Rocks and Hard Places

So Keni had a trailer park woman in Beaverton call the Stayton woman, because, if she'd bring her up, she was going to foster that kitten. But then the Stayton trailer park woman said she'd forced a tube down its throat because it couldn't breath but was putting shavings of human decongestant down the tube. Sounded so horrible to the Beaverton woman she hung up on the Stayton woman.

Now Keni is upset, wants to save the kitten, get it to safety, but none of us have room or money.

Rocks and hard places.

In the meantime, someone called from over on Lehigh, saying a neighbor hired a trapping company man to trap a cat who had gone under her house but he won't tell the neighbor what he's going to do with the cat, now sitting in his trap, and, according to the woman who called, is an asshole.

I told her to call the police, that I don't think having a trapping company allows somebody to commit animal abuse. And besides, it could be somebody's cat. I got 14 cats fixed for someone just around the corner. Guess what. He's a cop, too. I left them a message, telling them what is going on, that it might be one of their cats and I believe that's illegal behavior anyhow, and let the mayor know, since I have no idea what laws regulate these killer private trappers.

I know in Eugene once, when I was there for a clinic, someone came in desperate for help. Seems a church had hired a trapper guy to trap a mother cat and her three kittens and "do away with them". I said, "That is decidedly unChristian." She agreed. She worked at the church.

I went over. I found the little family of cats hiding beneath the cross of Jesus, leaned up against a church shed, used in some pagent about the crucifixtion, but obviously with no real meaning to those christians. I took them away and out of there, and released a raccoon in the assholes trap. It was scorching hot and the raccoon had been in the trap, according to the church lady, without food or water, for over 24 hours. Asshole killer trappers. The pastor later defended his actions saying the trapper wasn't going to harm the cats, just dump them way out somewhere. Well, wake up killer pastor. That is harming the cats.

Then, I remember a woman teaching school in Alaska contacted me. Her parents in Tangent fed cats and she wanted them fixed. But when I arrived, there was only one cat. There was blood spattered all over the place. He trapped them and shot them, in front of each other. He got paid $50 each for doing that. They paid me nothing to fix the one survivor. That's what is valued in this country--violence and killing, not kindness. Compassion is never rewarded.

Rocks and Hard places. That's where I live. Between the two.

Update: Too bad for that cat hater, the cat is one the cop took in as a neighborhood stray and had fixed themselves. His wife went over. The young woman next door, in tears over the meanness of the neighbor and her intent to "kill all cats", warned her not to go alone, because the woman is so mean, but she marched over anyhow, got into it with the cat hater, and let the cat out of the trap.

How does someone get that mean, that nasty, that unhappy, to take out aggression on a little animal. That's scary.

I guess the cops wife tried to reason with the cat hater, asked her to help get involved in finding unfixed cats, getting them fixed, getting the unowned cats in the neighborhood homes, that as a neighborhood, everyone should get involved in problems and solve them, but she was intent in her desire to kill cats instead.

As far as I know, the cats in that area, who free roam, are now fixed. I've worked two streets right there. The problem is with the assholes who move in, won't fix their cats, and leave them behind when they leave. It's that way everywhere. Assholes causing problems. We need to neuter the assholes.

But the cops wife is right. Communities, neighborhoods should work together to solve problems, instead of living isolated angry lives. Be a nicer world, that's for sure. I like that cop and I like his wife. I like them a lot. They're funny. I don't know how they manage to be so funny and warm when they have very stressful jobs. They're also tough. I look up to both of them.