Back Pain and a New Small Colony

The people whose 34 cats I trapped to be fixed asked if they could give my number to someone else, whose elderly father feeds cats.  I said "Yes" as long as they understood my expenses would need covered.

So it's set up and my drop trap is out there at yet another Lebanon location, being fed under to get the cats used to eating under it.

There are only 8 or 9 cats and the man has been feeding for years.  His daughters recently got a dumpster and have had six loads so far of junk from inside the house hauled off.

The yard is full of dog, cat and goat poop.  He also has some chickens.  It's not a pretty scene out there for animals.

But the daughters are slowly making progress, cleaning everything up and getting the cats fixed was on the list.  But if there are only that small number of cats after years, either someone got these cats fixed, without the old man knowing it, or there is disease that kills the kittens, the most prevalent in Lebanon of which would be distemper.  Or maybe leukemia.  Or a neighbor is killing them.  Severe roundworm infections can be fatal especially to kittens as can severe flea infestations, causing death through anemia.

In years past, I've taken dozens of cats to be fixed from that same area.  Even from that side of the road.

Outside of two with obvious URI, they don't look unhealthy.  We shall see.

I'm excited to have even a small trapping gig.  8 cats is a very small gig, to be sure.  But I am happy to be able to do it, to be useful to someone and to do what I love doing!

However, the timing is not particularly good because I hurt my back.   I believe I did so when I was loading and unloading the 40 lb bags of awkward-to-handle wood pellet fuel I use for cat litter.  Every time I do it all, including loading the large bags at the store into two shopping carts, then taking the large bags out of the cart to load into my car, then unloading them at home, I end up hurting my back.  The pain is hitting its prime today, so I am fairly certain it was the wood pellet loading and unloading that did it, since the timing is right.

It is something I have to live with until its done with and I've lived with a lot of pain.  Standing up is the least painful.  Sitting and laying down, the most painful.  It's muscle pain this time, which is good.  I would rather have muscle pain than nerve pain any day if I could choose.

So my joy over a small time trapping job is tempered with the knowledge of pain.

But I'm still looking forward to it.  I got a few photos when I went out to leave the trap, of the cats I hope to catch.  I photographed only six but saw 8.  The man's daughters are not sure if there are more than 8.  There may be up to ten.  I guess we shall see.

I also saw a long hair gray and a long hair little black one.  The old man claims they're all girls and there have never been kittens, but his daughters say otherwise.  In the photos, the cats do look like girls.  We shall see.