Saturday, April 22, 2017

Road Trip with Cats

I had not been to the coast affordable clinic for some time.

Chessie needed to go again, however.  I feared she needed all remaining teeth pulled.   Chessie is elderly.  I don't know exactly how old but she wasn't young when I took her in.   Dumped like trash to fend on her own outside an Albany apartment complex, I took her in with her last litter, then teens, when some neighbor took up shooting at them with a bow and arrow.

She got a left ear tip when fixed at the Neuterscooter clinic.

Chessie had already had three or four dentals.  The last one was in December of 2016.   The vet said then she might need them all pulled.   So I figured that would happen, when we set out yesterday, her in a carrier in the back of the car.  It was 4:30 a.m. and not light yet.

Miss Daisy went along.  She gets meds for her ibs, which is likely food allergy caused but with so many cats I can't feed her alone special limited ingredient food and its too expensive to feed them all special food.   So she has to be on meds and hadn't been seen in a year so to get the med for the next year (they send it when I'm out), she rode along.

I made the appointment weeks ago.  How in the world did I luck out, in the worst winter in Oregon we've had for ages, to get the one sunny day!!!   I lucked out!

After dropping the cats at the clinic and yes, Miss D got attitude with the vet, so she had to be knocked out for the blood draw, I went to the beach!

I drove south past Seaside, with its long boring flat stretches of beach, and shiney tourist traps filled with cheap gadgets, over priced candy and carmel corn and salt water taffy, and sand bike rentals.  I drove south past the playground of the second house Portland area rich, Canon Beach, bypassed my usual beach haunts Arcadia and Hug Point,  and parked at Oswald West.     You can park on the west side of the highway to hike trails that go up a bluff and beyond, or fork down to Short Sands Beach.   Or you can park on the east side of the highway and hike under 101, and a short half mile, well groomed easy trail, to the beach.

I like the old growth forest there.  The trail is highly used, so you won't be finding solitude along it.  Mostly its surfers who walk in from that parking lot on the highway to Short Sands Beach, carrying boards under an arm or atop their heads.  They closed down overnight camping above the beach, due to vandalism and trash.

I climbed down the wooden steps, once I got to the beach, formed and filled with earth and rock, crossed the stretch of rocks to sand, found a log, laid down my sweatshirt beside the log, used my daypack for a pillow and conked out.  Yup, I was sleepy.  I could barely believe the sun was out in Oregon and it wasn't raining.

I woke an hour later to a dog sniffing me over.  There were fewer dogs than surfers on the beach but there were lots of dogs. They ran alone or in pairs, chasing balls or one another, in and out of the surf, having the best old time ever!  The crowd frequenting the beach are not the types to pick up the poo, so if you go there, watch your step.  Dog poo is about as common as surfers taking selfies.

Despite the vast number of surfers spread out along the relatively small beach, many who climbed down the steps with an urgent look after seeing other surfers and the water, I saw very few actually ride a wave.  Many went out into the ocean, hopping waves as they walked out, but then seemed to just stand.  That's what it looked like to me.  I thought I was going to see TV like wave riding.  I didn't.  I saw lots of surfers out on the beach and in the water but most were not surfing.   Every now and then one would pop up out of the water for a few seconds to ride a curling wave.

Oregon surfers need good wet or dry suits.


I love the trail in. The trees are beautiful! There were several forks off the main beach trail, with trail signs, all headed various degrees of south off the beach trail.  I followed one trail that left the beach trail, but then that trail forked off of it, with a sign that said Hemlock trail, but it forked too, and I knew I could get lost, without a trail map.  You can't get too lost, granted, since you know you are between highway 101 and the Pacific ocean.  I didn't have the time to explore.  Cat pick up, at the clinic, was 3:00 p.m.

I went down to the south jetty beach too, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific ocean.  I play a game sometimes, when I see garbage items at the high tide mark. I pretend I'm stranded, alone and have to survive with only what I find.

Big wood bin at the beach

Looking inside it

Bar code on siding from the bin that stripped off




Lazy Fricking Car People Driving on the Beach--Hey, our freeways and roads are crammed with cars.  Can we at least be free of them in the little strip of sand between the land and the sea.  

Washington state across the mouth of the Columbia River

I got home about 7:30 p.m. Chessie had four teeth pulled in the end.  Miss Daisy's blood work came out just fine and she has another year on her prescription for her meds now.

Chessie
Miss D



10 comments:

  1. I agree with you about driving on the beach. I wish it didn't happen.
    It looks a beautiful area - and than you for taking us along.
    Hooray for Miss D and for Chessie.

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    Replies
    1. It's ridiculous when we have such traffic jammed everywhere with cars, cars, cars. Get out of your cars people, at least at the beach! That's what I want to yell at them. Usually however I just flip them off.

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  2. I'm so glad you enjoyed a sunny day! Hurray for successful appointments, too. Be well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a GREAT day!

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    2. Hurray! ~hugs~ I hope today is lovely.

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  3. I love your game of imaging survival with what washes up. We didn't live near a beach, but my father pulled all kinds of stuff out of the river. That's where we got all of our lawn chairs among other things.

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    Replies
    1. That's funny, about the lawn chairs. I got one of my traps from a flooded stream. Someone found it, slightly twisted, called me, said "bet you can fix this" which I did, with a hammer and some other things, to pound it back out. It is amazing what you can find along streams, rivers and at the beach.

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  4. I wonder if that car was legal on the beach. I know there are areas where ATVs can go, but I'm surprised to see an actual car. I'm glad you were able to get your beauty sleep. I wish I could go to sleep anywhere, but maybe I just don't let myself as tired as you.

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    Replies
    1. There's a sign at Peter Iredale wreck beach, just south of the jetty, no motor vehicles on beach north of there. However, at that beach, I've watched vehicles roar right by that sign, ignoring it. But that car was on the Columbia river side of the jetty. I don't know what the rules are there. I quit going to the Iredale wreck beach and south. Dodging speeding cars is not my idea of fun at the beach.

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    2. I rarely go to the beach, but when I do, it's nearly always between Florence and Newport, and I never what you're experiencing, but of course, it's more rocks than sand in that area.

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