Sunday, April 15, 2018

Long Days in the Park

Some might think spending hours for several days in the county park, mostly while rain pounded down, might be a bummer.

I complained about it online but that was fake, to make it sound like such a hardship.

In reality, I escaped reality out there.  I read books, an entire book the first day in the park.  I was after a pregnant mackerel tabby teen, whom I have yet to catch, she's so trap shy.  I caught two other cats, a black pregnant young adult, Hootie, fixed last Monday, and Waters, a gray medium hair presumed male, who will be fixed tomorrow.

And when I handed one of my cards to a worker at the park cleaning restrooms, he pointed out tent campers, and said they had lots of kittens they were trying to get rid of.  I drove over to those tents.  They happened to be packing to leave.  And I happened to know them.

They were in the park camping out homeless two years ago, when I was getting scores of cats fixed there and out of there.  SCORES!!!

The camp host had given them a male kitten born in the park.  I got him fixed.  I didn't know she gave them a female too later on.

They called me months later.  By then they had a place at South Fork trailer park in Sweet Home and wanted the girl fixed.   I made the appointment, arranged a pick up time with them, and drove all the way to Sweet Home to get her.  Inside, I found the woman sitting in a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.  She said she didn't want her fixed, that she just wanted to ask me some questions.  I blew a cork.  This was entitlement fever she had raging.

That was the last I heard from them, until two days ago in the park.  They'd stayed their limit on time there and were moving on, to another campground.  Inside the tent I saw the boy I'd gotten fixed, now a grown cat, inside a soft shell carrier.  The female, with four kittens, all were crammed in a small hard shell carrier.  It reeked.  My stomach began to churn with hurt for those cats.

At first she didn't want to give them all up to me even though she'd been trying to give them away to others.  Finally she asked for the female back, fixed too, once the kittens are weaned. (that entitlement fever had made a come back) and said to take them all. I gave my card to one of the two guys, said please try to talk her out of taking the mom back, that no cat should live like that, taking a last glance at that male, and took the mom and kittens home.  Inside the filthy carrier, was a filthy adult diaper, soaked in urine and waste.   The mom cat, also born in the county park, is very very sweet.  She'd already had three litters recently, in the last months, one of the two guys said.

Mom and two of the four kittens
Urine and feces soaked diaper was in the carrier along with mom and four kittens
Frustration over this awfulness and inability to catch that little mackerel tabby teen filled me with anxiety and sadness all that restless night and the next day.  It was hard to shake off.

 I had told the man to call me in three to four weeks about getting the female back.  He has my number.  It's on him to call, not on me to find them.   I think/hope he knows they can't handle caring for cats in their present situation.  I hope he doesn't call for her to come back.  KATA and I agreed that we will give them a month, which is the outside end of when I asked him to call, plus five days beyond a month, then she will officially not go back.  The little family is going to KATA today.  If I thought it would help I would get the law involved but it won't help.  Not here, where I live.

But I shook off the anxiety and was back at the park, back at it, after that little female, probably trapped along with the two other newcomers, to dump there, as they were all abnormally trap shy.  I never caught her.  The little tabby never moved from one small area for the first three weeks I saw her there, like she was waiting, maybe for somebody to come back and get her.  But they never have.  If she was tame once, and she probably was because she'd only move a few feet from me, but out of reach, she's fast turning feral.  It is how it works.

Again, it was more like a vacation, away from everyone, could turn off the phone, or leave it on and watch video online. If there were breaks in the downpour, I'd take a short walk.

 At one point, a friend texed me.  The text said, "We just bombed Syria."  This made me glance up, for some reason, into the darkening sky, to see if Russian missiles were incoming here.  I guess I expect it in this day and age, that any moment we could be in a nuclear war.  There's nothing I can do about it.  I don't watch the news anymore.

The kittens are leaving today.  I got seven cats going up to be fixed tomorrow.  Four from Sweet Home, two from Lebanon and one from the park---Waters.   Hootie and Waters, the park newcomers are waiting here, until my barn cat placement friend is recovered from a medical issue.  Then they go with her.  They're eating up a storm and looking so much better, in the meantime.

Waters

8 comments:

  1. I really, really hope that she never goes back. And can, through your efforts, find a life rather than an existence.

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    Replies
    1. I hope they find the love to let her go.

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  2. Anonymous4:33 PM

    Gee, how the other half live. I am sure that call won't come in four weeks time. Mother has stopped mentioning that she is missing the strays she used to feed. Life is easier for her now.

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    Replies
    1. I wish I didn't know about the other half, life would be easier, on me at least, but their animals would still suffer the results of very dysfunctional people who drag them home.

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  3. Once again my heart breaks as I hear your stories. I am very thankful that your out there saving these kitties.

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  4. I feel drained just reading this. ~hugs~ Be well!

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    Replies
    1. One of those times, has rained a little too long, been without any sun a few too many months and seen a few too many cases of entitled assholes with neglected kitties who suffer as a result. One of those times, I feel like sitting in the dark and contemplating escape, maybe to somewhere warm, with water.

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