Friday, August 22, 2008

Catch Up

It gets dark so early already. Summer is almost over. I feel like I wasted the good weather. I didn't do anything. Soon the long dark rainy winter will begin. I sure had wanted to figure out a different living situation before the long winter began. I am still trying.

I placed some ads, looking for a property caretaker position. I got a few responses, but most had very marginal living spaces. One was living in a tiny camp trailer out south of Eugene, another sounded very promising, but the cottage required a lot of work and the only heat in it was a plug in stand up electric heater.

Then I got cold feet, due to inflamed neck and shoulder nerves, back pain and stomach pain. How would I pull my weight with a labor job in partial exchange for housing, when much of the time I'm really a mess of pain? How would I survive working in exchange for partial rent, and also pay the rent share asked beyond labor, car insurance, and buy food, too?

It was a dumb idea I suppose.

The FCCO clinic Sunday is only going to run half a day. I got a message from Nick, the coordinator. He couldn't find enough vets to volunteer. I'd tried to get five reservations for some Corvallis cats late in the game, but they can't fit in for sure to a half day clinic. He had to cut the numbers of cats allowed to register way back to adjust.

I"m still trying to find Sashi a home. She is so gorgeous and wonderful. Someone from Corvallis wants to see her, but they lost their own cat (ran away, she said) and seem to live near a busy road, from what I can tell, and let their cats out. A well taken care of loved fixed cat doesn't run away. So something happened to their cat and if they live close to a busy road, that's likely what happened to their cat. They also have an energetic large dog they say likes cats but the woman was hesitant when I asked if the dog has hurt cats. She finally said he's very energetic when he plays and might hurt a cat, but wouldn't mean to. So I don't think a little kitten should go there. Sounds like that dog needs another dog friend to wrestle with.

But, they said they are considering creating an outdoor containment yard, so she would be safe when she is outside. I know that area, and not very far from there a bobcat has been seen repeatedly, too, which is another concern.

The three boys from the Kitten Yard are leaving tomorrow. I don't want Sunny, who is tame, to go to a barn home, but he's getting older, and at four months, it's tough to for a teen to compete for a home with all the kittens out there. That's why I'm worried about finding Sashi a home now. I want the best for her, since she's been here so long and I'm very attached.

That leaves me the Starvation kids, who are doing well, plus the latest three, from the URI yard. The long hair kitten from there is the sickest. I seperated her today from the other two smaller torti's, while she rested, nestled among heated rice bags, with a vaporizer going constantly. She is on antibiotics and sub cu fluids and eye meds. She is improving slightly, but still is very ill with pneumonia she has had for awhile now.

The woman tells me this kitten is from the feral I trapped last night in the alley. The young torbi feral female, spayed today, is the daughter of the tame ten year old female, who is the mother of the three younger kittens, two of whom are now here.

When I stopped by again today, she is indeed treating the eyes of the teens now, with the meds I gave her, and the tiny kitten was inside. That made me feel much better. Even these small four week olds are ridden with worms, tape and roundworm. They had severe flea infestations. I had taken over flea meds awhile back, maybe two weeks ago, and treated all the adults and the teens. I also wormed everyone I could find at that time.

I'm glad I caught the torbi feral in the alley. I took in a total of four cats today. The torbi female, another owned tame female from that neighborhood, an in heat female from another Albany household I've helped repeatedly, and then a male from Marion street.

All went back to their people except this feral female, who will stay overnight here.

I'm not that excited about Obama's VP pick, but what do I know about anything to do with politics. Nothing, is what. Biden is not a name to me synonymous with change. What comes to mind more when I think of Biden would be "Old guard do nothing different".

I heard from the struggling women in Nevada, whom I have been worried about. They have been in mortgage trouble. Both lost their jobs, the mortgage they had taken out was some sort of scam thing, and anyhow, they're still in the house for now, struggling with survival. I've never met them, but they're animal people I met online. They're nice folks, too, kind and try hard. Both have severe health issues. They're trying to start a different business to survive. I was so glad to hear they are not living in a car in a parking lot down there somewhere, glad they're ok for now.

The Cottage Grove woman who adopted Wipeout took him to the vet immediately. He was tested and was negative on FIV/Felk. I was very happy to hear that. He is doing great in his new home. The folks who adopted one of the black snuggle bug kittens from the kitten yard also let me know he is doing wonderfully. It's always good to hear these things.

I found out the cat I'd seen next to SafeHaven, then across Highway 34 from SafeHaven is a cat who got loose from someone bringing in kittens and their mother. I don't know if it was someone dropping off cats, pre-arranged, or one of their fosterers, bringing in the mother and kittens she'd fostered for them. All I found out was that the woman was carrying her in her arms, and she got away from her.

They were trying to trap the cat, by setting a trap by SafeHaven. I told them I would trap her for them, if they'd take her back, but they have not taken me up on the offer. I hate to have them try to lure her back across such a dangerous highway as highway 34 now. I feel for her, out there, on her own. I feel like trying to trap her for them, but then what if they wouldn't take her back or maybe they've already caught her.

Also, the last time I got vaccines at Denson's, they had the intraocular/nasal vaccines. The Denson's employee explained to me that she believes most vaccines will be switching to intraocular/nasal due to the prevalence of injection site sarcomas. This is attributed to the adjuvant used in making vaccines. Multi dose vials pose an even greater risk.

So I bought some, and tried them for the first time on the URI yard torti's, anxious to give them a degree of protection. I found this type of vaccine administration easy to use and the packet had good instructions. You simply break off the foil seal on each of two vials, then pull out the rubber stoppers.

Then, using the bubble dropper, you suck out the distilled water in one vial and add it to the dry vaccine vial, replace the rubber stopper on the vial and shake it up. Then you draw out the vaccine into the bubble dropper and place a drop in the corner of each kitten or cat's eye. You drop the rest in each nostril as the kitten or cat breathes in.

If the vaccine is given prior to 12 weeks of age, it is recommended a booster be given at 12 weeks.

I am excited about this method because this method will be far easier to use in vaccinating ferals, even through the mesh of a trap, or, through a net when they are still under the influence of anesthesia, to a degree, after I pick them up from the vet.

$5 for a three way intraocular/nasal. A three-way vaccine provides protection against feline distemper (panoleukemia), herpes virus and calici virus.

An added benefit---protection begins within 48 hours rather than the ten days for an injectible vaccine.

Here are photos of the four cats fixed today:

The calico, in heat, from North Albany.
The feral abbytabby, from the alley, very thin, with earmites and URI. She is allegedly the mother of the sickest kitten I took from the yard up front.
Owned female, from the same area.
And a male, neutered today, who lives on Marion street.

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