Cat Days

This morning, despite my pledge to sleep most of the weekend, I had to get going and take the adult torti out to join her kittens, in containment at the barn home. She seemed instantly at ease there and the woman is happy with them.

But on the way there, I returned the gray adult female to the trailer park. She'll be fed. I saw the second torti on the porch, the one I want badly to catch. I did not see the other two kittens.

Then I headed to North Albany, to return that adult female, fixed yesterday. That is one nice couple. In a way, I'm glad that rescuer adopted her out unfixed, just because as a result I got the pleasure of meeting these people. They gave me eggs from their chickens and ducks. I loaned her traps, to catch this females' teen kittens, who she wants to get fixed at the Neuterscooter clinic.

Then it was off to Corvallis with the torti and gray female kittens. They have a great home now, with a couple and their kids who just moved here from San Diego. She's a kick, I tell you.

We talked candidly about the differences between San Diego and Oregon. She said she never knew her neighbors down there and that was just fine with her. They get up here and boom, within a couple days everybody on the street wants them to come to dinner. They've never had dinner with neighbors before. She said it seemed like a big deal to everyone, to get a new neighbor and asked 'don't people here have other things in their lives?' I said "No we don't." Then I laughed. She seemed slightly exasperated at the trusting nature of people up here and the friendliness to strangers.

I told her about the man in the wheelchair. I don't even know him, just am trapping his cats. Late at night, two nights ago, I wanted to ask him about a certain cat and tell him I'd caught another kitten. I knocked on his patio door and he told me to come in. He's naked in his wheelchair. Totally naked except for a washclothe he tossed over his private part. I told this San Diegan, I just acted like nothing was out of the ordinary about that, carried on a conversation and left. I said I think that's about the norm around here. Her face contorted into an expression that was a cross between disgust and horror.

"Better get used to it," I said jovially. Then I laughed again.

They're nice people.

So, four kittens and one adult are in homes now, from the trailer park. Supposedly, the woman who used to live there and also fed three kittens, will be here tomorrow to pick up two of the ones she fed. That will leave six here. Someone is coming by tomorrow also to check out Atom, one of the three gray males here, and very cute. I hope he gets a home with this family. They're super nice. Someone in Lebanon might take the remaining black kitten. That would leave me two gray males and two orange tabby males if both those homes came through. Just hoping is all.

Cajun is getting a home tonight with an older couple I know and like. I am waiving the adoption fee because they don't have much money, but they do have a lot of love to give Cajun, which is more important.

So anyhow, I'm finding some homes for some of them at least.

UPDATE: I went over with Cajun. I had my doubts. The complex is crap, full of drama and in one of the worst sections of town. I went inside first. The place was clean, but they already have two cats. I'd gotten one of them fixed for them a few months ago.

But, a woman outside, who is bitchy, and nosy and causes trouble and fights with this old couple, immediately got into it with me and them, said the landlord allows only two cats and she'd tell. I had gotten the bitchy complainy neighbor's cat fixed for her, too.

The old lady had already fallen in love with Cajun, and who wouldn't, she's wonderful. And then she made the fatal mistake of saying "Well if I can only have two cats, I'll get rid of one of mine." Boom. I very very quickly grabbed Cajun, put her in the carrier and I'm out of there, gone, as fast as I can go with her, saying only to the woman's husband, "I'm sorry, but I don't adopt out kittens to tenants unless they are abiding by landlord rules about pets." He said it was ok. I hugged Cajun to me once home with her, tightly, and she began purring.

Cajun is a sweetheart, a cat who likes to sleep with me, touch my face with her paws, pounce on me from afar, play in my clothes. This is a precious little kitten too good for the drama and backstabbing and anger and discontent of that complex. She would never have been taken to a vet again. No doubt this woman, once Cajun was older, would kick her out, like she tells me tonight, while I"m over there, that now she doesn't let her other two cats in, although the nosy bitchy neighbor says they do go in. Too much conflict and conflicting stories for my precious little Cajun.

I suppose I was hoping for a reason to say 'no'. I want a nice family for Cajun, not a junky low income drug and crime infested complex, where everyone is discontent and angry and out to blame anyone else for the fact they ended up in such a place. I know those places well. I've lived in them. I don't think they're fit for children or animals.

I don't want to discriminate against low income folks, but some are worthy of discrimination. This old couple are nice, but to claim they'll get rid of one of their adult cats in order to get a kitten, that's crazy talk. They are in constant battle with the neighbor woman as probably anyone would be. But this conflict makes the home unfit for a kitten, who just wants to play, sleep, and be loved and has no stake or interest in the silly violent clashes of adult humans.