Face off in the Fog

The cats at Spicer origins are hungry. I've had no luck with trapping there, last couple of days. This a.m., I left out some food and texted the caretaker asking him to feed again. Otherwise, they end up dead out on the road, crossing into the fields, trying to find food.

I ran into the big problem male at the other colony as I was checking that trap. There is still an unfixed female to catch there, then the big male prowls the entire area picking fights. He was at it this morning in a screaming face off with a gray male, who might have an ear tip. I only saw the possible ear tip when I uploaded the photos I took of the face off, from a distance, through my car window in the fog.

It was a classic face off, the big black and white male all puffed up and screaming right in the gray male's face. However, the gray male just stood there, not reacting, outside of look of horror across his face.

The old man came out, said he'd never seen that gray male before, but I think it's one I caught three years ago, when helping catch cats for the old woman three houses down.

The gray male has it down. If he runs, he's in for it. If he just doesn't react, as scary as that might be, the trouble maker gets nothing from the encounter. The bully wants a reaction.




Gray male stoically bears aggression.
Fixed male kitten, hungry, out in the frosty field.

I am still suffering the effects of chlorine exposure at the Albany pool. My skin prickles and itches if my hair touches it. My eyes burn and are still red streaked and itch. I have a rash across one side of my lower back.

The exposure seemed to trigger also, strangely, severe menopausal symptoms. Why would it do that? Maybe it's just coincidence.

It was stupid to enter a pool filled with water treated with a chemical that is toxic to me. I just wanted to have some fun. I love water. I love to swim.

I was explaining to the old man this morning, why my eyes were red, and he said he can't stand chlorine either and it's too much for he and his wife, the smell and taste of it, in tap water. So he got some filter that goes on his water line before the hot water tank. The filter only needs changed twice yearly he said and it removes the chlorine, so you don't have it coming out at you in the shower either. He said he found one at Fred Meyer for $30 when he accidentally broke his old one.

Albany is well known for its highly chlorinated water. It's hard to escape the effects. An effect its had on me is that I don't drink enough water, because I let it sit a few days, after filling bottles or jars, to let the chlorine escape, before drinking it.

I get depressed here. It's not just the chemicals everywhere used and accepted, on lawns, in the water, it's the smell of chemicals in the air nights from the industrial plants and its the dust and chemical mix in the air half the summer, from all the grass seed farms surrounding Albany.

I was born sensitive to some chemicals and cursed with a keen sense of smell. I want to move but I don't know where to go and I don't have any money. The industrial district smells are foul in the air nights. It's grown much worse in the last months. I don't know why.

I'm going to get one of those filters that goes on the water line though. They're cheap and the old man and his wife swear they take out the chlorine before it even comes into your house. That's one thing I can do.