Back With a Vengence

I'm off my break.  Officially I was off break yesterday and what a day!

Someone called about a mom cat, left behind by drug infested neighbors, who had kittens.  This was up in Sweet Home.  She had the kittens in a dog crate and said she could get the mom in there too if I could come get them.  So she did, and I did.

She'd done the best she could.   She'd let mom into the crate to feed them now and then.  The crate was so dirty by then after I loaded it into the car with the mom and kittens in it, with the young woman's help, I could barely stand the smell.

The young woman had just had a baby herself.  Despite this, she nestled the newborn on her hip and took the back of the crate with the other hand to help me carry it to the car.  As we returned to the porch, boyfriend stuck his head out the door.  He was NO help and I could only imagine what it must be like for her.

The house next door where the young woman thinks she lived once was trashed and empty.  Drug addicts haven, now long gone.

There were five kittens, three orange boys and two girls, one a calico and one a torti. The kittens were filthy and crawling in fleas.   They had dried urine and feces on them.  The drive home seemed long and was frustrating as I just wanted to get them home, to bathe them, feed them and rid them of those fleas.

I would have to do it fast.  I had two colonies to feed and at one of those, a gate goes up at 4:00.  I got home about 2:15 and quickly carried the crate into the bathroom, got out the blow dryer, kitty shampoo, paper towels, Revolution flea treatment, and KMR.  Then I set to work.

I got a big carrier ready, with a nice comfy blankee inside.  The crate would go outside, to be cleaned, and the bathed kittens would then have a nice warm clean bed.  As soon as I opened the crate, mom cat panicked and ended up in the towel cupboard.  I let her be.

I washed each kitten, drying them with paper towels and then the blow dryer on low.  Each then got Revolution so the flea killing could begin.  Mom did too.

I left them to head out to fulfill my duties for the other cats.   I also dropped off a trap outside Lebanon, to a woman who has had another cat or two show up, for her to pre feed the cats in a trap set so it can't spring.  I fed the park cats then ran into a woman and her daughter who often frequent the park, read, and go into the river to cool off.  They invited me to join them.  I hesitated, thinking of the kittens in the bathroom, but then I did.  All three of us went into the river.  But not for long.  I took one swim along the side of the river with a back current, that carries me up to the last rapid, then rode the rapid down, on my short broken swim board, then had to leave.  I drive home wet, sitting on a towel, and change when I get home.

I decided to drive home River Road instead of on the highway.  Why not?  Stopped at the stop sign by the bridge, looking across at the parking lot by the boat ramp, I saw a man placing what looked like bread on a rock, then moving back.   Hmmm, I thought, I wonder what he's trying to feed.  I decided to pull into the parking lot and check.

I parked one space from the packed white van.  The man was in the van by now and looked like he was heading out.  I jumped out and quickly asked him, "Are you feeding squirrels?"   "No," he says, "a little cat someone dumped" and he motioned just over the bank.  I looked over and there was a crying young tabby on white, headed back towards the berry vines.  She would not come to me.  The food on the rock was chicken.

The man left.  I happened to have another trap in my car and set it with a can of cat food.   It took about ten minutes, or a bit less, for her to go into the trap and spring it.  I hauled her back up to my car and wondered what am I going to do with this one. 

About that time, I receive a message from Diana.  She has included a post from KATA (Kitty Angel Team Adoption), about kittens found in a box right at this very spot where I now sit.  The post reads "We miss our momma" and describes how the kittens were left in a box but the mom had run off and the woman who found the kittens couldn't get her to come to her.   Hmmm, I thought, I better call Vicki.  So I did.  "Vicki," I said, when she answered, "I think I have that mom cat you're looking for in the back of my car." 

Teenage mom cat who was dumped with her Kittens

Vicki came and got the cat.  She was indeed a little teen girl, lactating and very very sweet. She is back with her kittens now.

 For all that to come together involved some serious fate.     Hmmm, I thought.

Last night I bathed the Sweet Home orange tabby mom cat.  She too, like her kittens, had urine on her tail, from being in the crate.   I knew she'd feel better after that and she did. She was happy, purring and felt safe.  This morning I took all six up to Keizer, to a vet clinic where a Meow Village volunteer works.  She is going to foster them.

The bathroom is empty again.