One of Those Weekends

The cat round up did not go so well this weekend.

I thought all would be easy to fill my seven reservations for Monday.  Ha!

I had a guy in Salem who had four tame strays.  At first he told me they would need trapped.  Since he lives a few blocks from  a Meow Village volunteer, I hooked them up and she took him a trap but he never tied it open to feed in it or set it and it turns out the first two were completely tame.  Meow Village took them on, to adopt out, in exchange for those two spay neuter reservations.   That was two weeks ago.

He finally called again about the other two.  He said they're tame too.  I  told him simply to get them contained Saturday, call me and bring them to me and they could be fixed Monday.   He doesn't do internet or text.   Saturday night late he called to cancel and complain a lot.   I thought he was going to cry.  This guy wants no work involved on his part.  It was pathetic especially since by then I'd been out over 12 hours trying to catch other cats.  I tried to encourage him but that was useless.

Oh boy, I had counted on taking those two and by Saturday evening, had only three from a new old colony in Lebanon and had worn myself out completely.  I got five fixed for a lady on the same street last June. I knew there were more but the moment I'd arrive she'd be wondering why I wasn't gone.   It was about like that.   There I caught them one after another using a bottle under the trap door, since some were fixed.  I took out some kittens too.   She waved me off on trying to catch the males.  I told her it was a bad idea then, but you can't force people.

This other lady who feeds is two houses away and it was her adult daughter who contacted me.  I thought she was going to watch the traps.  I drop trapped one adult female within ten minutes of arrival but nobody else showed up after that.  I left her two traps and detailed how to catch them and thought, "this will be easy" because she'd do it and was sure I could fill all my spots right there.

Was not to be.  Pretty much right after I left so did she.  Only I didn't know.   I didn't find out til I texted her in the evening asking how it was going and finally she said she wasn't there but would be home within the hour.   Four hours later she came home.  It was about 9:00 p.m. by then.  In the meantime I went back to the first lady I'd trapped for, who immediately began the excuses that people dump them off.  I shrugged that off, and set a trap and she still had the bottle and string I'd used before so we put the bottle under the door because a lot of fixed ones smelled the bait and were sniffing around the trap, and within six minutes, one of the little ones, maybe 9 months, the only unfixed one in the four who showed up, was in the trap and I pulled the bottle out from under the door.  It's that easy if people will just do it.   Doesn't have to be me all the time does it?

I'd set two traps at the other place too, with the absent daughter.  I found food out when I went back to check, and a cat in one of the traps, well actually there were cats in both but one of them was already fixed.  The absent daughter's mom had put out more food.   I gave up at that point being worn out and more than a little fed up.

The seed warehouse folks set a trap Saturday and texted me there was a black cat in it.  I asked if the cat was small and ear tipped.  They said yes it was small but they couldn't see an ear tip.   I drove down.   Sure enough, there was Seedy in the trap.  He's the little black boy fixed last week.  He's darn cute.  I showed the lady how to spot the ear tips.  Then I turned him loose again.

The Mary's street old couple were doing their best.  They caught a male and I went to get him Sunday and then they told me they forgot to lock the back of the trap and he got out. They were mad at themselves.  Sunday night they caught another and I went over again, only this time it was a cat I didn't know and hadn't taken in but he did have a huge flashy ear tip.   Love those ear tips.  We let him out.

I found an FCCO referral for a cat in Albany from a couple months back.   They sometimes refer cats or colonies to trap and transport up to be fixed there but I told them I couldn't do it for one cat, drive all the way to Portland.  I called her up and she was happy.  I took him yesterday.  Winnie is his name.

Also I'd bemoaned my failures to a store clerk, who said, "I have a boy needs fixed.".   My ears perked up then.  His brother already vanished.  Her cats all free roam and are fed outside but are tame.   So Henry went too yesterday, along with Winnie, the FCCO referral, and the three Lebanon cats.  That was all I could get.

Croc, a very large male from Lebanon fixed yesterday.

Joey, a young male, also now fixed.

Kanga, an adult female, also now fixed.

Henry from Albany fixed yesterday

Winnie, also from Albany, fixed yesterday.

I have friends in Nebraska.  Its in terrible shape from the bomb cyclone that sent them first a horrendous blizzard and snow and then terrible flooding that has washed out roads and bridges and turned the state into a lake.   I wish I could help some way.

More deadly shooting rampages.   I worried about Andrew, from Melbourne vacationing in New Zealand after the Christchurch attack.  He's says on his blog they're ok.  They were near Christchurch when the insane white nationalist from Australia went on his rampage. In the end, one guy chases him with one of his own discarded empty guns and he runs like a frightened child. That tells it all.

It's too much to think about.  I still can't keep Sandy Hook out of my mind, where little kids' bodies were ripped apart by bullets.  How does one wrap their mind around these things.   I suppose there will be more now, as the wanna be's, impotent and angry, hearts pounding in fury someone beat them to the glory of media blitz and body counts, take up arms and march up from their mother's basements.

At the end of Citizen X, after the Russians have finally caught and convicted a serial killer, who is a narcissist, two officers lead him into a room.  He looks down and sees plastic beneath his feet, turns around briefly, and realizes this is his end.  He is quickly executed, bullet to the back of the head.  These cowardly mass killers need exactly that end.  Citizen X treatment.  Bye bye.  No more cameras or gloating in the body count, just the cost of one bullet and the plastic underneath their feet for ease of clean up.

The neighbors cat.  Believe me, no birds need fear.

Hazelnut trees in the Fog