Cat Eyes---A Cat Woman's Photos: Six Cats Being Fixed Today

Six cats are up being fixed today. One is an owned male from Peoria. Her other male was fixed a few months ago. Today her second cat reached four months and she took it up to be fixed. She paid most of the neuter costs. Another gorgeous orange and white teen male is semi-feral and hails from a backyard off Spicer Drive. I trapped his calico mom a few months back. She had two kittens. One has since died. The little male survived and I trapped him quickly yesterday.

The other four cats are from the Hate Thy Neighbor messy colony. I believe at least three of them are females. This brings the total fixed there to 22. One has also been euthanized. Three kittens are in foster in Oakridge. Two kittens have died. Three kittens are here, two of whom may not live due to severe pneumonia.

One of the four cats I took in for fixing today from Hate Thy Neighbor has severe conjunctivitis consistent with the herpes virus, ravaging the colony. Had the cats been vaccinated, they would have had protection against herpes. A simple inexpensive three-way vaccine, that, if one cannot afford a vet, can be purchased at any feed store and administered sub cu, includes such protection.

I talked to the vet about the orange and white long hair there, whose eye exploded after herpes dried out the cornea, allowing an ulcer to develop on the cornea, which allowed a bacterial infection access to the eyeball. The eyeball is a nice warm enclosed fluid sphere. But, it's an enclosed space, you see. Growing bacteria have no room for their multiplication, so the eye will explode.

I can't stand to see that cat suffer anymore. Today, I will try to net the poor cat. If he's savable, the vet will remove his eye for a reduced rate, in respect for the cat and for me and what I do. The cats' suffering, in this colony, due to a common virus, is needless.

I also revisited the BS yesterday, intent on catching any remaining unfixed cats. I have a trap tied open in the back barn. I am making friends with the dozen or so true ferals of the colony, by feeding them good food with tuna mixed in, whenever I am in the neighborhood, inside that tied open trap. I sit back and watch with binoculars then, to identify any cat without an eartip or any I do not recognize as fixed. So far, I've seen no unfixed cats in the back barn. I've sure ran into a lot of familiar faces, however, cats I got fixed months ago, and hadn't seen much of since.

I did catch Aces' sister yesterday. She's that white kitten I could never grab out of the berry vines when I nabbed Aces. She's smaller than he is, and already handleable. I took her over to the BSS overflow. That's right, the third house involved in this colony. I call it BSS overflow.

My friend and I took four kittens they'd nabbed out of an old boat, to the Neuterscooter Corvallis clinic to be fixed. They agreed to hang on to Aces' sister until she is old enough to be spayed. Rather, not old enough, but of two pound weight. And then, I will also need to make another trip up to Tigard, to get her fixed. The Hate Thy Neighbor colony man also trapped a three pound tux kitten, not weight grade for fixing at my vet, who requires they be four pounds. So that kitten too will need to take a trip north for fixing.

I haven't gotten a dime in donations from any of those BS or BSS overflow folks nor from the Hate Thy Neighbor colony man.

The fact so many people will go off bowling and do activities that cost money, making no sacrifices themselves to fix a problem they created, is just extremely indicative of indemic lack of values here in Linn County. Maybe it's the same everywhere. I don't know.

It's quite bizarre in many ways. Most of these folks want a cat problem they created solved, but will not participate in the slightest way to help. The Hate Thy Neighbor man is trapping the cats. I pick them up, or help reset traps if they're not set in a manner that will catch a cat, set things up, transport them to and from the clinic. So he is helping some. He's not donating anything. maybe he can't, I don't know.

I was stressed this evening over it all. One of the cats turned out, up to be fixed today, was previously spayed. This wastes Poppa money and my time. I have asked that he post trapping notices with neighbors but he hasn't. I called the woman who originally wanted me to help him tonight, after getting back, after netting the sick male, whose eye will be removed tomorrow, at my expense. I was angry not one neighbor has stepped forward to make even a small donation, not even her. Another of his cats, fixed today, has severe conjunctivitis also, and will lose his eye if not treated, so he's set up here now too, creating even more work for me. I don't get to bed until after midnight ever.

I wanted this neighbor to at least post trapping notices. She wouldn't and wanted me to call some friend of hers to do it. I told her "No". I mean, come on. She wants me, a stranger, to call some friend of hers, to ask that person to post trapping notices on her street? I mean, come on. That's way out there.

I told her the neighborhood should hold a fundraiser to help raise funds to reimburse my expenses. I said since one neighbor once took four in to an FCCO clinic, the neighborhood knew the manner in which they could solve the area cat problem themselves. Instead, they asked an outsider, an overwhelmed volunteer to come in and do all the work and bear the expense. The person who asked me is friends with the BS colony caretaker and knows how much time, money and energy I've spent in trying to solve that one, too, this summer. I mean, come on people of Linn County, what the hell is going on here?

I just wasn't in a good mood tonight. This street he lives on, the neighbors, could have banded together and taken care of getting the cats fixed. The cats are a hodgepodge in origin. Many come from neighbors who never fixed their pets and now barely notice their former cats and offspring of their former cats. Bunch of sickos if you ask me. At least as far as their respect for responsibility and life, that is. Linn County at its finest.

I meet tons of people just like these people. I've come to think these are normal people, and that the majority of people must be like them, because these are the types I encounter. Not a very good representation, maybe. But maybe they are. I'm not at all sure anymore.

But I am still amazed everyday at how selfish and leechy people can be and that they also somehow justify this behavior in their minds. Many of these people are Christians, who claim they have values. These are the people who astound me the most. Their contradictory lives also create great amusement for me, late at night, when totally exhausted, when all I can do is sit on the couch giggling to think of it.

I read the letters to the editor sometimes, in the local right wing rag, and they're right winger letters, full of pompous Christian value statements. The left wingers letters are the same--pompous in their righteousness. Then I think of all the suffering right under our noses here in Linn and Benton counties. The suffering animals. The homeless families and kids, the ruin, the disregard, the crime and domestic violence. Makes me laugh sometimes.

Forget Iraq, you peacemongers. There's plenty of violence here. Roll up your sleeves and dig in. Solve something local. As for the sit on your butt Christian preachees, shut your mouths and dig in. Get involved. Ease some suffering or shut the fuck up.