Saturday, August 04, 2018

What do you do?

My first seven reservations for spay neuter in a month are Monday and the cats who I had lined up to fill those seven reservations, may not be going.   Their people are to blame, not returning calls or texts when I've already even loaned out traps to a couple of them.
Where are these people?   Beats me.

Guess they don't want the cats they feed fixed that badly.

I have four so far, three of them kittens.  Two of them from the Gervais colony, where mom and one kitten got fixed before my break.

And then I heard of a Lebanon situation, from someone I'd helped before with cats.  She was on a bus trip outing with a lady who she said went on and on complaining about cats in her yard.  Seems it was a mom, three teen kittens and a male.  Five in all.  She gave her my number.

So she calls me and I loan her a trap to pre feed in, then set traps this morning.  I catch mom quickly, see the big Siamese mix male, but he heads off and its getting hot and the lady is in and out of the house getting ready to go to church.  So I leave a trap set and before she goes to church the kitten is in it.  I go get him.  The big Siamese mix male has vanished by this time, off napping or roaming.
Mom and one of her kittens

She had first said there were three kittens.   That would mean with the male and mom, five cats, plus the Gervais two, and I'd have my quota.  I loaned traps to other folks too, thinking if this situation didn't pan out, I'd turn to those cats, but those people are not even answering.

Now she says she's not sure when she last saw three kittens, that maybe lately she's only seen the one.  So this five cat situation may only be a three cat situation.

This is generally how it goes, at least half the people flake out.  All the prep and showing them about traps, half the time its a waste of time.

Those Lebanon cats are a sorry group.   She doesn't feed them and doesn't want them.  The two I've caught, plus any more I catch there, will go to my barn cat placement friend.
I've caught the male now too over in Lebanon.  Apparently the other two kittens have either died or someone grabbed them, hoping for the latter and that someone nice, caring helped them.

I've had a lot of people lately want me to take the cats they feed to the vet, if injured or sick, like I'm responsible for every aspect of their care.  I don't have any vet I can take them to see or the money to do it.  Or they want me to completely support their feeding of their cats and deliver cat food to their door, even if quite a distance away. 

I've had to change policies because one person in particular wants cat food once or twice a month and I can't do that.   Can't afford to do it.  She wants vet care too but refuses to let me rehome the cats.  I told her last time, if she can't feed them, I can find them somewhere else.   When she turned that down, I told her this was the last time for bringing her food.  She's the one asks me all the time.  That was the end of it for me.

The new policy is cat food assist once a year.  That is consistent with help, instead of support, and those are two things.

Well so anyhow, I got two in the bathroom and two in the garage.  The Lebanon mom and kitten are the ones in the garage, in a cage with a fan on it.  The Gervais kittens are in the bathroom.

Sulu got returned.  My friend, bless her soul, didn't listen to a word I said about acclimating.  She had Sulu all of two weeks, one of which he spent almost entirely alone, in a bedroom, without any access to the other two cats.

I'd loaned her a big cage and everything, explained to let them meet through the safety of the cage, all that.  She didn't do it, just suddenly let him out to mingle with the other two cats who said what the fuck.  Sulu chased each of them once, no blood drawn, and she brought him back.

 I was severely disappointed.  Poor Sulu.

So he went to the bird lady, who fed him before, after the asshole tenants abandoned all those cats two houses from her.  She offered to take him, and did, after my friend returned him,  but later said she was stressed and wanted to find at least three of those assholes' cats homes.  I found placements for two of them--McCoy and Chekov at least.  But she'd like to place the orange tabby girl, the black tux male and then Sulu. I told her to enlist a friend of hers, who used to find cats homes, for help.  I hope she does.  I wish I was better at finding places for adult cats.  I thought she'd just let the orange girl and black tux boy out and feed them outside but she had them in her bedroom, thinking I could find them somewhere but I couldn't.

Then the Circle K clerk calls, wants me to take her kittens.  This is was an old call that I ignored before my break but she called again.   I wasn't happy she'd let her cat have kittens.  Then I find out yesterday she lives right across from the house where all the cats were abandoned by the asshole tenants and that the mother of these kittens, likely came from them too.   Sulu is likely the father of one or all, in fact.

So a Salem group, CAFA, agreed to take them.  Yesterday I went and got them, less than a stone's throw from the still empty asshole tenants place, and drove them to CAFA's vet in Keizer.  They'll be checked out, then picked up by a foster for CAFA.


They are all three tabbies.  Two boys, one girl.  Don't you think they look a bit like Sulu?

Sulu
She's supposed to be getting city vouchers to get the mom and the kitten she gave her son fixed on Monday.   I will make sure that gets done.

7 comments:

  1. Sigh.
    I am so very sorry. And thank you for all that you do. We can't change other people (dammit).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish we could change other people or maybe just spay and neuter them, so they're not breeding kids to grow up problems too.

      Delete
    2. No arguments from me. I can think of a lot I would like to neuter. Retropectively some of them.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous9:05 PM

    That people just expect you to do things unpaid, are not cooperative and just don't care amazes me. Do they think the county pays you?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The strange thing is, the neighbor across the street thought I got paid $5 for every cat I got fixed. I don't know where in the world she got that into her head. Then she said "You must be doing really well. I see how busy you are." I told her I don't get paid at all, but that I have a nonprofit if she'd like to donate. When I first meet someone who wants help, I let them know immediately that I am an unpaid volunteer, and could sure use donations to cover gas, bait, cat food, etc. I encounter people who have many many issues, Andrew. Some are extremely manipulative, as a way of life.

      Delete
  3. Reading your replay to Andrew shocks me still more than your post in the first place. Gah... Bless you and your charges.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sometimes you just have to set limits or people will take advantage of you as long as they can. Good for you for doing that.

    ReplyDelete

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