The Kayak and the Kittens

My new corona check kayak has been in the garage since a friend brought it down from another friends yard in Portland, where it sat, after I was unable to get it secured atop my car satisfactorily to bring it home.

It's both comical and tragic that a virus ravaging our people and our economy would enable me to get a plastic kayak.

Two days ago, I again strapped it to the top of my car and headed for the lake.  The vibrations of the kayak sitting on those foam blocks on the roof of my car were unbelievably loud.  I couldn't even hear the radio at top volume, the noise was so great.  I know it probably sounded like my car was about to explode to those driving near me also because other cars gave me a wide berth.  I just pretended everything was fine.

The kayak looks damn good atop my car.

However, that racket it causes is beyond annoying.  I knew it was strapped on firmly and wasn't coming off, but I could feel the lift with wind shifts and the noise would increase and decrease.  It's all vibrational noise.  I could feel the vibration in the seat of the car.

I'll just put it inside the car for now. It only sticks out a foot.  It's a short kayak.

I had such fun paddling it around the lake and up the river. 

I LOVE it.

It took minutes to get it off the car and into the water. (unlike the struggle with the raft)  If I can get my car emergency brake fixed I could back down the ramp.  But right now I don't want my car at the bottom of the lake, so I carry it a few feet and that's not so bad.  I rigged a harness through the scupper holes with a piece of rope.

I struggled to get into the kayak.  Finally I just kind of plopped in awkwardly.   I had hoped someone else with a kayak would arrive and I could watch how they got in and out.  But no one did.  So I  plopped onto it, managed not to overturn in the process, and took off paddling.  It was very stable.  I'd had this paddle in my rafters for years I got at a garage sale.   It was dusty but it worked just fine.

I was gifted three more reservations for Friday's clinic (that's today).   That big colony in Sweet Home has been on my mind.  With the long hair torti kitten, I'd taken out 13 kittens in all.   I knew there were more.

I'd also picked up a boy cat at the homeless camp I've dealt with before in Lebanon.  She would catch him and then someone would turn him loose in the night.  So this time I just wanted it done, and immediately I stopped in with him at the Lebanon vet clinic near where he lived and asked if they could fix him that day.  I mean its a neuter, takes five seconds after they're out under anesthesia.  They couldn't do it on Wednesday, the day I was to go to the lake, but they could yesterday.

I dropped him off and then drove on up to Sweet Home, to catch 8 adults for today's clinic. 

It was going to be warm and I was a little late getting there.  I caught cat after cat.  I released a big black male, because I wanted to catch females, and stop the ridiculous reproduction going on there.  I needed a bathroom.  There was no one answering the door and nowhere to "go" in the bushes.  I'd had two cups of coffee and this was very very uncomfortable.  Finally, around noon, the daughter showed up with her daughter, and opened the house door and I could finally use a bathroom.  Whew!

By then I'd caught seven cats, six of them girls.  We decided to take apart the old board pile.  I'd seen several kittens hiding in it.  Four to be exact.   The old boards were heavy and full of protruding nails.  Spiders, wasps and ants had taken up residence there too.  This was not easy. I was already tired from the day before.   We hand grabbed two.  I should say, that little girl, the daughter's daughter grabbed them, and hung on, while they screamed and fought for their lives.  I had a carrier and held it vertically open and we dropped both in.  The other two kittens skedattled.

One of the two we dug from the board pile

And the other

I left a trap set and went back home, to unload the 7 cats, then had to go get Moonshine, the orange tabby from the homeless camp, at the vet in Lebanon.  Sure, it was expensive to get a cat done at a private vet.  I guess I'd hoped for a slight break since the cat lived virtually behind the clinic but no break.  They're a private business after all, not crusaders as I am, trying to help out the cat population.

Sometimes I yearn for any sign that the community supports my efforts.  Those signs are few and far between.  I got an email after I returned home with Moonshine and right before I left for Sweet Home again, to get one more adult.  It was some lengthy forward, with lots of back and forths, so difficult to figure out in the short time I had.  But it was something to do with the state wanting to charge people who help animals a fee of over $550 a year.   I could not believe my eyes.  I felt so stupid for being a volunteer. I was already tired and dirty and still had to return to Sweet HOme and now I find out for all this effort I make to improve my own community, the state wants to charge me?

 Rage overcame me.  Then horror.  Then overwhelming sadness and I began to sob.

Then I dutifully got into my car and drove off to Sweet HOme and found a long hair torti in my trap.  The 8th cat.  I was in bed by 8:30 last night.

I believe I have seven females and one male from the colony to take to the clinic today to be fixed.  A Lebanon woman took in the two kittens I caught in the woodpile.  I'll take Moonshine home after I get back from the Salem clinic.

Tonight I'll find out what the hell that new tax on animal helping volunteers is all about and if its true I'll have to decide if this is all worth it.  WTF Oregon?

These taxes on people/nonprofits trying to solve real problems that are not addressed otherwise are weights, holding back progress.   The state would likely use all that precious money to do nothing that would benefit citizens in any way.  The loss to tiny nonprofits is extreme, on the other hand.  Instead, Oregon should tax those who cause these problems, like breeders and anyone who doesn't fix their cats.

I know what I do is all self appointed and I could stop if I just decided to stop.  But people rely on me, to solve these situations, and I enjoy creating order from a mess, not to mention preventing diseases spread through vaccination and getting kittens out into better lives.

The real reason is still that I love cats.  I can't forget the river cats, and what they did for me, a group of homeless cats, when I was homeless myself and needed a family.