.
I'm trapping another rural Linn colony. Last night, in what seemed like near hurricane force winds, I caught 11 (to my surprise).
There may be a total of 15, the woman caretaker says. The man says 11 or 12. Well, I know there are at least twelve, because an orange tabby tux teen was running around as I left, with 11 in my car.
The woman caretaker says she's not counting in the 15 on her list a big buff tom I caught because she'd never seen him before. So that would mean 16.
I cleaned out my garage again yesterday. Good thing too. In the process I got two cages ready to hold some of the cats, before they are fixed.
I put three in one of the cages and four in another, so they could have litter boxes and be more comfortable before they are fixed.
In the big cage, is the tame calico, the half tame orange tabby, her brother, a gray tabby tux, who is quite vocal, and a muted torti. All four are teens.
In the other cage, I have three cats--a very large torbi tux female, a smaller torbi, and a very small gray tabby kitten.
The other four had to settle for trap life. They are the big buff tom, a another short hair light gray tabby tux, a solid gray and a long hair gray tux boy.
How many are actually down there? Don't know.
The winds must have been strong last night on the coast. I passed a field on highway 34 full of gulls. The gulls usually only enter the valley when the weather is dreadful on the coast.
When I went over to the Side by Side colony, intent on ending my efforts there to catch the one big male left, the little black tux boy was in the trap again. AGAIN! He was the one I caught last Sunday also. He likes going back into the trap. I reset the trap instead of removing it. Feeling lucky I guess.
If I catch that big male, I'll know it's time to invest in a lottery ticket. The jackpot is close to $500 million. It'll be a sign from the heavens!
And, strangely, shortly after writing the above paragraph, I get a text, delayed for whatever reason, from that colony caretaker, that the big male is in the trap. Caretaker was off at work, so I headed over, ecstatic. Except, my car was making a horrible metalic grating noise, but only when moving. I looked under the car, sure I was dragging something, but nothing was there. I had to kneel in puddles to look. I was down a block from my place and around the corner. I went another half block, aching to go pick up that big male in the trap, but the noise was embarrassingly loud and sounded like major damage was happening. It was a circular sound. Something on the wheel. Brakes I thought.
I called my brother who answered and let him hear the noise over the cell. He said it was a stuck or dragging brake and to go to Les Schwab. They were not open yet. I'd already called over a dozen people, pleading with someone to help me pick up the male. Mostly no answers. Some people do work, ha ha.
One man said he was too poor to drive the five or so miles round trip but if I'd pay him.......I'd help this guy gets a bunch of cats fixed and this didn't set very well. Another guy I'd helped with several dozen cats said he'd do it but he wasn't happy about it. By this time, my Brownsville cat woman friend was on her way, bless her soul. She told me to tell the whiner man, who said he'd come but didn't want to, to forget it. I called him back and all he said was, "Oh, that's so much better for me." No asking what I was going to do about my broken car, nothing.
Oh boy, what a bummer it can be to realize nobody near is likely going to help me out if I need some help. Scary to realize that, actually, sobering. But Vivienne came through and bless her soul. She took me over and we picked up the big boy. She brought home and then followed me to Les Schwab. But by then, whatever was jamming up one brake causing probably the pad to grate on the rotor, or whatever was inbetween the pad and rotor to grate, dropped out. Or something released. I took it to be checked out anyhow, but nothing wrong was found. I was vastly relieved.
Caught the big male!!! Yay! Been after him since January!!
I'm buying that lottery ticket.
Right now, I'm freezing from being wet for several hours. Into the shower I go.
No comments:
Post a Comment