take a short snooze.  The elk were within feet of the road, oblivious to the onlookers, some of whom soon may be purchasing elk tags, to kill elk, during hunting season.

And me?  The two days were so long and lacking in sleep, outside a few hours spent dreaming hard laid out in the back of my dirty car, that even after nine hours of flat out sleep acquired last night, I feel like freight train roadkill.  I kept telling myself, as I was trying to endure, "This is just something has to be gone through."

  I'll return the Lebanon cats, still in my garage (all the rest went home last night), then I will happily go back to dreaming in my bed.

Help Find These Kittens Homes! (thank you)

 Tuesday, I drove all the way to Coos Bay and the S/nipped clinic to get these five Lebanon kittens fixed.  I need to find them homes!  They all come from that awful Lebanon area, full of strays and unfixed owned cats.  A family caught them, one by one, using a rabbit hutch with yarn attached to the door, to yank it shut when a kitten entered for food.  Their mother is an unfixed former house cat, formerly owned by a nearby neighbor.  They are trying to catch her.  And other strays including an apparently abandoned super pregnant calico.

 I paid for two of these kittens to be tested.  They were negative.  They were so flea infested, they had tapeworm segments squiggling out their butts, so I also paid $10 per kitten to get them droncit injections.  And I paid for my gas to travel all the way to the S/nipped clinic and back.  In other words, I am practicing self destructive financial behavior to save little Lebanon kittens.  But what to do?  There is no help in this area for unwanted cats or kittens.  There is a local no kill shelter but they rarely take in a cat.  There's just no help out there, around here, except if little people shell out to do it.  I am trying to recuperate some of the money I laid out (on a credit card) through adoption fees for these kittens but so far, have not had even one serious response.  Crossing fingers and toes.

Sasha--Chocolate Point Siamese male kitten.

Twinkle, Black tux female kitten.

Twinkle, Blueberry and Wasabi recuperate after spay/neuter surgery.

Wasabi--Blue Point male kitten.

Sasha on the left, Willow, a girl kitten, the wild thing of the bunch, on the right.

Twinkle, the black tux girl.

Willow and Sasha after surgery.

Twinkle once again.

Wasabi again.

Blueberry, a long hair girl kitten.

Photos of the 15 Albany and Lebanon Cats Fixed Yesterday FCCO

 Thank you FCCO (Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon) for fixing 15 Albany and Lebanon cats yesterday!  I had no money to take with me to donate with the cats, always embarrassing, but they did them anyhow and six will be charged through the Albany grant.  As for the other nine, they are vaccinated now, free of parasites, and most importantly, fixed.  They will not contribute to the mid valley's overpopulation problem.

If anyone would like to cover the cost for one of these mid valley cats, that would be awesome!

Donate on their website!

The cats fixed yesterday included three from Lebanon:

Gray tabby tux Lebanon male fixed yesterday.

Chocolate point Siamese Lebanon male, fixed yesterday.

Siamese mix young Lebanon female, fixed yesterday. 

I also took up a mom and her five boy teen kittens from a location on Knox Butte Road, just outside Albany.  All six are now fixed!  No more reproduction there!

Black male teen fixed yesterday. 

Orange tabby teen, black male teen, and one of three buff teens fixed yesterday.  Five boy teens in all.

Gray tabby mom, fixed yesterday, and mom of the five boy teens.

One of three buff boys, in the five boy teen mix, fixed yesterday.

Another buff boy fixed yesterday.

Then there were the six cats I trapped at the Albany apartment complex, two girls and four boys, all fixed yesterday.

Adult black tux female, fixed yesterday

Limpy, DSH black male fixed yesterday.

Black tux teen female, fixed yesterday.

Hoss, big black male fixed yesterday.

Fred, big Lynx Point Siamese fixed yesterday.

Fred Again.

Lion King, big red long hair male, fixed yesterday.

Black tux teen again.