Tuesday, October 25, 2011

21 Mid Valley Cats

I took 21 mid valley cats down to be fixed in Coos Bay today.

I can't say 21 mid valley cats were fixed.

Why? Because three of the cats I took turned out to already be fixed.

How'd that happen?

Well, I picked up a mother cat, two kittens and three males who had been dumped off out off Fish Hatchery road. One of those males turned out to be fixed and one of the male kittens had a level 4 heart murmur. Level 5 is the highest. He couldn't be fixed or he likely would have died. In the end, my buddy Tamara, the woman who opened that Snipped clinic and a former Albany resident, talked to the caretaker and asked if she could keep the cat there, to take care of him, keep him indoors, and watch over him. The caretaker was really happy she would offer and agreed quickly.

Then, an Albany woman I knew way back from the first outing ever of the short lived Poppa run Neutermobile, in Tillamook, called me. She now lives in Albany and had taken in a stray long hair Siamese, who was starved nearly to death. Well, that girl turned out to be fairly old and also already fixed. The clinic found the spay scar and she was not opened up, which was nice.

The most embarrassing already fixed cat was one I trapped late last night, along with two others in a barn off Knox Butte. He was all gray. My eyes are bad and my flashlight batteries dim. Those are my excuses and I'll stick to them. He had an ear tip. He likely was one I got fixed a couple months back at the Clover Ridge colony, the one I've given up on. And by the way, the long hair tabby on white young male, is also likely from there, from a litter of five kittens, mom is fixed. I am so glad they're migrating down to this barn, where I can catch them and get them fixed.

Anyhow, Peter Gray has an ear tip and was I red in the face for not checking.

Pawnee, the young white with tabby spots pretty boy with long silky hair, from same barn, was not and neither was Butter, a big orange tabby tom, whose face was beat up and swollen from banging on the trap. He got spooked last night out there, after being trapped. Something pulled off the cage cover, looked almost human pulled off, but the barn owner didn't do it, she said, and I believe her. Something harassed that poor cat, after pulling the cover off, causing himself to bang into the trap trying to escape, time after time. But what or who?

I took three from that barn. One more than they thought was living there. They knew the gray male lived there, but never knew I had already caught him a half mile away two months back. And I didn't either.

I took one from that Millersburg shed.

I took the torti kitten from the VV, but there are still 3 up there needing fixed, all boys.

I took the gray female from the trailer park over in N. Albany. There were two girls who looked alike, but one has disappeared and the family now has split up.

I took a Lynx Point Siamese, owned in Albany. I took an all white long hair kitten, owned in Albany and so flea infested it made my skin crawl to watch the fleas dying just around her face. I took the Siamese who turned out to be fixed, from Albany, who was abandoned. I took in a black male kitten owned in Albany.

I took in five more from the two households above Jefferson, completing those two colonies. And I took the mother, two kittens and three dumped off males from Fish Hatchery.

That's a damn lot of cats. Also, my car wouldn't start this morning and I was an hour late getting on the road because of that. Then I had to fly, literally, and I like speed.

Once there, I ran into a man returning a live trap. He'd not luck catching the cat he was after. Tamara caught my eye. "Need something to do?" she said. I love a challenge. I went to his place after buying some fish line. I rigged the trap with the line, tying it off to the head rest of the passenger seat. There were tons of neighbor cats who would go in and eat bowl after bowl of dry food and tuna mixed. One brown tabby must have eaten three entire bowls. I was getting seriously mad at him. The Siamese manx female didn't want to challenge Mr. Hungry and shove him out of the way. I waited and waited and waited, while ten or twelve neighborhood cats ate their fill several times over.

Finally, finally, the Siamese ambles in and I cut the fish line and had her. OMG, I was relieved. My reputation was at stake. I told the kitty, on the way to the clinic, "Shit happens, girl, and today shit happened to you. But it's good shit, at least."

It was a very good day for mid valley cats.

Thank you Snipped clinic!

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