Photos of Cats Fixed Friday and Today

Today, four cats are up being fixed. Two come from a duplex in Corvallis. These folks are moving. The woman has been accepted into medical school. They have found a home for the blue male, but not for the gray tabby female, who is the blue male's mother, from her first litter. Her second litter, six girls now six weeks of age, are also in the duplex and they plan to take them to Heartland.

I am worried about this adult female. She is a delightful loving very intelligent kitty, but got extremely anxious in the carrier. I had picked them up last night. So I let her and the male out in my bathroom for the night. She needed reassurance. I hope she doesn't end up at Heartland. She would be too nervous and worried in a cage and so I fear, due to this being kitten season, with all shelters overloaded, that she would be one they would euthanize for space. To think of that being done to her, of her life being taken, is an abomination.

The second female is also lactating, although that woman, on Peoria road, had already given away all her kittens. I located her also by calling free kitten ads. She is a very beautiful long hair calico.

The fourth cat is the swirl tabby I trapped last night at Millersburg Country.

Those are nice folks out there. I talked to the colony caretaker, the daughter of the older couple who live in the house proper, while waiting for any of the unfixed cats to slide under the drop trap to eat. Hordes of fixed cats appeared, would eat, then disappear, including the two silver tabby females, spayed last summer, whom I call "The Glutton Girls" because whenever my car rolls into that driveway, they are there, wanting more food. Yes, they are chubby. If I leave a car door open, I have to sometimes chase a dozen cats out of it. They enter, without permission, and pillage.

Just like at the BS. Last time I was there, I thought I had gotten everyone out of my car, when I drove to the back barn, to trap. But, suddenly, as I'm driving, a cat charges from the back, over my shoulder, onto the dash and startled me. It was one of the white calico's. There are many of them, with white bodies, orange or calico striping on their tails, and either orange or calico markings on their faces. I stopped the car and opened the door and she shot out. The cats like my car and if I'm at the BS and forget to close all the windows completely, my car will be full of curious cats, checking everything out.

Anyhow, at Millersburg Country last night, I was asking J how she felt. The last time I was there, when my battery died and my car wouldn't start, she had her grandkids there. The little girl attached to me immediately, proclaiming she was going to help. I usually like the company of little kids. They ask me all sorts of questions and often are a big help. I asked where their grandma was and she said "sick". J finally came out, looking for the little girl, and told me she was extremely ill. It was sudden onset violent vomiting and diarrhea. I had asked "Did you eat some of those bad tomatos?" I meant the tomatos giving people salmonella.

She couldn't remember what she'd eaten. She doesn't eat out and takes a sack lunch to work. She was white as a sheet and would also get so dizzy she'd have to sit down or she would fall down. And to be babysitting three little kids, when so ill, boy that's hard. She told me last night she did call their father and ask he come get them, which he did. Her daughter was at work.

It had to be food poisoning, but she was better last night. She said her stomach still hurt and felt like it was twisting and irritated.

She works a minimum wage job and has worked the same job for a couple of decades. She said it's kind of lonely now, because all the rest of the employees are Mexicans who do not speak English so she can't communicate with them and so they seperate themselves from her. She said it didn't used to be that way, but she figures since it's minimum wage and anybody who works there knows it, that there are no benefits and no raises and never will be, that only the Mexicans will work there because nobody else could really support themselves on such wages.

She makes it because she doesn't pay any rent, just utilities and doctor bills. She has a lot of those because she has some chronic conditions, so pretty much all her money goes to utilities, gas and car insurance and doctor bills. She says she's lucky to not have rent to add to the bills. She with her mother create a huge garden they work all summer. Then they can vegetables for the winter and this helps them survive. They know how to do all sorts of things and I try to pick their brains, when I'm there trapping, for tips and how to's on everything from gardening to mending things.

I asked her what her favorite thing to do for herself is and she said "go to garage sales". They do love that and look forward to it. The whole extended family goes every Saturday. Their yard is full of knick knacks and unique treasures they have found at garage sales. They have a gazebo with a roof made from a discarded satelite dish decoratively painted. It's very creative. They make bird houses out of dried squash, too.

They have many things in common with the old couple at the BS. That old couple, at least the woman of the couple, have a huge garden and she cans a lot of produce for the winter. She also stores potatos in a shed, but it doesn't stay cool in there, so they don't store as well as they would in a proper root cellar. I also get gardening tips from her. It is a normal activity for many people who have lived for decades even generations in the same house, to have a big garden and to can vegetables for the winter. They feel sorry for people who have to live crowded in towns without the space for gardens. The older couples especially feel sorry for their peers who have had to move into small apartments in town, away from the land and some peace, privacy and quiet, that living out a ways, provides.

J says she has not been to a movie since her kids were little, which would mean twenty or more years ago. They buy movies at garage sales, often for as little as 50 cents, to watch. They also warned me about ever going to a movie in Albany and parking my car at the movie theater. J said an officer warned her that lot was the hardest hit by vandals and theives in town.

I asked her if she ever hoped to do anything in particular before she died. She thought a few minutes, then shook her head "no", that she couldn't think of anything more she'd hope to do. They are quite content, I think. Almost every night, a dozen or more of their extended family gather for an informal dinner. Another of J's sisters lives just up the road and a brother and his family live less than a mile away.

For some reason, it is relieving to be there. These folks have no expectations of others, that they conform to anything, change the world, become "somebody", be successful or do anything more than live the best a person can. They acknowledge mistakes, their own, those of others and laugh about which relative got drunk and did something that landed them in jail but hope for the best for them, in the end.

I've learned a lot, or have tried to, just from sitting there listening to their tales, while I watch a trap.One of the Glutton Girls, two silver tabbies, trapped and spayed last summer, who love their chow.
Drop trapping last night. Photo taken through patio door. All these cats are fixed. It can be tough to spot the cats without eartips, in the approaching darkness, from a distance, when many look the same. I was after two swirl tabbies, one very skinny, the other not as skinny, whom I thought I'd seen without eartips. These latest twenty or so cats I've trapped there, all used to live at the dairy, which was most recently a goat farm. When the two women goat farmers left, they left behind at least 22 unfixed cats, who migrated to the all fixed Millersburg Country colony.
White male, owned, from downtown Albany, fixed last Friday.
Female, fixed last Friday, from downtown Albany. She had several kittens. The owner found homes for two or three and may keep the other two.
The swirl tabby from Millersburg Country, being fixed today.
Medium hair calico, from Peoria Road, being spayed today.
Female, from Corvallis, who needs a home, but is being spayed today. She has six gorgeous female kittens, six weeks old.
Corvallis male, and actually the son of above female, from her first litter, up being neutered today.
Friday, three owned Albany cats were fixed, two females and one male. I have photos of only one female and the male, from a downtown Albany apartment.
One of the goat farm abandonees, fixed in the last few weeks, waiting for a turn to eat beneath the drop trap last night, while I waited for any of the three unfixed cats we've spotted out there, to show up.