Big Boys Neuter Club

I fought for the cats I took up today to be fixed.

I didn't want to be short again.

Today I took up 9 to be fixed, two more than I had appointments to get fixed.  But I scored two more appointments from someone else.

Six of the nine were very large stinky boys.   After I left them at the clinic, I came home and it took most of the hours until it was time to leave to pick up the cats, to clean out three kennels and two shelves where they had patiently waited for neuter day.   The garage reeked of male cat urine.

I got to the clinic late this morning.  I'd had coffee too late out at the Knox Butte colony on Sunday.  I'd taken them a load of cat food.  They don't have the money to feed 30 cats.  They drink a lot of coffee and I didn't feel like declining the offer of a cup even though it was late in the day and I knew better.  I was tired by then and wanted some time off my feet and relaxed.

They told me the cougar had been seen again behind the neighbors four days ago and some of the cats are missing.  This news made my stomach feel punched.

There was still a little light.  I took my binoculars from my car and stalked the perimeter, angry, wanting to confront the cougar, chase him, move him on, destroy him.  The binoculars are old and not powerful.  They have no strap, and one lens is slightly fogged inside.  I have worked around these slight defects for a very long time however.  I calmed myself and slowed my breathing and leaned against the shed and watched the woods edge for any tiny movement.  I saw nothing but birds.  I listened to the birds for any sound of alarm or sudden flushing, or a rustle or movement of brush but there was nothing.   If I'd seen him, I was on a thin edge that night, at my tolerance limit, I suppose I likely would charged up the hill yelling like a banshee.

I had nightmares all night long Sunday night and was up and down and when I did wake up this morning, I was groggy and dazed and realized I'd overslept.

I had two girls, one from Lebanon then one from a new Albany colony, in the bathroom, because of the stinky big boys in the garage taking up all the space and sucking out breathable air.  And three cats were in big cages with carriers and litter boxes in the garage since they'd been here three days.  I had to take out the carriers, this morning, first thing, and put traps in those cages and remove the cover from the cage so they'd try to hide in the set traps and I could take them out then, and load them up into the car.

I simply pushed the girls into traps in the bathroom.

I left for the clinic considerably late after getting up late and all the work of getting five of the cats into traps.  But I arrived only 11 minutes late and people were still checking in.  After I went back out to the car, once it was empty of cats, I saw cat urine draining down the rear bumper.  Figures, I thought.

Four of the cats come from the new Albany colony.  The lady feeding there was desperate for help.  One in heat female and five big males were causing an uproar in her normally peaceful yard.  The boys would fight with each other then go after the young girl, who sat atop a fence all night to try to keep them away.  We caught the girl and three of the big boys.

This is Pepper, the in heat girl.  Now spayed.

Sinbad, one of the big boys.

This boy, Darwin, isn't in good shape.  He's old, has bad teeth, lice, ear mites and several fight wounds.  He got a convenia injection.

Brisbane, another of the boys, also had to have convenia, a long lasting antibiotic, and stitches in a slice wound above one eye, from fighting.

Getting them fixed will save their lives if they live through the next couple months while their hormones diminish.

The Lebanon lady, someone I'd helped before, caught two big boys.  Monroe, the Lynx Point, was determined by the vet to likely have a congenital defect that caused his right rear leg to be only half there.  Laser, the big black male, was over 12 pounds.  Now the lady is seeing another black male too, at her place.  She's trying to catch him.  They had named these two boys, Monroe and Laser,  themselves.

Monroe, now fixed at least.  

Laser, now fixed, is extremely large.  And now she's seeing another who looks just like him.

I got another Lebanon cat fixed but this one was a Siamese girl.  She was born to a feral mom, but sure needed fixed herself.  Her mom also still needs fixed and is fed by a guy across the street.  I offered to trap her but he does not want advice from the likes of me, or help and dismissed me rapidly.

This is Yuki, a young beautiful sweet female, now spayed.

I also went clear to Sweet Home to pick up Mouse, a Snowshoe Siamese mix boy, who had wandered up to these folks place and stayed.   But he needed fixed and today was Mouse's day.

Mouse was another of the big boys attending Neuter Day.

The last kitty of the nine to mention is little Caddy, the brown tabby girl from the huge Knox Butte colony.  She's the 29th cat caught there, but now I worry horribly if she'll be eaten by the cougar.

Caddy, brown tabby girl teen, fixed today.

Sure, I'm tired, I tell you, I won't lie.  I did return Pepper and Yuki, but I still have seven cats for the night here and then they will return to their homes and families tomorrow.

I won't say much more just good night and I'm sure happy to have gotten the nine cats fixed.  Makes their lives so much better.