Zeus

 The tech at Rad sent me photos of a bottle babe she'd taken in.  Her daughter had named him Zeus.

Zeus is only two to three weeks old.  He was found in the wheel well of a work truck.  Since he's way too little to have gotten up in there himself, he had to have fallen from the engine compartment.

The truck had just arrived at work which does not bode well for any littermates or mom.  A mom cat could also have been moving them out of the engine well, before the truck was driven to work, and forgot him.  Or didn't have time to get him.

I went and got him Friday night.   That's because we thought maybe Sierra, the emaciated mom whose five kittens are now with a different Radpets employee, would mother him.  She still has plenty of milk.  She's been in my bathroom recuperating.

Bri sent me this photo of Zeus, as introduction

But Sierra would have nothing to do with Zeus.   

I left them together in the bathroom but put a baby cam on them, to see what would happen.  Sierra attacked Zeus.  I ran in and got him out of there.   

He was an easy keeper at least.   I would only have him for the night since Sierra had rejected him.  I fed him well and put him in a carrier in my exclusion room nestled in with handwarmers.  He was so warm and comfy he slept through the night.  

Sierra did not however and yowled the night \away.  Also I could hear her jumping up and back down from the counter too.  I got almost no sleep.  She's going back as soon as the weather breaks.  It's been so cold, windy and rainy.

When I drug myself out of bed this morning, I fed Zeus again, then later on, after feeding him once again, with a nippled large syringe, played with him on my lap, before Brianna arrived to take him back.

Shortly after that, Brianna picked him up.   I finally went outside to put the cans Brianna had at her place into blue bags, so I can deposit them at Bottle Drop under the nonprofit's account there.   There was activity at the empty neighbor's place.  The realtor who also does property management was showing it to potential renters.   Two or three came by while I was sorting out the cans.   

I should have drug my lawn chair out front to have a better view of the candidates coming and going.  Great entertainment!

I would hope to have a friendly neighbor again but I know that's quite rare to get these days.  What I don't want is neighbors with barking dogs.  I'm in my yard a lot in the summer especially and if there are barking dogs in the yard, life turns miserable.

I've felt very lonely lately, with the neighbors gone and the usual lack of human contact.   I can't even stop by the Lebanon woman's house anymore because she's gone too.   The friends I have left who haven't died or moved are facebook friends, whom I don't actually see in real life.  

I had the company of a tiny new life today for awhile and that was nice.  I decided to take a nap later on, since I was sleep deprived from the night before.   But then I didn't wake up until 3:00 a.m.   Uh oh.  Now I'm really off kilter with sleep.

I'm looking at the weather app, and it says by Monday it should be 70 degrees again.   So I'll take dear bored Sierra back Monday.  The young women are getting her an outside cat house.

Gray Icky Days

 It's been gray and cold with off and on drizzle or outright rain.   

Very depressing.  The cats hate it.   

I think the forecast might be for at least mid or high 60's next week, or even 70,   I can't remember.  I rarely watch the news long enough to see the forecast.  The forecasts change so fast now anyway.

How about a slo mo bird video.....

Life Goes On

 My tooth has to be pulled.   I can't pay for a crown and root canal.  Costs thousands.   But I have insurance that will cover its extraction.   That's life.   Not til June 1.  Meanwhile, I have a temp filling in the hole left when part of the tooth split off.

I'm grateful to have the extraction coverage.   Many people do not and those cost a lot too.

Everything does these days.  

 I put gas in the cat carrier car and it cost over $40 for 8 gallons. That will let me drive to pick up or trap and take cats to clinic for 250 miles.  It's about 30 miles one way to the Salem clinic, for reference.  That's 120 miles in one day if I just went to and from the clinic and not off into the boondocks of our county to first catch them.  

People with trucks and gas guzzling cars or who commute daily must be really having a hard time along with all the other high prices, like with food.  There was news showing people lined up for miles to get food box help down in CA somewhere.

The way it is here now.

I went to the store for food and left with almost nothing, the prices were so astounding.   Eggs are still affordable and bananas, some other things.   I'll just watch better for sales.

It's not like I"m starving.  Lucky I guess.

I got my Lebanon moving friends last stray boy, at her place, fixed yesterday.  She had never petted him before she got him trapped.   He's  a handsome fellow.  

She calls him Hero.  To me, he seems mild natured

I told her how sorry I am that things turned out the way they did with the place they bought.   They're still thinking maybe they could sue them.   I don't know if they will.   The two unfixed cats the former owners left behind are both Siamese, she said.  She's going to try to get their son to take them, then he can get them to them.   They'd probably be way better off with her, however.

She has to be out of her residence by end of tomorrow so will sleep there for the first time tomorrow night, she said.   She said it looks a lot better since the junk haulers got as much stuff as they could out of the house itself.  Not from around it or on the property or in the barn though.   It may take years to haul away all the trash and junk they left.

My knee acted up so badly yesterday, just all of a sudden, I knew it wasn't from my back.  I could barely walk and had to put my knee brace on.  Then last night it kept me awake off and on.  Oh the joys of getting old.

This morning I saw the dentist at the same office that I went to after I had the other filling fall out a couple years ago, while engaged in helping the Quartzville road abandoned cats.   I really appreciate them getting me in so fast once again, despite operating only two and a half days per week.

By early afternoon, they'd already filed a request with insurance for referral to an oral surgeon and had it approved.  By days end I had an appointment with the oral surgeon for June 1.

I don't think I've ever had something happen that fast before and its why I like this office a whole lot. 

The vet clinic informed me Sierra, the mom of those five kittens, is incredibly emaciated.   I couldn't take her back there then, so for now, until she recovers from the constant kitten production and parasites, she will remain in my bathroom.  She's all cuddled up in my cozy bathroom cat shelf, with some really soft blankees.   Something very new for her to experience.  She so deserves it.  

My old rhododendron is spectacular this spring.

Rascal the yard stray I got fixed a few months ago still comes by daily and often wants to play.

If you want to see a good movie, I love this one. Remarkably Bright Creatures.

Beautiful Kittens

 All five kittens from under the apartment building are caught now.

Look how cute they are!!!  Three orange, two black and white.  Only one a girl.  

The two young women caught the last one last night.  It was the only girl.

Four of them are being fostered by a radpets employee.

This morning, I went over early, with the drop trap and set it up.  Mom had been sleeping in the dirt by the shed.   It was freezing, with a harsh wind blowing through between the apartments.   Strange, I thought, since its supposed to be almost 80 today.  

I set up a chair and sat there shivering in the cold wrapped in the sheet I'd use to cover the drop trap, once mom came back out again and was under it eating.

I caught mom at 8:00 a.m.   Thank goodness.

Isn't she beautiful!

Last kitten caught--the girl!

I transferred the mom to a live trap.  I'd already left a message with my dental office.  Then I got a call, just as I was back out to watch the drop trap, hoping to catch one of the two big unfixed boys.   It was Crystal, who has been trapping at her workplace.   She is sick, had not left a trap at her workplace, but someone else had on Friday and now this morning, workers found a cat in the trap.  The poor cat could have been in it all weekend.

I told her I'd go pick up the cat.   I went then to take up the drop trap.  I'd have no spay neuter spots now open tomorrow for either of the boys at this location. I only have three spots tomorrow.  I now would have two adults already, and this evening, my Lebanon friend is bringing me her last unfixed male to take to be fixed.  She wants him done before she moves them all to her new place, be it what it may.

When I got back to the car, my phone had a message, from the dental office.   I have an appointment Wednesday.  I'm happy about that!

I headed out to pick up the workplace kitty.  Several workers were out beside the trap when I stopped to pick it up.  Very pretty scared little tabby.   Whew, I thought, too young to be lactating.  (I hope, haven't checked).   She can go directly after being fixed to Crystal's aunt, who has taken in the rest from the workplace.

I'm going to warm some wet food, with water, for her (or him, haven't checked).

It's not yet 10:00 and I'm done with work for the day!!!  Yay!!

We were forecast to be in low 80's today and tomorrow high 80's, then back to rain.   But  sure was cold out this morning, so I don't know about getting to 80.

The Tooth

 I ended up with a sore tooth after the visit to Costco with former neighbor.  When i bit down on a piece of pizza, at the food court, I felt a ripping sensation.

Afterwards, I couldn't eat solid food.  I can't chew, even on the left side, which is opposite of the bad tooth, without pain.

I did the usual, filled the area where a filling went missing same time with walmart temp filling and switched to liquid (soup and ice cream) diet.

I tried to get ahold of my dental office, but now it seems they only work two days a week.   I wonder why.

Well, at least tomorrow is one of those two days.

Tonight a piece of my tooth seperated and poked out awkwardly to one side.  I had to pull the piece out with my fingers.  It came out with a rip, where it was attached to gum.  Rest of remaining tooth feels solid and not painful, but now there's that gaping hole.  I will fill it up with temp filling too.

Anyway, the young women have only caught four of the five kittens living under their building.  I'm going to try to catch mom early tomorrow morning, to be fixed Tuesday, before the dental office opens, so I can then go in person to request help for my tooth.  

Maybe I'll get lucky and the remaining kitten will be out and about and go under the drop trap with her.

Today the Lebanon lady who has sold her mom's house and bought the property of a "friend" and coworker of hers just outside town invited me to go look at it.   All the trepidation I had that these were junkyard hoarder types trying to sell M the property were confirmed when my friend and her brother and nephew took possession.   

Two rooms are totally destroyed by sellers dog breeding endeavors (large breed) and the leaky roof which destroyed the ceiling in both rooms. The ceiling is missing in one of those rooms and only partially there in another.  The roof is covered in a blue tarp and held in place by car tires thrown up there. That she could not have missed from the outside, the telltale blue tarp and tire roof, that signals big trouble.  And the whole place reeks from dog poop and urine.  One of the rooms is lined in extremely sturdy dog kennels, with 3/4 inch bars, like prison bars.  Those have to be dismantled to be rid of.  

There are truckloads of trash needing hauled off.  She is angry but won't actually tell them that or confront them over the lies they told, since they had not been allowed to see the destroyed rooms, because the couple had put doors across that section and claimed the dogs were in there, when they asked to see. 

 There are open electric boxes and oulets and hanging wires.  Meanwhile the photos they put online when advertising the property are such a joke, its unbelievable.  They show a clean well maintained exterior and interior.   I guess they're good at photo shop.  It's definitely fraud.   But M and her brother have no money for an attorney to sue the fuck out of them, which would be exactly what needs to be done.  She is a gullible person, still defending the woman, not wanting to embarrass "her friend" over the state of the house sold them.  She blamed the religion they're in and the husband, who is a born scammer and controlling of his wife who must submit to him (because of their religion).  It's fucked up, in other words.   The mobile home is worth absolutely nothing.  Zero dollars.  It should be torn down, but that would cost and then what.

Meanwhile she has to be out of her mom's house by Thursday, along with all her cats.   They sold her mom's house, that is far superior, to flippers.  

I'm staying out of it.  I'd warned her not to buy a place without an inspection, or at least seeing the entirity of the inside, and that to me it looked like it would be shit filled, the way they kept the outside, which I told her looked like a junkyard.

She could for now live in a tent if she had to, or even the barn.  The barn is filled with the former owners trash and useless junk too, but is in far better shape.  The former owners also left behind a rooster and unfixed cats.   

Lebanon lady hasn't ever listened to me.   I wish it hadn't happened, that those folks had been truthful with her, that she would have inspected the place thoroughly first. But it did happen and I'm sure she'll make the best of it.  She has no choice.  I hope she eventually gets the place fixed up.  I think most about her cats that she's taking out to that shithole.

This is the piece of tooth I pulled out this evening. It feels better with it gone, but there's that big hole where it had been.

Two Kittens

 I had barely gotten home from taking three cats over to be fixed yesterday when I got a message.

This was from a young woman seeking help for kittens under her apartments, with wild mom, born there as a stray herself a few years back.

She sent me this photo she had taken of the kittens.

I told her I'd be over after I picked up the cats in Corvallis and delivered them back to their people.

I took over a drop trap and kitten traps but the kittens never came out from under the building.  I sat in a chair, a distance from the area, but where I could see to pull the drop trap string if the kittens came out and went under it.   They never did.  Mom cat, a beautiful long hair torti, did come and she was very hungry.  She ate without any concern under the drop trap.  By this time, I had appointments to get her fixed next Tuesday.  Plus two more adults.

Also, a radpets employee offered to foster the kittens once caught.

I took up the drop trap and left them the kitten traps.  I showed them how to set them.

This morning I went over again with the drop trap and both the mom and a big buff male ate under it.

Big buff boy

The mom

It was cold this morning.  I'd forgotten to bring a coat.   I finally left about noon.  The women told me the kittens usually came out when the sun came out.  I hope the sun would make an appearance.

My former neighbor showed up later on, in her driveway, along with the property manager. I walked over to say hello. She asked if I wanted to go to Costco.  Yes, I said.   

The property manager was inspecting her former place, for her to get the deposit returned.  He came out and asked about the pet door insert with dog door out back, if she wanted that and if  she was going to take it.  She said no, and I piped up I'd take it, for my cats for the sliding door between garage cat room and cat yard.   He and I fiddled with it til finally we got it removed.  I took it home and installed it in about two minutes in the back patio from garage cat room to cat yard.  I hope my fat cats like it.  It's bigger than the other cat door.

Then I went to Costco with the neighbor.  We somehow lost each other and I ended up "trying out" a zero gravity lawn chair in the camping section for quite some time.  Man alive, was that ever comfortable!

 My Costco roaming former neighbor was not answering my texts as to where she was.  She finally showed up in the food court and we both got mocha freezes.  We like going to Costco, or used to, just for those.  I know about her and Costco.  What she says will be a quick in and out, will turn into hours.  She loves roaming those isles.  Confession:  I do too.

She took me back home and the kitten women texted she had caught two of the five kittens in the kitten traps.  I went over with a scale, a flea comb, a warming frisbee and advice since they want to foster them til all are caught.   They are just under one lb. and just over one lb.  So about five weeks old.  Perfect taming age.  Already very handlable.

Aren't they darling

Their saviors are off to Petco to get whatever needed to foster them.

I have no doubt they'll get the other three caught.  Mom and the buff adult male, I hope to catch both on Monday to be fixed Tuesday.

So goes the kitten saga.  Nice folks over there.   Have been there before for cats years ago.

Busy Cloudy Days

 Our days here turned cloudy again.   The weekend's weather was cloudy Saturday, with off and on showers, but Sunday was hot!   I mowed the lawn despite the temp reachiing over 80 degrees.

But then we went back to very cloudy cool mornings.  Monday the sun came out late afternoon.  Tuesday, the same, cloudy morning, sun late.  I'm hoping the sun comes out a little today.

Was back to rather cold this morning.

Yesterday I took a big guy from the work trapper's hood, that many people feed and seem to love, to be fixed.  Leo also got tested for FIV/Felk (negative) because one feeder wants to let him in her house if negative once she returns from vacation, that is.

Leo is very sweet

She has caught no more cats at her place at work and thinks she got them all.

The kittens born in the trap, from one of the females she caught at work, are doing well.  They're eyes are opening.

The other five cats caught and fixed from her workplace, are now with her aunt, and will be barn cats there.

I was back at Fat Boy's neighborhood to pick up two cats from a neighbor of the feeder to be fixed.  One is a possibly pregnant Siamese.   The other is a fluffy black and white boy, who free roams and fights around.   Two down.  There are still two, maybe three needing caught to be fixed around there, all boys.

Cumulo, a girl

Bubba, the roaming boy

Then, since I had three spots, one for the work place, in case she caught another there, I figured she wouldn't catch another, gambled she wouldn't really, and picked up an owned male in ne Albany badly needing fixed.

Georgio is over being fixed this morning too, to make three.

Georgio 

My nonprofit also paid for two wild Sweet Home boys to be fixed Monday, but then one of them needed his badly mangled tail amputated.  What would simply have been two neuters turned expensive with the amputation.  Happy the nonprofit had the money to help him out.

Currently attempting to get appointments for a wild female, with kittens, and two more of the boys from Fat Boy's hood.   

All good here, except for gas and food prices are out of this world right now and probably our entire economy is in danger, although that's just a guess from someone in shell shock over prices and can't believe the wild spending going on in Washington, on everything from wars to a fancy ballroom for rich people, paid for by the little people.