Fun Times in Lebanon

So KATA volunteers at the NS clinic shoved a paper in my hand, wanting me to contact some people with unfixed cats. I was shocked, not expecting this, because I've asked KATA not to contact me. I did finally call the people and I wish I had not done so. It is a horrible situation, with neighbors who hate cats and threaten to kill them, junky properties, a couple of burned out houses and all these unfixed cats. I left two traps last night. The folks said the neighbors across the street are complaining and the neighbor beside them sometimes takes them to the Humane Society, whatever that means, since Linn County doesn't have a Humane Society.

This morning, a neighbor across the street came out to yell at me in her bathrobe, complaining about all the poop from cats in the area. When I told her I was just there to get them fixed and a volunteer, she threw up her hands and went back inside. It is a tough situation and I do understand nobody wants a million cats using their backyards as their litterbox. But I'll tell you what, no volunteer, just trying to help, wants to get yelled at all the time either.

What I've discovered in some areas is lots of people who will complain and yell and throw up their hands about a situation, but never lift a finger to take action to get the problem solved. Always it should be someone else solving it. These types often write angry letters to the paper to complain, too. They might not mention in such letters that they threaten and scream at volunteers coming in, often at their own expense, to help out their little hood.

I was going to try to trap a couple more this morning, but when I arrived, chaos had arrived before me. The colony caretakers' own cat was free roaming and immediately got into a trap. Their dogs, which they are breeding, were barking and growling at me, then the lady in the bathrobe yelling. I got totally stressed, put the two already caught into the car and left.

But then I went back, ripe for more abuse I guess. Just stupid I guess. Trapped the little black one who has the injured front leg, put their owned cat in a trap so he wouldn't be springing them and then went door to door, because lots of junked out porches had cats and food bowls sitting on them.

Nobody answered their doors, however, maybe all gone to work or sleeping. Except one old lady, who came to the door and said immediately, "Yes, trap them all, but if you bring them back I will shoot them." She was on the phone, just half talking to me and half talking to whomever she was talking to on the phone. I didn't say another word. I just walked off the porch, got in my car and drove off. I wanted to cry. I swore some, which included calling Linn County Sodom and Gomorrah, one of my favorite Biblical comparisons, when worn out. I also told the two cats in the back of my car I was fed up with complaining gun toting apathetic uninvolved whining drinking pseudo Christian rednecks. I think that about said it all in a nutshell.

I let loose the owned cat and took the injured black teen to the vet and came home.

A big brown tabby tux male, from just another junky angry unfixed cat filled Linn County street, being fixed today.
Blue Point Siamese being fixed today.
Injured black teen, being fixed today. It may turn out this cat has been shot.

Below are photos of the three cats, who all turned out to be already fixed, being fed on Old Salem.




I don't know how to fix the problem this computer has in uploading photos. The aspect ratio of any photo I upload is screwed. They photos are squished out in width. How in the world do I fix this and why does it happen?

The other problem I am having is I cannot seem to add the photo programs I've added, like Irfanview, to the list of option programs when I right click a photo, and choose "open with". I want to have the option of opening it with Irfanview or Gimp, so I can alter and adjust and fix the photo, but I can't seem to add them to that option list. Anybody know how to do that?

There is a lot of sad news out there today. A dead man was found on the trail above Multnomah Falls, clothed only in his underwear. I wonder if he died of hypothermia. People who get hypothermia often shed their clothes at the end, in the dimentia of freezing to death.

Or maybe he was murdered. There is a husband and father missing, after an incident near Corbett, in which he and his wife were meeting a couple of people the husband had befriended, to go fishing. Somehow the wife ended up thrown off the bridge. She landed in brush but was injured and managed later to crawl up to the road. The husband is still missing. All the wife remembers is an altercation with a gun shown, when the two men her husband had befriended showed up. I wonder if it's him found dead, if those two guys murdered him. It is tragic when people who are good hearted are taken advantage of by those they help. Nobody really knows what went on there yet. Seems very sad, however.

UPDATE: the young man found dead on trails above Multnomah Falls had been depressed, according to family, and did indeed die of hypothermia.

Another sad story in the news is that Indiana and Oregon National Guard troops may have been exposed to a toxic cancer causing chemical while in Iraq. They're all getting letters about their possible toxic exposure. These troops were helping guard some site that KBR worked. KBR employees wore protective clothing, but none was given or offered the troops helping KBR. Is this another instance of KBR bad behavior, I wonder, showing little regard for the safety of the troops? If so, that company needs investigated, those reponsible jailed, and the rest disbanded. They've already killed many troops by shoddy irresponsible work wiring buildings and showers the troops use. Yet their employees get paid far more than the soldiers. This is all just so very wrong.