The Ungrateful. Trailer Park Kittens on Fire

I heard about the old woman who died in a fire at her trailer in a Portland area trailer park. She had no electricity and was using tea candles for light.

But I didn't know the rest of the story. Keni, Poppa's President, is currently sick, from doing too much. And one of the things she was doing, trying to solve, is to save the cats that old woman had in her trailer when it burned. It's horrible to know what really happened. The old woman pretty much died becaused she didn't fix her cats. Kittens ran through the burning candles, when she fell asleep, setting themselves on fire, spreading the fire as they ran, burning alive, in panic. Teens, when she was in the hospital before the trailer burned, whom she left money to feed the cats, just stole her things.

Makes you just wonder if there are many people out there left who care about anything. There are too few people trying to help the animals in real ways, and that means by getting them fixed. Keni is one of them and she pays a price in exhaustion. It's like one person trying to stick a finger into the hole in the massive dam. I would hope more people would see the light, get off their duffs, quit donating to useless far away animal groups and go save some lives.

In Keni's words, about stumbling on the burned trailer situation:


"I also stopped by the trailer park here where the woman was killed in the fire last Saturday... she had from 13-20 cats according to the neighbors... some kittens too. Apparently the firemen told the neighbor it was kittens playing that caused the fire because the woman had used tea candles for light--she had no electricity, and they ran through the flames, catching themselves on fire and carrying it throughout the trailer in their panic. The neighbor has only seen one kitten since the fire and immediately claimed it as his own and took it into his unit where he's been feeding it KMR. He calls him Smokey.

Anyway, they had called Joanne about getting the cats placed weeks prior to the fire when the cat lady woman was in the hospital for something and they were feeding her cats since the teenagers she had hired to do it weren't, they were just coming over and stealing her things while she was gone. The neighbor was almost out of cat food, even though he had only been feeding the cats every other day, so I went and bought him a new bag, plus some canned stuff in gravy to use to wean the little kitten. When I handed over the food, I gave him my telephone number and told him I wanted the cats fed every day and he could call me when he needed more. I also asked him to feed at the same time every day and watch for the cats so he could make a note of how many there are and what they look like. I intend to start trapping them up just as soon as either Joanne of I find a place for them to go."

The woman who found the injured young male cat in Albany took him to be neutered and the ear looked at. I had authorized all I had left on the gift card for care of that ear. It was a polyp badly absessed underneath and cost more than what I had, but not much more. The woman left a message with me during the day wanting more money from me for him, citing the extra $20 cost beyond what I had. I did not return the call.

The woman was informed of this extra cost beyond what I could pay on the cat. She was told the polyp could grow back.

Later on, after closing, the phone calls to the clinic began. They could not make out who was calling to tell them they worked for a vet rating company and were giving them the lowest rating. There were many many calls. They called me wondering if I had received strange calls. I told them it was likely that woman. It did turn out to be her. She called me after that and said she had left messages at the clinic.

She also complained to me in the call that she had to borrow the extra $20. When she began then ranting against the clinic that cared for this cat, at almost no cost to her, I stopped her. I told her I wouldn't listen to such things, that they had always been good to me and love animals.

I don't know what went on at the clinic, between her and staff. I wasn't there. But here is the end result and the end result, not personal tiffs, is what is important: the cat got neutered and his polyp removed and absess cleaned out. He got pain meds and antibiotics to go home with him and she had to pay almost nothing, while others paid most of the cost. I told her, if I were her, I'd be very very happy it turned out so well.

The cat is back living in a cage in the back of her truck. Oh boy.