Bleakness

I should not have been optimistic.

I thought by mid May, spay neuter would start up again, all would be close to normal, as far as my job.

Now it looks like I may not be back to work at "my job" for months, if ever.  The sad thing about what I do is, if you take long breaks, and I mean everyone doing spays and neuters, you are propelled backwards in time and lose years of work.

That's where we are at.

While the state opened up non emergency surgery, spay neuter clinics have yet to open.  Private vets are doing spay neuter.  I think.  But they're far too expensive to use.    I use two clinics--Heartland's clinic over in Corvallis and Willamette Humane's clinic in Salem, the latter being the high volume one I generally travel to at least once a week with cats.  Or used to.

However, neither clinic is open to spay neuter currently and Heartland told me not to count on any reservations with them for spay neuter all summer.  Both are experiencing financial hardships, especialy Heartland, no doubt, with their thrift shop closed.  It's so tragic that animals are suffering the consequences.  I wish I knew how to make a lot of money fast to give both shelters and get them back to normal funding level.

 The other clinic may open mid  May but will do only a tiny number of community cats each week on one day, their email stated.  I don't even live in the counties they serve, so with such a cut in numbers, I'm likely out there too, although I don't know.

When I received this information today, I wanted to sob.  Instead I just flopped down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to comprehend the loss.

Lots of folks have lost their jobs.  My brother and sister in law in Idaho were in the travel industry and I seriously wonder if they'll ever work again.  I don't know how they'll survive, after unemployment runs out.

Then someone online tells me our governor extended all other closures until July 6.  This put me over the top.  I live alone and don't even see people anymore.  I think I'll be bat shit crazy by the first week in July.   And then what?   No job to return to, nothing to get out of bed for, its a lot to comprehend.

These developments are a horror to everyone who has worked so hard to put the brakes on feline overpopulation.  Our decades of hard thankless work are obliterated by the flood of kittens being born right now.