Horrible Day

Today was not a good day.   It's not just the 100 degree heat.

I had those two adorable petite girl kittens from Sodaville here.

They were fixed today along with three more from the Bellinger colony.

I went to that colony early, hoping no one would be up and maybe the dogs would be asleep or inside.

Instead of catching three I caught four.  One was a male I didn't know was up there.  Then I caught the black and white male, the long hair orange female and the last torbi female.

I had them in my garage last night.  I go out this morning, to put them in my car, and unbelievably, the trap the black and white male had been in, was empty.  Yet the front was closed and the back was still clipped.  How did he get out?

I briefly wondered if someone had come into my garage.  While that is a possibility, since I napped without the door locked yesterday evening, before waking up for awhile, then locking everything up, I believe it is the design flaw of those small tomahawks.  They have no top drop down latch, like their larger models do.  That means if a cat gets his paw through the slanted part of the door to the vertical piece and pulls while maybe his nose is down pushing at that front, any give and the cat is out of there.  I will make drop down latches for all those small tomahawks now and in the meantime, clip the place the two door pieces meet the bottom of the trap.

I spent hours after delivering five cats clear to the McMinnville clinic searching the garage for the boy.  However, with the air conditioner in the bottom of the garage door, even though that is all adequately secure and blocked, that leaves a small opening along the top of the garage door, where it starts to curl in, when you open it even four inches.  He must have exited there.  That area is now secured.

The heat inside the garage was not extreme with the unit going but bad enough that it wore me out trying to search for him inside the garage.  I finally gave up and set traps.  I talked to a couple neighbors for them to be on the alert, but have no photo of the boy.  I would have taken it today.  I sealed his image in my mind so I will not forget.  The neighbors behind me have a free roaming black and white cat and so do the people next to them.  Both are often in my yard.  Neighbors won't be able to tell those cats from this boy from the sticks.  Not even if I had a photo.

The Sodaville woman came here to pick up the two girls with her friend who was adopting them. They were fixed today.  To my horror, her friend brought a massive carrier, so big it wouldn't fit in the front door and had no top handle.  To my horror, I discover she intended to put them out in her barn, alone, just turn them loose.  These are tiny petite three month old kittens, way under weight for their age.  I said this is wrong, described the many reasons it is so very wrong, like they will  not know where they are, you can't just turn a kitten loose in a barn, its like dumping a cat.  She stared at me like I was some sort of nutcase fanatic, like what in the world am I talking about.  I said they would need acclimated and besides these kittens are sweet and so tame, can't you take them inside?  She said no, her kids were allergic.  The lady where I trapped them was getting mad, at me, not her friend.   The friend finally drug her big huge carrier off and left.  Leaving me to beg for these sweet girls lives with the Sodaville woman.  I asked to keep them, said I'd find a place, suggested since she refused to let me, that she take them to Safehaven then.  I knew she would just follow her friend, give them to her, tell her I'm just crazy, and they will be turned loose in a barn and be killed, on the road or by an owl or hawk or fox or pretty much anything that eats.

I went out into my garage after she left and sobbed my eyes out.   I also blocked her number after sending her a text stating I was done helping her out.  DONE, Lady, DONE!!!

Where is compassion?  Commen sense?

The three Bellinger cats fixed today are in my bathroom, since the garage was too hot when I arrived home, despite the AC unit, to be safe.  I have traps set in there for the night and will set one outside too.  If he's outside the garage, it may take awhile to catch him.  But in the end, I probably will.