Non Barn Cat Material

 Well, the good news is the already fixed girl from the rural road is doing very well.  She eats, sleeps and loves to be loved.

So I give her lots of love.

She is skinny, way low on weight, and perhaps older.   She is in no way barn cat material.   She's lap cat ready.

Her days need spent on a comfy blankee or someone's lap nights as they watch TV.

A post has been passed around by new owners of yet another place on same road.  Seems the former tenants left behind 14 or more cats, tame, just left them behind.   I don't know what is wrong around here the way people treat animals.  Pretty darn horrific.   A woman living south of Corvallis, I see on facebook, decided to help and took two of them so far home only to find out both are positive for FIV.  (Feline Aids).

No good deed goes unpunished.  But those former residents certainly should be punished for doing that to animals.  FIV is really preventible.  Fix your cats.

Over and over again people dump or abandon their animals around here and the number of people who don't fix their pets and cause such horrible suffering and costs to others is astounding.

No respect for life in these parts.  Or personal responsiblity values.   I think that's pretty much taught into people from parents.

I'd been contacted by an older woman (by that I mean older than I am and that doesn't include a lot of people anymore).   She is caring for five teens in a sheep barn.  I loaned her traps to feed in beforehand and she fed in them and then didn't feed this morning, so I caught them in about 15 minutes time.   When people do as asked, it works that way.   Few people do as asked.   So I appreciate this woman greatly.

Here are photos of three of the five teens.

Frosty

Snowball

Curious

I'll add photos of the other two when I get them taken.

That's it for today.

Ten More Trailer Park Cats Fixed Plus Another

 I've still got the gray tux male from the rural road in the garage.

So after I caught ten more at the trailer park for FCCO spots yesterday, with a bit of time, I went up to try to catch that Siamese still up there, so she could be paired with him.   I didn't have long because there's still not much daylight.   I had an hour before dark.  

I saw the Siamese, but she did not go in the trap.  When I went to take up the trap at dark, I got another big surprise.  This time it was a gray tabby in the trap.  I was shocked.

I decided to take her along to the clinic in hopes the cat could also be fixed.  

These are the cats I took from the trailer park.  I had two big males living under the porch at one trailer.

This Siamese boy is rather out of place at the trailer park.  Most of the cats are black, black tux, or tabby.

I got three kittens from a feral mom, well they are really teens, at another trailer.  The mom was fixed last trip.

And then at a 5th wheel, where I'd seen cats outside, I found six cats needing fixed, all teens from a mom they'd taken in pregnant.  They got her fixed, but couldn't afford to get all six of the teens fixed, so were very happy I stopped by.  I took two blacks, two orange tabbies and a torti.  One left needing caught, to be fixed next week.

Besides these ten, there was the gray tabby from the rural road.  When I arrived yesterday morning at the fCCO, they said they'd do 11, instead of the 10.  I was relieved.

Turned out "Eleven" is an already fixed and chipped female, but the chip isn't registered and she was near starved to death.   It is so sad, but also I was happy I caught her and its all due to that elusive fixed trap shy Siamese.

This morning I put her in the bathroom.

During the day yesterday while the cats were being fixed, I was again at my friends place, on her comfy couch, watching shows on netflix. I should have napped but I'd had too much coffee.  Today I'm super worn out.  I wasn't even home from the clinic before people were messaging me wanting cats caught and fixed or this or that.   I ignored it all til finally home but was so upset by people hounding me when they know I'm exhausted I sat in the car in the driveway and responded, mostly telling people I was too tired to deal with it.

Rain

 Rain is back in Oregon.

I slept in and have been enjoying morning with my kitties who hate it that its raining.

Cat yard, you know, they love it.  They enjoy bird watching from the runs through the wire.   It's not hard raining so most are still out in the yard before their mid day naps.

They have such hard lives here, you know.

I went out to try to catch that Siamese with the drop trap late yesterday afternoon.  No luck.  I wondered, since I'd left food day before, but had to give it a shot.  And got a big surprise.  There are two Siamese.

There were two born there to a litter of four or five, the feeder lady had told me in 2024 but she thought the unfixed boy was run off when a bigger boy showed up.   Well he's back now.   And you can't tell the fixed girl from the unfixed boy outside of a couple tiny differences.  The boys' tail is darker and shorter.   That's it.  You can barely see the girl's eartip unless right there very close up and sometimes not even then if angle is wrong.

Explains a alot, with the two there, although the boy is a roamer now.   I watched him, as the sun set, take off across the flatlands.   He was bent on a direction and traveled quickly.  I bet he has a homeless human friend.

This is the girl, now limping, when she was fixed mid summer last year.

I hope so.  Everyone needs a friend in this world.

In previous visits, I had been convinced my eyes were playing tricks on me.  I saw slight differences when I'd see what I thought was the same cat and would shake my head to clear it and told myself I was seeing things.   I wasn't.

For now, I won't be going up to trap.  I have other obligations for the next two weeks.  That begs the question:  what do I do with Roadie, from same place, still in the garage.  I had hoped to pair him up with the fixed girl for a barn home.   I'll figure something out.  He's so easy to care for in the cage.  He's such a good boy, although he is wild.  He seems completely content to be warm and well fed.  

I've gotten so many fix it projects done last two weeks I feel very happy.   

I'm making beet sweet potato soup for the week today.   I'm also going to make a curry.   Its not quite Borscht.  Borscht includes cabbage, carrots, cream and traditional potatoes, topped with sour cream.   I use what I have.  It's extremely delicious anyway.  This batch has roasted sweet potatoes, beets, onions, garlic, vegetable stock from boullion and boxed milk.  I puree it in the blender once done simmering.  I roast the sweet potatoes and beets wrapped in foil.  Then the skins just slip off, which makes it easy to add to soup.

I get the Olympics on a Eugene station that comes through on my antenna, so I've been watching pretty much nonstop, as I do morning chores.  Enjoying it.  All that effort athletes put into preparation only to not make it into finals, I wonder how that affects them and their families, who sacrifice so much to get them to that point.

Learning to lose gracefully, outwardly and inwardly, is a life skill.   Picking up the pieces and getting right back at it, that's a life skill too.

You win some, you lose some.  Our President is almost 80 and hasn't learned how to move on from losses or perceived wrongs.   I wonder if he can still learn that, in old age.   

Low Snow

 Weirdest winter ever in Oregon, feels like.

We had a lot of rain, up until January.  Then it stopped and we got almost no rain in January.   It would be very cold at night, with either sun or fog during the day.

The mountains were not getting snow.  Ski resorts were and still are struggling.

This month, we started off with a bit of rain and we'll get more this weekend.  But what about mountain snow?  The following link is from OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting).

What do forecasters say about snow in the mountains?

I think the winter olympics have begun.   I don't think I get a channel that will carry them, not more than highlights in the news.

I have an antenna and get quite a few channels that way.  I have Roku and get access to a lot of free content that way also but I don't think the Olympics.   I'll check today.   I'm not a sports fan but some of the Olympic events are enjoyable to watch.

Sunday is the super bowl.  I think.   I know some diehard excited Seahawks fans.   I'm not into sports and won't pretend I'm interested.

I spent 7 hours out yesterday, parked along the rural road, where the gray tux boy, Roadie, came from.  He's still in my garage.  I had traps set for the Siamese.  I finally got a good look at her.  She is the one I got fixed last summer but had to return since she was lactating.  Her kittens must all have died, however.   Predators pick them off easily in such a location.

Before I got out of my car to set a trap, a Jeep pulled in behind me and the lady came up to my window.   I didn't know her, but she knows the feeder lady.  Or did.  They had some falling out awhile ago.  She had her two very cute dogs with her to walk in the vast area.   One is a corgi.

She headed down the road beyond the gate with her dogs.  Later on, I went on a walk and ran into her way out in the fields between the road and the river.   The dogs came running to greet me like they'd known me forever.

Right after I set the trap city vehicles began pulling in around me.   One was towing a porta potty they set up at one end of the pullout.  A supervisor (maybe) sat in his truck with it idling nearby for awhile.  They had road signs up and there were flaggers on the road.  I asked what they were doing and he said maybe it was brush hogging, but the section back towards town from me isn't very long and I couldn't imagine brush hogging along that short a distance would take all day.  Whatever they were doing did take all day.  I was there before they arrived and after they left too.  My day was longer there than theirs.

I never caught the cat.   She came out late afternoon and was so hungry she nearly came close enough to grab.  But she would not go into a trap and was limping badly.  I tried everything I could think of to get her to go into it, including spreading catnip.   She's been caught once to be fixed.   Then the feeder lady I guess tried to catch her months ago and the trap closed on her back and she got out.   She didn't look like she felt well and was protective of her sore front foot/ankle.   I finally gave her dry food at front of trap, she was so hungry, and hoped she would then go into the trap for the wet food.  She didn't.  She ate the dry food and vanished into the brush.   I took up the trap and came home.

By tomorrow evening, we will get more rain.   Sunday too.   Maybe snow will still come to the mountains.  There's still some time.   

Odd Looking Cat Toy

 

I made a new cat toy with remnants from cutting a fleece up to become two cage covers.   I had this strip of remnant and this is what I made:

I don't know what it is, but I stuffed it with cardboard, paper towel bits and cloth.  Oh, and catnip.

The cats don't care that its ugly.

They love it.

Roadie, aka Surprise, was neutered and vaccinated today.   He was so happy to get back to the holding cage and to scarf down two more cans of wet food.  He's been eating like he has hollow legs that need filled.   

I went out to the bird feeder this morning.  Saw something under it.   It was a rat.  Just sitting there, half stunned.  I wondered if he'd been dropped by a bird of prey.  But then I saw the neighbors cat behind their fence, frantically searching.  Ah, I thought, he got chased under the fence by their cat and probably is injured from the cat.   I went back to get my phone to take a photo and when I turned back around, the rat had run right back under the fence to the neighbors.  Ok.   It's seriously suicidal to be a rat or mouse around here.  Several neighbors on the street behind me have free roamer cats who visit this block too.  And if a rat or mouse ventured into the cat yard---certain quick death would follow.   Then we have the swooping in Cooper's Hawk, after small birds but would never pass up on a mouse or rat.

The huge stump piece left on its side, after the maple was cut down, has rotted and is falling to pieces inside the cat yard.  I've begun the task of putting the chunks in a bucket and taking them to the yard debris.   It's tedius.  That was a massive piece of wood, almost four feet long and nearly 2 1/2 feet high, on its side as it was.

I filled in a few holes too, created when the former maple roots rotted and disintegrated.  They left behind perfect looking holes that run both horizontally and those can collapse under foot, and vertically.  Eventually they'll all just collapse on themselves.

There's always a lot of work to do here.  It's never ending.  One of the runs had developed a large hole, from age rot.  It wouldn't be long before the hole would be big enough for cats to exit through it.   I went to Home Depot and got a single osb 2'x4' board.  It was $5.  Once home, I covered the board in the vinyl stick on tiles I have in the garage, to replace the floor ones that have broken over the years.   It took 8 of them.  I then shoved the board into the cat run from a ladder and attached it in three places over the area with the two ragged holes.   At least that area of the run looks brand new now.

It's nice to get these long on the list projects off the list.  I have a lot of trapping coming up.   25 appointments in all.   3 different clinics.   10 of them are next week, from the trailer park.   The next week, five from south Albany, 2 from wherever the next day, then 8 more trailer park cat spots at FCCO.  I'm hoping with 18 more for the trailer park, maybe that will be close to getting them all.   It gets harder and harder with most of them fixed now.

I need to catch that lone Siamese way out there where I caught Roadie.  But the feeder lady would have fed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so its jumping the gun to try today.   I'm chomping at the bit to try today, but I would likely not catch the cat, feel sorry for it and leave food, disrupting efforts tomorrow.   I need to wait one more day.

Costs of Living

 Cat food prices have increased drastically in the last month.

Walmart raised the price of a single Friskies can from $.78 to $.84.   

Walmart jumps its cat food prices

I found a coupon price sale at Bimart for 48 case can and jumped on it.  With the sale and the coupon, reduces the price to $.68 a can.

Human food prices are still high too.  I checked the internet for reasons cat food is so high.  Said the costs of production rose 25% between 2019 and 2022.  And now, I don't know, maybe tariffs play a part in increasing it more so fast.  Or just plain old greed.

All I know is the struggle to survive is real.   The neighbor gave up on buying a trailer here since her ID got stolen and now is hoping to move back to CA to be closer to family.   She said there are some trailer parks down there with space rent cheaper than here in town.  I believe it.  Housing costs here are out of control.

Getting chicken that's marked down for quick sale due to age on shelf, cooking and dicing it, that helps extend my cat food.   I used to get road kill calls from friends who then would bring me a wild turkey or other bird they had seen hit by a car.   For me to use it, I have to have credible witness on when hit.   I don't want to make my cats sick.  Lots of people eat roadkill around here.  It's perfectly safe if fresh enough and free.  Why not.

Surprise, (I'll figure out a better name) the gray tux kitty in the holding cage, is eating well.  Not aggressive at all, but also not tame, been on his own too long I suppose.  Maybe born there I wouldn't know.  I texted feeder lady his photo to ask if she knew him but all she said was "hope he looks better in person cause he looks like a rat".   Ok, I thought, that doesn't deserve a reply.  Then I went further and blocked her number. There is no reason to communicate with her.

I got a neurosurgeon consult appointment late February.  I was shocked really it didn't take months.  In the meantime I found exercises to strengthen back muscles on youtube and am starting slow to do them.   If I have to have surgery having some back muscle strength might make recovery faster.  Yesterday started out bad with back and leg pain, but I reminded myself "You are lucky to be alive at this age, so buck up and enjoy this day".   I have to lecture myself a lot on various issues.   It helps.

Today its back to raining here in Oregon.  February 1, finally its raining again.  Rather than cold and overcast.  Everyone I know is sick of winter.   If we don't get enough rain, with snow in the mountains, the summer could be bad, with low reservoir levels, and wildfires.  You never know, could be one of those summers where it rains through end of June and we barely get any sun.  That could be hard to take too.

Poof!

 I returned Poof and gave the lady two bags cat food.  We jawed about prices going up and getting old.  Then I drove off and decided to try for that Siamese, since I had an empty trap in the back.

And time.

Feeder lady isn't feeding today, nor did she yesterday.   She only feeds the cat three times a week.

I set the trap and dorked in my car on my phone, searched it for snacks, never found even one.

An hour was all I was giving it.   But then I heard it spring.  My ears aren't that old.  The trap was about 50 feet from my car, hidden from my view.  But I heard it spring all right.

I was so ready to see that Siamese in the trap.  And so unready for what I did see in the trap.

Excuse me, who is this?   

It's a boy.   And he's got a claw hole in his head which is not uncommon this time of year.

The hole in his forehead

The Siamese had joined the party.  I'd put out some food since I had just the one trap now occupied.

So I begin to wonder how many more that lady was feeding out in this very rural place.   She'd never tell.   

See ya Poof!

Freshly Neutered and Gorgeous and He Knows It