Tough Day

Oh it was a tough day yesterday.

I had been called about that mom and kittens at the apartment complex.  Actually I was told by the woman who lives there, whom I helped before, multiple times, that the kittens were dead.  I got no more responses, after I talked to her a few days back, and I'd told her I could take in the mom possibly, if tame enough.

So I stopped by there and was shown the mom, who did have three kittens she'd brought out from under the apartment complex, I was told, and the guy who had them in his closet wanted them gone.  I told him I'd be back yesterday to get them.

I posted their photos on my page and no sooner had than a local rescue contacted me to say they were taking the kittens but didn't even know where they were.  What?

That didn't make any sense to me.  But they said they had a foster all ready and everything and had been communicating with a relative of the lady I know who lives there.  I should have not communicated further with them at that point.  Now they wanted me to go get the mom and kittens and meet their foster person to hand them over.  Oh brother.

  I went over yesterday morning, to get the kittens and mom, as I'd promised the man I would and on the way received a text from the woman living there that I wasn't needed in this, that they didn't want them going to Portland, my gawd, how awful and that it was all arranged for them to go somewhere else.  At this point, I figure the rescue mixed things up royal with this.  I texted back "why didn't you tell me".

 I'd planned my whole day on getting this mom and kittens.  Sure would have been nice to know I wasn't needed in this.  After asking her why she didn't let me know, she sent a long vulgar profanity filled text in which she called me a freak, a bitch and disabled person abuser, all this for merely asking why she didn't let me know.

I was already tired and this did me in.  How many times did I crawl under that complex, answer her calls, even took a cat clear to the coast vet for her.  How many times have I been messed up by this same rescue too.  Oh a hard day.  I get yelled at, cursed at, screamed at quite a lot in the course of helping cats.  Usually I take it with a grain of salt although its never easy.  Her accusation of "disabled person abuser" really got to me though, like her being disabled gives her free reign to behave badly.  People hide behind that to cover their actions all the time.  I too am labeled disabled but I try not to use it as a free ticket to behave any way I want.  Yes, lady, my time is valuable and yes you should have let me know.

Later in the day, because I'd promised once again, I drove all the way to Sweet Home to track down two older kittens to take to Portland.  I knew they might not be social enough for the FCCO's Kitten Caboose, but why not try, to get two more out of this county.  So I did track them down and  drove them to Woodburn, where Karen from Portland met me and took them and whether or not the girl of the two is social enough to go on for adoption, well I'll find out and if not, she'll be fixed and go all the way back to Sweet Home.

The girl on the left is tame but very shy and may not be a good candidate for Kitten Caboose.

Late afternoon, there's a knock at my door and two people I don't know there when I open it.  The woman says I helped them years ago with a kitten they found in Jefferson but now they live in Albany and need help.  She's covered in sores, all over, red, bright and itching.  She claims her cat and dog have mites.  I don't let them in and tell them why.  (mites can be contagious to other cats)

What, I say, you mean scabies?  What's that, she asks.  I say body mite infestation in cats or dogs and they should have hair loss and scabs with it.  Hmmm, she says.  The dog has been to the vet and skin scrapings taken and no mites. The vet gave him Bravecto, a flea treatment that last three months and does kill mites too, and wormer. It's always interesting that people find money to take a dog to the vet but not their cat.  I suppose its another reason I try to help cats so much.  When people get a dog, but already have a cat and the cat is afraid of the dog, they "get rid of" the cat.  When people move, they take their dogs and leave their cats behind, like trash.

She wants me to see the mites somehow, on her cat.  I say well, go run a flea comb through her hair.

So they leave and I go to the computer to look up body mites that affect cats, dogs and people and get a few pages to quickly read through.  I read that dog and cat scabies mites aren't going to bite her, that they are species specific.  I scan through other documents on other types of mites, one type in particular that does affect humans, cats and dogs and then they're back at my door since they don't live far. I see nothing on the flea comb but a bit of hair, no flea dirt even.  But mites are microscopic.

They flea bombed the apartment but I tell them that is often ineffective unless everything is out of the apartment because otherwise the insecticide doesn't get to everything, just the top layer.  I don't know if flea bombs even kill flea eggs.  Especially those way down in a deep carpet.

To me the bites she has look bed bug. Or hives from some allergy. Albany is ridden in bed bugs.  They have meetings on it.  She claims the apartment people inspected and claim its not bed bugs but I'm still thinking it is because she says if she goes near her pile of dirty clothes she starts getting bitten.  I have no idea.  I give her two tubes of a flea med that also will kill any mites the cat has.  If both animals are treated, then without a proper host, she should get relief and if she doesn't, then its going to be bed bugs.  Or hives from some allergy.

She's looking for help I can't give.  Look, I tell her, the major biting bugs in this area that will affect you, are bed bugs, fleas and a couple species of mites and if your animals are treated for fleas and any mites they could get, and you get no relief, you better be watching for bed bugs but I'm no expert on this.   They leave with the two tubes I gave them.  I guess their apartment has rats too. .  The cat killed one at least.  The cat is the best thing they got going for them in a place like that.