Year in Review! Need a Tax Break? Donate!

If you are still looking for a tax break, a charitable contribution, or know someone who might be, tell them about Odd Cat Out South.  We are affiliated with Beaverton nonprofit Poppa Inc., so are allowed to use their nonprofit status here, to help support the cats here, who came to be here as a result of my volunteer effort with Poppa Inc.  Poppa Inc. now operates as Odd Cat Out.  And down here, in Albany, I'm Odd Cat Out South.

You can still donate through the online fundraiser here:  DONATE TODAY! CLICK HERE!

The fundraiser is active through today!   Spread the word!

Ah, the great cat roundups for spay neuter, of yesteryear thousands upon thousands of cats fixed, thanks to me rounding them up and Poppa Inc. paying the vet for the surgeries.  Now, I take care of the cats I ended up with, from that time, and that takes money to do.

I use all money raised to buy food, cat litter, flea treatment and vet care for the cats here.  And to help other community cats I encounter by chance.

 I no longer actively seek out cats in need of help, as I have no space here and if I find cats in trouble, I have to get them to someplace else with room.

Not that I have not done that this year.   I've assisted 89 cats since the start of the summer, either get fixed or into shelters and rescues and off the streets or into homes.

Here is a recap, the stories of those cat encounters.....

Early this summer, a Lebanon woman asked for help with cats she had taken in from someone on craigslist--a mom and kittens.   A Portland rescue agreed to take the mom and her kittens so I picked them up from the Lebanon woman and drove them to the Portland rescue.

Lebanon mom Sophie and her kittens, who went to Portland

Early last summer, I was called about kittens found in the rain and dark, in a box, labeled "free".  I went and got the four, and drove them up to PAWS, a shelter in West Linn that specializes in bottle babes.

Then I arranged with KATA to help the kittens' mom get fixed. The people had two unfixed adult females.  I transported the two mothers the people owned to Heartland Humane to be fixed, and kept one mothers' four kittens in my bathroom while the moms were fixed and later paid the people $40 cash for two of the kittens, to save their lives. I took them to Heartland Humane, who adopted them out.

 The people refused to relinquish the mothers and the other two kittens.  Later they abandoned the mothers.  I went and retrieved the girls.  And tried to find the two kittens they had refused in August to relinquish.  However, the kittens were dead.

I took the adult girls, sisters, to a home in California, where they could stay together, just before Christmas.  They have new names, Margaret and Melanie, a new state and a new home and that makes me happy.

Lucky Melanie

Lucky Margaret

This summer, when I was out riding my bike, I saw two teens playing in the street and went to look.   When I did, I heard the mews of tiny kittens.  I knocked on the peoples's door, and a woman came out and told me a stray mother had come and had kittens.  She showed them to me.  Seven newborns under a bush, most of them girls!  Turned out, it was not a stray at all, and the two teens were the cats left from a former litter of the same mom.   She wanted them all gone.

I came back the very next day and took the seven kittens, their mom, and the two teen boys.  10 Cats!   A Portland rescue was willing to take them all.   Off they went to Portland!

Rock Nest Kittens

Albany Mom and Kittens at vet clinic in Portland

The two teen boys

A farmer I've known a long time, a cat man, called.  He'd found a kitten in a pipe.  Seems someone had dumped a mother and kittens.  The mother was killed on the road and the kittens vanished and died one by one, until, by the time, Roger came along, only one remained.  He coaxed the kitten out and called me.  I got the scraggly sick starved kitten from Roger and thank goodness Heartland Humane once again helped and took in Piper and fostered Piper until he was well and finally Piper got a home.

Piper, getting him warm

Two more adult male yard strays, both in very bad shape, went to two different rescues/shelters, where they recuperated from starvation and parasites, then were adopted out!

Studley

Another male, at an abandoned house, also went to Portland and a new home, after the city asked me to help the cats left there.  I only saw the black and white cat once, but the big Siamese with horrible breath, I took with me to the cheaper vet clinic on the north coast, to have his teeth cleaned.  On the way back, I stopped in Portland, at Odd Cat Out, who took him in.  But he got a home within a few days from there.  His name is now Foxy and he is quite loved!

Foxy!

Also, I arranged to take a Jefferson stray male fed by a couple to be fixed, but first tested for FIV.  They were in the process of moving, and on my block looking at the two foreclosure houses.   When Tyson, the stray, tested strong positive for FIV, as I had feared he would, as an adult fighting male, Tyson's time on this earth ended.  They were moving and could not inflict him, freshly neutered and still wanting to fight, on her sister's fixed healthy cats.  Unfortunately Tyson had already fought with and caused injury to another of their cats who now likely will also be positive for FIV.  It's a hard lesson to learn.  Fighting cats are cats who spread disease and get disease.  Fix those boys.

The city also asked if I could take in the three cats owned by the rabbit hoarders.   An officer stopped here to ask if I could do that and I immediately agreed to it, since I had long been worried about the extremely skinny muted torti there.  The people had been charged with neglect last July for holding over 200 rabbits in their garage.   The cats and dogs they had were not taken from them, but later, when more rabbits were discovered in their garage, they were given a few days to give up the dogs and the cats.

Missy, who had cancer

Boots who had a staff infection

Beautiful Viktor

But it was Heartland again who helped with those cats.  I took them over immediately after I went and got them, from the rabbit people's house.  Boots, the orange tabby, whom I'd actually taken to be fixed two years earlier for those people, had a bad staff infection covering his body.   He was fostered by a Heartland volunteer and healed quickly on antibiotics.  She said he lounged around, eating and sleeping like a homeless person who has suddenly been granted a mansion life.  Boots got a home.

Missy, the little gray torti, had terrible mouth and throat cancer, terminal cancer, and this is why she was so skinny.  She could not eat.  Missy's suffering ended that day.

Viktor, the big delightful black and white kitty, remained with me for a time, until Heartland had room for him.  They then took him in and eventually adopted him out.  I hope he got the home he deserved.  Viktor is awesome.  I had taken him to be fixed six years ago.

The rabbit people told me of the cats two houses down who needed fixed.  I left notes and finally talked to the man and set up a trapping date.   The FCCO agreed to fix them for nothing.  The man had no money.  I'd be out bait and gas, but I wanted to get this done.

I trapped ten cats.  Two adult males and three adult females and five kittens.  They were all fixed at the FCCO clinic.  I returned the five adults but the kittens are now in Portland.  Five more cats out of Albany and off the streets.

I also trapped six cats at a colony in Corvallis when a woman who was moving her mother from Albany to Corvallis requested help with cats in her backyard.  Two of those six were euthanized due to disease.  Two were kittens I quickly tamed.  I found a rescue in Portland who took them in to continue socialization.  They eventually got homes. I returned the two healthy adults.

Roman and Goofy

Adult female, fixed and returned

Later, I was called about another cat there having kittens.  I located the kittens under a neighbors deck and called them out to where I could reach them, by laying on my stomach with an arm under the deck.  The next day I used them to trap their mother.  She would not nurse them and was fixed at Heartland Humane, then returned.  The kittens were taken in by KATA.

Dweezel, fixed and returned.  Her three kittens went to KATA.

I also drop trapped a cat the people's mother, in Albany, had been feeeding as a stray in Albany, because she wanted to move him to Corvallis with her, which she did, after I trapped him in about half hour.  Coco, however, tested positive for FIV.  However, now he's an inside cat in Corvallis and will remain an inside cat there, and loved, despite his FIV status.

Coco!

I trapped 33 cats so far at a Lebanon colony who requested help.  The couple had tried to find any help to get the cats fixed for some time, and only got useful information when they contacted KATA who asked me to call them.  I did.  I only help when cats can be returned and my expenses are paid.  This couple was eager to get it done.

They are all fixed now!

The the most poignant and strange encounter of all the cats helped this year, was when my friend decided she wanted to see Millersburg, of all places, and in the dark, on a cold night, the night before torrential rains hit the valley.  And once there, in Millersburg, where there is nothing but development houses, I wanted to show her a very rural location where Jade came from, after having kittens in the corner of a garage.  She was unwanted and I took her and the kittens.  We drove down that road, miles from anywhere, made a corner, and there, in our headlights, was a cat, and two kittens behind her.  She would not move.  A pickup, angry at the hold up, roared around us.  If he'd been ahead of us, the cats would have been plowed under his tires.   We put the cats in a box, provided by the man in that one house on that corner, the house where Jade came from.  I brought them home.  They were crawling in fleas but relieved to have food and be warm.   Petunia and her kittens remain in Portland with the rescue who took them in, awaiting a home.

Also this year, many of the cats here received needed vet visits and dental care.  The year began with Cougie and Rogue, two cats from the grounds of an Albany business I helped, experiencing tooth problems.   I took the pair clear up to a Sherwood vet, for surgery.  The visit was paid for by Odd Cat Out itself.  I was then not an affiliate.  Miss Daisy also went up to the same vet clinic, when she experienced weight loss and itchy skin.

Cougie and Rogue would each need all their teeth pulled.  Cougie required two more visits to the vet to get that done.  Rogue went once, with Brambles, on a trek clear to Astoria, where all but his four canines were pulled.

Poppy also had to have all her teeth removed, including, in a last visit, her four canines.

Galihad, an Albany stray male with a horribly stinky mouth, went with Poppy on a road trip to the Astoria vet, to have his teeth cleaned.  He then got a home.  Who would adopt a boy with an unhealthy mouth?   The visit made a huge difference for him in getting a home.

Shady needed an emergency dental when one of her front fangs suddenly slipped half out!   Starr, from the Corvallis homeless camp, began to cry out, at times, when she'd eat.  She went in and had seven teeth pulled and was diagnosed with tooth resorption.

Vision, the oldest gal here, 20 years old, fell off a shelf and damaged an eye.  Her accident required two visits the first costing $200!

Miss Daisy, also elderly now, who, by the way, was originally found by the same farmer who rescued Piper, needed another vet visit when she quit eating.  This cost over $300, including the special food she is now on.

Jade, Mooki, Misty, Teddy, Soloman and Comet all got dentals this year too.  Comet's was just yesterday.  All thanks to wonderful people who have donated to help!

Also, sadly last year we said goodbye to three beautiful souls.  Hairy, Electra and Cloudy.

Electra came to live with me a long long time ago, when I was transferring two cats from one trap to different traps, at an FCCO clinic in Salem.  They were brought in by St. Vince, a trapper and three star army colonel I knew well.  One teen got away from me and darted up into open wiring.  I had to reach into the wiring to pull her out from a chair in the dark and she bit me clear through the thumb.  She'd need quarantined for ten days but instead, I took her home, as my second cat.  She died last year, of pneumonia.  My dear Electra, whom I will love forever.

My dear Electra

St. Vince is gone now, too.

Hairy died of kidney failure.  He was an old guy who'd been here five years, after he was brought in a live trap to Heartland Humane, trapped out off Country Club drive by someone who said he'd been sneaking in through their cat door for food and then he'd fight with their cat.  All he wanted was food.   He got it here.  Heartland didn't want to kill him so I took him in.  He came out as tame towards the end of his life and followed me around like a dog.  In the end, I'd give him over 300 cc of fluid a day because he wanted to live and he loved his new tame boy life of love.   But when he began vomiting blood, it was time.

Very hairy Hairy, the dog cat!

Cloudy came here when I trapped that colony out off Olson Lane near Lebanon, where a woman left behind 60 cats and kittens when she moved and sold the property.   I never was supposed to end up with any cats, just help the woman trying to save them, but you know how that goes, how people promise things and then let those promises slide, laying the consequences onto someone else, someone like me.  After injuring myself trapping there, severely, an injury that would take over six months to heal, I did end up caring for 13 cats here.  I was promised help finding them homes and support feeding them until I did.  That support and help never came.

Cloudy, a young male, was fine one minute, when I was in the spare bedroom feeding them, and the next minute, I heard screaming. I ran into the bedroom to find him laid out, unable to move his rear end, his rectum turning blue, the back half of his body cold to the touch and him screaming in pain.  I did not know what was wrong.

Cloudy, who died of a saddle clot

I began trying to help him, as I called Heartland, needing to find a place to end his suffering fast.   But he died a few minutes later.  At least, he was not suffering.

 I later read up on what in the world could have caused such symptoms and discovered saddle clots, a clot thrown from a usually defective heart, that lodges in the saddle before the arteries split to nourish each back leg.  These clots are very painful and most cats do not survive them.  If they do, they don't survive long afterwards, because there is a root cause for the clot in the first place.

R.I.P. Cloudy, Hairy and Electra--my friends, my family, my beloveds.

It's been a banner year for cats getting helped!   Thank you to all who have helped make that happen.

Happy New Year!

I would like to thank the groups who helped me out this year with other cats and the cats here!

Poppa Inc./Odd Cat Out---for allowing me affiliate status and for taking in the five wildish kittens from the ten cat colony I recently trapped for fixing!

Heartland Humane in Corvallis Oregon for all kinds of help and for taking in Studley, a yard stray, Piper, the kitten, helping the rabbit people's cats, and all kinds of other assistance.  I think you are awesome!

KATA--Kitty Angel Team Adoption, a small rescue/adoption group with big hearts, who took in the three tiny kittens from the Corvallis feral mom and try hard despite scant resources to get as many cats fixed as possible and cats in trouble off the streets and into homes.

ARCF--Animal Rescue and Care Fund.  This small rescue in Portland is AWESOME and has helped out so many local cats.  They took in Petunia and her two kittens, whom I found in the middle of that Millersburg road in a fateful encounter that could have made The Twilight Zone!  ARCF also took in Sophie and her kittens early in the summer and then later ARCF took in the Rock Nest kittens and their mom, plus the two teens.  WE LOVE YOU ARCF!

Second Chance Companions, of Vancouver WA.  This great group has taken in two kittens from me and even a stray adult.  THANK YOU SCC!!!

PAWS---a small shelter with a big heart, this group took in the four Free Box kittens found early this summer, over on Oaks St. in Albany out in the dark on a rainy cold June night.  The kittens were not even weaned and PAWS specializes in bottle babes!

FCCO---The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon prevent more suffering probably than any other group in Oregon through their nonstop spay neuter clinic for feral and stray cats.   You can rescue and shelter and rehome a zillion cats, but the groups that actually make the huge difference, the change, are those who cut off the suffering at the source, through spay neuter.   That's how change happens!