Days of Our Lives--The Soap Operic World of Cat Roundup

Yesterday, my back began to hurt. I believe it's muscular, not nerve pain, which in a way, is a big fat relief. But it's just an added burden when trying to do all the work here.

Stress got added to the load this morning. I'd been negotiating a spay with a Corvallis woman. I don't really pick up cats much in Corvallis now, due to the gas prices, time involved in the commute, and limited funding. But, if a person will make a copay, then I'll go over. This person promised to have $20 to go with the cat this morning. I was there at 7:00 a.m. sharp and they had the cat ready. When I asked where the donation was, she said she'd forgotten to go to the bank yesterday.

I was shocked. I never see it coming. Being "had" that is. I never believe people will really do that. I said, "Well, can you have it for me tonight." She said she couldn't have it tonight either, big change in story from, let's see, just yesterday. She said that she would send it to Poppa.

I left with the cat because I was late to pick up others, but it began eating at me. By the time I got to the vet clinic, I knew I couldn't get the cat fixed. Mentally, I couldn't take it, being used again.

The tech there agreed, when I asked her for advice and handed me the phone. I called her and left a message, that because she had promised a copay, I had come all the way to Corvallis very early, to accomodate her schedule and then she had no copay for me to give the clinic, her cat would not be spayed. I asked her to make arrangements to pick up her cat. She works during the day.

Then, the situation where I picked up one male, in Albany, is nuts! She had told me last night there was a collector with a zillion cats a few houses from her and that she had four kittens from this collector in a cage at her place.

I said, "Well, give her my number and I'll get her cats fixed." She claimed the police had been there multiple times over all the cats there, and the junk and dogs caked in feces and that they had told her to get rid of all the cats but never done anything. She said there were like twenty or more cats, all sick. Well, I told her there wasn't anything I could do about it unless the woman wanted me to help get her cats fixed.

This morning I pick up that male and see four kittens with gunked closed eyes in a tiny cage, no litterbox or food, on the lawn outside her door. I get her male into a carrier then say, "Those kittens need food, antibiotics and a litterbox and get them off the ground." She said she would do those things. I didn't know what really was going on. She said she didn't know who the mother of the kittens is.

So when I get home a few minutes ago I get a call from someone I don't know, who tells me she had someone knock on her door for twenty minutes, a little girl she claims it was, who claimed she works for me and wanted to take off with all her cats. Now I'm totally confused. I have no idea who this woman is, who is calling me and I told her, "I have no idea who you are."

So she tells me where she lives, then I realize, it is the alleged collector, in a big neighbor dispute with this other woman whose male I took up to be fixed. And I have no idea who is telling the truth and I don't even care. I tell her this.

I tell her I just want everyone to love one another and I don't get involved in neighbor disputes, I just get cats fixed when I can. She goes on anyhow, with how the other woman calls the cops on her and claims she is a collector in retaliation for her turning in her sons for throwing rocks through her window.

She tells me the other woman took the four kittens saying they'd be fixed today and that I'm paying her to round up cats. I say "Lady, I don't even get paid. Nobody helps me, let alone works for me."

Then she tells me the cops came by, that the woman turned her in for something, and they took the one black kitten. I had seen a muted calico in the yard and a black kitten when I drove by the house after picking up the neighbors male. To myself, I'm thinking, "Hurray, I hope they find it a great fosterer."

I tell her it must be all a big misunderstanding between her and her neighbor, and it will all work out and how many unfixed cats do you have and when can I get them in.

She says she has four unfixed females, one, who is very old, pregnant, and maybe a couple males and maybe some kittens in the alley but she thinks they are dead now.

So I get her number and tell her next week I'll get the females fixed and hang up thinking "Oh my gawd!"

Then the cops call me from SafeHaven and want to get this black kitten to me. They did go get that kitten and the woman told them it was me trying to catch them all and that I had the black kittens' littermates, so the cop wanted to bring me the kitten so it could be reunited with its littermates, whom they thought I had. Because the alleged collector told them I had them. I've never even met this alleged collector.

"Hold on!" I told the cops. "I never caught any kittens. In fact, I don't know any of these people. All I did, was pick up one male for fixing this morning."

"Now one of them is claiming she works for me and I don't even know her, other than I picked up her male to be fixed this morning and she has the other four kittens in a tiny cage outside her door."

I gave the cops her address and her number and now I'm going to run away.

Then, I get a call from the vet clinic. The Corvallis woman has called them, to say she never lied about paying the $20 and she will have the money for me tonight and the receptionist is upset with me, for them being in the middle of that one, too, and I'm really wanting to run away. No mercy for me. Not for the cat woman. I'll stop and get cookies for the vet clinic. I love them, don't want them upset with the cat woman. I am headed back up to the clinic with her cat, who will be spayed. I called the Corvallis woman who was understanding that I would feel used and she promised to pay the copay she had promised tonight, when she picks her cat up.

See, the other Albany female I was supposed to get this morning, they couldn't get her into a carrier and were mad at me, too. They were mad because I stopped them from bringing the cat towards my car but not in a carrier. I told them to take the cat in the house and put her into a carrier, but the cat then just ran out the open back door and they blamed me for that. I'm not sure how, but they did.

One of the women, there to pick up the other for work, says she lives next to someone with like 50 unfixed cats in Lebanon. I said "get the address". The other woman said "My father in Lebanon feeds unfixed wild cats." I said, "Get me his number."

When I was waiting on them, and I could hear crashing around inside, as they looked for that cat, I saw a torti on the porch across the street. The woman who lives there came out at that time, to go to her car. I said "Is that your cat?" "No," she said. I said "We should get the cat fixed." "It's a stray," she said and I am not involved with that cat at all. Besides, she has kittens." Then the woman got into her car and drove off. Just after she did, three kittens emerged from under the house and sat beside their stoic mother.

Just then, the people who couldn't catch their female came back out and said that torti was left behind by the tenants who lived there before the current one. Now she has kittens and nobody is feeding her or her kittens. Sometimes I want to cry. I had to leave then, late to the clinic with the five cats I had. I stared back at her as I drove off, that lonely mother, trying to care for her kittens without anybody, dumped like so much trash.

The window was down. I yelled at the street and anybody who might hear, as I drove, "What is wrong with the people around here?"

I get home after delivering the Corvallis cat again to the clinic. Vicki calls, in a rage. The Pine Meadow situation. It's exploded. The lady finally called her, told her she's moving and wants Vicki to immediately take the six adults and the kittens left.

Vicki is astonished and outraged someone would ask that of her. The Pine Meadow woman tells her that I told her KATA would take them all. Vicki tells her I am not associated with KATA, but just had agreed to help her get all the cats and kittens fixed, after this woman initially contacted KATA. Vicki was so stressed she forgot to remind the Pine Meadow woman that she had left several messages a couple weeks ago, about taking some of the kittens then, that the woman had not even bothered to return, justifying this to me later by telling me she intended to find homes for the cats.

I had asked she send me info on all the cats, that at least I could post them on my website. I had told her to get a free ad in the paper and over weeks, urged her to call both SafeHaven and KATA to create a plan of action, but she told me she could find homes for them herself.

So I tried to calm Vicki and tell her she couldn't take them all in, that this woman had every opportunity given her to help her, that they indeed took in two of the kittens, although to do that, I had to go get them because the woman did nothing to call and arrange anything or return messages. They got free flea treatment done on everybody and everybody fixed for free, for gosh sakes.

Vicki and Doris of KATA just took in 11 cats from a Sweet Home repeat offender collector, too, who needs charged with criminal abuse and stopped once and for all. And for gosh sakes, I told Vicki, we're not even paid. That's pathetic, I told her. Think of all the shelter directors and managers getting huge bucks and not taking shit like we do everyday. Think of that, Vicki. She started laughing. Then so did I.

Two of the females being fixed today come from Lebanon. Those folks just gave away 11 unfixed kittens from these two females. The neighbor man next door feeds unfixed strays. I told them, "talk to him."

When I picked up those two females last night, I went on a few blocks to flea treat some kittens, three females and two males. The people got the mother, a stray, fixed through the FCCO and thought they'd found homes for some of the kittens but everybody backed out and now they're desperate. The kittens will be fixed tomorrow. They also have a neighbor feeding strays. I told her "Talk to them. They need fixed."

It's all so funny now that I just can't stop laughing. I know, it isn't really funny. There's a lot of needless suffering going on in these parts. It's really not funny at all.