Tuesday, January 05, 2016

The Lebanon Colony Grays

I now have defining photos of the Lebanon colony grays, who wound up here after a Herculan effort over two years ago, to save a group of kittens and cats, 60 in all, left behind by a Lebanon woman when she sold her house.  I have 11 of the cats.  I wasn't supposed to end up with any of them, but that's how it goes.

Four of the cats are gray long hair.  Two of the gray long hairs, Bluebell and Gracie, have white on their chests and two do not.

Di Vinci and Hawkeye, so named because she was the last cat caught out there, do not have white.  Hawkeye is petite, light gray in shade, like short hair Willy Wonka, with a huge ruff.

I remember the high fives and happiness my friend, Becky, from Lebanon, and I experienced when Hawkeye, the only uncaught kitty, went under the drop trap out there, and I yanked the string and got her.  Had been a long haul, that included a severe injury to my back, in catching all those cats.

Hawkeye
Di Vinci, on the right, with fellow Lebanon colony cat Arrow, on the left.
Di Vinci, a boy, is huge with extremely long legs.  His hair is darker in color than Hawkeyes and not nearly as long.  He is kind hearted and not aggressive at all.

Bluebell is long hair, but not as long as Hawkeye, but she has the almost rectangular white chest spot.
Gracie is an older female, whose chest spot is rounder than Bluebells, but her face is very different than Bluebells face.
The short hairs are very easy to distinguish.   Vino is large, awkward and fun loving.  He quickly adapted here and sleeps on my bed.  Like with the long hairs, two of the shorts have no white chest spots (Vino and Storm) while two do have white chest spots (Willy Wonka and Mopsy McMuffin).

Willy Wonka, the light gray shy boy who is fabulous.
Mopsy McMuffin, a sweet playful fun loving girl.
Vino
Storm, who has a much rounder face than Vino.



The other three Lebanon colony cats are the highly playful muted torti sisters Huckleberry and Mona Lisa, plus Arrow, the only survivor of the three younger cats among the 13 I originally had in the garage cage room I built to house them until they got homes.

Cloudy and Rosy both died suddenly, after losing use of their back legs.  They endured saddle clots, then died shortly after.  Saddle clots are clots that lodge where the large arteries that the supply the lower extremities split.  This is why they cannot move their rear legs and the rear half of their body goes cold.   I'd not had a cat experience this before and I did not know what was going on when Cloudy, fine one minute, screaming and laid out the next, went down.   He died before I could even get him to the car and to a vet.  Usually saddle clots indicate heart problems.  So does Arrow have the same defect, I wonder?   The colony was severely inbred.  So far so good with him.  He's now at least 3 years old.

Huckleberry is the muted torti in the first photo below.  2nd is Mona Lisa, her sister.  And lastly, the black boy is Arrow, who was the only survivor of the three youngest who ended up here.








As you can see, I am still stalling to avoid dealing with unpleasant tasks involving the car.


Meanwhile in Oregon's outback we have a bunch of out of state anti government extremists who broke into the Malheur Wildlife Refuge headquarters and refuse to leave.  They are heavily armed and claim they will divide up the government land, including the refuge, established way back in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, and give it to local ranchers.  They believe they are gods with more authority than even Teddy Roosevelt, and can give away land belonging to all, to a few.  It's disgusting.  Go home!  is what I say, go back to where you came from and chill out, for gosh sakes.   I wish the government would oust them quickly.   Just like Islamic extremists, some say they came to Oregon to die for their cause.  

News media is calling them Oregon Militia but they're not from Oregon and we want them gone.   On twitter they are being joked about under hashtags like #VanillaISIS, #Yeehawd and #YallQaeda.   Just remember, these are not Oregonians, these are out of state anti government extremists. 

Next, if not stopped quickly, I suppose they'll probably take over Crater Lake National Park and demand it be returned "to the people", meaning the rich who have money to buy the land, shutting the people out.  The concept of public lands belonging to all the people to use, for recreation, and myriads of other activities, that include oil and mineral extraction and grazing leases, is not something they support.    However, their armed take over is at least providing some entertainment value to Oregonians, in the bleakest of winter months here.  Hopefully this can end peacefully and everybody will just go home.



5 comments:

  1. Those are some very nice pictures of the Lebonon Cats--a handsome group. Good luck with your car.

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  2. Love the cats.
    Despair at the home-grown terrorists.

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    1. There are some super scary extremists down there, and I'm sure the feds are not sure how to end it, as they have declared they want to die for their cause, and will take others with them. I think water dumps might help, would ice up that place like a deep freeze. Disabling their vehicles, using an armored device to take down the fire lookout, which they are using to watch for law enforcement a coming. You just don't expect such a thing, out there in that country, or anywhere. Here is a link to an Oregonian story about one of the extremists out there. Nobody wants him in Oregon. I sure don't.
      http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/rogue_infidel_jon_ritzheimer_a.html#incart_big-photo

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  3. Just stopped by to say that you were one of the first folks to comment on my blog back in 2006 and you left a comment about my Sandy Red Tigger passing. And we are among the few still blogging that I knew ten years ago... Hoping you and the cats you care for have a Happy and Safe Mew Year... - Katie Kat.

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    Replies
    1. OMG, blast from the past. I know, many of those following my blog or whom I was following have long since stopped blogging, one has even died. I'll have to come back to your blog, I'd lost track somehow. Thanks for stopping in.

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