Six More Cats Fixed Today. Five in Car for Tomorrow

Well, I'm doing a whole lot of cat catching, that's for sure. Been working myself to the bone, actually. I just got back, in fact, from trapping at 10:38 p.m. and this was going to be the evening I caught up on much needed rest.

Today's fixing included: 4 from Red Linda, bringing the total fixed there to 21. Included in the 21 count is the orange and white male the colony caretaker took in today and paid for herself. Todays Red Linda cats: 1 DSH black male; 1 DSH brown tabby tux young skinny female, in heat; 1 gray tabby tux huge male and the black female whose tongue hangs out.

She acts tame to me, although the caretaker says she's not. She was pregnant, too, besides having totally rotted teeth, the ones she had left, that is. I asked the vet to pull the remaining teeth and she will be on antibiotics for ten days. She is going to feel a whole lot better, minus the pregnancy, minus the roundworms, and minus a dozen rotten teeth.

Her extractions came as a result of a donation put onto my gift card account at the vet clinic by a Sublimity woman, formerly of Albany. The gift card account is there to help pay for things just like this. What a wonderful gift, to give a pain free existence to this old gal. She isn't that old either, but being a kitten factory takes its toll quickly on a female cat. I've named her Esmerelda.

My bathroom is full of cats that I have not had the time to return. The orange tabby female and the torti teen, spayed Saturday---still in my bathroom. The black and white long hair female teen, from Millersburg Country, spayed last week--in my bathroom. A muted calico kitten, probably Whisper Willow's sister, caught at Spicer Red, spayed today---in my bathroom. The brown tabby tux Red Linda cat spayed today, joined the others from her colony in my bathroom. It's hard to get to the toilet let alone the shower! But, thankfully, tomorrow I have time to return them all.

I still have the gray long hair female, spayed Saturday, only to be told she was already spayed, in a rabbit hutch in the spare bedroom. The dilemma is this: the caretaker swears she isn't spayed and had a litter last fall and that she never got her fixed in the meantime. So what to do?

I'm in a quandry over it.

There are three cats left to catch at Red Linda--an orange tabby, another brown tabby tux, and a known adult female, a black long hair, who is high pri on my list.

So, besides the four Red Linda cats fixed today, two more Spicer Red cats were also fixed---a calico and a muted calico kitten. That makes five fixed so far from there, although Whisper Willow went to a Eugene rescue after she was spayed. There are at least two more to catch, not including the orange and white caught tonight, who will be neutered tomorrow. The two we know of left to catch are both calicos.

The tame calico may be the same one seen occasionally at Red Linda. She was abandoned, along with a male, fixed today, a quarter mile closer to Spicer Red. Across the fields however, the colonies are not far apart. It will be easier to catch her at Spicer Red than at Red Linda, that's for sure.

Between the two colonies, that I know of---five cats left to catch.

And then I found a new colony. I call it Tattoo Prairie. I had seen cats all around this house for some time. I finally stopped and knocked on the door. A man, naked from the waist up, covered in tattoos opened the door. I said "Do you need some help fixing cats?" I knew the answer he would give. I've heard it before, over and over. "Oh gawd yes. Where have you been?" The person was immediately relieved, too. He has no money. Same old. But there are lots of cats. He said it began when a pregnant female was dumped off there. I saw he had a broken open bag of cat food out for all the cats, on the porch.

I took the tame black female and the tame black male, then set two traps and caught a long hair wild black male and a short brown tabby of unknown sex. Four is a start. There are probably 18 or more cats there.

So tonight was supposed to be my "rest up" night and here it is 11:30 and I'm just getting to bed. The Neuterscooter clinics start Thursday in Eugene and I will be working them. Those are extremely long days on my feet. But I wouldn't miss them for the world.

I love that couple from Indiana and their kids. We mesh. I like travelling with them. I like just putting my head down and working my butt off for 12 or 14 hours or whatever, disregarding the throbbing pain that begins, usually mid afternoon, in my back and knee. I don't mind bearing the pain, to be associated with such an endeavor. I can recover and I wouldn't miss it, I tell you. I don't get human contact much and I love joking around with that couple, after the clinic, when the stress is gone.