400 Cats Later......I'm Home. And Bart is Dead.

I've been travelling with the Neuterscooter. Three clinics in Pendleton produced 299 now fixed cats. Another clinic in Milton Freewater boosted the numbers of cats fixed in four clinics to almost 400 cats. I admit to extreme exhaustion, swollen finger joints, swollen knee, and painful back. I admit to jubilation that I even survived such an undertaking and that I was part of it.

The two clinics in Eugene, I think, fixed 120 or more cats, too. It's unbelievable to think that in six clinics, over 500 Oregon cats have been fixed. I wish the Neuterscooter would just stay in Oregon forever. You know? We'd solve our overpopulation problem. Sure, I am totally exhausted but man alive, can you imagine the suffering the cats in this state have been spared, the good done for the communities involved, in this very short amazing effort?

I met amazing people in Pendleton. A group of people who worked their butts off to round up an unbelievable number of cats. Most of them were not exactly very young. But man were they dedicated and hard working. Just amazing what they did. We did have one kid come help two days in a row. I think he was 12 and he was into it. Seth, you're very cool! He wants to be a vet one day and if he follows his dream, he'll be a good one.

Changing even tiny aspects of life in this world is not easy. It involves work. Lots of hard work. But man, the good that is then accomplished. Hats off to you, Pendleton and Milton Freewater cat people!

I came home to a very clean place. I also was given the news by the cat man who very graciously cared for my cats while I was away, with his family, that he found Bart laying dead on the floor by the computer desk and didn't know what had happened to him.

Well, the file cabinet beside the desk is severely crunched and he could have fallen from the top shelf while being chased by one of the bullies here and his head or body hit that metal cabinet and he died. But I don't know what happened and I am overcome with guilt for leaving.

Bart was a good boy, a nice cat, abandoned with others only a block from here. He stayed because he had nowhere and no one. I had hoped to find him someone and somewhere. But that won't happen now for him.

Hopi is near death also, having lost considerable weight from a body that could not withstand more weight loss, while I was gone. I was gone for just five days. One of my own is dead and another near death.

I surmise the cats were under considerable stress when I was gone and that the bully crowd--Panda and Dex, with followers Cattyhop and Comet, were the ringleaders. If I knew who exactly has caused Hopi so much suffering, I would have them euthanized or send them off to a barn home immediately. Cats who kill other cats or torment them intolerably when they can get away with it are no better than humans who do the same.

It is unacceptable behavior in my house. I do not tolerate bully behavior here, but it is hard to stop it when gone. I had taken to seperating the bullys into one room together when gone, a tactic which proved very effective. If they bully, they have to bully one another, which causes rifts in the gang and stops the behavior. But I was gone five days and didn't seperate them out when gone. I should have.

I surmise Bart's death may have been bullying related and am quite sure Hopi's stress is related to bullying that went on when there was no one here to stop it.

I must address the issues here. The cat yard has never become a reality. The cats are unhappy with the inside confinement when they are used to going in and out. I have no windows I can open because I have no secure screens. I just must get things going here for the cats.

The cat run to the garage room has become another problem because of bully cats guarding the narrow run for sport, and using access through it as opportunity to bully. The yard itself is a mud bog. I have to figure something out quickly.


I need to rest up, too. I will do that. Rest up. More later. I'm back.

But I am tormented by the death of Bart and the extreme downhill slide Hopi took while I was away for such a short time.

I wish I could have made this house into a cat house. I need to take those pathetically weak cat runs along the walls and replace them with solid wood attached firmly. My brother, for some reason, did not want solid shelving attached to the walls, but forget that. I don't care. When I move out of here, I'll repair any stress to the walls from solid wood cat runs. The balsa wood hollow shelves he made and thought would hold are too flimsy for a cats weight and are falling off one by one.

The floor too is a problem being particle board. I took out the carpet within a month of moving in here. The carpet was very old shag and caused me immediate respiratory problems and the cats immediately began marking it.

I painted the floor, have actually done so several times now, but I cannot seal the particle board. I mop every day. I have to and no amount of floor and deck paint will adequately seal particle board to daily mopping. I don't even know what to do about it.

In spots, large chunks have turned to sawdust and caved away and although I fill these in with caulking and faithfully paint over the spots again, more chunk out. I caulk and paint over spots weekly now. But this floor is no match for the moisture of daily mopping.

I have to do something. I didn't want to constantly be doing projects. I don't have adequate yard tools either, to keep up this yard. I don't like yardwork. I don't like maintaining grass spots, like out front. If a grass spot is useful, like for the cat yard, then I'll gladly plant and maintain it.

I don't like maintaining ornamental bushes and flowers for looks. I just don't. I never have. I'm not a gardener. I like vegetable gardens but I'm not someone who likes to do a bunch of pretty type bush and flower gardening. I don't see much point to it. I'm not putting down those who like this sort of thing. I just don't like it. People like different things.

Well anyhow. I can't sleep because I'm so upset over Bart and over Hopi. I feel guilty. I've got to fix things here, make things better for the cats and for me.