Nowhere Days

Summer churns on.  Sometimes its' hot, sometimes overcast with thunder storms.

I only got involved helping the Corvallis colony out of complete boredom.  But also because they paid my expenses.  They cover gas and bait and the fixes.

Except I have now two kittens in my bathroom and I'm not sure where they can go.  They need a better foster situation. I can't have them out of the bathroom because I have too many jealous cats here.

The Siamese boy was so sick when he came here Saturday.  He had to have sub cu fluids Saturday night, late, after I got home elder sitting for some Lebanon folks whose family bought them tickets to ride the fireworks train from Lebanon to Sweet Home and back again, after dinner up there.  They didn't know they'd get back so late.  They did not arrive home until 1:30 a.m.

I loaned my camera to my friend, so she could capture photos of their adventure.  The ride costs $100 per ticket.  Relatives bought them the tickets.

I was knowing by then, Sunday would be a horror for me.  I was headed to Portland with the three adults caught Saturday from the colony. I had to leave by 7:30 a.m.   I did not get home until 2:00 a.m.  Then I had to do the chores here and give the kittens antibiotics and the Siamese sub cu fluids too, before dropping into bed for a very few short hours of sleep.

Didn't help I spotted the lost brown tabby unfixed male in my yard as I drove in.  Some people stopped by a week ago, worried over their lost brown tabby male.  He'd been lost when they were moving out of the apartments behind the end of the cul de sac.  They also have an unfixed female who is already pregnant again and already had one litter this summer.  They have another unfixed boy too.  I gave them hell.  How dare they contribute to the problem and also to my problems by letting their unfixed male free roam this hood and daring to want me to watch for him and catch him.  How dare they?

The Corvallis folks delivered the cats to me at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  One black female looked like death warmed over, with bloody pus drooling from her mouth.  She was so skinny and dehydrated too.  Thick yellow snot oozed from her nose.  I shook my head and knew she would not come back with me.  The FCCO has policies about sick cats or diseased cats that the vet judges too ill to humanely return to outside life.

This is the sick black female who was euthanized.

This is Nero, the big older male, euthanized due to advanced stage FIV.

I dropped off the cats and headed to a local reservoir.  I had thought I'd swim, have some fun, but knew now I was too tired and I just needed somewhere I could sleep without over heating in my car.  I laid out an old sheet on the grass by a picnic table with some towels as a pillow and immediately fell into a deep sleep.  I woke up with rain splattering against me.  Thunder was roaring in huge lengthy bellows across the sky.  I went back to sleep, too tired to move.

I slept two hours and woke up again, damp from rain.  I sat in my car awhile in the parking lot and watched system after system roll through.  Picnickers just down from me huddled out of the rain beneath a canopy, that suddenly took flight and tumbled skyward and rolled end over end towards the parking lot, caught by the wind.  Two younger people took off chasing it and they all laughed.

I headed back to the clinic then, knowing, since the heat predicted had not come, I could safely sleep in my car.  Once there, I parked along the curb and crawled into the back of my car, with a silver windshield heat reflecter laid out under me. I used the same towels as a pillow.  I did not wake until 4:00 p.m., with a start, the time I would reclaim the three cats.

I reclaimed only one cat.  The black female had been euthanized.  So had the big male, Nero, as he was FIV positive.  My heart sank and I wanted to cry.    Only the black and white female was healthy and returning with me.

The black and white female, still here, fixed yesterday, who will return this evening.

I got back home and after greeting my cats, who were needy from my absence, I cleaned, did all the chores, fed the kittens, gave the feral girl in the trap food, and hit the hay by 9:00 p.m.  I slept a full 12 hours but still feel giddy tired.

I guess there's only one adult to catch over there still and the two kittens, who may be dead kittens by now.  The little Siamese boy was so sick and so dehydrated when he was caught I can't imagine the other two would survive.   They are still trapping over there, to catch them, if alive, and for the final female.

It was just bad timing, that's all, that I'd agreed to watch my friends mom, while they went off on their adventure, before knowing I'd be taking cats to Portland yesterday.  I survived it and they had a great time.

I hope to find a better foster situation for the two boy kittens, so they'll get lots of handling and exposure to people and tame fully.

Roman, black male kitten, and the Siamese boy kitten, not yet named.  They are still sick but vastly improved and both should survive.

Both parties, the colony people, and the people who rode the train, made donations to my nonprofit cat care fund, which was pretty much empty.  As a result, this morning, I was able to order enough Revolution for all the cats here.  I'm happy about that.

I'd like to also mention Galihad, the long hair senior Himilayan mix, left behind by people in Albany, is in a trial home now, with an old woman up in Portland.  She loves him and the home is probably going to be finalized, I'm told.  She says he's very very happy there.

I don't get to go anywhere unless its a cat mission and my expenses are paid.  So sure the adventure was exhausting and I didn't get to do something fun during the day yesterday, but the weather was bad enough I couldn't have anyhow.  I don't mind sleeping in the rain through a thunderstorm.  In fact, it was comforting on some level.

When I think further about it, knowing now I'll have Revolution for all my cats as a result, and that this bad situation in Corvallis, where kittens have been born to die for years, is going to be solved for good, it was a great weekend, all around.