Cat Wandering Shell Station Parking Lot Caught, Fixed, with Four Other Local Kitties

Well, another long day for me that is about to end, as I renew my relationship with a bottle of Nyquil and my bed.

Half a sip of Nyquil and I'm out like a light.  Plus it helps my allergies, which are bad this year.

I had two big males needing fixed already in my garage.

I had the brown mackeral tabby from the Albany in the house colony.  He's tame and older and sweet.  And I had Scottie the Scottish Fold, whom I trapped out on Peoria Road, where he was apparently dumped by some asshole.  Boy does my garage ever stink like big male.

This boy I trapped inside that woman's house, where I already took five from to be fixed.  He is very sweet.  He was labeled a senior at the FCCO and even had a bad tooth pulled, besides being fixed and vaccinated.  Good deal for this cat.

So I got offered reservations at the FCCO.  Scottie would stay.  He's getting himself a home up there.  I was  taking him back.  Then things changed again.  Boy.  I can't keep up anymore.

Scottie, fixed today at the FCCO.

I had Scottie tested before I knew what I might do with him.  Heartland helped out with that.  I paid out $14 though and I received no donations from anyone for gas, in the transport up today either.  So I'm out cash every time I help out.  Darn it, wish I had the money to burn like that but I don't. It's stupid when I'm just barely surviving.  Anyhow....

Well, being as how I was going all that way, up to Portland,  I decided to head over and try to trap at Slurpy's old colony where there were two unfixed cats left.  Besides, they said they'd take the dismembered couch wood and burn it for me.  I wanted that gone.  So I loaded it into my car and headed up with my drop trap.  It took a very long time and catnip spread all over, to get them going under that drop trap again.  But after I shared the cat weed, liberally, things rocked.  They ate two entire cake pans full of dry food mixed with tuna, before the unfixed Lynx Point girl ambled out of the briars.  The problem male, not yet fixed, had been around, attacking other cats, making an ass of himself.  But it was the girl who went under.  I yanked the string and had my cat.

Lynx Point female fixed today from Slurpy's old colony.  She too was labeled a senior and was pregnant.  No more kitten production for her.  

Since it was late, I called it a night with just her.  But I drove up there on an empty tank.  And right after I left, the yellow warning light came on.  So I stopped in at the freeway gas stations and counted out my last $15 to get a few gallons.  As I was pulling out, I see a cat running around the parking lot of the gas station next door.  He's running really close to moving cars, looking just desperate and just ten feet off that busy highway.  I can't just drive off after seeing that.  I pull over, and open my car door.  He almost comes to my car door, and looks like he wants to jump into my car.  He's super hungry.

I set a trap over between the two gas stations and crack open a can of tuna and hurl some tuna juice his way. He's instantly interested.  Then I go park and talk to the attendant.  He says the cat has been around about 8 months and that he belongs to a Lebanon woman and that his name is Mr. Butters.  He says the Lebanon woman's neighbor trapped the cat and dumped him out by the gas stations and that Safehaven, the local shelter, only 200 feet away, knows about him and has the owners number if I catch him.  I ask if he has been feeding the cat and he says sometimes, not much, not often, that he mouses for food.   I am thinking, "the cat is starving.  Have a fricking heart."

The cat is in the trap in ten minutes.  I give the station attendant my card and tell him I'll call Safehaven to tell them I have the cat and I guess take him there, although I knew I'd be gone today.

I get home though, and post about it on FB and even though it's 11:00 p.m. now, a Lebanon friend responds.  She's totally excited.  Says that Mr. Butters is her neighbors cat.  I say, "Did I get him fixed?"  "Yes," she says.  I look up the photos of the cats I got fixed through her and find a photo of Mr. Butters.  He doesn't look a thing like the cat I caught outside of having orange on him.  But he's a short hair dark orange tabby tux.  This cat I caught is a long hair all orange buff boy, almost no visible striping and no white.  How in the world would anyone mistake him for Mr. Butters?

Her neighbor, who owned Mr.Butters, now online with her, says she had posted photos of Mr. Butters on craigslist after he disappeared and got two responses, one from each gas station, who claimed that photo indeed was the stray roaming the gas stations.  Really?  Somebody needs their eyes checked.  They asked for Safehaven's help catching him but I guess that didn't work out.

Mr. Butters.  Photo taken when I took him to be fixed.  He's now missing.

The gas station cat.   Look anything like Mr. Butters to you?  Sure doesn't to me.  

The cat was fixed today.  He has a long bad wound on one side of his face that extends from one ear down to his jaw.  It is ragged, not a straight cut, and could have been inflicted by a predator or by him getting hung up going under like a sharp fence bottom.  I wonder if he was slipping under outside dog kennels at Safehaven next door to eat and got caught up.  The FCCO thought it would heal.  But now, what to do with him.  I left two messages with Safehaven hoping they will take him.  I wonder if he was dumped there.

 The cat was in imminent danger last night, running haphazardly among moving cars near the freeway.  I couldn't leave him like that.

I don't know if he is feral or not.  Not very, if at all, to come so close to getting in my car, when I invited him to get in.

Anyhow, once settled down after that, going from thinking I'd found a lost cat, which is euphoric, to knowing I hadn't and now what would I do with the guy, I set a trap in my yard.  I wanted to catch the Lynx Point still.  Wonder upon wonders, I caught him.  He too was fixed today at the FCCO.  He was labeled "senior" by the FCCO.  I don't know where he came from.  He showed up around the same time the long hair gray and white male showed up.  

Well, they're both fixed now, which, in a couple of weeks, should make my life easier, should they wander back through.  The spray marking and male smell will fade and my cats, like Peeman Sam, won't react in like manner.

The Lynx Point yard stray, fixed today at the FCCO.

I was worn out after taking the cats to the clinic.  I couldn't think of anywhere close I could sleep in my car, safely, and without parking issues, so I just went straight back down to the rest area, and slept there.

My home away from home.  My vacation getaway.  As close to a vacation as I'll ever get, at least.  There's a rest room, big beautiful trees, and ample parking.  I slept three beautiful hours.

So the yard strays are now all fixed again.  At least I think that's it for new roam throughs.  Just one male left to catch up at that Lebanon colony, where Slurpy was born.

But I've got the gas station boy now to deal with.  I bet Safehaven will take him.  He was living in their backyard, for I guess at least 8 months.  I hope they'll help out with him.  That wound of his looks bad.  Poor guy.

I wanted to be a hero and have found Mr. Butters.  But this poor guy doesn't give a shit about Mr. Butters or my little feel good issues.  He's just glad he's now safe.  I'm glad I helped him out.

I now have the exact date when the last invoices for spay neuter must be in, due to Poppa's closure and that date is June 15.  No more cats taken in after June 10.

The end is near.