Cat Eyes---A Cat Woman's Photos: Rain, Rain

Rain Cascades from Dead Neighbors Long Blocked Gutters

Heavy rain and general dreariness have plagued Oregon recently.


Dead Neighbor's waterfall

If you live in Oregon for the rain...or for the grayness...or because you love depression and cold and damp and various types of mold, you're happy now.

I'm not. This has got to end, my mind is screaming. Where is the sun?

I'm sick of the gray and cold and rain.   But then, if it went sunny, what would I do then?   Mow the lawn. And then what?   I need a job.

I need some money so I can get out of town, do something other than clean litter boxes, fill them, clean them, mop the floor, sweep the floor, take out the trash, mop again...repeat over and over and over.....

I've got to find a good canning area, go at it hard, something.

Go thirty miles now, costs me almost $4 in gas.

Today I did the cleaning then updated about six cats on flea treatment and vaccines, ear cleaning, nail trims. Some I have to hold in a net to get these things done and I don't like doing that to them. They're so good about it. What a wimp I've become. Has to be done. I don't like them to be scared when I do that. I'm thinking up alternate hold methods.

Shaulin is not athletic at all and to hold her in a net, with her breathing hard from being scared, made me really sad. So I worked quickly to do what has to be done. It's like holding a middle aged nerdy nice aunt in a net, you know? I don't like it. I love my cats, and all their differences. Some are defiant and agile, some are chubby and clumsy. Some are smart, some not so much. Some have emotions that get in the way of their ability to enjoy life and some are giving and wonderful, like Slurpy.   Some are worriers and some panic easily. They're a lot like humans in their differences.

My friend suddenly showed up. I was happy to see her and we went off to the thrift stores. She's worried about her husband, told me he drops off to sleep early in his chair and immediately is talking to her, but half nonsense, not asleep, but she didn't know what was going on. Blackout, I say, not really knowing, is it that? He drinks heavily, even more so since retirement. There's nothing she can do to stop him either. She loves him. He's a good man. But the booze, it's killing him. He's been a heavy drinker all his life. Her father drank himself to death. So many do around here.   Overcame me, as I listened to her, with a profound sadness. There's nothing anybody can do.

It's like they're waiting, she said the other day. They care for his 90 some year old mom. 24/7. She sits in a chair all day watching reruns of 70's and older TV shows. Bonanza. Emergency. Murder She Wrote. Etc. The noise of that constant TV alone could drive me nuts. But mostly she naps, leaned back, mouth open. She takes pills. And eats. Not much of a life, for her or any of them, in that crowded house. It's big enough, but crowded due to the layout of all the rooms off one narrow hallway. It's a stress on them. One of them has to always be there and usually its my friend and her hubby would be off with friends or going somewhere. Lately she's been asserting herself some, to get some time off herself. It's only fair. More than fair.

The neighborhood is full of drug people and kids with no real parents interested in them. And abandoned animals. And broken down houses, barely maintained. It's sad. It's depressing. They once talked of moving. I think they should. But it's not my business. They're good people. I love them. But it's all so sad sometimes. Lebanon is sad.    Drugs and booze and poverty and nothing.

Maybe its not any sadder than anywhere else. Lots see my life as sad, sitting here alone all the time, with just my cats, on this cemetery block, quiet as death. Them caring for their elders like they do is like light in the darkness, despite the problems it creates.    The unwanted kids in the area are always in their yard, knowing somebody lives there who likes them and will notice them. It's why I go over when I can---they're always happy to see me, friendly, accepting, they don't judge, and they'd share their last bit of food with pretty much anyone. So...there you go...

What I don't want, is for him to die I guess, from the booze, because I think he's terrific and I don't want him to die from the booze either because my friend would lose her life long best friend, her husband and it would be so hard on her and then trying to figure how to live without him. I guess nobody can tell death who to take and when. Nobody on earth has that kind of power. I wish I did. I'd say "Leave them be, don't touch that family there!" That's what I'd say. "Because they're my friends, my precious treasure I happened upon, and I love them."

Cougie is much better. She plays now, runs around, acts like she doesn't miss those painful teeth at all. That's her on the right, and her family member, Misty, from the same Albany business, is on the left. She hangs out with Misty a lot.

I've been working nights on the Odd Cat Out website, to help out my friend who runs Odd Cat Out. I've written some copy for the home page, and finally figured out how to add some photos on the Adopt/Sponsor page, but still haven't linked those photos to other pages for sponsorship. She hasn't sent me more photos of sanctuary cats, to add. I had those I added because those are cats she took in from down here and I'd taken photos of them here. I enjoy trying to figure out how to do it. Learned a lot so far.

You can go to Odd Cat Out's still under construction website by clicking here.