Cat Pics!

Buffy, above, is one of the starvation kids, three kittens I found out in a field, so starved they could not even move.  All three survived.  Doc, the sweetest of the three, was adopted, but Buffy and Mops who have rather sour dispositions, did not get homes.  Both love to play, however.  The Gruffy Twins, as they are also known, are almost 8 years old now.

Speaking of gruffiness, that would be me lately.  I'm bored and I'm lonely and I wish I could have done more this summer and summer's gone.  Now we here are faced with eight or nine months of dismal gray and rain.  I meant to have a plan by now, to deal with the lack of employment even in the self appointed mission category.  So far, no plan.

I go ages with no human contact.  This can be hard enough in the summer, but it will be a real test of my sanity and endurance this winter.

I keep on trying to find relationships, friends, a family to join of some kind, a tribe.  No luck so far.

I hear my nephew is getting married.  He hooked one finally.  He's been looking for love for many many years and traveled the world in search of love.   He even went to Australia following a girlfriend there, but they split up.  He moved to Texas to take his first real job, following a girlfriend, but they too split and he came back to Oregon anxious to put Texas in his rear view mirror, my brother said.  He got a rather low wage job in southern Oregon and lives with his parents and now at 30, has finally found love, it seems and someone who wants to marry him.  The catch?  She lives in Oklahoma.

Somehow they've been going back and forth, not sure how often, but that has to be terribly expensive, so they're cutting short the courtship to cut the expenses and going for it.  Why not, I think to myself, sitting here alone.  I hope they make it and have a happy loved life together.

I'm not going to the wedding.  Even if I get invited.  I barely know my nephew.  Only met him a few times in my life.  I can't afford a trip like that.  Not in a million years.  I don't have clothes fit for anything other than wandering an alley. (or the backwoods of Oregon).  Won't stop me from being happy for them and hoping very much it works out and they can have that life they want of companionship and love.

Cougie, on the left in the above photo, has done well since all her teeth were removed.

But it is Gretal who has really thrived here, after all her teeth were removed a couple years back.   She is so content and happy.  Haley there, on the right, is coming down into the cat yard from the under eaves cat run.

Gretal is eight years old now.

Gidget, too, is thriving here.  She is one of three cats who came here from the Premier apartment cat fiasco.  Slinko and Molly are the other two.  Six of the cats I trapped went to Odd Cat Out up in Sherwood, while two kittens went to one Portland rescue and two other tame abandoned cats went to a different Portland rescue. In the above photo, she peers at me from the garage overhead run.

 Meesa, above, is mom to the Quirky sisters, now adults and still quirky.  Meesa is, strangely, not quirky at all.

Nemo, above, is Starry's sister, from the N. Albany swamp.  He was so tame and sweet and went to a home in Salem for two months, before they demanded I come get him back and after that, he is not tame and stays in the cat yard mostly.  Lately he's making overtures again and I wonder what the hell he went through in that bad home placement.

He's very happy here though with many friends.  Here, he's come in from the cat yard with Panda and Blueberry.

Starry is Nemo's wonderful sister, who is also very tame, always on my lap and loves other cats especially Slurpy and Miss Daisy.  However, she and Slinko do not like each other at all.

Rosy, from the Lebanon colony cats, up in the cat yard maple fort.  She loves it and plays there with Arrow, another Lebanon colony kitty.

Morning Stretch

Never too old to Create Chaos (Miss Daisy Philosophy 101)

Maybe next summer I'll get to go somewhere, do some things.  It's expensive not only to go somewhere, paying gas, and camping fees, but also expensive to get someone to care for my cats.  In Corvallis I found this woman who took care of them for three days when I went somewhere and charged $120 although that was with a discount because I'd helped so many cats,  she said.  That was for her to come twice a day to clean litter boxes.  I had far fewer cats then.

Most of the cats here now are over six and considered seniors.   I guess you could call this a retirement home, with a few exceptions.  I hate doing adoptions and have committed to caring for these cats until they die.  Or I do.  Unless a superb safe loving home option arises for any of them, then I'll go for it.

My neighbor will watch them for a couple of days.  In exchange, I take care of hers and her house when she leaves, usually for much longer periods.  But I don't mind.  She lets me watch her TV then and she has a zillion channels.  She says taking care of mine is easy and it is because I have it set up to be easy, or I could not survive it.  However, I hope to make it even easier and cheaper.  Finally I have time to build my nonabsorbable litter litter box and see how that goes, and if it works out, as I hope, I will be making some big changes here.