A Few Days of Hard Work

 I've got work to do.

A lady has 16 FCCO appointments tomorrow.  I trapped 9 of the cats last night.

I did so because I have two appointments during the day today and also because they were leaving this morning on a planned trip.   The appointments they got were transferred from someone else and I agreed to trap and transport.   Anyhow....

I couldn't resist five appointments offered Monday in Salem.  Cancellation appointments.   I got four from a Sweet Home lady who had trapped the three kittens and mom after a neighbor abandoned mom and kittens when they moved.  The kittens are wildish, the  mom kind of skittish.  Seemed like anyhow.  All three kittens turned out to be girls too.

For the fifth cat I took an orange tabby boy from Lebanon.   I already took his mom and her two most recent kittens to be fixed.

Boots, the mom

Baby Boots

Friday

Goblin

Hades

After I returned all five cats to their caretakers I headed straight to the 12th st. colony in Lebanon.  

I haven't taken photos yet of the cats trapped but I can say it wasn't pretty.  The drop trap had been set up on the large rock area off the driveway, to prefeed.  These are difficult to place traps on, they're so large.  They're difficult to drop trap on too.   

I caught four under the drop trap, then one more in a live trap.  Then the big male they say chases off and fights with other cats went under and I dropped it over him.  I couldn't get him out from under it.  He just plopped down and began whining.   He meowed and I prodded him from behind, but he refused to move into the transfer trap.  20 minutes passed.  I could tell he was tame and began petting him through the drop trap.  I reached into the drop trap, from space above the transfer trap and tried to pull him into the trap by the scruff.  He was just too big and fat.   

Really, I thought, is this guy fixed already?  He seemed so lazy and so fat, to be an unfixed cat.  The caretaker assured me he has large balls.  I never got a look and finally had to put a towel over his hind end area and scoop him into the trap.  After that I caught four more under the drop trap.   I had to release the Siamese mom, who had kittens only a couple days ago.   A large aggressive male snagged me on the ankle with his claws through the trap.

I left with nine cats.   Their family was gathering and visiting pre trip so I left.   I know of one more teen there, and two small kittens big enough to eat hard food.   Another family member will feed them while they are gone.   Maybe I'll be able to get them tonight, I don't know.   I had to catch them last night since I have appointments today and also because they'll be gone now for a few days.  I don't like holding them an extra day in traps but they will survive.  This is the colony, in the video below, taken when I took over the drop trap.

Rosy

 Rosy was treated so well at Alpine Animal Hospital.  They were so kind to her.

She got that hard plastic jar cut off her.   It had been around her neck and head a long time and they said it smelled like death beneath it.  Her ears had been pinned back and cut from it.  She had a cut on her chin and  on her neck and the buildup of gunk around its edges and underneath stunk.  She got all that cleaned off.

She was also spayed.

Currently she is recovering in the garage.  She won't go back to the colony which is too large and there's not enough food to go around.   A woman in Portland offered to take her.  She'll go there.

I would love to get that colony fixed instantly but there's no place to get it done.

 She has a dozen or so FCCO spots in December I think but she (the feeder lady) counted 20 kittens and teens alone last week.

It should have been done a year or more ago.  Now....I don't know.  

It's really very sad, the whole situation, with no affordable high volume spay neuter, outside of the FCCO in Portland.

Rosy's story in three pictures:

Oregon has become so backwards in so many ways.  And too expensive for many people.   Social Security cost of living increase this year is not even enough to cover the increase in fees this city has proposed adding monthly to the water bill.  I don't know how small businesses survive.   At least with my small business, I can just quit for awhile when the books are hovering near the red zone.

The state is increasing fees again to camp at state parks.   It seems so strange to me that the state is promoting all these climate change things and yet have turned their state parks into havens for gas guzzling massive great whites.  That's what I call the huge RV's, trailers, fifth wheelers that clog the highways in the summer, often also pulling cars behind them.  I want to gag when I see them, motor bikes strapped on the back, a car on a trailer behind.  These now make up probably 99% of what you see in campsites.  If the state was actually serious about climate change, they'd revert to tent and car only camping at their state parks and not cater to these monsters. So when the state officials talk about climate change I want to crack up in laughter at the hypocrisy of it all.

My neighbors have a giant RV.  Actually several on the block do.   My neighbors used theirs twice last summer, each time for one night.   All that work they put into heading off for one night in it, then paying to store it somewhere the rest of the time---I can't believe people do that.  I think it gets about 6 mpg.  They didn't go anymore after the campfire ban was in effect because mostly they like to sit by a campfire.

I don't blame them, I do also, but I don't mind not having one either.    I like camping in my car.  There's no work to it.  I can just go in a flash.  I suppose the allure of the huge RV's is partly due to all the rain in Oregon.  You can go out in the winter and not feel the affects of weather.  It's like owning a mobile second home with all the comforts.  I don't know how people have the money for it though.  Maybe really good jobs.  My brother claims its all on credit cards.

I think the smartest way to live right now if I was young would be in the smallest most energy efficient house or apartment with the cheapest oldest car one can find.  The older mileage efficient short on electronics cars are far cheaper to maintain long term.  They're more climate friendly too than the electric ones, whose batteries are very costly to the environment, both in their components and once they fail.  (or get wet and become fire hazards like in hurricane areas).  I wish a car company would get the picture and create a simple lightweight cheap car with no features.   We'd all love that.

I'm going to make hand pie filling of half the apples gleaned Wednesday.  I will freeze most of the fillings, so I can make fresh hand pies when I like.  I was strict with myself and only came home with half bucket so I wouldn't waste them.  They're beautiful large granny smiths.

I heard the crazies came out of the woodwork over the two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, hitting Florida a couple weeks apart.   I only heard about that this morning, that the conspiracy people say its because of the government "seeding" with contrails to cause storms to influence the election.   What will the nutcases come up with next, I wonder.  Makes life very entertaining but I wonder about the collective intelligence at times.

Another cat run next week, this time to Portland and the FCCO, with up to 16 cats from a Lebanon colony, plus Rosy along to go to her new place.   

In the meantime.....

Time Warps

 When I am super busy, seems like time is different.

I was trying to recall what day this week I drove Chatty and Sunny to Salem, to meet up with Silverton Cat Rescue barn cat team.   Oh, I think, finally, that was yesterday.   Oh, and it was just yesterday also when I returned the two Lebanon kitties.   Ok then......

Seems like days ago.

I came home and slept a bit yesterday then went to Gleaners distribution.  Gleaners has been such a big help to me already.   I can't say enough good about this nonprofit.   Treasures I got there yesterday---a jug of V8 juice, two types of swiss chard, which is what I'm going to have for dinner tonight, in an apple swiss chard onion salad plus lentils (also got at gleaners) and some mushrooms! I already knew where I was going after that.  

I'd been contacted about a colony way out, north of Sweet Home, beyond Waterloo.  Big colony really.  Lady feeds them.  House is vacant though and falling apart.   Permission must be had to go out there, from property owner's son.  The requests to help this one cat there came from multiple people.  

The feeder lady was gone however until Monday evening.   So we arranged to meet there Tuesday.   I was expecting the situation out there to be worse than it is.  Always nice to find out the cats are healthy looking and well fed.   Lots of cats need fixed, but she has FCCO appointments upcoming and even has ordered a drop trap.

Meantime, I got there and quickly set up my drop trap along the side of the house.  Not without some drama.  I tripped on my own pants, which do not fit (too big) and fell on my side onto the concrete.  On the way down, I remember thinking  "if I catch myself with my wrist, will it snap"  Ha.  Funny what one thinks of.  It did not snap, nor was I injured in any way.   

However, I'm getting rid of the pants.   I've worn short pants and sandals all summer.  So it was about the first time I'd worn jeans for months, only to discover I need some wardrobe changes.  The problem buying clothes these days is non standard sizing.  You cannot assume because the size says one thing, and that is the size you've worn, that this particular brand will be similar.  At all.

 About five teens came running out to eat under the drop trap.  Then the girl with the plastic jar around her neck came out.  I yanked the cord dropping it over six cats.  I let out two teens, transferring them to the live trap, then releasing them, before she got in the transfer trap.  Took all of ten minutes to get her safely contained and in my car.

It killed me to see unfixed cats and not just catch them all instantly to be fixed.   But these days, with no real high volume affordable spay neuter out there, and the HCC bank account on low, I had no choice but to target only her.

Poor girl.  There's a piece of the bottom of the plastic, jagged too, sticking out over one eye.  The kid that works on the property said its been on her head since the first time he saw her, months ago.

This morning I'm taking her to Alpine Animal Hospital where she'll get that thing off her and be free of it.  And she'll get spayed too.

I don't like to think about Florida, getting hit again by a massive hurricane, so soon after Helene tore through.   Milton is supposed to smack into Tampa.   Their big hospital there isn't evacuating.  They have awesome features to remain hurricane proof, including their own capacity to produce power, a water barrier wall that repelled storm surge from Helene, their own deep wells for a water source.  I hope they'll be ok.

People can leave, get out of its path, but animals, birds--they can't.   What do you do, I also think to myself, if you lose everything, your home and pretty much everything else?  Where do you go, how do you start again?   I heard a lot of people can't even get flood insurance anymore in Florida--too expensive.   Its like wildfire insurance is, in parts of California and Oregon.

I've learned a lot watching the news coverage, about preparation for such storms, like to take a video of everything you own and send it to someone not in the path, to have your go bag ready, so you can evacuate in a hurry, put your name and any vital info, in waterproof marker, on your body, all kinds of useful tips.   And stay out of the flood water---its full of bacteria and toxins.  

Our biggest threats in this part of the country are wildfires and earthquakes.  Some people feel Mt. Adams could be about to erupt, but not like St. Helens, no big explosive eruption, more like a lava oozing event if it happens.  When St. Helens blew, I recall it so clearly still and for a few years, kept some volcanic ash I brushed off my car in a glass vial.  I don't know why.  It's gone now.  I remember how they warned us not to wash our cars, that the abrasive ash would scratch up the paint and clog up air filters.  When the news cycles are slow, they start running fear articles about the Cascadia fault zone and impending massive earthquake.  But that's gone on for decades and nothing has happened so I am immune to thinking much about it, as a viable threat in my lifetime.  Not much a person can do about it anyhow.

Good luck Florida and all the lives, human and animal, in the path of Milton.

After I drop Rosa the cat at the clinic, I go to Corvallis for an apple glean.  My shoulder got all better fast, so I'm good to go.  I used ice and I have this vibrating heat pad that worked wonders.  We're supposed to take buckets though.  I don't have any buckets but I do have empty cat litter containers.  Their plastic handles have broken off, but last night, I drilled holes in their sides and added rope handles.

7 Cats Fixed

 I spent last Friday, 7 hours in all, trying to recatch Chatty and Sunny at the Gills colony.

Oh man.   Lots of sitting and it was cold and soon it was raining.  I left when the pouring rain began.

I went back in the evening.  There was a lot of boy drama.  Red was chasing Fluff.  Tabby was chasing someone.     Tabby, a fixed but FIV positive young male, best friends with Fanta, another fixed boy, sat under the drop trap eating for like 30 minutes.  Twice.  

Sunny and Chatty, the two best friends, waited off a few feet.  And waited.  And waited.   By the time Tabby was done eating, Fluff had shown up and everyone else vanished.   But then suddenly Red streaked out from under the RV to go after Fluff and nobody came around again.

I left.   Video is of the boy friends--Tabby and Fanta.  2nd video is of best friends Sunny and Chatty, who now are in my garage.

The feeder lady tried all day Saturday.   I was going to let her go at it.  In the end I went back Saturday night, with the drop trap.  We disguised it.   Sort of.   With branches and dead weeds.

The "disguised" drop trap.  Can you even see it?  Just kidding.  That's Tabby checking it out.

About three hours later, after dark, suddenly both Chatty and Sunny were under it eating together.  I yanked the cord and they were caught.  Ha!

So they're sitting in a cage in my garage.   

Tomorrow they go off with Silverton Cat Rescue barn cat placement team.

In the meantime, someone I'd helped with three kittens a couple weeks ago, caught an unfixed female, one they really wanted fixed.  They weren't after her, so I don't know how that happened, but it did.  And just as I picked her up and was driving off, they called me to say there was a kitten in their other trap.  Ok.   So now I had two extras because I'd already promised my five spots out today to an old friend, whose neighbors don't fix their cats and they end up feeding them.   They had five in all.

Whiskey, a girl

Rum a young boy.  Both are from Mill street

Here are the five from across the canal bridge in Lebanon.

Smokey is a big huge sweet male

Anyhow, long story short, I went and got the five last night and they were fixed in Salem then I took the two, the adult female and the kitten, over to Alpine.  

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  That's because I overdid it with the squash gleaning last Wednesday and pulled some muscle in my shoulder.  Every movement made me want to yell.  So I yelled some last night, tossed and turned, today its better.   I guess I was trying to impress the gleaners I could do the work. Ha!

Tonight I returned the five to Lebanon and then I came home and dozed in my chair.  The other two fixed today I'll return tomorrow after I take Chatty and Sunny to the barn cat folks.

Ariel, a girl

Bebe, the other girl

Blaze, a boy

Chester, a buff boy

That's the story.

Two More Gills Landing Cats Move On

 A Portland trapper made a comment and hashtagged it doing free work for the county.  She was referring to the county vacating on helping cats abandoned by people who move, left to die in an apartment, or told to just open a window (on 4th floor) and let them out.  That private people have to step in and do it, at their expense.  Or tiny nonprofits.  Not the big ones, for gosh sakes.  They are too busy fundraising.

Oh boy can I relate.  But not just doing free work for the county, the cities too.  Like Lebanon and that Gills Landing colony on their property at their RV park.   

Today, two more Gills cats, Ash and Clyde, headed out with Silverton Cat Rescue barn cat placement team, to a new life somewhere out of Linn County I hope.  I also took two more Gills Landing kittens, now teens, to be fixed at Alpine--Ducky, who was Munchi's only surviving kitten, and little Dusty, a black tux fuzzy kitten who showed up crying from who knows where.

Tomorrow I'll start trying to recatch Chatty and Sunny, as they have a barn home waiting if I can catch them.   That will leave only a handful of fixed cats there, who are not even around during the day and all now fixed.   Unless others show up.

From 30 unfixed cats and kittens down to 4 fixed ones.   You are welcome, City of Lebanon.  Is that big fat check in the mail?

The boys--Ash and Clyde

Ducky, a little girl from Gills Landing.  Julie, a Lebanon lady, is trying to get her tame.  Isn't she cute?

Dusty, a boy from Gills Landing, being held in Lebanon currently, taming fast.  He was fixed today too.

Fluff was also fixed today.  He was trapped less than a block's distance from Gills Landing, at the backside of River Park, a hop skip and jump from Gills.   He too is being tamed for adoption in Lebanon.

Beside those three, the mom of those cute kittens, Cece, was fixed today.   I found a rescue willing to take the kittens but by then, the couple decided to keep two of them.   So after I picked up Cece, whom they easily trapped, I took the two tabby boy kittens and the chocolate torbi girl up to a rescue in Jefferson.

Cece, the mom of those darling kittens, spayed yesterday.

This is Baha, a girl, the only one the Lacomb folks were able to catch of all the ones they have not yet fixed. She too was fixed yesterday.

So I dropped off those five cats at the clinic, then soon after, took Ash and Clyde up to Salem to meet the barn cat lady.   By noon I was picking up the cats from the clinic and returning them to their various people.

Tomorrow, the only cat related duty will be to try to recatch Chatty and Sunny.  That's a pretty laid back sit in a lawn chair "effort".  Lol.  Except it might rain.

That's about all I can think of for today.  Been busy with running around picking up cats, dropping off traps, nothing too bad, just tiring to get it all done.   I'm happy to have something to do.

Five Lacomb Kitties

 I've been running a fundraiser, so we can try get the rest of the Lacomb kitties fixed.  While we're nowhere close to getting enough for all of them, we did get five more fixed yesterday.

That makes 8 fixed there now, with 15 to go, but they will try to get some of the tamer kittens into the local shelter.   I hope they can do that.  The local shelter has a lot more resources than I do but they do like to charge massive budget breaking intake fees.

Artemis, a girl

A boy they call Golbez

Little girl they named Intern

Tomorrow, if they're successful at trapping, five more will be fixed.

Another little girl they call Terra

A boy, Turbo

When I went to get in the car yesterday morning, to take the cats to the clinic, I freaked out.  One trap, the only one that was their trap, was empty!   It's a cheap small trap and both ends appeared to have been compromised.  I briefly thought that kitten must have escaped the car too, because I'd been standing there, with the car door open, labeling the traps.

I got inside the car, closed the door and began to search under and behind the two front seats.  There are not many places a cat can hide in my car. But I hadn't unloaded my kayak gear yet.  My paddle, my lifejacket, the kayak seat, a few other kayak items, were all crammed in front of the backseat.  But, a board covers the entire back.  Back seat is laid forward, with the board atop it, so I can haul things. (mostly cats) I found the cat using a mirror and flashlight.   Catching, not as easy, due to the cramped space, but I managed it.  Soon she was back in a trap, but this time, one of my trusted ones.   I keep mine in good shape.

When I got home, I removed all my kayak gear and then, in some sort of energy burst, cleaned the garage out, organizing, and ditching stuff I don't use.   Granted, not a big job.  I don't have much stuff.  I only keep stuff I use.  With a few exceptions, like my ancient REI sleeping bag (rated to minus 55) and backpack, clear back from Alaska days.   Why I keep those two items, I don't know, except I still like to look at them and think about those days.  I would never use that sleeping bag out camping.  It's way too hot for me and its a mummy bag.  Last decade or so, my legs have to be free or I can't sleep.  If I lost heat again, like I have in the past when the furnace quits, that's the go to, used unzipped, that keeps me warm.  Otherwise, its crammed into its stuff bag on a shelf.

Speaking of the furnace, I realized I needed to clean the heat pump before winter sets in.  The dryer vents right out onto it, from the house, causing the coil fins to get linted up.   It wasn't that easy on me to clean it.  I had to remove like 8 metal panels on the outside, after shutting it off inside and also pulling out the breaker for it so it for sure could get no power.  I should have vacuumed it out, but I just flicked off the layer of lint and dirt with a moist cloth, then sprayed it from the inside to the outside.  Getting those metal outside panels back on was a pain too.   

After that I thought what's the good of doing that if I don't at least try to redirect the dryer lint away from the heat pump.  So I pulled off the feathered outside dryer vent cover, and put a a bracket on it that fits onto the portable AC unit duct I have for the garage when its super hot in the summer and I have to hold cats.  Then I fastened that outside cover I'd removed onto the end of the AC unit's vent duct, which is maybe five feet long, and then attached it to the house.  Since its flexible, I curled it away from the heat pump down along the side of the house.  It doesn't get the lint that far away from the heat pump but sure better than venting straight onto it.  I wanted the feathered cover on the end to keep mice and slugs, or whatever, from traveling up the dryer vent duct into the house and dryer. So the opening stays closed unless air is blowing out it. 

Struggles with dryer lint and vent ducts.  Hate those struggles.

I took a trap up to a long fixed colony, on Sunday, for the couple living there, in a fifth wheeler, to catch a new arrival female, who showed up with kittens.  The colony was fixed two or three years ago.  Then the young female showed up this summer.  The kittens are darling.   The couple who live there have been getting them tame, but so far, I can't find a rescue open to take them.

There are two tabby boys

This little girl is a chocolate torbi!

I gave her some kitten dry food and a box of wet food cans and she will be catching the female on Sunday, to be fixed Monday.

They are trying to keep them safe, but everything on earth would like to eat a fat kitten.  So I don't know.

The two Gills Landing teen boys, Ash and Clyde, will come here this morning, from where they've been held in Lebanon, and then tomorrow, I will meet up with a Silverton Barn Cat placement team member, and hand them off.   They also have a barn home open for Chatty and Sunny.  I just have to recatch them.   They can take those two next Tuesday.  I have got to get on that.  

They're also looking for a home for Tabitha, from the 7-11 colony in Sweet Home.  The former manager was able to catch her and she's in my bathroom.   I was thrilled to find out she is still alive.   She was miserable however, being secretly fed at the dumpsters and sleeping under the dumpster.  But the lady feeding her got caught doing it, on security cam and chastised, so she had to get her safe quickly.   She's been an easy keeper in the bathroom.  She adores just sleeping on a soft blanket.  She doesn't want to be petted but lets me, if I try.  I'm hoping she gets a "soft home", one where she has it super easy and great shelter, delicious food.

She was the most fun loving of all the cats at the colony, the most personality, when I was trapping there last spring, before I got the boot.   Now, she seems a little broken, after all that went on there.

I joined a Gleaner group here. Today I go on my first field glean with them.   You just have to put in six hours a month volunteering and that's nothing.   It should help a lot with the food situation I experience due to high prices of everything.  The city decided to add more fees to the monthly water bill, which made me panic.

Favorite Things

 I saw on the Portland news this morning a short segment on the little things people enjoy doing most.

I can't remember exactly what all of them were.  

One of them was that first cup of coffee in the morning.

Another was to get together with old friends.   The smell of coffee brewing was another thing people enjoy along with waking up after a good nights sleep.  Yet another simple thing people enjoy is watching their favorite TV show.

I would add a few of my favorite things:  

 Reading in bed at night, with a view of the stars out the window and my cats purring around me.

Watching a high wind and rain storm, maybe at the coast, although I haven't gone to the coast to storm watch for awhile.

Watching funny videos on instagram and Tiktok is yet another thing I could do for hours.

Getting a phone call from a good friend or from someone I love is a big thing I enjoy.

What are the simple things you like?

Also, its that time of year, to fill out your fat bear contest brackets.   Katmai National Park in Alaska does this every year.   

Fat Bear Week page.