Friday, July 25, 2014

On a Happier Note.....Remember Studley, the yard stray before last?

Bad things have happened lately around here.  And in the world.

As stress built for me, night before last, and I witnessed an episode of road rage in front of me, when someone cut someone else off....I wanted to jump out of my car and yell at the antagonists, "Lighten up, you jerks! We have to love each other. Don't you know the world is crumbling around us due to all this violence and greed? I wanted to yell....

Muslim extremists are going to sexually mutilate the women of Iraq!

Russian backed rebels shoot down two more Ukraine planes!

500 children found locked in rat and roach infested shelter in Mexico!

Underground water reserves depleted in seven state region, water apocalypse feared close!

And climate change brings maggots to Chicago homes!"

OMG, I thought, I'm the one who needs to lighten up. I've become a facebook feed.

I need to change what I feed my brain.

That's when I came home and Nyquilized.

Today I'm trying to focus on happy things.  Like this video I found, being shared, of a lone kitten without a real friend, so he's playing wildly with a ceramic orange and white cat, about his size, and it's hysterical.

And on the photos Heartland Humane in Corvallis sent me of Studley, now named Donald, in his new home.  They were sent by his new owners.  They even wanted to bring him to Heartland to show him off and how well he is doing.

Remember Studley?   He was the sad starved buff and white boy, who hung out in my yard for a month, spray marking to beat the band.  I had to trap him, because he was driving my cats mad, with that, and because I felt so sorry for him.

Safehaven refused to take him on, but Heartland took him in and he got a home within three weeks, and his owners adore him and he adores them AND their dogs.

Who knew?


Before.....



After....
Receiving these photos made me so happy. Also, I hear that Galihad, another abandoned Albany boy, is doing well, still in a trial home, under OCO's eye up in the Portland area. The kittens are doing well also, I'm told this morning, and will soon be scheduled for neuter. Both are now of weight for that to be done.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Hoarder Nearby

 200 Rabbits and Guinea Pigs were removed from a filthy trashed out house and garage yesterday and today by local police.  The woman has been charged with neglect.  She was left her three dogs and three cats.  I'd gotten cats fixed at that house.  Why did the police leave the cats there, when one is obviously in very very bad shape?

Three weeks ago, I stopped by that house, when with a friend, a house I knew, to ask why their cat was so skinny.  She's a gray who looks like death warmed over.  I'd see her occasionally when I'd drive down Marian street to town.

I got cats fixed at that house a couple years back and again some time before that.   It was no fun.  They had said they'd donate and didn't.  I took them clear to Coos Bay, to the S/nipped clinic, which is a terribly difficult day for me.  When I brought the cats back, that night, exhausted beyond exhausted, I expected them to be happy and help me get them from my car.  I'd told them how far I'd had to go, to get them fixed.  I also expected the promised donation.

I get neither a donation nor help getting them from the car.  The woman, about my age, and her daughter, were at the table, in a junk jammed kitchen playing cards and refused to even acknowledge I was there, outside of an angry grunt my way.

I hated them, seethed in exhaustion and outrage, that night.  But I also worried for the cats, knowing how they were.  They also wanted me to take cats to the vet for an ex husband living somewhere, was never told where, in a trailer.  They said the cats there were sick and probably would die.  I said I couldn't pay to take their cats to a vet, that it was his responsibility to treat his cats with kindness and left.

The last cats I got fixed there were Boots, Heathcliff and Brady.  It was in December of 2012.  I have photos of Boots and Heathcliff, one a long hair orange tux and the other a short hair orange tabby tux.  But not of Brady, whom I describe as medium hair gray.  I wonder if that is Brady I see, the skinny one, and not a female.  I see the long hair orange tux boy, in bad shape too, but not as skinny as the gray.

Ever since, I've felt a deep unease when I pass that house, going to town.

The older woman showed no emotion when I'd asked about her skinny cat three weeks ago, said, as she waddled to her car, "I'll take her to a vet."  I knew she wouldn't.  My friend said she'd go back and try to get the cat from them.  I found out later that she never did.

Then yesterday, I saw police cars at the house on my way to the grocery store.  On the way back, I saw a big police van with the back doors open and lots of cages inside, with animals.  I hit the brakes, but then changed my mind and went around the block and turned up the street right beside the police van.  There was a man inside the van.

I thought it was a police officer or maybe someone from Safehaven.  But when he came out, he said he'd lived at the house.  I asked what happened, after I found out they were rabbits in those cages.  he said someone turned them in.  I said where are the cats.  "Oh," he said, "It's you.  You got them fixed for us.  I have two of them, the blue boy and one of the orange boys and they're fat and healthy."  I said, "What about the little gray one, what's wrong with her, she's so skinny."

I could see her, laying in the dirt against the house, as police officers carrying cages passed by her.  She was over grooming and looked fertive, like she was pretending to herself nothing bad was happening, that everything would be ok.  I could not take it and began to cry.

I drove off slowly.  But that night, I could barely function.  I e-mailed the paper, the news stations, trying to find out what was going on.  There's been too much lately, around here, too much animal abandonment and craziness.  I can barely handle living here.

Finally I resorted to Nyquilizing myself to sleep.  I don't know why it affected me so strongly, the plight of that one skinny kitty, wandering in a daze. One thing affecting me is that Galihad and another cat were abandoned not even a block from that house.  The house where they were left has a backyard not more than 150 feet from the back of that hoarder house.   I suppose that was one factor in why I was affected like I was.

 I woke late this morning.  KEZI news wanted me to call them, to describe what I'd seen.  They'd been one I e-mailed the night before, trying to see if anyone knew what was going on there.  They were now going to cover the story.

I called the reporter who e-mailed and described what I'd seen.  She asked if I'd describe the scene on camera and I felt obligated, since I'd told them about the story and asked them to find out what was going on.  I hate being on camera, just hate it.  I was also dead brained and dull, from the Nyquil and stress of late.

But I went, with my fangs bared for that poor cat.  I saw her there in the yard, with the police there again, hauling out even more rabbits and Gunea Pigs.  Turned out there were 200 hauled out of that garage.   I asked the community service officer about the cats, pointed out the skinny kitty.   She didn't know what would become of them.

I had a brief interview with the reporter who asked me to describe what I saw.  I also asked her to ask Safehaven, who took them all in, if they would be getting them fixed prior to adoption.  I don't think they are.  I think they're already adopting them out.  Taken in yesterday, already up for adoption.  Without being fixed.   This makes me crazy.

I suppose its easy to criticize when I'm not the one caring for all those rabbits.  Rabbits are difficult and expensive to fix.  Safehaven, although they just moved into a huge new location that's a lot of animals to take in suddenly and care for.  I hope they can get help from other shelters.  People's interest (and volunteer help) often fades quickly, after such an incident.

If you can help financially or want to adopt a rabbit in need,
here is a link to Safehaven, the shelter where the rabbits are currently being housed.

In the second segment of the news, they show a brief clip of me.  It's been edited for their purposes.  They said neighbors didn't know what was going on, then showed me saying "I had no idea what was in that garage."

I'm not a neighbor.  I had told the reporter I got the cats fixed for those people and when I did, I had no idea the garage was full of rabbits.  Oh well.  I guess the news people have to use what they get how they want.   I looked bloated and fat and dull.  Because I am.

Actual neighbors should have been able to clearly see what was going on.  They did nothing.  The house was often full of people too, losers all apparently, who did not intercede for the animals, or even for children in the house, because they were discovered when child services was called to check on a child's welfare there.

When I saw the news tonight, in the second segment they showed a video clip of that poor cat, showing how skinny she is, so at least there's a video record of her suffering.

 Because the paper article on it says while she is being charged with neglect, her three dogs and three cats will be left there with her.  It also said the dogs health will be monitored.  The cats?  They're on their own.  When I saw that, I started to sob again.

At least the rabbits got help.  At least the dogs health will be monitored.  But the cats?   For them, there's nothing.  Nobody gives a shit about cats around here.

We've already had another train suicide here this week, and an apartment fire that killed a very nice man.  When I saw the photo of the burned out apartment, I remembered when I set a trap, for a stray kitty, right outside that same apartment a couple three years back.   I remember how bad the ants were that year, how they swarmed the bait on the trap outside the second floor apartment, how the man mentioned it.  He's died in that fire, also last week.  Maybe there's just been too much bad news this week.

The paper article had vanished briefly on the website, or perhaps, on my computer's view of it, but it's back now.  See below.
Local paper article on the hoarder.
Here's the Eugene TV stations story on it. The skinny kitty can be seen at 1:00 minutes in.

 The news link story above might not work too long either.

It's up to me to help them.  I'll have to ask those people, who did that to so many animals, for permission, too.  What kind of world is this?

I need to get out of town, out in nature, reboot.   


Monday, July 14, 2014

Kitten Video

I made a video of the boys. Please share. Maybe we can find them a good home!

Nowhere Days

Summer churns on.  Sometimes its' hot, sometimes overcast with thunder storms.

I only got involved helping the Corvallis colony out of complete boredom.  But also because they paid my expenses.  They cover gas and bait and the fixes.

Except I have now two kittens in my bathroom and I'm not sure where they can go.  They need a better foster situation. I can't have them out of the bathroom because I have too many jealous cats here.

The Siamese boy was so sick when he came here Saturday.  He had to have sub cu fluids Saturday night, late, after I got home elder sitting for some Lebanon folks whose family bought them tickets to ride the fireworks train from Lebanon to Sweet Home and back again, after dinner up there.  They didn't know they'd get back so late.  They did not arrive home until 1:30 a.m.
I loaned my camera to my friend, so she could capture photos of their adventure.  The ride costs $100 per ticket.  Relatives bought them the tickets.

I was knowing by then, Sunday would be a horror for me.  I was headed to Portland with the three adults caught Saturday from the colony. I had to leave by 7:30 a.m.   I did not get home until 2:00 a.m.  Then I had to do the chores here and give the kittens antibiotics and the Siamese sub cu fluids too, before dropping into bed for a very few short hours of sleep.

Didn't help I spotted the lost brown tabby unfixed male in my yard as I drove in.  Some people stopped by a week ago, worried over their lost brown tabby male.  He'd been lost when they were moving out of the apartments behind the end of the cul de sac.  They also have an unfixed female who is already pregnant again and already had one litter this summer.  They have another unfixed boy too.  I gave them hell.  How dare they contribute to the problem and also to my problems by letting their unfixed male free roam this hood and daring to want me to watch for him and catch him.  How dare they?

The Corvallis folks delivered the cats to me at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  One black female looked like death warmed over, with bloody pus drooling from her mouth.  She was so skinny and dehydrated too.  Thick yellow snot oozed from her nose.  I shook my head and knew she would not come back with me.  The FCCO has policies about sick cats or diseased cats that the vet judges too ill to humanely return to outside life.
This is the sick black female who was euthanized.

This is Nero, the big older male, euthanized due to advanced stage FIV.

I dropped off the cats and headed to a local reservoir.  I had thought I'd swim, have some fun, but knew now I was too tired and I just needed somewhere I could sleep without over heating in my car.  I laid out an old sheet on the grass by a picnic table with some towels as a pillow and immediately fell into a deep sleep.  I woke up with rain splattering against me.  Thunder was roaring in huge lengthy bellows across the sky.  I went back to sleep, too tired to move.

I slept two hours and woke up again, damp from rain.  I sat in my car awhile in the parking lot and watched system after system roll through.  Picnickers just down from me huddled out of the rain beneath a canopy, that suddenly took flight and tumbled skyward and rolled end over end towards the parking lot, caught by the wind.  Two younger people took off chasing it and they all laughed.

I headed back to the clinic then, knowing, since the heat predicted had not come, I could safely sleep in my car.  Once there, I parked along the curb and crawled into the back of my car, with a silver windshield heat reflecter laid out under me. I used the same towels as a pillow.  I did not wake until 4:00 p.m., with a start, the time I would reclaim the three cats.

I reclaimed only one cat.  The black female had been euthanized.  So had the big male, Nero, as he was FIV positive.  My heart sank and I wanted to cry.    Only the black and white female was healthy and returning with me.


The black and white female, still here, fixed yesterday, who will return this evening.
I got back home and after greeting my cats, who were needy from my absence, I cleaned, did all the chores, fed the kittens, gave the feral girl in the trap food, and hit the hay by 9:00 p.m.  I slept a full 12 hours but still feel giddy tired.

I guess there's only one adult to catch over there still and the two kittens, who may be dead kittens by now.  The little Siamese boy was so sick and so dehydrated when he was caught I can't imagine the other two would survive.   They are still trapping over there, to catch them, if alive, and for the final female.

It was just bad timing, that's all, that I'd agreed to watch my friends mom, while they went off on their adventure, before knowing I'd be taking cats to Portland yesterday.  I survived it and they had a great time.

I hope to find a better foster situation for the two boy kittens, so they'll get lots of handling and exposure to people and tame fully.

Roman, black male kitten, and the Siamese boy kitten, not yet named.  They are still sick but vastly improved and both should survive.

Both parties, the colony people, and the people who rode the train, made donations to my nonprofit cat care fund, which was pretty much empty.  As a result, this morning, I was able to order enough Revolution for all the cats here.  I'm happy about that.

I'd like to also mention Galihad, the long hair senior Himilayan mix, left behind by people in Albany, is in a trial home now, with an old woman up in Portland.  She loves him and the home is probably going to be finalized, I'm told.  She says he's very very happy there.

I don't get to go anywhere unless its a cat mission and my expenses are paid.  So sure the adventure was exhausting and I didn't get to do something fun during the day yesterday, but the weather was bad enough I couldn't have anyhow.  I don't mind sleeping in the rain through a thunderstorm.  In fact, it was comforting on some level.

When I think further about it, knowing now I'll have Revolution for all my cats as a result, and that this bad situation in Corvallis, where kittens have been born to die for years, is going to be solved for good, it was a great weekend, all around.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

A River Cat Dies

Precious Scratch has died.

She was 19.

She was something else, a treasure, from the river.

I met Scratch during a very hard time in my life, a time I'd rather forget, but it was also the time that saved me.  The cats existing along the Willamette river, born to discarded souls, became my family.  I lived along the banks with them.  They gave me love and in return, I got them fixed and tried my best to find them homes.

This effort became desperate when the city of Corvallis embarked on a project to revise the banks of the Willamette, where the cats lived and create a park.  I fought that park, me, a little nothing, a nobody, but a somebody terrified for the safety of her new found family.

This family did not only include the river cats, but also the other animals who inhabited the banks of the river, including beaver, otter and even a disabled mother duck.

She'd sleep with her brood next to me, knowing she'd be safe.  Her foot had been badly burned in a fireworks fire that caught grass along the banks ablaze.  I fed her also until she healed.

Scratch went to live with my bus driver friend, after I trapped her.  She was skinny, skrawny and loud.   She took to life there.  She climbed their backyard apple tree and walked its branches to the roof.  She slept in the barn with the chickens.  She loved those chickens.  Once, they saw her fly off the roof and into the apple tree and were astonished to see the target of her vengence was a huge red tailed hawk, hunting her beloved chickens. 

That hawk took off in a flurry of feathers and fur.

The hawk was twice Scratch's size. 

Scratch never walked anywhere, she always ran or trotted.  Towards the end, she still wanted out, and would flop immediately to watch the fields, even to her last day.  It is tragic such a beautiful soul, so in love with her life there, had her time run out.  But that is the only tragic thing about her story.  Her life was glorious.  She was cherished.

A river girl, unwanted and struggling, became a loved member of a family.

Rest in Peace my blessed Scratch.

I love you.








Dog in the Road

 I went to get groceries yesterday morning fairly early. I was expecting visitors, brief ones, pop in and out, so I wanted to get done with ...