Five Cats Fixed Today. The Sixth Was Already Spayed.

I took up the five whitey's from Homeless Richard's cats today. Three of them were females, two were males. One of the females was in heat.

The sixth cat I took in was from a woman who had fed this cat not far off Old Salem in Albany for awhile, then they took the cat with them when they moved. They live in a camp trailer. The orange female stray was already spayed. In a way, that is heartening. She was abandoned by someone, but at least she was spayed. And at least someone kind looked after her, feeding her, and now sort of claiming her as their own. That's very sweet and inspiring. They don't have much money at all.

Tomorrow, I will take up the long hair brown tabby and the short hair brown tabby tux, from Homeless Richards. And I'll take up the tame black and white male, too. And I'll take in the three adults from the Slophouse colony.

After I take the six cats up, I will return to the homeless camp to try to trap anybody still out there, before I return the whiteys tomorrow evening.

I was contacted by a group of very nice old women, who live in a senior only complex in Albany. They have been feeding a delightful beautiful torbi tux female, and her four kittens for a couple of months and can't find anyone to take them. The management says they must go.

So I told them I couldn't take them in, being overloaded, but maybe I could get them fixed. I picked up the kittens this evening. They are a very cute brown tabby male and brown tabby tux female, about three months old. Unfortunately, when I showed them to my vet, he would not do them, since he will only do cats that are four months old.

When I met the old woman tonight, she looked familiar. Turns out, she is Dr. Anderson's wife's mother. Dr. Anderson is the former owner of Countryside Vet. He and his wife, this woman's daughter and also a vet, have moved to Tennessee.

I trapped cats for this old woman when she lived above Countryside, in a trailer. She knew it was me she was talking to on the phone. I didn't know it was her. She said to her friend "and when she waiting on traps, she even cleaned out my freezer." Yup, I did that. It was overstuffed and heavily frosted and I had time on my hands.

So, I called KATA, who originally was going to take the two kittens and the mother, and asked if they could do that. V didn't think they could, since they are overloaded in cats, but said she'd try to find somebody willing.

At least, in talking to V, I can vent some, because she understands. I told her about the problems I face taking care of all these cats. I told her, "you know, I've never had even one bag of decent cat food donated by someone in Linn County." I told her how I hate going to Costco to buy cat food, because, invariably, someone, when I'm in line, starts in on the fact I'm buying a couple bags of cat food, like I have lots of cats, that it's my fault for having too many cats, etc.

V said they had the same problem. Once, when some nosy shopper in the checkout line made some nasty reference to how much cat food they were buying, her cohort, D, said "We rescue, fix and adopt out Linn County cats. What the hell do you do?"

Now, to avoid these issues, they have cat food delivered, in large amounts, occasionally, so they don't have to go through the nosy berating shopper checkout line harrassment.

I told her how wrong this is, that we work so hard as volunteers, and help so many scores of people. For SafeHaven and Heartland, people and businesses do food drives for them. Us, don't get that. In fact, we get the opposite type of treatment. This can be hard to take. One must be extremely dedicated to face such things day in and day out. But the abuse takes its toll.

In the meantime, I called Tigard Animal Hospital to see how soon I could get them fixed there. Thursday, they said. So Thursday it will be. I will also take up Matilda, the black and white Slophouse colony kitten and maybe the kittens mother, too, if I catch her. I have reservations for four there.

Friday, I will take in the tame Homeless Richards female and a female from Peoria road that was dumped there pregnant and promptly had seven kittens, who can for now wait. And I'll take in anybody else I catch tomorrow at Homeless Richards. If I don't catch anybody else there, I'll catch a couple more at the Slophouse for fixing.

Matilda, after her spay, is going into foster with a neighbor of the Slophouse colony. Jack and Jill, the two Queen street kittens fed by a really nice bunch of old ladies, will go to some relative of one of the women, if KATA can't take them in. The nine Homeless Richard cats now in my garage room, will return, once fixed, and so will the three Slophouse adults.

Right now, I'm insanely busy, caring for all these cats, prior to their spay dates. Nine in the garage room. Four in my spare bedroom. Two in my bathroom. And then all the rest of the crew. It's not easy, I'll just say. It's stressful. An entire job in itself. I worm everybody. Deflea everybody. Vaccinate who I can afford to vaccinate before returning them.

I ain't rich and all these things cost money. I got nobody backing down my driveway unloading a nice van load of high quality cat food, cat litter and boxes of vaccines and wormer. Nope, haven't seen that. I'd like to see that though. Maybe the van driver would be extra jolly and wearing a santa hat! I'd be ho ho ho'ing and popping the champaigne bottle for sure!

But, the good thing about this week, despite my exhaustion and stress is-----a whole lot of fixing is going on.