Five Cats

 Yesterday, late afternoon, was cat round up for the five spay neuter spots I have in Salem.

I spent the morning and early afternoon in cleaning mode.   It's a constant endeavor here.

Off to pick up cats.  The first location is nearly to Sweet Home but has a Lebanon address.

I'd not been up this rural road for years seems like.  It meets up with two other roads I traverse more often though so I was not unfamiliar with it.

I met the couple at the first gate and they led me up through a series of gravel road branches.   I knew this couple from when they lived in Foster, at an RV park.   But now, this was a much better place.  Views!  Ponds for kids to fish in.  Nobody to mess with you like when people are packed in tight together and super regulated by landlords.  They had a community man cave, with pool table, TV. Two of the cats were in there to be easily found when I came..

I only had three spots for them, then two others for the last two of three teens in Lebanon needing done.  But they had four adult cats.  3 of the 4 were adult offspring of the 4th.

They showed me the kittens of the one female.

By evening, Keithas Kitties had picked them up.

I took the mom, another female, and one of the two boys and headed back to Lebanon.   But they'd only caught one of the two teens, so after getting her loaded up, I drove back up to the first location and got their fourth adult.   I thought it was terrific all four could be done same day, and also that KKR could fit the kittens in.  They were anxious for them to go to a rescue or shelter, so they could be fixed and find good homes.  They're just over 7 weeks of age.

Anyway, all five are up being fixed right now.   

My car handles so well now, so stable on corners by comparison to what used to be.   I've not driven it enough miles yet to know if the oil consumption issue is better, from changing out the pcv valve.   But I sure am happy with the front drive train and suspension improvement.

It's raining off and on here today and I think will be off and on out ten days, with our temps not to reach 70 in the ten day forecast.

Here are photos of the five cats.

First the four from outside Lebanon.

Mama, the calico

Kermit the other girl

Ottis, a boy

Milo, the other boy

And here's the apartment complex teen.   At least the two girl teens will be fixed now.  The residents are getting FCCO appointments for the teens' mom and her latest litter to be fixed, so hopefully the boy teen can go along and be fixed at that time.

Jaimie, the torbi tux

 The tenants there try hard to keep the strays and left behiinds fixed and also to find the tame ones homes once fixed.   I admire them for doing that.

Revisits, New Colony Cats, Beautiful Crops

 I was headed out about noon to Lebanon, to deliver traps, for tomorrow's cat roundup to the Lebanon apartment complex.  I was also to meet the feeders of another colony behind Safeway over there.  I'd trapped on this dead end street multiple times over the years, including behind the house I was headed for again four years ago.

But first, I had a car issue. I backed out of my driveway and when I put the car in first gear and started to go, it began a metallic yowl.  Shoot.  Its the sound on this video that tells the story.

I recorded the sound and sent it to the mechanic who said he'd be right there.  What?  How?  He lives in Lebanon and I'm in Albany.  I texted him that very question, and as I texted, I jumped, startled, to see him behind my car in the rear view mirror.  WTF?   Turned out he was at the Y just half mile away, had actually left it and was unbelievably close to my house when I texted him.  

He listened and knew immediately it was the metal guard behind the rotor scraping on the wheel.   I dug my door jack out of the back.  He jacked it up, took off the tire and bent the thin metal so it wouldn't scrape.   Problem gone.  

How'd that happen?  Who knows.  Had something to do with the repair or the new tires, doesn't matter, it was nothing.

Then off I went.  I was anxious to get to Lebanon before 2:00.  Why?  Because the Saturday Market there was open til 2:00 and there's this old guy with a booth, who sells cookies and brownies he bakes really affordably.  And they're so delicious. I wanted some.  I got there in time!!!!

Then I delivered two traps to the apartment complex and headed down to the dead end street to meet up with the feeders there.

It was so nice to see the woman and her friend, the man who owns the house, plus the feeder lady.  We sat in the back, to see if the new cats would come out, and chatted up a storm, mostly about all the new housing now right behind the house.  I spottted a hinge on the development fence that ran along behind the development and said wtf, why is there a hinged gate opening to your property from the development.  The feeder lady went over to inspect and confirmed its hinged and the size of a gate.  The house owner said he'd have his brother drive some stakes in front of that.  I just thought it was super creepy.

Here's one of the newbies

I spotted three of the unfixed ones.  I'd gotten five fixed before there.

Across the street, four deer lounged in a field like pets.

Six years ago, I got 40 or more cats fixed at the last house on the dead end street.  It was occupied by a pair of sisters.  I was asked to help by the adult homeless drug addicted daughter of one of the sisters, when I ran into her at a drug house a few blocks away, when also after cats.

She has now passed away.  

Only one sister is still living there.  She was happy to see me and talk about the cats.  There are not as many now, after half dozen years, but they looked pretty good.  We exchanged numbers again.

These cats were among the many fixed six years ago.

I went then down to the S. Lebanon colony.   13 cats fixed there in April.  She had more pee pads for me, the small kind perfect for trap lining.  We sat around on her patio listening to the birds with humming birds whirring by.  We too talked about the results of all the development going on, the MacMansions, the massive housing developments and apartments everywhere.  They're taking the country out of country, the woman lamented.  It's true.  This while the freshly fixed kitties, grabbed and ran with pine cones, chased them like cat toys, then in fits of fun, raced partway up an arborvita that has seen better days.

Danub, a boy, looking good

That's Madonna there on the bed by the ladder.  

I enjoyed the afternoon a great deal.  I saw some old friends, human and cat.  

I drove home past gorgeous fields of Meadowfoam in full bloom.  Beehives are out so the blossoms will be pollinated and produce seed, which is then harvested and crushed into oil.

That was my day.  Tomorrow we're supposed to get rain again, through Wednesday or Thursday I think it is.

The Catmobile

 The catmobile is back in my driveway.  Working again too.

It will take awhile to see if the new pcv valve will help with overuse of oil.

It may be making a pop sound now.  It did driving it on the way home.  But there are only two things that could be--the link end, settling in on the drivers side.  Or the new axle on that side, one end or the other, not seated correctly?  I'm not sure on that last one.  I think they're clicked in or not clicked in, no grays, either able to transfer power to the wheel or not able to do so.  Those are the only two components it could be, that were changed, on that side.   I'm sure it will go away.

I also got tires.  I had no wiggle room on that one, since they had virtually no tread left.

Thanks to Kate and Max, and also mechanic Jarrid for all the help.

I got talked into a second FCCO trip this month.  The first one will be next week.   The second one the week after.   I'm still getting contacted for colony help.  I have to ignore the requests for the most part.   I'm one person with one old car.   Come on people, get it together, do it yourself.

When I'm bored or tired, my mind drifts off and I think about the Quartzville road cats.  The horror of that was greatest on those poor cats, but it also affected us who tried to save them.   To think someone would leave that many cats so far out in the wilds is incomprehensible.   Of course, on my mind always, the ones we never caught, who did not get another chance.

Car at Mechanics

 Beloved car is gone today---over at the mechanics.

He's a good mechanic.   I like him.  A friend drove me back home.

Before I was home ten minutes he'd found another problem.

The source of annoyance for over a year---my rough road clanking will soon be history.

That's the sway bar link end bushing, where the sway bar connects to the suspension.   I don't know if the other side link end is good.   He's ordering the part and will get it this afternoon.  I may not have a car for a couple days but that's fine.

The sway bar connects and stabilizes the front end and wheels by connecting in an arc to each side suspension.  The link end is the connecting piece with a bushing to cushion for the movement.  If most of the bushing is gone, it will clank and not do the stabilizing job.

I'm thrilled he's fixing all these problems.  

Car Issue from Long Ago

 I remember one of the worst times of my life.

I lived in a shack outside Corvallis, a tiny little house with massive issues from lack of maintenance.

While living there I wished so much the place was mine.  I would have fixed it up to be so functional.

I also was having physical problems and ended up having a hysterectomy due to severe endometriosis that had given me pain for decades.  I was told it was all kinds of other things that gave me such pain, even that it was really mental.

In the end, I had exploratory surgery when the doctors were convinced I had ovarian cancer.  But it turned out to be endometriosis.  Because they had not gotten explicit permission in writing from me to do a hysterectomy, they only removed one very fouled ovary.  So later I had the hysterectomy.

What a pain, after surgery.  A wall heated up the next night, in my place.  I called the fire department who declared the place illegally wired, with only one circuit, which had over heated.  The city gave the landlord three days and I was given a notice that it was a dangerous dwelling and I needed to vacate immediately.  I was so stressed and yelled at the city man I'd stand outside naked and yell rape if they came to evict me.  I was given reprieve.

But because of my surgery, I wasn't supposed to drive or lift for like two weeks.   I had to though, because I didn't have enough food and nobody willing to take me to the store.   It was foggy when I went and the car acted up, suddenly becoming unbelievably loud.  It was a crappy old toyota wagon.  

I was scared when I got home because I saw the muffler had fallen off.   There had been some story about someone hitting a fallen off car part on the freeway causing a wreck that turned fatal.   Oh no, I thought, what if someone hits that muffler in the fog.   So I walked the road, and found the muffler and part of the tailpipe about a mile from my place, and drug it home, holding my stomach "together" with one hand.  This was a  couple days, maybe three, after surgery.

My brother in southern Oregon said to come on down, we'd put on a new tailpipe and muffler.  So I drove down, I think on the 4th day after surgery, in the night, to try to avoid a ticket for the loud car.   He had a car lift in his contractor shop.   We replaced the tailpipe and muffler with parts from a car part shop.   I drove back home that night, sleeping at the Elk place outside of Reedsport for awhile.

My other brother, who then lived in Portland, when he heard what I'd done, and right after a hysterectomy, said maybe his company needed to rewrite their time off policy for hysterectormy surgery.  At that time, women got three to six months off after such a surgery.  Great, I thought.   Ruined  other women's chances of getting some rest.

In the end, my slumlords had the tiny house rewired.  The one fuse in the electric box had been rigged with a penny or something some way so the circuit wouldn't break when it overheated.  Just plain slumlord city.  The saving grace was their greed.  They wanted rent money and they would never get rent again on that place with it labeled a dangerous dwelling.

When I left it, being evicted and called the worst tenant they'd ever had, I stopped at the end of the driveway, headlights on the little slumshack, got out, stood in front of the car and raised both hands each with a one fingered salute and yelled "Goodbye Slumlordville"!  Felt good.

The car broke down completely not long after the exhaust system fell off, transmission toast.  The transmission was bad when I got it from a sleazy used car dealership in McMinnville.  I didn't know that then.  

The Good and the Bad on Car

 I took the car over to my mechanic this morning.    In his back alley.  He's a friend.

He was going to change the oil and look for "death metal" in my oil filter.    We didn't get that far.  I suggested it might be the pcv valve.  Yes, from youtube.  S he pulled off the hose over it and sure enough, there's oil even hanging off the back end of its nipple.   

Ah ha!   I was actually very happy.  That's the least of all the problems excessive oil consumption could be caused by.

I asked him also to check the wheels.  I thought one of the bearings was bad.  He has a nice hydraulic jack and easily jacked up each wheel to check.  It was the front wheels that caught his ear though.  There was friction when turning.  Was it from the rotor?  He thought at first the rotors were warped.  They were certainly scored, although the brake pads are good.   I listened too.  There was play and clicking but it was from the front passenger side outer axle joint.   I need a new front axle, maybe both sides.  And two rotors, due to all the scoring on their surfaces.

Anyway, then I went to O'reilly's to get a pvc valve.  They're cheap.   But they have to order it.  It will come later today.   He has me written in for Tuesday to replace the axles and rotors. The rotors are easy and don't take long, but I don't know how long it takes for an axle. 

I'm happy to know what is wrong and that it is quite fixable, all of it.  Now I don't have to worry on the freeway when I know something isn't  right in the drive train but I don't know what it is.  That makes me uneasy.

Maybe and Maybe Not

 Maybe I'll get things done today and maybe I won't.

I'm still recuperating from the blast of cat fixing and trapping.   How can it be that it wasn't even a week ago I took those 20 cats to Portland.   Seems like months ago now.

I still have five dirty traps in the back of my car.   I petered out, on clean up.   No more excuses, have to clean those traps and the car out today.  Tomorrow that mechanic in Lebanon is going to compression test it.   I want him to check the rear wheels too.   I think a bearing is failing.  I am not sure.  But it can act like it, like suddenly kind of jump or jolt or thunk.   The steering wheel also begins vibrating dramatically if I go even a bit over 70 mph.  That's something in the front drive system but probably just unequal tire pressure.   

Vino has diarrhea, probably from the hairball dry food I've been feeding.  This time of year, the cats shed and get hairballs.  So I mix Purina One Hairball dry into the usual food.   However, some don't do well on it.  Gives them the runs.

He began pooping on the bed sometimes, which drove me nuts.  My bed is sacred space.  I don't put up with anything that defiles it. I dug out my scat mats, from years ago.  They worked so well at keeping the cats off the counter.   The two I had were different types.  One would vibrate when touched.  Or beep.  I could set it either way.  No good, doesn't work anymore. The other, even older, just gives a low shock.  Not working anymore either.

The vinyl mats get stiff with age, wires break.  You can't expect them to last over a decade.   The older one may be older than that.

I got a new one, cheaper, better looking too.   So far its worked very well.   Nobody dares be on my bed when its laid out.  It doesn't take long for me to not have to even turn it on.  No more hairball dry food for Vino either.  He should soon be fine. I netted and wormed, flea treated him a two weeks back.  He's very feral and also elderly.  He generally sleeps on the top bunk with Slurpy, Tugs and Juno.  This is a cat nursing home now.  Tugs, maybe the oldest cat here, along with Tweetie and her sister, is beginning to fail too.  Tugs is my tiny little tortie girl.

I guess that Chinese tariffs are in effect today.  And here I thought that happened like two or three or more weeks ago.  I can't keep up.   I keep trying to make some sort of plan should section 8 be cut and I lose housing. 

 Yeah I'm poor.  Almost everyone I know struggles with housing, food and to keep a car running.  I realized years ago one factor affecting poverty and ability to keep a job, along with housing, is the car factor.  Our county is spread out and largely very rural with very little useful public transport.  You need a working car to get to and from work and many people rely on cars like mine--old, high mileage and high maintenance.  If you live in an apartment, you can't work on your own car.   It's illegal to do so on the street.   

Break downs mean you're out of luck.   And often people can't even get to the grocery store.   It's over a two mile walk for me to the nearest grocery store.   Uber?  Lyft?  You gotta be kidding--out of the realm of financial reality for most people.   So is grocery delivery.

Anyway, as often as I can I watch youtube videos on car repair and maintenance.  I try to learn how to do things myself, at least those things I can do with my limited tools.  Youtube is the greatest help to hit the internet.  I  love it.

I don't plant a garden because the soil here is bad and city water is more expensive than gold now I think, by weight.   Yeah, it is pricey!   You wouldn't think water in Oregon would cost a small fortune but it does in many cities, Linn county towns being some of the highest on water rates, for unknown reasons.

The city already added a $9 fee each month to the water bill, to use however the hell they want.  Now they want to add $25 more to that fee.   It's fricking ridiculous.   They use our water bill like their personal atm.

That would be $34 per month added onto the already high charges for water/sewer each month.  Where are we supposed to come up with that kind of money on fixed incomes?   They don't care.

I've really gone off on a whiner tangent haven't I?

Well whatever comes down the line with federal budget slash and burn of the American people, I'll try to survive is all I can say, even if it means slumming it worse than ever.