The Last Days

The last days have been a haze. Sorry, I'm not referring to the end of the world. Not yet anyhow. Haven't posted for awhile. Aces has been adopted. So has Solomon. Blooy, from the mill's boiler room, got a home. Scooter, Thor and Zelda went to a barn home. Breezy, from NW Corvallis, Thor's sister, went to a home in WA state. Little Miss Sunshine and Gypsy, from the mill, are leaving tomorrow. Mickey, the one eyed boy from Hate Thy Neighbor colony, is leaving for his new home in Canada on Saturday. Feels empty around here.

The barn home people had said they had two big feral males out there and I didn't want her releasing the boys, Thor and Scooter, with big unneutered nasty fighting males in the area. So I went over when I delivered the boys, with a couple traps. I ended up trapping and netting six cats with three still to catch. She had a lot of unfixed cats. Five were fixed today.

One had a bizarre ailment that had begun suddenly. His head would twist to the side, as would he when he would walk. It was extremely strange. I saw no difference in pupil size. He was eating and otherwise acting normal. I wonder if he got kicked by a horse, or had a stroke or a spinal cord injury or tumor or ear infection or leukemia or what, you know, because that was freaky.

I tried netting him in the feed room and missed. He ran and went around by the bales. It was dark and I was tired. He tried to run by me, beneath a wheelbarrow and I made a dive for him with my net and got him. Then I got him into a carrier. The barn lady was taking him to a vet today. I haven't heard the diagnosis. I nicknamed him immediately "Leanie" but there was something seriously wrong there. I hope it wasn't rabies or something. I don't think rabies makes a cat act that way. He behaved perfectly normally except he was all crooked to the side, but he didn't act like he was in pain, is the thing.

So I took the five with me to be fixed and did also pick up yet another male from the Albany 4th and Main district. Some people moved in with somebody for whom I got a lot of cats fixed and brought with them, from Texas, three more unfixed cats. We have enough unfixed cats in Oregon. We don't need more brought in from Texas, if you ask me.

In the meantime, I've been trying to catch an elusive cat in the same old area where I've trapped several times, down by highway 34 and several off ramps. The cats use the storm drain pipes like personal freeways to travel under highways and off ramps, even parts of fields. So it's a huge area, but I've gotten several calls about the one cat and also about a couple other cats seen there again. So far, I've caught one, a light torti mix, but there may be up to two more. Huge area. Hard to park anywhere close, and it's dangerous, crossing highways and on and off ramps. But that has kept me up nights, going to check traps, sleeping in bits and pieces here and there.

Transporting cats to homes takes time, too. I'm pooped out. Yup.

I miss Old Sal really badly. Scooter is really excited about his new place to live, but, instead of adopting out his brother Solomon, I should have sent Solomon with him. Makes me want to cry, sometimes, when I'm tired, to think of the mistakes I make sometimes. I could have sent Brambles to the home Solomon went to and Solomon, who loved his brother, could have been with him permanently. I might still make that pitch to Solomon's adoptor. He's be happier, I think. It's hard to play god with lives, to make the right home choices for these souls. I don't like it. It's hard and keeps me awake nights seeing their faces and worrying over decisions about where they would be happy. It's a big responsibility.

My stomach has been hurting again. Acid reflux crippled me yesterday. I don't eat much anymore, haven't had time to get to a store. The whole shopping thing has been messed up since the move. I haven't gotten into synch here with it. I shop for food in either Corvallis at Winco or Salem at Winco. I don't shop for food in Albany, because it's too expensive. Shop n Kart is vastly more expensive than Winco. The Grocery Outlet has very limited choices and on most items is at least twice as expensive as Winco. It was so convenient when I lived in Corvallis. Now it isn't. Takes planning to have food now. So I need to plan.