Rain

 After two decent sunny days, we are back to rain.  Not a lot of rain, just some.

I helped a Sweet Home family.  They had gotten appointments at the Corvallis private spay neuter clinic and paid for three cats, but needed help with traps, trapping and transport.   I was disappointed to catch only two of the cats, but left them traps.  The two cats, O, a boy, and Known Mom, a female with four five week old kittens, were fixed yesterday.

They had no luck catching the other two adults or the kittens yesterday largely because a neighbor was having a tree taken down.  So there was a great deal of noise all day.

This morning, I returned the two fixed yesterday, and, on their porch, saw one of the two adults needing fixed.  I set a trap fast.  She was eating in the front of the trap when suddenly she vanished.   She'd seen something.  How scary it must have been for her, because out from beside the porch flowed four kittens.  Oh the terror!

I caught two of them in the trap.  I quickly set another trap, and finally caught that adult.  One adult to go, who needs fixed, plus two more kittens. I didn't get any photos of the two kittens, in my rush to set another trap for the adult.  The two kittens I caught, little hissers spitters, were quickly taken in and over by the homeowners.   No doubt she'll do a great job getting them social.  They're the perfect age, eating solid food already, about five to six weeks of age.  And Baby, the adult, although she's tiny, will be fixed tomorrow.

Here are the three adults, two now fixed and back home and one about to be fixed.

Known Mom, fixed yesterday

O, the boy, fixed yesterday

Baby, to be fixed tomorrow

 Here's a photo taken about 10 days ago by the colony caretaker of Known Mom with her four kittens, two of whom now in custody for taming.

 Pleasantly warm weather, after a lot of bad weather, is not good for trapping.  Cats are out there lazy and laying in the sun, like we should be on the first warm days.   But then we get a cool down like today and its perfect for trapping.

I don't mind today's light rain and cool.  Helped me get three more of this colony contained.  Three left to go, is all.

This Lacomb kitty, Laca for the records, is going to be fixed tomorrow also.  She'd trapped him and had him in a dog crate, so unhappy kitty and fortunately the clinic can do him or her tomorrow too.  She thinks its a girl, but looks more like a boy to me.

Always Something

 I don't follow myself around.   When I'm driving, that is.

My car isn't that flexible to chase and catch its own tail.

I knew when my rear blinker went bad because it started blinking super fast on the dash.  I replaced the bulb and it worked fine then.  I didn't know the brake and tail lights were also out on that side.  

I used the second bulb in the pack for the blinker lightbulb change to change the tail light after discovering it too was out, not just the brake light.  No go, still didn't work after the change.  WTF.   Today I went and got two more bulbs, to replace the brake light, on the bottom and thinking maybe that second bulb in the first pack I used for the tail light was bad.  But nope, no change.  Only the turn indicator light works.  It's the middle bulb of three.

What now?  Youtube, of course.

After watching videos I went for the easiest possibility, prying out the connections, from bulb to bulb holder.  But I suspect its the connections the bulb holder has to get power from the middle bulb, the only one with a direct electrical connection, the turn signal bulb.   

To check those I"d have to remove the entire outer casing.   Or youtube said it could be the brake light switch causing both the taillight and brake light not to function.  What a bother.   The brake light switch, which I'd not heard of, is up under the dash above the brake peddle and not that difficult to remove if you are a contortionist.

Or a fuse could be blown.  I found a fuse diagram for my car and wrote down the ones to check but haven't done that because I'm pretty sure its the contact issue, the simplest thing.

Not only those lights are giving me trouble.  The light in the garage room went out.  It had been out awhile.  I replaced it, went inside.  It was after dark by then, went into the bathroom, flipped the switch and none of the bulbs were working in the overhead 3 bulb bathroom light.  No more bulbs either, so I used a flashlight.  Today I got more lightbulbs and was shocked to see how much they cost now.   I was also a bit shocked to see gas prices have gone up $.20 per gallon in the last few days.

I do not mind tracking down electrical issues but I don't like it either.  My voltage tester broke months ago.  Now those are handy little devices.

Today's old lady dreams were as follows:   I think I'll just use cheap solar lights, take them outside during the day, bring them in to light my place at night.  I can get those at the dollar store.

Happy to say, I got the car lights all working again.  It was the contacts.  I pried them out so they'd more easily connect and that did the trick.

Stress Out

 Sometimes I have a bad night.

Last night was one of them.  I couldn't sleep.   Financial issues played through my mind.  Different scenarios.  How to survive on almost nothing in world getting more expensive by the day.

This was prompted by discovery that the park in Waterloo is now going to charge $9 just to enter.  My sense of justice came pouring out.  Injustice really.

They're doing this to most of the parks they have with access to the river or the reservoir.  They don't own the reservoir.   And Oregon waterways are supposed to be open for public use.   Denying access to people by controlling all access points then charging to use them seems just so wrong.   

It affects those of us who live on very little the most.  We have the same desire for recreation as those who are better off.   

It wasn't that part of it though.  I've done thousands upon thousands of volunteer hours catching cats in many of our county parks.  But the Waterloo one stands above, in that regard and sometimes its been the camp hosts themselves breeding the cats.   Omg, the horror that's gone on for animals in that park alone over the years.

I have not kept count but I've probably caught about 200 cats there.   More every year.  I have six Waterloo Park cats here in fact.  A friend in Lebanon has six or seven.  All abandoned there.

I took it personally when I read about the new fee, that I can't afford along with all the other price increases and fees and utility hikes.  After all the volunteer time and money spent there, to help the cats, but also make it better by helping the cats, feels like being gut punched, betrayed somehow.   Those Quartzville road cats too were in a county park.

The photo is from several years back.  I left this note for two camp hosts who when they left, left several dozen cats behind between the two of them.  It was a terrible thing to do to those cats.   I spent the next year trying to recatch and rehome them.   Then helped care for two of them for the next many years.  The last of those originals vanished this winter.  There have been plenty others abandoned there since then.

I know there are no rewards in volunteering, particularly to help animals.   But I can't shake the injustice thoughts of now being unable to afford entry into a park where I've spent so many hours upon hours and dollars in volunteer time.  It doesn't feel right.   But in this world, a lot of things don't feel quite right.

$9 day use fee is excessive in a county where many people live way under the poverty level.  Feels like catering to the well offs and fuck those who are not well off.

It wasn't just the finances that kept me awake.   My light projecting wifi music projector gadget failed, refusing to remain wifi connected last night.   I had to dig up a charging cable that fit another ancient wifi speaker but it wasn't charged and may not charge at its age.  I lay in my bed thinking the tech revolution is insane.  I have no access to music in hand, for instance, am completely dependent on gadgets and cloud storage.   Cloud storage takes miles of server warehouses, that eat up massive amounts of energy and water.    Not to mention all the rare minerals needed to build the servers and all the gadgets and the lack of safe disposal when they no longer function.   I thought WTF are we doing, this is insanity.  

Today I was told they are not immediatley implementing the day use fee at the park, since there's no pay booth and they don't really know how to effectively enforce it fairly.   I was informed its still in the thinking stage.   But they list it on their website as a pay day use already.

Hold Your Tongue!!!!

 I'm telling myself, Keep your mouth shut!   

Why?   I almost revolunteered to drive 20 cats up to FCCO next week, or the week after.  I can't even keep the date straight these days.

Originally I had offered, but that 20 cat Brownsville colony transport/trap did me in for awhile.  So I told them a week or more ago, I just couldn't do this 20 cat transport.

But today I met the colony at least, since I will help trap and loan traps.  It's the latest vet student colony.  Not the same vet student, and its at the barn where she keeps her horse, not at her place.  She's fourth year and is about to graduate.  Think----busy!!!!   

I went out to see the colony today first time.  The barn owners are my age or therabouts and we immediately clicked.   They have a mom cat and her five kittens in a home built cage, so they can try to tame the kittens.  Cats everywhere around the barns, coming out of trails in a field beside the driveway.  A few of the cats are already fixed.

Vet student arrived, bleary eyed tired.   I asked if she'd been up all night.  I think she nodded yes.  Her husband arrived and said he had ten minutes to spare only, to get the lowdown on the plan.

That's when I almost opened my mouth to offer to do the transport too.  Something kicks in to see worn out young people.  I want to get them a sandwich and tell them to leave their phones with me and then be really stern they're not to come out of their bedrooms until well rested.  What an idiot I can be, inside my head.  Someone needs to be lecturing young people more about the virtues of enough sleep, I feel.

Ah shoot, I'm redundant now.  I keep forgetting.   An old lady.  Keep your mouth shut.  Someone please lecture me on old age and getting enough sleep and not lifting too  many heavy objects.   Bring me a sandwich too.  And remind me no one cares about old ladies, not what they say or what they do, so I better care enough to shut up.

We settled on the plan quickly, so the young folk could get on with their busy lives.  Myself and the barn owners will do the trapping.  Young husband will arrive early morning of surgery to prep and load the van to transport.  Everything he needs for that will be there waiting for him, to make it efficient.

I then took a variety of back roads to the 2nd colony I was to visit today.   This would be Brownsville 1 colony.  Not the big one, the one those 20 I took up came from.   This is the one I started just before, and took six up we trapped to the FCCO.  

One of the females at this colony had kittens two days before I trapped, so she never went to be fixed. She needs fixed now!!!  

 There are a few other adults to trap.  I have appointments June 2 in Salem for the rest of the adults.  The ten kittens, between two females, will be fixed later on, when they're a bit bigger.  Five of the kittens are from a female I took to the FCCO in that first batch.  They informed me she was lactating back then, but the caretakers had not seen kittens with her, after she came back from being fixed, until recently.  The reason I went down today was to take them a drop trap to set up for them to feed under, to make it easier, we hope, to catch the straggler adults next weekend.

Here's a video of those five kittens from the long hair black mom they call Poof.  Poof is already spayed, at least. 

They're having a blast in the warm sun today, chasing each other, wrestling tumbling and then---eating!  They said Poof hadn't taken them up on the porch yet to eat cat food so they were still only getting what they could from her nursing.  Ah, I thought, and took over some dry cat food, in a plastic jar, and poured some out near where they were playing.  They were gobbling it like tigers in about ten seconds.

Driving back down the steep hill to the road, I stopped to watch three deer in a yard.

At least I got the front lawn mowed this afternoon.   Not the back, but I'm feeling accomplished just to get the front done.  Quiet day after I returned from visiting the two job site colonies.  I don't exactly have a social life.   If I go do something, I do it alone.  

The street's been quiet.  I suppose some are off enjoying the three day holiday weekend.  Today its nice and sunny.  Not sure what the forecast is for Sunday and Monday.

Rain, Rain

 Rain, rain.  Go away.  But don't come back another day.  At least, not for awhile please.

I really need some sun.  Some warmth.

I drove up to Portland again today, (in the rain) to the FCCO, with cats.   Five in all from the big rural Lebanon colony that is oh so sad, too.  I was grogged.  Only a quick cup of coffee to take off the edge of up too late syndrome.  The culprit--the Survivor finale.  I was a good little freeway congestion driver---stared straight ahead or slightly to the side, trapped in the traffic clogs, eyes glazed over and dead looking.   I think the zombie look is really a good one for everyone behind the wheels of countless thousands of cars, trapped in tiny metal boxes as Sting put it in some song, on the freeway every morning and every night.  One of these days maybe I'll make myself up as a zombie before I make that drive.   It's just too fitting to resist. 

I don't know how many have been fixed from this one colony now.  The caretaker will trap, but nothing else, not get spots, not help find kittens help, not donate or anything.

I call it "the waiting to die" syndrome, that so many people seem caught up in.   By that I mean they never take care of terrible issues that could be rather quickly and easily solved and just let it go, let the problems get larger, sit uselessly and watch it happen.  Lawnchair lifenappers.   I also call it Wishlist for my Personal Jesus syndrome.  Self explanatory.  They want saved.  By someone else.  From themselves.

Enough! with my problems, which include, as a hobby, making up names for things.

She caught a six month old little girl cat with four tiny kittens.   So, to get her fixed, the kittens had to have a savior, who could bottle feed.  Karen K volunteered, after I asked, with guilt.  With guilt because she's retired from fostering, for good reasons.  But she said yes to it.  In the meantime, the  vet tech took teen mom over to the Corvallis clinic where she works and she got fixed yesterday.  My little nonprofit paid the bill.  Now she's with her kittens at Karen's.  Don't know if she wants to be.  She should be chasing butterflies, not having kittens.  Too young.

Baby's babies.  Four of them.  All tabbies.

Here are the five I picked up from the lady last night, then drove to Portland this morning.  I don't know their sexes.

Saturday I'm going out to a rural barn, with 20 or so unfixed ones, but a vet student is on top of it, and that makes me confident it will get done.  Vet students are the best.  I'll just be loaning them traps, maybe help out trapping. They got the appointments and will transport.  So that's a relief!

It will possibly be nice this weekend.  The promise is out there, you brave weather folks predicting sun for our holiday weekend.   I'm counting on it.  I got the kayak fee paid,  for if your boat or floatee is ten feet or longer--pay up, to the state, $20!!!  Or so. And somehow be ready to display it to a deputy in a boat or else!@!!!   But mister deputy, this is a sit on top kayak that takes on a lot of water, I couldn't keep it dry.   Ha!   I think that money I pay for the little permit also vanishes into the wind.  You know what I could do with $20?  Well, not really much anymore.  I could, in my little efficient car, go to Portland, and back, with 20 cats who would return fixed and vaccinated.  That I could do.  And you know how that works, how that tiny act completely alters the future, down so many tangents, for the better in preventing zillions of future cats from being born.   $20 will do that in my hands.  What does the state do instead with my $20 I pay them for the privilege of paddling around on public waterways?   No clue.

In other news, I saw the ODOT highway signs on the way up this morning about a missing 80 some year old woman from West Linn.  Her car has been seen along the coast.  She has cognitive issues.   Immediately I thought of that encounter last Saturday with the older woman at Winco.  I can't say if it was her or not from the photo.  I told the story of the encounter on the West Linn police post about it and said if they wanted to know time of the encounter, that would be easy because there were a bunch of Albany police cars out front of the store at the time.   Later I had read online they were engaged in a high risk traffic stop.  Anyhow, I have no idea if it was her or not.  It was a  day after her car would have been spotted on the coast, allegedly heading south, first in Lincoln City, then in Florence.  So its unlikely it was her.

The Boss

 I've listened to Bruce Springsteen since I was young.

We were not allowed to listen to music when I was growing up except some insipid stuff approved by my father, who hated rock and almost all music.

In an uncharacteristic act of rebellion my mother gave me a combination Spingsteen set of LP's for my birthday once and stood guard over the living room, where the stereo record player was, so I could listen to them.  For that reason, that my mother stood her ground one time that I remember, and it involved a rock star's music, I will always be a fan.

The religion I was brought up in claimed if you played a rock LP backwards, the devil would be talking to you.  This made young people laugh.  You can't play an LP vinyl record backwards, number one.  Yeah I'm old.  Vinyl was the only way to listen to music when I was growing up.   Then it was 8 tracks.  Then it was cassettes.  I had a walkman.  Might still have it somewhere.  Then it was CD's, and I still have a CD player in my car.

Now, of all people to fight with, our President is in a fight with The Boss--Bruce Springsteen. Merely because Springsteen doesn't like his politics.  I loved his ballads about growing up in America, the struggles and glories.  Glory Days is a wonderful song.

He's trying to throw his Supreme Leader weight into the fight, making threats of bogus investigations.  He'd like to throw political enemies in jail I think.  Which is quite unAmerican.  And only goes to prove the opposite's point.

What have we become here?

You can't weaponize the government against those who don't care for your politics.  That's for sadistic dictators.   Included also---of all people--Oprah Winfrey and Beonce.  I don't know what Trumps beef is with them.   For gosh sakes, all this is so unAmerican.

Americans are like cats, independent, free thinking---disagreeable but often curl up together.   Have we all become eager to please feet licking followers now?   WTF?

Bruce Springsteen---I'm going down to the river.  The River was my song---it moves me, it makes me cry sometimes.  That's where I go, to the reservoir or the river, to find my peace when life's struggles are too much.

Bad Weather

 We barely made it into the 60's today.   Same tomorrow.  Rain, too.

Snow in the mountains.   You would think it is March.

But we're lucky.  The midwest is getting hit with terrifying storms and tornados.

Town flattening tornados.  And with our government the way it is, I doubt there's any help coming for those folks in the paths of destruction.

All those promises to not gut medicaid too and they're trying to do just that.   There's nothing to believe anymore.

I'm taking my usual time off after that last trip to recuperate.

I'm happy to say, despite all the stop and go congestion traffic, my car still got 32 mpg.

I may make another trip up next week, but I won't have to stay up there.  I'll just take them up and check them in and come home.  The lady with the appointments is going to go get the cats.  I don't have to do trapping either, just loan traps.

Now that I can do.

I was at the grocery store today, in line to check out.   This older lady, older than I am, dressed to the hilt, tells me I cut in front of her in line.  I calmly stated "no, I didn't." and looked away.  The man in front of me confirmed to the lady, by saying "she was in line before you were".   I thought that was the end of it, but suddenly the lady crams her cart against mine and says I have to go before you.   I stared in disbelief.  Is this lady in dementia or just a nasty mean old lady.  I figured the latter, since she seemed practised at this behavior.  I let it go though, let her go ahead of me.   I was brought up that way, to respect elders.  I know I'm one now too.  So I'm not sure I shouldn't have told her fuck no--when its between two elders.   But hard to break old habits.  However, I could not stop laughing.   At first I tried to hide it, but I it bubbled out I'm afraid.  She was dressed so fancy with her hair all done up, jewelry, the works and nobody expected that.  Other shoppers were staring and rolling their eyes.

Because the checker works two sides, I still was gone before she was.  

My friend brought me a cool cat gate, three quarters door height or higher.  They were no longer using it.  It was so cool because I'd been trying to figure how I could make a gate or screen door so I can have the garage door open this summer but not let Gigi free roam out.   This one is so simple and will for sure keep Gigi who is non athletic from exiting the garage if I have the door open.  It's like my friends read my mind!