Monday, August 01, 2011

The Long List

I have a long list of cat situations to finish.

The cat over near the Albany kiddy pool, whose kittens KATA took, they're no longer feeding her, so how and where to catch her, that's a big issue. I've tried, and wondered why I was not seeing her in my attempts there, where she gave birth, where she was supposedly being fed. Well, I finally find out, they quit feeding her.

There's the second mother cat who was not fixed, owned by the woman who owned the adult female whose five kittens Evan took in, the kittens where two tested FIV positive. Evan is the retired founder of Cat Adoption. I got their mother fixed, four of the kittens, and an adult male the woman also had, but the other mother I didn't get fixed, because her kittens were under two weeks old. I've left messages that have not been returned, so I don't know what is going on there.

I've got some kittens people took in from mother cats I got fixed at an apartment complex off Marian. Two kittens specifically still not fixed from that mother cat who lived in the same complex. Then the people who adopted one of them, from the neighbor with the now fixed females, also rescued a kitten down along the river, so they wanted him fixed, but he was way too little then. Both households vowed to call me once their kittens were big enough. No calls from either. The third kitten of that now fixed mother's litter, a male, whom the man with the mother cat kept, I took in long ago to be fixed.

I've got some Corvallis people who want help with a mother who has had at least seven litters, the latest were only three weeks old, but they don't return the messages I leave. Maybe they can't retrieve messages or something. I don't know. They had the mother, an adult male and two four or five month olds needing fixed.

I've got those darn five unfixed cats at that nursing home, who are a pain in the butt to try to catch due to so many people feeding and so much trapping that's gone on by several people.

I've got the two unfinished Lebanon colonies. One is down to just the kittens, about 11 of them, some of whom had not achieved two pounds, so we are waiting until for sure all are over two pounds. The other colony still has seven unfixed adults plus five kittens, but the feeder isn't at all into getting them fixed, seems a bystander to the issue, and places all initiative on me.

Then there's the Tangent situation. I got called by a woman awhile back, referred to me by KATA, that she had about 20 cats she wanted me to take. I was then told by the mother of a woman who ended up at the trailer park, that the manager decided to trap all the strays and have them euthanized. The original "crazy cat lady" as she was referred to, who fed the strays without getting them fixed, moved out and left them to their fate.

But, fortunately for those cats, that young woman I helped, when she lived elsewhere, has now moved in there, and is on top of it. She wants to trap those cats herself and relocate them to a relative's farm property.

I have known this woman for many years. I first met her when she was a child, living in an apartment, when helping them with cats then. Then she had gone on to have kids as a teen herself, moved here and there, always picking up strays and she'd call me to help get them fixed. The last time, she lived in Tangent and I helped her get 11 fixed. Then I had become worried after seeing that property boarded up, over what happened to her and her animals. Well, she's now at the trailer park and has some of those cats with her. Her mom has at least one. I know that because I just helped her mom get two kittens she rescued as bottle babes, fixed. They're all a bunch of low income animal lovers, is what they are. Nice folks.

The big plan is that she will trap the trailer park stray cats and I'll help get them fixed and loan her what she needs to relocate them. I'm not sure it will work out, but we plan on trying. Another big project.

I've got to catch another mother over at the N. Albany trailer park, too. And four more kittens there need fixed.

There are three or four more kittens out at the VV colony to catch. I had to return the orange boy, Sunny, and the tabby tux female kitten, Missy, because they wanted them back. I found out too they saw a coyote on their property and neighbors have seen coyotes close in, which made my heart sink. When returning those two kittens, right before I left to go camping, I took a photo of a cat in the rafters, shaded by sun reflection, whom I could not identify. The caretaker said when he spooked the other side that he was one of the fixed gray males, but when I examined the photo, I see he is indeed a gray male, but is not fixed.

Then while I was gone, got an e-mail from some senior helper volunteer who wanted me to trap 15 cats an old Lebanon woman feeds, but she said, in the e-mail, that the old woman would only take back two of them. I told her in reply I can't take in 13 cats, but maybe I could help get the cats fixed, if she would take them back.

What are people thinking, when they feed cats but don't get them fixed, I wonder, or maybe they don't, just see a hungry cat and feed the cat, then feed the others who show up, then the kittens who are born. Then when there are so many it's a problem, they start making the calls and think or hope they'll all be carted away to wonderful lives by magic.

Lots of people do not know, still, that there are easy quick spay neuter solutions, for that very first cat who shows up hungry. Got to get that word out better.

Since there are cheap and easy solutions in this area, also got to get people off their butts to implement solutions themselves! Somehow.

But, what a difference fixing cats, being fed, can make, for the cats, yes, but also for the people who feed them. The VV colony is contained despite there being another unfixed gray male and four unfixed kittens still up there. The male will be hard to catch. The kittens, not so much. Just waiting for them to be over two pounds.

Check out the proud adult ear tips! The other photos are of the unfixed kittens. I try to document, so I'll know who is still out there in need of fixing.

Unfixed Siamese kitten.
Unfixed tabby on white kitten, one of four, born to Missy, a now fixed female.
What a difference. Four females greet me, all fixed, all ear tipped.
Ear tipped calico, and proud of that ear tip and what it means.
Tabby tux, showing off hers!
Black adult female, showing off her ear tip.
Unfixed Lynx Pt. kitten.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Round Up

Today is cat round up for tomorrow's five spots.  Two more came up from the vet student in Harrisburg late this morning.  Over 60 fixed ...