Insurance Woes

 I suddenly realized my old car liability insurance had gone up by hundreds, when I went to renew it.

I've had no wrecks or tickets in decades with this insurer.  Is this my reward?  

I couldn't sleep night after I discovered the increase.  How can I survive on a fixed income in a world so expensive?  What do I let go, I wondered.  I feel trapped into this decline in quality of life.  Not that I have ever lived with much.

Yesterday morning I was up early to take the black boy over to RADpets to be checked for sex, spay/neuter status and updated on shots.   If he got that done, he could go to a barn home today.   A good one, that is extremely safe.  Otherwise, the lady who had fed there would probably have kept him and she can't afford more cats.  Or anything else.  Her truck is broken down.   She just had hip replacement but is having to ride her heavy 3 wheel bike to work.  (which in reality will likely help her hip).  They're trying to sell the house she lives in since her mom died and left it to both her and her brother and they have to split it.  Anyway.....getting the black boy she'd fed to somewhere else is kind of crucial.

And very helpful to her.   It hard on her not being able to feed him or the Siamese out there.   It is sadder for those cats.

I came home after taking him to the clinic, and called the insurance company.  I knew the phone people probably don't make that much either.   I told them the truth, that I was horrified to find out the policy had gone up hundreds of dollars and that I'm just trying to survive now and I can't afford that much for liability insurance on an old junker car.  

The guy was helpful and rewrote a new policy that is half what they were going to charge for the old.   Relief flooded through me the rest of the day.

It was then time to get Scooter and Fish, the two trailer park cats fixed last week, into carriers, and go meet up with Silverton Cat Rescue barn team.  They had a place for them to go.   

After leaving them with the barn team member, I headed to Lebanon to pick up the feeder lady.  Her bus wasn't running that took her to Waterloo so I gave her a ride.  We went to where she'd fed the siamese again but she could not call her up out of the brush or flatlands.   Darn it.   We then headed to Waterloo via backroads, came around a corner and there was a Fed Ex truck pulled to the side of the icey two lane road, lights flashing.  I could see down the embankment that there was a car with tires straight up in the air---upside down in other words.  The Fed Ex driver was down trying to help occupants out of the upside down smashed up car.  I bet it slid on ice.  A woman and an older man got out but someone was still inside.  I heard sirens in the distance and we left, to avoid getting in the way of first responders.

Eventually I picked up Boulder, the black cat, from the clinic, came home with him, and put him in the holding cage for the night.   This morning he is leaving to go with SCR barn team.    I went to bed very early.   It was a busy day.

It was nice to walk around a bit at Waterloo park.   I don't go there anymore due to the county's $9 day use fee.  But the Lebanon lady has a parking pass.

After the ice is gone, the weather has been beautiful.   Unfortunately, we have almost no snow in the mountains.  The skiers and boarders must be so disappointed.   Next summer's water supply is also a worry, since mountain snow provides it.

Two More Days of Break

 I was going to take a break.  Really.   

But up early, I decided to try for the Siamese out along that rural road.  Guess who fed her, since she was a kitten?  No, not me.  She'd be long out of that situation.   That darn Lebanon lady.

I'd caught the six she fed elsewhere along that road.  But there was one left at another place she fed along there.

Then about ten days ago she texted me.  I hadn't heard from her in a quite awhile.   Her truck broke down.  So she'd been borrowing her brother's truck.  Then it broke down.   She's got no money to fix her truck and her brother won't fix his.  So there you go, suddenly that poor Siamese, the only one left I thought, left to fend for herself.   What a horror.

Anyhow, so I went over this morning and set a trap for a couple hours.   I saw the Siamese but when she saw me she vanished into the brush.   Unfortunatley when I checked the trap a bit later, it was not her in it.  It was a big black male.  Strangely, with an eartip already.  Who is he, I wondered.

She'd mentioned she would see a black cat now and then down there.   Great.  Now what to do with him.  Working on that.

Last night the neighbors and I had a little party.  Spur of moment.  Was fun.  We got halfway through a game of yachtze then I think we forgot we were playing.   Wine was involved.  On my part, a quarter of a glass.  Or less.  I'm not into wine.  They were!  I can't handle the sulphates in wine.

I just did cleaning and watched something on TV this afternoon.   Lazied out.   I had put rural road boy in a large trap (he's a big cat) on a holding shelf.  Fish and Scooter are bonding well in the holding cage.  They leave Monday.  If rural road boy is still here he'll get the cage next.

Friday I delivered two drop traps to the Seven Mile colony.  They mostly trap their own there.  I helped them get 26 fixed last January and February but then one of the couple experienced health issues and I didn't even want to call them this summer because I thought she maybe had died.   But she called me in November and then got FCCO appointments finally for next week.  

The cats out there are beautiful.   Like models.

Rural Roadie

Here are some of Seven Mile cats needing caught: 

Pretty kitties!   Hope we can get most of them but like I said, fortunately they catch their own, for the most part.  I'll be transporting to Portland and providing traps.

Break Time!

 It's break time from trapping. 

I'm happy to announce!   Last night I was just too brain blitzed to be out there, but I was out there at the trailer park anyhow.   Most of the cats are now fixed, so mainly I tried to keep the fixed cats and owned cats out of the traps, without a lot of luck.  

Then two loose German Shepherd's came along and sprang the traps twice!   When I saw their shadows in the dark near the trap by the canal I thought I was seeing coyotes at first, til I flicked on a flashlight.  No, just two dogs going out for a cat food dinner (escaped their fenced yard).   

I finally came home with only one more kitty, a young fun loving black and white one.  One of the two cats rolling around in the street in my last posts' video.

Today, three are over being fixed at the clinic--Scooter, the little black and white; Fish, a young adult black, and lastly Sprite--a gray tabby young female.

I'm taking Gulag back in a few minutes.   She was not a boy.  In fact, she was already spayed.   Yet another.  One of the ladies even has a name for her.  Wish I'd known but I didn't know, so oh well.

Besides returning Gulag, and picking up the other three later in the afternoon, I have no duties.

Tomorrow, I will drop off another tame owned cat from the park, then head to Salem with two of the cats whom I've been holding for placement.   I'm calling them Jet and Speedo.  They're darling together and now well bonded.  Silverton Cat Rescue barn team has a place for them.

That will leave Beetle, Fish and Scooter here, to place, most likely.   Sprite is wanted back at the park, as she will eventually be taken to Safehaven by a lady who has worked to tame her.

Scooter, at the clinic today along with Fish and Sprite 

Look how cute these three adult boy buddies are, even though I had to repeatedly suggest they leave the area of the trap, by leaning out of my car or flashing my lights at them.  They are all fixed.  One was fixed last August and two were fixed in the December FCCO trip.   They are always together seems like.   

I haven't even watched the weather on TV lately.  Been too busy.  Just as well.   Seems like people are killing one another at higher rates than ever.   Better to stick with the cats and the cat people.  The dogs too, of course.    

More Cats

 I thought I had more appointments today.   With three cats in my car last night, all from the trailer park, I discovered my error, that the appointments are Wednesday.  Also some Thursday. But no appointments today!  What was I thinking when I wrote the appointments into my calandar on the wrong days? 

The tech at the clinic knew of 3 cats needing fixed in a hurry so I told her to go ahead and get them done Thursday on my four spots, and I'd bring only one that day.  I need some time off from trapping.

The clinic agreed to do the tabby boy I trapped last night today at the clinic, however.   The other  two, yet another black plus a gray tabby, will go tomorrow, along with two more, if I'm lucky enough to catch two more.

Two more of the three fixed ones go to a barn home Thursday.   

Here's Gulag, the tabby being fixed today.

Last night, when about to leave the trailer park, I ran into these two cats doing I'm not sure what in the road.  I had to stop, to avoid hitting them.   A black cat with red collar was watching them too.

I'm not quite right yet, after the long drive, but getting there.   I didn't do anything yesterday until evening.   The tame black girl, fixed last week, is back at the trailer park.  She seemed very happy to be out of my bathroom.

Queenie, the tame black female

I caught the three unfixed ones last night quickly, didn't take very long.   That's a bad sign.  But now I do mostly see fixed cats there, not unfixed ones, so getting it done!  

Fish, another black one caught last night

Sprite, gray tabby girl

All I have to do today, is go retrieve Gulag from the clinic, then try to catch a couple more at the park.

Almost to Canada

 I found a great home for two of the trailer park wildies.  But, it was in Northern WA, almost to Canada.

Nonetheless I went for it.  The barn home for the other four had fallen through.  I needed to get at least two of them somewhere.

I debated on whether to take the cat car or the mildew smelling car.   I decided on the latter since the chances of it breaking down are far less than the high mileage nonprofit car.   So much for having a personal car free of cat smell.  But...it does stink of mildew, from the leaking heater core drain hose.

I have not been out of Oregon for a very very long time.   This was a long drive.  The freeway in WA allows 70 mph until about Centralia or Olympia, then its 60 the rest of the way.  Beyond Olympia, there are sooo many lanes.

But I5 north is closed down for a bridge redo, near Seattle, so all traffic was diverted onto 405 to about the Everett area.  The freeway from Olympia on is not well maintained.  The rectangular slab pieces of concrete that make up the road no longer match together and it feels like driving railroad tracks.  There are some large holes in the concrete or asphalt or whatever it is in places too.    

But so many lanes.  Unlike in Oregon in congested areas.  There are toll express lanes, so if you pay more, you can use those and sometimes they're announced, via digital overboard, as free to all.   You can use the shoulder sometimes too as a lane.  They have a big red X over the shoulder lane when you can't use it and a green check when you can.

I was in awe over all the innovations to keep the traffic moving.

Took about five hours to get up there.  I was about 40 miles south of the US Canada border.   Don't even think to suggest I should have kept going on up into Canada.  I don't have a passport.  I would love to visit Vancouver.  I've been there a couple times and I love that city.  But I'd really love to visit Vancouver Island.  And my friend Elaine in Surrey!

I5 south on the way back was open through Seattle.  I love how it goes right under parts of buildings.   

The folks who took the two cats live in a beautiful house.  They'd built an acclimation cage for the pair in the garage complete with heated beds.   I transferred them in and they ran together into the same heated bed tunnel.  Looked so cozy.   

I stayed long enough for a cup of coffee then headed home.   I got noddy, dozey (sleepy) at one point and began talking to myself in a running monologue about everything.    It worked!      

The freeway makes for a very very boring drive.  What can I say, but it was an adventure.  Why not?  The cats now need homes due to the feed ban.   And two now are in one.  All good.

FCCO Trip Yesterday

 It's tough to tackle big situations alone.   I wish more people around here would help.  

Plenty of people to armchair quarterback.   Plenty of complainers too, that when you get right down to it, to solve it as an outsider, won't help one bit to solve a solvable problem, that others have just watched develop over a lengthy time and done nothing but complain about it.

Complainers are common as ants at a picnic.   Doers are very tough to find in our culture.

I ended up with 8 cats caught for the 8 spots yesterday at the FCCO.    I could barely sleep Wednesday night though, mind going full speed with worry, after I was told there was to be a feeding ban at the trailer park.   After trapping about 30 cats there to be fixed.   What a waste of my time, money, and emotionally staggering to think they'd suddenly just decree the cats there starve to death.

Cruelty as a solution.  

Early morning yesterday, I heard one of the cats in the traps in the garage crying.  I went out, determined I could pet him, brought him into the bathroom, checked his "rear area" status, discovered he is an already fixed male.  I can pet him, sure, but he's not very tame. I left him in the bathroom for the day while I went to Portland with the other seven.

 I'll take him back to the trailer park today as likely, hopefully he has an owner somewhere in all those trailers.  I hope he's not just a throwaway there, when someone moved, which is how all those cats ended up in the predicament they are in---people not fixing their pets, leaving them behind to breed when they move out.   

I left about 5:45 a.m. yesterday with the other 7, headed to Portland and the FCCO clinic.  After leaving them there, I headed to Karen's place.   She'd said I could nap there the day, had a TV with netflix, it was so nice for a change.   A bathroom to use!   Usually I nap in the back of my car at the rest area.

I put a movie on netflix, laid out on her couch, promptly fell asleep.  Woke up as the movie was ending.  Started another.   This one I was able to watch most of.  Karen came home from work for lunch about 12:30 I think.   She brought Chipolte, a mostly vegetable and avocado bowl.  It was delicious.  I'm not used to this kind of treatment.  She couldn't stay long.   Seemed like such a short time after she left I had to get going too, to pick up the cats.  Her group up there also had cats at FCCO.  She too was blitzed, tired out.

One of the 7, one fed by the lady who has been getting the appointments, turned out already spayed.  No ear tip. Which means she too is either owned now or was once owned there and left.   I don't know which.

I will probably have to take her back too, just in case she is owned.   she doesn't act tame.  But lots of tame cats might not, when in the frightening situation of being caught in a trap.

This is her, the already fixed girl.  She's a pretty cat.  

I don't get the records.  They are emailed to the person who made the appointments.   So she's getting the manager there to print out the records from her phone but there wasn't enough ink in the printer for her to do so yesterday.  In other words I only know sexes on a few of the cats fixed.

This one is a girl

I'm going to assume this big huge black tux is a male.

There were two other blacks in the six fixed.  One is a male but I don't know which one.

This is the other black one caught.  

This is a young male, the one I'd dubbed Canal Cat.  

Here's Canal cat walking the banks of the canal running through the park.  He's a pretty boy.

Young black tux female

So anyhow, that's the story.   SCR has barn homes for 4 of the 7 already.  If I take back the prev. spay girl, that would only leave me with two of them to hold for placement.  I don't like holding onto big males here, like that big black tux.  So I might return all but the four SCR has a placement for.  I can always go catch more when a barn placement comes open.   Meanwhile the big male's hormones can start to minimalize.

So far, at the trailer park, I caught six in November, just after hearing about it.   Four girls---two tortis, the gray kitten Willow and the tabby kitten Sequoia.  Two boys--Booboo, a gray and white, brother to the tortis, and Hangry, a big huge brown tabby male.

I took 15 more to the FCCO in December, plus 3 black males I took to OHSS clinic.  That's makes 24.  Caught 8 more for this latest trip but two turned out to be already fixed but not eartipped.   In all now I've caught 32 there, with two already fixed.  13 have been black of the 32.   Four have been black tux.   7 brown tabbies.  2 gray.  2 gray tux.  Anyhow.....

Insane Weather

 The weather today was wild.   Pouring rain.  Wild wind.   Hail and/or snow mixed in pounding rain.

It was a helluva day to trap.  I returned Timber, Snowflake and Gandi to the barn.  He wasn't out yet, so I went up to the loft and put out a lot of food.   I haven't seen the four teens this time, not Sunday and not today.  I trapped them mid December, got them fixed and returned them.  Hope they're ok and just don't want to show themselves to me.

It was wild when I was out there, rain pounding down, high wind.

Driving back to the trailer park, where I've been trapping the wind whipped my car.

I got more drama there at the trailer park than I bargained for.  They got 8 spots for tomorrow at the FCCO.  Not a whisper though about the fact a feeding ban was being put in place, orders from the owner, not the manager.   I was shocked when I found that out tonight, when leaving, with 8 of their cats in my car.  I'd been communicating with the manager too.  Why hadn't she told me?   

Once I found out, I begged for the cats lives, so they wouldn't starve to death.  Most were born there.  Isn't their fault.   She was all for trying to talk the owner into giving them some time.  By tomorrow, a good share will be fixed.   She'd filled out the form to start getting them barn homes through Silverton Cat Rescue.

This all came about because of a vindictive complaint, one neighbor against another.

Not much said in the complaint was actually true either.

Trailer park drama I call it.  And it abounds.  But these poor cats shouldn't suffer as a result.

I'm hoping for miracles with SCR barn cat placement team.   They are afterall Miracle Workers.

Cross your fingers.   And toes.  And anything else.

I don't know if tomorrow's weather will be as crazy or not.