Saturday, January 28, 2017

A Few Odds and Ends

I have appointments Monday for spay neuter.   But Monday also starts off my two weeks of jury duty.   So I've not been sure if I will actually be able to use those Salem reservations.  I gave two of the five away.

This is not the first time I've received the jury duty letter.   But, last night, I checked out the schedule for jurors next week and was relieved to see I have to report only one day.  Whew!  And its not Monday.

I hope if I get put on a jury I don't fall asleep.  I tend to doze the moment droning voices kick in.  That would be embarrassing.  I can't do meetings.  I am rather a loner, rarely am around people, so maybe the buzz of people around me will keep me awake.

When I was growing up, we were carted off to church every Saturday and as a family, we often slept through the church service.   Mother and father were sure things and would almost instantly nod off within minutes after the sermon began.   I would follow, propping my head upright, so I sort of looked awake, by leaning back against my long hair.   For me, it's a long standing well practiced habit to nod off when someone starts preaching.

I think its a healthy habit.

In all my years alive, I've been called to jury duty several times, but have never sat on a jury.  I hope that record isn't broken.

I got a call from the Albany complex, the one where King lives, where I got about 9 adults fixed last June and crawled under the complex through the insulation to retrieve kittens.

Then a couple months later King had to take a road trip with me to the coast clinic to get some bad teeth pulled.   Well King is looking good, but one kitten turned up that nobody caught and then grew to a teen and now has a URI and needs fixed.  So they called me up.

I went over very very early two mornings ago, set up the drop trap and waited, not even knowing what the kitten looked like.    I was supposed to get that info but somehow I didn't get it before I went over.   I laid a white towel across the back of the drop trap, hoping I could see the cats who went under to eat, from a distance, in the dark, with a back drop of white.  I could not see ear tips however, only generalities like size and color.

A tabby on white showed up, dancing around the sides and back of the trap, not staying still enough for me, shining a flashlight that direction with one hand, while trying to hold crappy binocs steady with the other, to check for an ear tip.  I finally got a split second good enough look at the right ear.  No tip.  I yanked the cord and dropped the trap over the cat.

I ran forward, with my sheets to cover the trap, which calms the cat under it, until I can transfer the cat out through the transfer door into a transfer live trap.  The cat under it was extremely powerful, bouncing that trap up off the pavement.  I got him transferred however.  It's a huge male, not a teenager.

I quit then, since it was getting light and lights were blinking on inside complex units, and cars were being warmed up and driven by me, where I sat, in my tiny car, wedged just off the main U shaped drive through the complex.  It was the only place I could park to maintain line of sight to the drop trap, so I could yank the cord.

Transferring that big cat to a cage in my garage to be held until Monday was another thing.   It's a wide door into the cage, not easy to block off space above and beside the trap door, so the cat can't exit the cage once he exits the trap into the cage.  I had one end of the trap in the cage, and the other end held up on an empty trap, positioned vertically, as a support.

I propped an old piece of heavy wire mesh above the trap, against the open space left there, as I unclipped the transfer door on the trap, and lifted it up, allowing the very agitated cat entry into the cage.  The cage was set up with a carrier bed, a shelf with blankee, and a litter box.  He charged out of the trap and into the cage, and immediately began testing the cage, and my mettle as he tore at the sides and came right back at me, at the front of the cage, his eyes wide.

I couldn't remove the trap safely yet, to close the cage door, but I held my ground, pushing that piece of old wire cage hard against the door above the trap, that was still inserted into the cage.  I knew what would come and it did.  He turned his back on me, to dig at the back of the cage.  I quickly pulled the trap out and closed the cage door, secured it, and went to get clips, to secure it even better.
Galaxy.  He looks a lot like Slinko.

He has now settled down.   I drop wet food right by his feet, where he lays up on the shelf, and baby talk him.  He eats the food and sits back, waiting for more.  I've named him Galaxy.  He'll be fixed Monday and go back.  In the meantime, we're having a strange friendship.

I went back Thursday night, and set a small live trap where the woman feeds them.  It wasn't twenty minutes before the teen came around the corner with one of the fixed females and not five minutes more, before she went in the trap.   She's a sweetie.   I don't really know that its a girl.  I didn't check before setting her up in another cage in the garage.   She has a URI, which is why the folks called me to help her.  So my electric bill for next month is getting a good start on being extreme too because I have a space heater helping her keep warm.









Sick teen
Yes the electric bill came.  After I found it in the mail, I couldn't open it for two days, in fear.  Now I have and my fears were confirmed.  But that's life.  


Got one more unfilled space for Monday, so be at it this weekend to catch another needing fixed.   I hate wasting spay neuter reservations.  The girl will get an antibiotic injection when she's spayed.   I love that about whs, when they fix ferals.  If they need it, they get the shot.  It's $15 extra, but very much worth it.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck on the jury front.
    And thank you. Again.
    I am sorry that the electricity bill was as bad as your feared. Is there any way we can help?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1:21 PM

    Goodness, you are incredible. My prayers are with you. Thank you for what you do. Hugs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Best wishes! I adore Galaxy's pink nose. Thank you for all you do.

    ReplyDelete

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