Five Cats Friday, Five Today

Albany male being fixed today.
Geary street female being fixed today.
E street boys, from Lebanon, being neutered today.
Albany female, also being spayed today.


The Marian woman brought in five more cats from the old woman feeding strays on Friday, besides the two preg females fixed last Wednesday. Three of the five fixed Friday were females, two more of them pregnant females.

Today, I took in five cats. Two are among five kittens born to a Lebanon stray taken in by a woman. I'd gotten their mom fixed in January, then the three late teen females, from the mom's last litter. Now I'm working on getting her very last litter fixed, born a month before she was spayed. The two being fixed today are both boys and they already have a home to go to. The other three will be fixed on Wednesday.

I am also taking in two cats from Albany on Wednesday. The female has kittens who, the woman tells me, are approaching the two pound mark. She intends to adopt them out, but, as is the case more frequently now, she wants to do right by the kittens and get them fixed before they are adopted out. I've run into this more and more so I am really happy about it.

Then a week ago, I was in Corvallis and went to my favorite thrift store, run by an Albany mission. I saw a single bed that came with a bed frame that included drawers. I'd been looking for a bed for the spare bedroom. I bought it, and I got a deal on it and delivery because they said they had three unfixed cats at the mission in Albany that needed fixed.

Turns out one black male has an eartip and I think he's among the cats I took in fed nearby in January. The other two, a female who has had too many litters, 8 litters at least, and a big tough gray tux named Buttons, are getting fixed today.

While waiting for the cats to show up, I was talking to the homeless folks who live there. One is a woman I met years ago, at a north Albany trailer park, when I got about 40 or 50 cats fixed there. One of the cats, MJ, was cared for by this woman. MJ went to a home in Dexter after she was spayed.

Some of the homeless folks want to get involved and help. It was slightly unsettling when one man, nodding knowingly, said, "God told you to come to Albany, didn't he?"

"Probably so," I said, not sure what he was leading up to. Several more of the homeless folks sitting around on the porch also were nodding, like they knew something I didn't. The man continued, "When God returns, he's setting right down in Albany, because Linn County is the heart of evil. EVerything suffers here, even the animals." Again, knowing nods from many of the other porch sitters.

Whoa, I thought to myself. I knew it was bad here, but I didn't know it was that bad.

The fifth cat who went in is the last unfixed cat at a property on Geary. I first heard of the property when KATA asked me to pick up some kittens hanging out in a parking lot across the street. By the time I got there, KATA had already picked them up, but not their black tux mom, who ran off.

I went in search of the mom and found her owner, across the street, with lots of unfixed cats and began getting them fixed, including that mother. The property was also under a city threat, to clean it up or face daily fines.

The history of the property is colorful to say the least. The woman's dad lived there before her, in filth. He had no sewer hookup and let the septic system clog. For ten years, he went to the bathroom in buckets he'd then dump out back. He finally died, but his body was not discovered for two weeks. He had fallen between a space heater and wall heater and his bloated badly decaying body was found there, what was left of it, that is. He had bloated so badly his body had exploded, spattering the walls with his remains.

The property was willed to his disabled daughter who had no money to put into it and has had drug issues. A son of hers, was living with his father, who died of a heart attack, after years of alcohol and drug abuse, and the young son lived there with the body for several days, before reporting him dead. The boy has some issues, undoubtedly, now.

But under the gun from the city, this woman has worked miracles there, and since I was there last, slightly nervous because of alleged drug activity, she has really been cleaning it up. I can't remember how many pounds of scrap metal she said she's hauled out of there, but the poundage is impressive. She's beginning to get compliments on the clean up from neighbors too, boosting her self-esteem and determination to create a better space there. I think it's wonderful.

The house inside is looking like a home now, not a garbage dump. I just think she's doing a great job and I'm glad the city propelled action. The last unfixed cat there, a little girl, is getting fixed today. This is another source of pride for the woman, that all her cats are now fixed and have been dewormed.

So five were fixed today, three males and two females, one of them, the downtown female, turned out to be pregnant but she didn't need to be having litter number nine. That wears a girl out in sort order.

I already have five lined up for Wednesday. The other three kittens from Lebanon plus the two adults from Albany.

I may also try to trap that latest unfixed male at the Pink House colony in Jefferson, too. Since they now won't let me fix the Blue Point Siamese male, guess they want him to breed, if I catch that fluffy young black tabby male, that'll be it, at 14 cats fixed. Although, last time I was there, the woman alluded to a feral long hair orange female, who shows up now and then. I think she's got a lot more than she lets on.

The little black girl with a chopped off tail, will go home tomorrow, after a long recovery here. She's enjoyed the time relaxing in the bathroom, but she's lonely and the weather is supposed to warm up, I hope, so she can go home. She got the works while here, worming, even vaccinated, flea treated and I cleaned out her ears, too.

I do stop in and feed those Pink House cats rather frequently, since I go right by there at least three times a week, taking up more cats. They're not really hurting for food, however. I guess I just like to visit them.