Thursday, November 03, 2016

The Painful Act of Caring

I took 4 more Waterloo park kittens over to be fixed at Heartland today.  The cost to fix the four will be $160.   If they can get them all done.  They have a full load of cats and dogs to fix there today.

I was especially anxious to get two girl kittens fixed that the camp host gave to homeless campers.  They already have a trailer full of cats and dogs.  They have no real home since being evicted and have bounced from one county park to another, but their 14 days allowed at Waterloo are up Sunday.  To get them done today is probably lifesaving for them, and kittens that would have been born to them.

They said they fed, in their 14 days at Sunnyside, up at Foster Reservoir, four other cats, now on their own I guess up there.  Sunnyside county park is now closed for the winter.

When we drove in to the park, I was with someone else who drove me, she recognized a guy in a pickup, camping there.  She'd helped him with a battery and urged him to get his cat fixed.  He didn't.

It was almost too much, all the unwanted cats and kittens struggling, the lack of spay neuter space, the constant noise and lack of privacy inflicted with house flippers next door, working daily on dead Jack's house.  I wish he was still alive and living there.    The house behind me too has either been sold or is also in the hands of flippers as there is constant work back there too.   I feel like I am living in a noisy fish bowl and I hate it.

Then I picked up a cat to be spayed in Lebanon at a trailer park.  I was nervous about her being in a soft shell carrier.  Those things are most awful.  I've had cats exit them in my car on the way to a clinic.  I've had cats claw through the netting on them.  But they didn't want to put her from there into a hard shell, saying she'd escape, although I intended to do that once home with her.

I was with someone else, who drove me, and she can't drive after dark and it was almost dark, so the pressure was on me to get going.   She carried the cat to the car due to my bad knee.  She was almost to the car when the cat exited the soft shell carrier.   I was shocked and also immediately trying to recatch the inside only cat, who headed straight back to the door of the trailer.  But there were family members in the door and so she diverted under the porch.   There was no exit from under it, and I assume they eventually got her out and inside.  I don't know, because the owner immediately blamed me for the cat getting out of the carrier, unfriended me and refused my offer of help.  I know I could have gotten her out from under the porch very quickly with my net and had offered to head straight back up with my net and trap.   I hope she was already back inside when they refused my help and that they didn't let their anger at me, for her escape,  keep them from helping their kitty back inside.

Yes, it hurt to be blamed for something that wasn't my fault.

I hate those damn zip up soft shell carriers.  The zippers don't lock.  Pressure from inside upwards and the zipper can slide, creating a space, and an exit.

Anyhow, it was all to much after the crap in Waterloo, seeing kittens in situations they shouldn't have to live in, hearing of more cats on their own at another closed park, and also running into a guy who is homeless himself currently and loves to breed dogs and cats, now living at the county park too.

I question what I do continually.  Yesterday was not a good day.   Today is a good day.  Four more Waterloo County park kittens are getting fixed.   At least they will not breed more unwanted cats in Linn County.  There are so many already.

These are the four kittens I hope are being fixed today at Heartland, if they don't run out of time.  They were all found in the briers at Waterloo County park along with two others.  The camp host has had them in her RV, but gave away four already, two of whom are being fixed today---since the campers were back she gave them to.  I don't know where the other two ended up.  Little Simon and Susie QQ still live with the camp host although she told me she had a home lined up for both.
Little Simon

Susie QQ

Maggie

Savannah











4 comments:

  1. I am so sorry to read about your bad day.
    And hoping that today, and all the days to follow are better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:21 PM

    Wins and losses. Remember you have a many more wins than losses so don't let a couple of losses get to you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Damn Damn Damn..... but then I think of all the good you do and know there have to be days when it all goes wrong.... The good days are THOSE to think about!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8:42 PM

    I am so sorry, my friend. But each win is amazing. You know that, though. And it keeps you going. Thank you. You make a difference. HUGS.

    ReplyDelete

Round Up

Today is cat round up for tomorrow's five spots.  Two more came up from the vet student in Harrisburg late this morning.  Over 60 fixed ...