Friday, February 23, 2018

A Few Too Many

This time of year, cats come out of the woodwork.   Males start roaming looking for fights and sex.  They get killed on roads by the score. 

I'm still at it at the burned out house colony.   We had a tiny teensy bit of snow here yesterday.  Our school district did not close but many did, for less than an inch of snow that quickly melted and the sun came out, although temps remained cold.


By the time it was light yesterday morning, the dusting was mostly gone.
I went out in my garage, day before yesterday, and was shocked to see a black cat sleeping in the chair where I usually sit and read.   I thought it was Dude, the big black burned out house colony male, sitting in a cage in the garage, waiting for that barn home.  But he was still in the cage.

Dude, who was fixed last Monday and will be leaving soon for a Corvallis barn home.
I stared at the cat, who had backed off into my garage stuff, and was staring at me, like "you messed up my nap!"

It wasn't Arrow, the smaller of the two black cats I have still.  The third, Jade, died recently, of mouth cancer.

And how did he even get in my garage, I wondered, since I rarely leave the door open.   And how long had he been inside?   I finally just let him out, and later saw him on a porch a couple streets away.   I wanted to stop my car, roll down the window, and lecture him.

The freeloader in my garage
I set the trap out at the burned out house colony yesterday, since someone was eating in the trap.   In the meantime, I determined the old tabby girl in the bathroom is completely tame.  Now what, I thought.  She was supposed to go to a barn home with Dude and the two girl teens. 

Then I go check the trap at the colony and there's a cat in it.  I think it will be the black and white I've heard about from a neighbor.  Instead, it is a girl, an almost entirely black torti.  In fact you wouldn't know it was not a black cat unless you looked in light and saw the bits and flecks of orange.



As I sat there, in my car, temps dropping (got down to 20 F degrees last night), I watched a brown mackerel tabby male come through, checked the food area, went on, rubbing his cheek against the edges of anything, marking.  I'd passed him on the road when headed to the colony, a half mile away.  He gets around.  And he'll be dead soon, hit on the road, beat to hell by a bigger badder male, something, if not neutered.   Of the ten trapped so far at the colony, 7 have been females.  This is not unusual at all for this time of year.  The females stick around their familiar territory.  The males take off, hormone driven, lusting, fighting, marking.  Males come in by the score, if any of the colony females are in heat.  Only one of the females, one of the first trapped thankfully, was in heat, one of the younger tabby girls.

If I have a lot of spay neuter space available, I like to leave an in heat female in the colony pulling in boys from ten miles.  It can make a huge difference, get every male that shows up fixed.   Saves their lives.  Stops the fighting and marking.  Creates peace.

World Peace by surgical procedure I call it.  Too bad we can't pull that with the human species.

Well that's the story for now.   Cats everywhere, too many unfixed ones, and I'm behind as usual on everything.  Off I go.

9 comments:

  1. "World Peace by surgical procedure I call it. Too bad we can't pull that with the human species."

    PERFECTLY said!

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  2. Anonymous1:37 PM

    Yes, it really would be good to reach world peace by surgical procedure with humans.

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    1. Happy you like my idea, Andrew!!

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  3. I've never seen a black torti. I like the coloring. Good luck with your next set of traps.

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    1. She is quite different in her markings, that's for sure!

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  4. I so admire you. Thanks for continuing these good works. I have to add that, for whatever reason, we don't see dead cats in the streets very often (almost never). I know there are some that roam around the neighborhood, but they appear in excellent health. Fingers crossed I'm not being oblivious to a hidden problem (I don't go out at night much). Take care and stay warm!

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    1. Even veterinarians, those who have grown up in well off households, in good neighborhoods, have no idea the extent of the unwanted cat problem. They are sight unseen to most people and many live in blissful ignorance of the tragedy going on almost everywhere. That said, this county might be one of the worst. So many people who are poor or drug addicted or ignorant. Many have strange religious beliefs that carry over to animals, like not wanting kitty abortions or not believing in spay neuter for religious reasons, although the same people will abandon their cats and leave them to die. Its a little strange around here. Very very poor area, lots of drug and alcohol issues and large numbers of people with long held ignorances, combined with lack of foresight. They get free kittens on an impulse who are not fixed, then they can't afford the operation. If they'd pay out initially, for a rescue kitten, the kitten would already be fixed, vaccinated and chipped for a far cheaper price than the same services would cost at a vet. It is a frustrating area to live in, if you love animals, or even like to read books.

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    2. "If they'd pay out initially, for a rescue kitten, the kitten would already be fixed, vaccinated and chipped for a far cheaper price than the same services would cost at a vet."

      Yet people will act like I'm crazy to pay $110 for a rescue cat when there are cats for free all over the place. I recently had a fellow tell me that he took a box of his unwanted kittens to work, put them outside his door, and they were gone by the end of the day. They could have been taken by cat torturers for all he knew and probably for all he cared. I hate people like that. They have something missing in my view, something that separates a decent human being from a walking pile of shit.

      Sometimes when I'm emptying the litter box that our four cats use, I wonder how many litter boxes you need.

      I had the sad thought this morning that even if we put all of the resources at humanity's disposal into helping our own species and other species, it still wouldn't be enough, and if our species continues to breed as it is now doing--and allows our domestic animals to do likewise--some of our "help" will make matters worse. I then reflected upon Donald Trump and had the additional sad thought that, whatever the problem is, he can be expected to make it worse. It is so often the case that those who have enormous resources do evil, while those with few resources do good.

      We had a couple of forecasts of around 20 or lower during the past week, but I don't know if we made it. I just know I'm glad that the cold didn't hit a couple of weeks later and do even more damage to plants.

      It's good to not have to bring my hummingbird feeder in at night....I just had to get up and chase Scully (our tuxedo cat with two white legs and two white feet--a truly beautiful young lady) away from Peggy's door so she won't wake her up, and Sage came to see what the fuss was about. I've yet to find any human food that Sage doesn't also enjoy, so he has given me yet another lesson in how truly variable individual cats can be.

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    3. Same here, Darla. I live across the street from a creek that was made into a drainage canal. Because its banks are overgrown and because it's a source of water and prey, I'm sure there are a lot of stray cats there, but when I see cats in my area, I can't tell the abandoned from the wanted.

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Dog in the Road

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