A Good Day

I had caught the big doomed boy over in N. Albany on Sunday.   He's actually tame.  I think.  A big polydactyl brown tabby who should have been neutered a very long time ago.

He'd been fighting with neighborhood cats, spray marking, unfixed males have no friends.   But he will now, let's hope.  He got neutered yesterday, along with the Shedd tiny girl, number 20 caught there, and the 2nd female from the Albany colony (the other being the one who had kittens).

Speaking of kittens, I think teen mom is in heaven....

So Ebony, the other black teen female, was in heat, not pregnant.

Ebony, teen female, in heat, fixed yesterday.

Elsie was fixed too, from the Shedd colony.  She is tiny, the youngest of the cats caught there.   To catch her, they fed in a trap fixed so it wouldn't spring, and tied a fishline to the door, ran it up and over something on the porch, for leverage above the door, then in, through the kitchen window, where the line was tied off, scissors ready.  This method of selective trapping works, if people are patient.  Took a couple of weeks.  They followed instructions implicitly and waited it out.  And caught her!  And, this tiny girl, was pregnant.

Elsie, Shedd colony cat Number 20, fixed yesterday

This is a photo of her I took when I trapped there the first time, with a huge gray tabby bobtail male, who isn't fixed yet and shows up only now and then.

Elsie with her boyfriend

This is Mad Hatter, the unwanted hated N. Albany male.  He's polydactyl, and tame (I think).  He'll be in my bathroom soon.  My cats will hate me again.

The neighbors all wanted him gone because he would attack their cats.  They quit feeding him and would feed the six cats I got fixed there last fall, then take up the food, to try to starve him off.  However, that didn't work and Sunday I caught him quickly in a trap.

He was neutered yesterday and Felines First Rescue is taking him on.  A local volunteer of theirs, whom I admire greatly, a young person (under 30), will foster him, probably pick him up Thursday.

Mad Hatter

Meow Village contacted me yesterday.  They were ready to take the four Lacomb cats, all black, who had been in my bathroom three weeks.   Yay!  So, after picking up the three cats at the clinic in Salem, I took the four Lacomb blacks--Mayhem (a.k.a. Big Daddy), Magic (a.k.a. Bobby), Mystery (the only girl) and Mystic (a.k.a. Houdini), to Meow Village.

They had just taken in a cat found in a driveway in Albany.  The woman who found him thought his rear leg was broken.  She couldn't find anywhere to take him and finally took him to the ER vet, but that would be expensive, with a broken leg.  the clinic agreed to keep him overnight, on pain meds.  Then Meow Village stepped in and took him right to their vet, in Salem, where Xrays showed a rear leg shattered to pieces and the bullet that caused that horror, still lodged in his leg.   His leg is being amputated.

I hope the police investigate.

During the day, I took three bags of cat food to a trailer in Waterloo.  I'd gotten a lot of cats fixed for them, most very tame. She had called the day before, said they had no cat food and she didn't get paid til the 3rd.   They also had three dogs, at least, two of whom were not fixed.   Now the woman proudly shows me another dog she took in.  I wasn't so happy.  She had claimed they were completely out of cat food.  When I arrive I see cat food in bowls.  I ask about it, tell her I drove all the way up because she claimed they had none at all.  She said her sister bought a bag yesterday. I say, over the new dog, and it was kind of mean to say it, "why did you get another dog when you can't feed the animals you have now?"   I guess I was suspicous too that my scarce extra cat food would be sold for a few dollars to buy something else.   I doubt she was doing that.

It was not my business she got another dog.  That's why it was mean to say anything.  My business is to decide to give them cat food help or not to, that's it.   I can't use giving her free cat food to justify judgement about the other dog.   I've diluted myself to do that.  Cojoined our troubles.   I will try harder to keep my decisions clear of my own mental junk.  

I went on to the park then, and fed the cats.  I saw Mistachio, one of the two true ferals left, slip into the underbrush.  First time I'd seen her in months.  I forgot about the stinging nettles in the park.  My arm brushed against them at one point and it did not take long for the welts to form.  The welts vanish quickly but the prickly stinging sensation can last hours.  I didn't mind it.  Stinging nettles can be used to treat osteoarthritis and other painful things.   It felt kind of like constant low level jabs of electricity, almost like acupuncture must feel.

I got another call, from a colony caretaker.  A cat I had trapped for spay neuter 8 years ago, now has a swollen cheek, like a chipmunk.   I went down last night and drop trapped her.  Sure enough, her cheek is really swollen.  "That must hurt,' I thought.   Tomorrow she goes off to the vet, the coast vet no less.  They're always willing to get a cat needing seen, in, for care.  I love that about them.

Mayday, taken way back, years ago, when I got her fixed

Mayday, taken last night in the garage

Be a long day tomorrow, so I'll try to take it easy today.   Mad Hatter will move to my bathroom.  My cats, now happy to have it back, after the Lacomb four left, will be super mad to have a just fixed dominant male now in their space.

I'll take Elsie and Ebony home, here in a few minutes.   Teen mom is doing just fine.   Mayday, as I am calling the older feral with the swollen cheek, will be seen tomorrow.

Soon, teen mom and babes will head to a rescue in Portland.  Soon, Felines First will take on Mad Hatter and then, maybe then, I'll have some peace with my own kitties for just a bit of time.  I don't mind helping cats in trouble.  But I can't take on more permanently.  I am very grateful to Meow Village for taking on the Lacomb blacks.