Off They Go

 Three more Quartzville road cats headed off to a barn home yesterday.   

They spent the night here, in my garage, after I retrieved them from Sweet Home, with a heater going, and very comfortable.  I gave them my most comfortable blankees for the cage they stayed in for the night.  The names they got from the Lebanon woman are lame, but, oh well.  Sissy, Missy and Chuckles.   

Chuckles on the left.  Missy on the right.  Sissy tucked back behind.

I took them up to Salem in two carriers.   I meet the Silverton Cat Rescue Barn placement team in the Walmart parking lot up there.  But yesterday it was filled with motorcycles.  More and more arrived until I had to move farther away, so there'd be a space for the barn cat folks to park beside me.  I don't know what they were all doing there.   There were a couple people dressed as Santas and one with a green grinch costume on.

The barn cat folk arrived and I said goodbye to the girls.   Two more carriers gone, for now.  Two other of my carriers are somewhere with the people who adopted Pebbles and her Siamese boyfriend Prince, from Quartzville.  Two more are with the guy who adopted Chaca and Peter Green.   I should eventually get all six carriers back.

Allegedly today Peanut is leaving, going off with the woman who trapped him up there.  I'm not holding my breath.  She is about the busiest person I've met in a long while.   Tomorrow evening or Tuesday, Petunia will be leaving to her new home.  I think its a perfect match for her.   

That will leave me three wild things in my bathroom from Quartzville waiting for a barn home---Tickle, Thistle and Prissy.  Prissy however is turning tame slowly but surely.   She comes out of hiding when I go in the bathroom, a big tell on how she wants to bond with a human.  And she plays with me, with a wand toy or the laser pointer.

All of them have me well trained.  

I carry little Peanut around in the house.  He likes it.

My cats have nearly destroyed my fake Christmas tree.  They pull off strings of lights in the night.  They make cat toys of my ornaments.  They have broken the locks on the branches so the branches won't flare outward, and instead droop to the ground.  They've even bent the metal pole that holds the branches, although it remains in its stand and upright but only because I've got it tied in three directions.  It's been a few years since I've had such Christmas destruction here.   It's the 7-11 three cats doing most of the destruction--now in their late teen time of life, having a grand old time with that giant cat toy.

The drooped broken branches.  Lights barely holding on.  Ornaments---yeah, where are they?

Darn cats.

Nobody has seen an alive cat in any of the spots where we caught the others, up Quartzville, for a long time.  It may be over with.  R.I.P. to those never caught and likely no longer with us.

Day Ahead

 I'm not excited for the day ahead.

I've got to drive to Sweet Home to try to get three of the Quartville road cats out of a cage so they can go to a barn home tomorrow.  Silverton Cat rescue came through---found a barn home willing to take three of the cats.

The three cats going to the barn home used to be in Lebanon, held in a cage there.  That was up til a few days ago, when the lady holding them decided she wanted them gone, and took them up to a Sweet Home lady who is already holding four of the Quartzville road cats.

 The three with a barn home ready for them are all girls, all gray tuxes.  

I don't know what size or sort of cage they're now in, up in Sweet Home.  No doubt they are traumatized, from the sudden move to Sweet Home and a new situation.   Now I have to get them out of that cage up in Sweet Home and here, so they can go to Silverton Cat Rescue tomorrow.    

When I hold wild things in a cage, I have a carrier inside the cage, a litter box, a shelf with a blanket, so they're comfortable.  I cover part of the cage at least, to give them privacy.  when I have to remove them, I siimply take the cover off the cage and walk around near it.  They want to hide from me, and go into the carrier.  I then close the carrier door from the outside.  Or, I remove the litterbox and carrier and set a covered live trap in the cage.   This method to get them out is extremely benign without trauma or drama.

I don't know the set up she has up in Sweet Home.  I asked for cage measurements because its important to know that before I go up, but have not received any from her.  I do know two of the four she was already holding up there, that she trapped, are not fixed primarily because she can't get them out of the cage.

I dread driving up there to do this but those girls have suffered enough and need to move on.   

Sure I'd like to get the five Quartzville road cats out of my bathroom,  and let them go to the barn home open, but at least they are comfortable and can run around in there.   Peanut, the little boy teen who had surgery, is allegedly leaving this weekend to go home with the lady who trapped him, but I'm not sure she's taking him now.  

This last Wednesday I took two kittens from Sweet Home to be fixed.  In addition, a tech who works at the clinic, is trying to help a lady in Lebanon with 30 cats, and took three of those in to be fixed.  HCC, my nonprofit, paid for all 5 fixes.   We had five appointments last Wednesday for the trailer man's cats but he bailed out last minute. So instead his aunts two kittens were spayed.   I'd met these two kittens back in October, when the aunt contacted me about another cat showing up at their previously entirely fixed colony, with kittens.   I had gotten the mom of those kittens caught and fixed back then, and taken three of the five kittens to a rescue in Jefferson.   

Sassy

Sissy

It's foggy this morning, but at least its not raining!   That's a big plus.  We've had tremendous amounts of rain.

UPDATE:  I got the three girls out of the cage in Sweet Home.  Cage was big enough for my small traps to go into.   There was a massive size dog barking mere feet away.   I have never ever seen a dog that large before.   I thought maybe a Burmese Mountain dog but she said some other mixes, and I can't recall.   . 

Also, on the way home, while eating lunch in my car, I got a message from a Corvallis woman who is friends with some good friends of mine, offering a home for sweet Petunia, and Peanut too, if the lady who trapped him doesn't take him.   Indoor only home.   She'll be gone for the weekend and will pick up Petunia on Monday or Tuesday.   This is terrific news!   

The first video below is Peanut showing off his shaved hip and barely limping now, a few days after his surgery.  Second video requires the sound on and is of some bald eagles aerial fighting on Seven Mile Lane.  I took this, via dashcam (mounted cell) on the way back from retrieving my big cage yesterday.  On the way to Lebanon, when on Seven Mile, I'd nearly hit one of the eagles as they tussled out on the edge of the road.  This was over the remains of a roadkilled nutria.  I'd seen that nutria dead there two days back.   By the time I was on my way back home, the eagles had taken their fight to the air.  My phone camera is lousy and doesn't zoom much.  I want to one day get a decent camera again.

Peanut Gets Surgery/Trailer Man Difficulties

 Peanut from Quartzville road was to get an Xray yesterday of his hurt leg and surgery if needed today.

Instead the clinic messaged me yesterday morning they had cancellations, could I bring him in?   Yes, of course.

I wasn't dressed yet but quickly got dressed, put Peanut in my car in a carrier and drove on over.

Later I got a call and an image by message.  Poor Peanut.  His left leg femur head was completely seperated from his hip.   

Xrays don't lie.  Look at the femur head completely unconnected to his hip anymore.

I didn't know if they would amputate the leg or what.  They didn't.  They did a procedure known as FHO (femoral head ostectomy).   I'd never heard of it but I guess its commonly done.  In fact four different people I know told me they'd had a cat or a dog, that had an FHO.   When cats or dogs are hit by cars, dislocated hip is a common injury and FHO is often used rather than more drastic means like trying to put the femor head back in the hip, which often doesn't work.  The vet cuts off the head of the femur, so its not banging against the pelvis causing pain.  Muscle then holds the leg in place, not a ball and socket joint.  

Wow, I thought, that's awesome!

Peanut came home with a cute cone on and some cat pain meds.

He almost immediately got into trouble with the cone.  I heard commotion in the bathroom and went in to find him in a panic, with the cone half off but around his eyes now, instead of his neck.  I quickly removed it and held him in my arms while I watched TV.  He purred and purred and finally fell asleep.  When he woke up, he was scared, looking around, wondering where he was then realized he was fine.  I know he went through hell way out where he was dumped and just want him to know only security and love.

He will be going to the kind lady who caught him whose young nephew fell in love with him that same day.   These are very kind people.   I'm really happy they will take him.   Its tough to find any cat a home, let alone a home where a traumatized kitten or cat can be safe and loved and accepted as they recover mentally and physically.  So many folk have no patience for anything that does not give them immediate gratification.  

They found another cat out there a few days ago.  This one dead and in a box.   WTF.   I felt bad for them, having to deal with this kind of animal neglect and abuse.   I know it happens routinely around here but they're new to the reality of the magnitude of it.

The vet gave me a youtube link for range of motion exercises post FHO.   I love youtube, as most of you know.   I have been able to learn so many things and fix so many things thanks to youtube.  

He'll be here a week at least, to recover and get his meds and do his exercises.  The lady taking him is very busy this time of year with family things and work.

I had acquired five more appointments tomorrow for the trailer man's cats and told him the date.  So I contact him yesterday to arrange a time this morning to bring traps to him and he finally tells me he's going to Portland today and won't be back til late afternoon.  Shit, I thought.   I go out of my way to help him get it done, give him a date a week ago, remind him and now this.   It will be tough to wait til last minute and catch the ones in the trailer not yet fixed.  I don't even want to go to that disgusting trailer.  I'm not happy with him.   People who don't fix their cats and get pretty much everything free often don't see it as a problem to not show up for the game.  So far I've taken five from there to be fixed and he has six more needing done.   He could have all but one fixed by tomorrow night.  

Most of my time right now I spend in cleaning.  Holding five extra cats here is not that easy.  To keep my own crew happy, I keep things as clean as possible.  I clean litter boxes three times a day, mop, sweep, do laundry constantly.  

 I need to shave two of the wild things now.   I got Blueberry shaved of mats, but Nemo and Mopsy need it done.  HOwever my beloved low noise rechargable clippers don't want to hold a charge anymore.  I've had those over ten, maybe 15 years and have loved them.  They don't scare cats being low noise low vibration  and I've kept the blade oiled and clean.  The lower blade is ceramic and doesn't get hot like two metal blades sliding back and forth do.  Anyhow, they were only $20 new.  I got a new pair I thought were exactly the same and they're loud, annoying and don't really cut.

I'm fed up with usb rechargables.   I have to search out the right connection wire, right connection on both ends, then an adapter, that works and has the right usb connection portal and often I cannot find both a wire with the right connections and an adapter that is working, that has the right usb connection.    My phone quit charging, but it was really both plug in adapters that quit and one cable.   I had to order a new adapter and cable.   But it came with a usb C connection to adapter.  Gosh darn.  Since nothing else I have charges with a usb C that adapter is virtually only usable with the phone.  I went through a ton of old cables of various sorts and threw out all the repeats, the non workers and the ones that charge I don't know what.  It was a tangled pile.  It felt good to get them out of here.  My neighbor says she has the same problem but is afraid she'll toss some that she actually still needs for something.

I'm still trying to organize photos.   That will take awhile.  When I worked on it the other day, I deleted over 500 photos.   Nice work, I told myself.

 Today is Gleaners day.  I look forward to it even just for some human contact.   It's my favorite day of the week.   I will work set up again.   I didn't sign up for it as a permanent position to get in my hours but now I just go and do it.  I enjoy all the people there doing set up.   

Retro and Oddities

How about some retro photos?

Who can guess what the above photo is?

It's me, when at the fairgrounds, where a med school student gave me my first Covid vaccine.  I was lined up with hundreds of other people.

And this is me again in above photo.  Well, its my face.  My first face swap use of AI.  Here's the original:

I like the mentality expressed so much that I swapped out the original face for mine.   I was going to print the swap out photo to include in my Christmas cards this year but my printer quit.  Ah, its fate I assume.

And there was the photo below I took one harried day two or three years ago when I finally realized I was wearing two different shoes.  A new fashion?   

And this photo, when I finally found my lost TV remote, after weeks of search efforts.

What about this proud moment, when I ran over a tire in the fast lane of the freeway on the way to Salem early morning with cats.  It left my rear bumper attached by one clip and dragging.  I was lucky to live through that one.   This photo shows off my detached rear bumper!!!  In its glory.

And how about the Leathers gas station parrot, complete with his own heater.   Take your pet to work day!  

Lastly, I leave you with the saxaphone man.  I encountered him playing to a crowd of none in an abandoned quarry I drove through when I was  after, you guessed it, cats!  

 

Cat Christmas Shenanigans

 Basically all I do last few days is clean.   With extra cats here, even more daily cleaning is required.

I hold Petunia on my lap in the bathroom while I play with Prissy, who loves to play interactively with the wand toy.  Poor Peanut the kitten isn't very active, loves to just sleep a lot.

It's pouring rain here and will be for many days ahead.  Puts a damper on doing much of anything.

In the morning, I go pick up the Christmas tree ornaments the cats have turned into toys in the night.  Last night, the lights on the tree were severely rearranged.  Ha.

The air outside is so wet, even when its not raining, feels heavy and icky.

The city is probably going to approve a chemical plant and chemical storage being built less than a mile from me in a heavy residential area.  It's disgusting the city would even consider allowing it.  It manufactures a chemical product that is severely regulated due to the danger involved in its making.   Or something.  The gas that could be released in an accident is fatal to breath.  I imagine our growth without limits city will approve it.  We have little say and wouldn't even know about it had not someone written a blog post concerning the application by this company.   My council person doesn't even respond to a simple email.   

Not much going on, today or for weekend.

Prissy!

Jack likes to knock things off the tree.  He's good at it.  And below, is sweet Petunia from Quartzville road, the cat dumped up there like trash already spayed.

Christmas is Coming

 Christmas isn't far away now.

It's low key seems like compared to other years.   Just a few houses with lights on the block.

Mine is one of them.

I got out my new fake tree tonight.   Lisa and Savannah sent it to me last year after Christmas when my old one fell apart after decades.

Here's the progression.

Out of the box you just slip the bottom section into the stand and two more sections atop that.  But....you do have to spend a lot of time fluffing it out.

I shoved it back near the wall and again tied it in three directions.  Then I decorated it.  I haven't got many ornaments anymore.  Have lost or broken them over the years and never got anymore.   Probably won't either.

The kitten from Quartzville road, Peanut, has a badly healed rear leg fracture.  He doesn't walk right.   The spay neuter clinic said he needed Xrays so next Monday he'll  be xrayed and likely that leg will need amputated.  Otherwise he'll have a life of joint/bone pain and limping.  Then the other wierd one is the tame tabby on white female.  She was already spayed.   She was caught clear up at mp 15.   Only since I quit trapping up there have the cats caught been mostly tame, including Peter Green, Chaca, Petunia, and Peanut the kitten.  Thistle, the black male, is NOT tame.  At all.  It was heartbreaking to know that poor kitten, only 4 months old, probaby sustained a fracture of a rear leg at 8 weeks of age or so, probably when he got thrown out up there, like trash.   And that a cat once thought enough of, that someone got her fixed, was then dumped, by age 1, out in the middle of nowhere to starve to death.   All the animal abuse and cruelty around here gets to me.  It's just constant.

My brother and his wife met me at a restaurant last night and we had dinner.  It was a brief visit but nice since I hadn't seen them in about two years.  They were on their way to Portland, to fly out to TN to see their daughter.   My nephew and his wife, kids were going too, but I didn't get to see them.  

That's about it here.   

Peanut the kitten

Jack was first to check out the tree

Quartzville Roadies

 I have 7 Quartzville roadies here now. By tomorrow night, it will down to five.

Chaca gets fixed tomorrow, the gray girl, then tomorrow early evening, goes to a home with Peter Green, the massive most delightful boy.

Petunia, the new tame girl in the bathroom, caught a couple days back, also will be fixed tomorrow.

So will Thistle, the black, caught two nights ago.   And so will Peanut the kitten, caught in the night last night.  Peanut is super tame, very very hungry, like Thistle and Petunia were.   Petunia and Peanut will be up for tame cat homes.  I don't know yet about Thistle.

Peanut is a kitten, that's for sure, but maybe like 3 or 4 months old.   He may or may not be the kitten I saw three weeks ago, after being farther on up that road and then coming home.  I was going slow in the dark, looking for car parts knocked off by the deer earlier that evening.  That's when we saw the tabby kitten run across the road and were horrified.  We put out a lot of food, and later put out more.  Others have fed nearby and finally two have been caught there.  I don't know how many more there could be there.  It's good to be finishing this out.

7 right now.  5 by tomorrow night.   And hopefully Peanut and Petunia can soon be placed.  And the other three too of course.  

It's been a challenge but one that someone had to take on.  Those poor cats were left up there to starve to death by quite cruel people.  Cowardly too, to do that.

So tomorrow, four more roadies will be fixed.  Two boys being held in Sweet Home were supposed to go also, also from Quartzville road, but she couldn't get them to go into a carrier from the big cage they're in, so they'll have to wait.

So, with only four unfixed ones here and five spay neuter spots, I went back to that trailer park and got another female there who needs fixed.  By tomorrow, five will be fixed from that man's trailer, with another half dozen or more to go.

He's DD, but easy to communicate with and eager to get the cats fixed finally.

Chaca

Thistle, in the garage in a cage, since I already have five in the bathroom.  Peanut is in there with Thistle.

Petunia, the tame girl, probably related to Peter Green

Peanut the kitten.  He was caught last night and is one hungry little guy.

We really don't even know if there are any others left alive up there.  I don't know if the trappers will try again next weekend, if none are seen by others during the week, who go look but don't trap.

The last few caught have been so starved.

Anyhow I will get a photo of the torbi girl from the trailer park in the morning to add to this post.

Tomorrow evening I say so long to Chaca and Peter Green.  They will have a great person looking after them, a coworker of the lady who caught both of them.

Tuesday is Gleaners again.  I look forward to Gleaners day, not only because I easily get a week's worth of food, for working a few hours but because I like the people.   Last week, at the monthly members meeting, we got to choose a "prize" for attending, and they had some cans of coffee, so I took one of those.  They're probably worth $10 easy.  I was almost out of coffee, too.  One of the guys who does a lot of pickup of store overstock, which then needs weighed and set up for distribution, is getting a knee replaced, so I might volunteer for doing some of the work he does, just to learn it and because someone needs to.