Thursday, February 25, 2016

Cats on the Move

I was asked to help a Lebanon couple, who are moving this very weekend.  They've bought a house.  They had fed three stray cats and want to move the cats with them, but they were not yet fixed either.

I first trapped the big buff orange guy, but I didn't need to worry about getting him fixed.

Garfield is very clearly (right ear tip) already fixed.
Garfield is also very tame.   Lots of cats get left behind there at that little low income apartment group, I was told.

Finally last night the mother and daughter pair of cats arrived, just as I did.   The upcoming move for the couple who feed them made me need to get them contained this week.   The mom cat looked fat like maybe pregnant again (she's had several litters and most of the kittens haven't survived the mean streets).  But turned out, when fixed today, she was not pregnant, just in heat.

I never checked the sex of her one surviving kitten from the last litter she had.  The feeder couple said it was a girl.  When I heard "her" chirping and rolling around with another big unfixed tame male, and then him atop her like he was trying to, well, you know, I had further reason to not doubt this was a teen girl in heat.

But it's a little boy!

Teen tabby on white fluffy boy, fixed today

The adult female, spayed today
This is Crazy Eyes, the unfixed male around the complex.  The couple moving think he's owned, so before I can get him fixed, I would need to find his owners, who sure should have got that done themselves.   There's an unfixed black male too at the complex who fights with everyone.  He too is owned.  Allegedly also there's an owned very young and very pregnant female.  Gosh darn it.
I didn't want to wait til next Thursday, another week, to get the pair fixed, which was the soonest I could get appointments at Heartland.  So a friend interceded and got the OK for me to take them up to the FCCO this morning to get done.  The Happy Cat Club donated $40 to the FCCO for doing this.   This is half what fixing the same two cats would have cost next Thursday here.

I was so happy to get them done sooner.  Now they can move with the couple sooner too.

The FCCO clinic moved to a new location.  It's now on the west side in a mixed use neighborhood of businesses and residences on a very steep hill.  I only saw the check in part of the clinic which is really bare.  Guess not yet finished.  Very spacious however.

It's an interesting neighborhood.



View of Mt. Hood from the clinic parking lot
As usual the traffic was so congested, it drew out the drive up by an hour, much of what was spent barely moving in clogged up traffic jams on I5 north.  Lovely.

Being very tired, I was in somewhat of a daze, and quickly made my way to one of my favorite sleeping parking lots and took a nice nap.

I slept here!
I also stopped at my vacation home, the rest area near Wilsonville, for awhile, to stretch my legs.  I saw this....



At first I thought the three women were a rescue transport, then I realized those were all purebreds and they were very likely breeders, so I didn't go say hello.  I have NOTHING in common with breeders.

Back home now, got to set up the mom kitty and her son, to hold until probably at least Sunday.  Saturday Animal Rescue and Care Fund is bringing down the parts of a large containment cage, to donate to the couple and hopefully we can take it directly to their new home to set up, as I don't have a way to transport it from here up to there, once its here.  Too big for my little car.

It was so nice when I arrived at the clinic this morning to see two familiar faces, old friends, there waiting for me.   One of them had a treat bag for me!   Tangerines, a half a sack of potatoes, some delicious kind of cracker/cookies made with fruit and a pound cake she had not used.  Well tomorrow, I'm making blueberry shortcake. I still have some blueberries I froze that I picked down at a friends farm last summer.  I can barely stand to think about having a pound cake and what I'm going to do with it tomorrow.

Also, it was sunny!  I wish I had not been so worn out, from not sleeping enough last night which happens sometimes when I know I have the alarm set. I just keep waking up over and over thinking I've slept through it.

Now, sunny to us here probably isn't the same as sunny to someone in the south or say in southern California.  64 degrees.  May as well have been 84 degrees the way everyone was carrying on, in shirt sleeves and shorts and all happy.

11 comments:

  1. Another really productive day.
    And blueberries. Mmmmm blueberries.

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    1. Was productive, fixing even one cat warps the future along many tangents.

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  2. You have been busy with your important work and are going to blueberries and pound cake as a reward.
    Sounds like a good day/week. :)

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    1. Made me feel good to catch some cats and get them fixed. Nothing makes me happier, except maybe blueberries, or.....strawberries. I eyed the fields of the farmer, down on the corner of the highway, where I start getting my strawberries as soon as he has them at his stand. I can feel them coming!

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  3. You were incredibly busy and did so much good! Enjoy your blueberry shortcake!

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    Replies
    1. I couldn't wait and had it last night. Only the container of "blueberries" from myfreezer was blackberries I had picked down near the grange last fall. So I had blackberry shortcake. I've eaten all my frozen blueberries, I'm afraid, but I have one container left of frozen strawberries, saved from last summer too.

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  4. I am so impressed with your good work there! How fortunate those kitties have you working in their behalf. Probably a good thing you don't live here (in Mexico)... the male attitude towards neutering male critters is so macho it would drive you crazy... I love the little male kitty... reminds me of Memo's little Ginger who came in as a girl... left neutered ;-)

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    Replies
    1. I saw that about Memo's Ginger. Made me smile. I think it would drive me totally nuts there. I know people who have tried to live in Mexico but couldn't because of all the homeless animals and others who live there, but went to work immediately to get the animals all fixed. I've had some problems in the same way with the Mexican population here, but on the other hand, have run into several Mexican families eager to get their cats and the neighborhood cats fixed and one girl, who got me to help her parents, is now rescuing herself.

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  5. I've always favored orange males, so I love the one with the clipped ear. It worries me that you have to sleep in parking lots, etc. That woman with the dogs parked on top of each others like chickens in crates was probably on her way to a dog show. If she had been a breeder, the poor things would never have been treated as well as they were. So sad.

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  6. Anonymous1:14 PM

    Mount Hood looks stunning. I like the way Garfield posed for the camera shot. He looks very calm.

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    Replies
    1. He's very calm and quite awesome!

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Round Up

Today is cat round up for tomorrow's five spots.  Two more came up from the vet student in Harrisburg late this morning.  Over 60 fixed ...