I went all the way to Sweet Home, to a familiar trailer park, to get out four big boys, who all badly needed fixed. They were free roaming and fighting. One black bobtail, Rogue, had a flopped over swollen left ear, from fighting, in fact.
The clinic staff drained the infection and gave him a long lasting antibiotic injection and hopefully that will help. The fixing is free but the antibiotic injection cost $15, a small price to pay to help this lovely boy hopefully have a better outcome.
What will help him most is the neuter. Eventually those male hormones that make him want to fight, and ignore cars to run across highways in search of love or enemies, will recede, like a tide, and he will be prone to peace then. It's the only thing that saves boys from themselves.
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| Rogue, who has the flopped injured ear. |
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| Gordy, a lovable brown tabby trailer park boy. |
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| Gizmo, another of the trailer park boys. |
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| Storm, a pretty boy, but also huge. |
It affected me enough I had to leave immediately when I heard the news upon returning the boys, after a long day. I told the woman who told me the news, also a big time drama creator, who does not always tell the truth, I would not be back, that I get these cats fixed up there and a month or two months later, I find out they've been abandoned and nobody steps in to try to help them.
I sobbed on the way home, thinking of all those cats there, don't have a chance, left to fend on their own and be the recipients along with others like them, of mean hateful comments on facebook groups from people who don't like cats in their yards. They have no chance of finding mercy. People are too worried about some poop in their yards to see the desperate eyes and hearts of these lost souls, victims of humans. If they knew their stories of hardship, would people care then?
I called KATA's director from a parking lot. She's been doing this for years up there. She started as a rural route mail carrier. She'd see the horrors everyday, cats everywhere, as she delivered mail, and she chose to do something about it and formed a nonprofit. She and her partner in caring would trap hundreds of cats and take them to be fixed at mobile FCCO clinics. These clinics gave a one time shot at fixing up to 100 cats at a time but were labor intensive and not an efficient way to end over population, as it was one day and clinics, that locals had to organize, including recruiting volunteer vets, were months apart. Nonetheless they did their best. They morphed into more of an adoption group than a spay neuter group, although they still do TNR (trap, neuter, return). She is in her mid sixties now and her friend, in her mid 70's. Still they do more work than two dozen young folks would or could. We often lament what will happen when all the old cat trappers die.
She told me they picked up a cat there at that same trailer park a few weeks ago, one I knew, one I'd gotten fixed two years ago, front foot smashed. Two guys now living in the same trailer as the drama queen who left her cats behind when she moved out had gotten him help. They call him Otis and his front leg was so badly damaged it had to be amputated. he's already got a home. So she said maybe these two guys will help the cats in that park. That made me feel better.
I also took up two Lebanon girls, also from a trailer park, both in heat, to be fixed. Isis and Fiona.
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| Fiona, from Lebanon, fixed yesterday. |
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| Isis, a little Lynx Point girl, from Lebanon was also fixed. |
I usually don't take in cats to relocate but I can't afford to feed more at the county park. I am hoping my friend who places barn cats will soon recover and will be able to find them a place.
The rain still pounds down here. My backyard is a miserable swamp of standing water. The soil cannot hold more. The valley is composed of dense clay for the most part, and clay is not known for water absorption ability. I'm not sure how much more rain I can absorb either.
I guess the basic problem with all of this is the people in these communities are so messed up themselves, they don't have it in them to look beyond themselves to things like cats. It's a bad cycle all the way around. At least your doing a good effort to help with one part of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, L&L, lots of messed up people. Just wish they'd not get pets or have kids sometimes until they're stable themselves.
DeleteI can think of a few humans who would benefit from being neutered. As would the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all you do.
I can think of more than a few. When I picked up that boy at the clinic and she told me about his wound, I said "Tis the season. The season of love and war."
DeleteI seem to remember you mentioning a lack of snow in the mountains over the past winter. I hope the wetness is at least filling the reservoirs.
ReplyDeleteWe've had lots of rain but snow came late this winter, but fortunately, its even snowing now in the mountains so hopefully the snow pack that keeps the water running in the summer around here, and fills the reservoirs as it melts, will be good.
DeleteWow. My heart breaks for you. Thank you thank you thank you to you, my dear, and those other kind and tireless souls. I can't imagine some younger person not stepping in at some point after seeing your good works. ~crosses fingers~ Take care, my dear.
ReplyDelete