Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Stupid

I am gullible and stupid sometimes. I realize I paid out of my own pocket over $500 to take cats to the various Neuterscooter clinics. I could have taken these cats elsewhere and gotten the fixes paid for through Poppa. I don't know why I did this, got caught up in the frenzy of cat fixing, I suppose, and working the clinics. Five of the kittens who came to clinics were kittens I adopted out unfixed, to ease the crowding situation here, but with stipulation I'd get them fixed later.

I got an adoption donation for two of the five, and did put that back into the fixing, which occurred for all the kittens left out there, I'd adopted in a panic this summer, unfixed.

I generally do not adopt out kittens unfixed. With feral kittens, however, since I am just one person, and often have no time to socialize feral kittens adequately, I will adopt them out unfixed to families who will handle them. It works better for the kittens that way. They get handled and homes, where otherwise, they'd just remain feral. And I collect them back, as agreed upon, to get them fixed, when they are old enough. That happened for Willy, Simba, two BS colony kittens and for Scruffy. So that was just something I had to get done, and swallow it.

I briefly had one volunteer who fostered two kittens, who got homes, then she decided that wasn't for her.

It's back to just me again. And it ain't easy to even get enough sleep to keep on track. Because if I'd had time to think, I would not have taken any cats into the Neuterscooter that I paid for out of my own pocket. It was stupid. It was the result of getting caught up in the excitement of their visit and having too little sleep and too little time, while also trapping cats for fixing, and caring for all these rescued cats and trying to find them homes.

I forgive myself these errors, although costly. If nobody else understands the tremendous pressure and workload I am under, I certainly do understand it. So it's easier to forgive myself knowing.

I was going to try to get a few small Christmas gifts for some people, but I've had to rethink that. I love giving people small gifts at Christmas. Oh well, it's the way it is.

What I need to get done, is my cat yard. The cats are too confined. The space is too small. And most are used to being outside. So they're not happy about the confinement here, at the new place. My brother doesn't want me to concoct my usual makeshift cat yards, as I've done at all my other rentals. But for gosh sakes, I don't think it's going to get done any other way. So when the weather is decent enough, I'll try to rig something.

Here's the other big issue. That windstorm broke off a large branch of the Maple tree in the future cat yard. But it didn't fall. It's hung up, up there. I can't get to it, because it's too high. But it will fall. And I don't want it to fall on me or on a cat containment yard, tearing it apart. It's a big enough branch that if it fell and hit my fence, it would go right through it, too. So there's not much sense building anything out there, until I figure out how to get that down. The branch it broke off of has to come down, too, because it's split halfway, by the other branch breaking off it.

I tried lassooing the end and yanking on it, but it's hung up way high and wouldn't budge with me pulling on that rope I got around the lower end. It's very windy again today. Maybe it'll fall.

Last night, I went over to the stables to get cats a woman dumped off there. 8 of them. The stable lady adopted out unfixed kittens to somebody who didn't get them fixed, and they bred, and now she's dumped 8 of the offspring back on the stable lady.

While there, without warning, several dogs came around a corner and a chubby stocky mix breed latched his teeth around my kneecap. Didn't break skin, but I have bruises today and it was painful, mainly because he got his jaws and teeth around my kneecap. This was a pack mentality bite incident. He backed off instantly.

Then I got told about cats living under a vacant rental house one block from where I live. I trapped two, but they might have to go back after being fixed, since I have no place for them. They're being fixed today.

This is one of the two I caught at the vacant rental house a block from where I live. This adult female, the mother of the male teen below, didn't make it. The vet office just called. They said the vet found evidence of metastisized bladdar cancer, when he opened her for spay and recommended euthanasia. Makes me sad.
This is the tabby tux male teen, being fixed today, from the empty rental a block away.
Stable cats to be, this one, and photo below, being fixed today.

2 comments:

  1. i can imagine getting caught up in the fixin frenzy. take care of yourself this week.
    do you think if you called the city about the branch they would come out and take care of it? some places they will and some i'm sure they won't.
    we got our december "storm" last night. it's already gone :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The city will do it for what they call "street trees" or "public trees" but not for trees on private property.

    ReplyDelete

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