These days it is hard. I am too alone. I look ahead and see nothing but the same--struggles to make it caring for these cats, to feed and clothe and house myself, keep the car running so I can get what I need and possibly escape this freeway sprawled suburb town now and then.
I have the phone now, at least its there, ready, and it was fun at first, but its in the drawer with the others, because I still don't get any calls. The little plastic phone I couldn't even see, it was so tiny, would have been just fine for this person, me, whom no one calls. Ah well....
I still try to find Slinko a home. He would benefit from getting into a good home. No luck there either. Sometimes I wonder if I just think I'm alive, because I travel my world like a ghost unseen.
The experience with the neighbor knocked the wind from my sails. Any thought I had of being liked or respected on this block vanished after that. I knew she thought I was an idiot and sometimes tried to take advantage of me for sport, but the magnitude of the last episode, well I haven't recovered. I avoid her like the plague now.
As for the cats, I need to figure out a product to make and somehow sell, to support them. I don't get donations anymore, except from a handful of people who, it seems, will never stop helping me care for the cats here, if they are able. I have an obligation to them, also, to try to find a way to keep going, something I can make to sell. I don't like to beg. I don't expect anyone to help. I need to find a way to support them on my own, through selling something, either that I make or a service.
But what? What would people buy from me? I'm not crafty. This website is not popular, in fact, it's barely rarely read and so would be unsuitable as a means to market a product should I come up with one. I'll keep trying to come up with an idea for something, then a way to sell it. I have to.
I lay awake at night trying to think of something I could sell, make or a business to start that would support the cats. Or how I would begin without money to begin with.
I walked three miles two days ago and found just one can. Canning will not be my answer. Or much help. Everyone is poor around here and so many people search for cans.
However, an Albany business did donate their cans two weeks ago, which I returned and the total came to just under $23, with which I bought a 25 pound bag of dry cat food. That's amazing that their cans will feed five cats here for a month. I was very pleased and happy.
I have two Reel Mowers I am trying to sell. They don't go for much new, but I hope to sell them. Wrong time of year maybe, have not had one response. But it costs nothing to keep the ad going.
Today, Heartland takes Viktor. He will be devastated. He's weary of being just in my bathroom and now he will be locked in a small cage. I feel very guilty and conflicted over this. But maybe he will get a good home soon. There are so few good homes out there, makes me hang my head to think I will need to delude myself to hope the best for him.
When I took in Viktor, and the other two cats, from the rabbit hoarders, the officer who asked me to take them in, told me there were rabbits again in the rabbit hoarders garage. She was aghast and told me they were told they all had to be gone by that Wednesday, including the cats and the dogs. They'd already removed 200 rabbits and Guinea Pigs.
But when I picked up the cats, I asked how things were going for them, and one of them at the house said lots of her friends had gone to adopt their rabbits, after Safehaven took in the 200 and immediately adopted them out, super cheap and unfixed.
Although the woman said nothing else, given there were rabbits back in the garage, I wondered immediately if those were not some of the same rabbits, previously removed, adopted out fast and furious and almost free and unfixed, and maybe adopted to the rabbit hoarders friends who just handed them right back over to the rabbit hoarder. I wondered that first thing and I still do wonder that.
I still have anger that the cats were left there to suffer. Poor Missy, with mouth and throat cancer, unable to eat without pain, and poor Bootsy, with that horrific awful staff infection all over him. Only Vicktor seemed somewhat healthy of all things alive there. Allegedly there were three dogs there too, ordered to be gone also by last Wednesday. I never saw even one dog.
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| Viktor plays! |
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| Juno |
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| Stiletto |
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| Slinko |
Well, today is the last day with any sun forecast for at least a week so I'm going to take a walk again. Will take my can bag just in case. Wish me luck. Thank you.
What a sad post. I remember you turning down a donation recently, so I thought you were doing better than this. A lot of people here pick up cans too, but the seem to favor recycling bins, dumpsters, and trash cans in parks. OSU might be a good place to look.
ReplyDeleteI turn down donations from people too poor to be donating in the first place. OSU is in Corvallis, I'm not. Costs me $5 to drive over there and back. I'd have to find a lot of cans to just cover the gas. Yeah, I know many people go out and search through recycle bins on recycle days, early in the morning, but it is technically illegal and I'm not comfortable doing it.
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ReplyDeleteHe is an awesome cat, Viktor that is. I'm sure he will get a good home. I cannot keep another. Studley, the yard stray, got a good home. I heard Cash and Cari, the two kittens I bought out of tragic lives, got a good home together too from Heartland. Also heard Piper was adopted to a young woman. So I hope Viktor follows in the same. He's really awesome.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite a difficult puzzle, to rescue cats, hold them, when no one else can, because they're not quite adoptable, but how to raise the funds, as a one person show, to care for them. I feel like I should be able to figure it out, as it isn't that much required, really. Vet care is what knocks you under. I've finally found a reasonably priced fairly local vet. Well, I'll keep thinking on it and you do also and maybe we'll get some big enlightenment idea suddenly.
Well, Viktor is at Heartland now. Oh gosh, that was hard, but I hope he gets a home quickly.
ReplyDelete"The experience with the neighbor knocked the wind from my sails. Any thought I had of being liked or respected on this block vanished after that. I knew she thought I was an idiot and sometimes tried to take advantage of me for sport, but the magnitude of the last episode, well I haven't recovered. I avoid her like the plague now."
ReplyDeleteWhen did you relate this incident?
Can you do secret shopping? It does not pay a lot, but it will get you out of the house. I have lots of little things I do for money, bits of money. I answer surveys on Pinecone and can refer you. Getting referred is the only way you can get to work. Every survey is guaranteed pay!
Let me know.
Now this is a shot in the dark (more like a wild stab really) and yes, I know about the area you live and the challenges there.
ReplyDeleteBut...
...would there be any chance of you advertising your services as a Feline Behaviourist, around the less impecunious areas of Oregon?
You have immense skill and knowledge of what makes cats tick, what works to make a happy feline household and what doesn't. You put yourself down in dealing with people, but you do have to deal with some horror types. With caring feline owners, you'd totally rock (more than you do already).
As for qualifications, forget that. There are rafts of crappy behaviourists out there, with their clipboards, stop watches and tick boxes, all with degrees and bits of paper. But so many of them are not connected to cats in any true sense. They eschew the experience of cat owners in preference of iffy science. If I hear one more spout "it's evidence based" I will scream. You are so much better than them Jody, in every way.
Your approach is an ethological one. This is far more valuable than crude behaviourism. Some how, your skill and knowledge could be monetised to support you and the cats.
Just riffing
Good luck to handsome Viktor, someone good will snap him up I bet.
Jane xx
I have no clue about the animal behaviorist thing. Would not fly around here, where many do not even understand the concept of keeping a litter box clean. As I have mentioned, I can't seek personal pay jobs, only solicit donations.
ReplyDeleteI think Everycat might be on to something. I sometimes reflect that if anyone understands cats, what makes them tick, how to influence their behavior, and so forth, it's surely you. I can easily see you advising people about what to do with cats that are having, shall we say, issues? Your blog could be your resume, and you could run an ad on Craigslist for free. I know it would be a long shot, but what the hell. Surely, not everyone in the Linn/Marion area is the kind of scum you tend to see.
ReplyDeleteI think I"ve explained on here over a zillion times I can't personally make any money, can only do so through the nonprofit or for the nonprofit, and in that regard, cannot set a fee, only ask for a donation in exchange. That has resulted in two major backfires, where I got screwed royal. I'm not putting an ad on craigslist. I'm not that trusting and have no way to take "donations", for over phone advice. I know people think I make money somehow for the cats, and don't want to see me go under here and have to put them to sleep. Other nonprofits get tons of donations. While I get a few, and I am very grateful for those, I am invisible for the most part. I believe my only course may soon be the painful one.
ReplyDelete