Phone Ringer Off

This morning, I went over to do my final cat sitting chores after taking cats up to the clinic to be fixed, five in all. I was sick and I knew it, felt like throwing up. It's hard to take care of tiny kittens I must bottle feed. But really hard, if they are sick. It's a never ending job, long hours. I have 10 sick kittens here. I do regret taking most of them in. I'm overextended physically and financially.

So I was just finishing there and got dizzy, stomach hurt, wanted to vomit, felt like collapsing. So I did, but not til I got home and into bed. I slept all day and I needed it. Still tired but feel much better. All day with the phone turned off and tonight, the phone will remain switched off. I love it.

Besides the 10 sick kittens, I still have Ringworm from the freaks out off highway 20, where I've trapped over a hundred cats for fixing. I don't say "freaks" lightly. Having a hundred cats---there is nothing normal about that. They had multiple ops to get them fixed, through another nonprofit, who worked with them briefly before getting fed up and they also knew about the FCCO, but were too lazy to actually make reservations and trap their cats, although most are fairly tame, and get them in. So the work "freak" fits to a T.

I've had him housed in the garage, treating him for both ringworm and longstanding pneumonia. He is improving by leaps and bounds. But it still means medicating him twice daily, feeding him, cleaning his litterbox, giving him attention, and steaming him thrice daily. Lots of work.

And I have my own cats who need and deserve attention, play and love. Litterboxes, laundry, feeding, washing dishes, mopping floors, it's too much work for one person.

Then there are the phone calls and e-mails from people wanting something, like for me to take their kittens or cats, or get their cats fixed, etc. I don't get friendly "how are you, want to do something" callers. I don't know anybody that doesn't want something from me. So I turned off the phone ringers, which is why I got the cheap phone, because you do that on those cheap phones--turn off the damn ringer.

The five cats fixed today, were three females and two males. One female is a Siamese from Elm street. One female is a stray taken in by a seed warehouse in town here. The third female comes from Front Street, a household with way too many cats, almost all now fixed. The two males, one comes from the old couple and the other comes from the neighbor of the house where I was taking care of a woman's cats while she was gone. Now she's back and I'm very happy about that, because that adds back on three hours of each day.