How to Proceed

How does one proceed in the age of coronavirus?

I mean with cat fixing.   There are so few spay neuter spots available its pathetic.

I have several colonies I work, do a couple one place, a couple another place, but never complete them.  I'm targeting females for now is why, and have to forget teenagers too.

I was told of another large group out beyond Waterloo in the boondocks.   I finally connected with a tenant there.  It's a bit of a homeless camp I'd say.   She thought there were as many as 18 kittens but didn't know, as predators would pick them off routinely.  She claimed there's a cougar they see every night across the field who sometimes sleeps in the old boat.

Not good, I thought.  But I went out there, not really intending to get any of the kittens, just to check it out.  In the end though I grabbed five of the tamest easiest to grab kittens.

The seven today were six girls and one boy.  Of the two orange tabbies, only one of them was a boy and he was the only boy of the seven.  The kittens are very healthy.  Three of the ones I took today were a bit hissy. The rest were tame.

A little torbi

Both these girls are delightful

My car barely had made it up the steep rough wash boarded gravel road.  Since having the clutch replaced, it won't go into first gear now, unless I'm completely stopped.   I don't know why.  I'm loath to return to that shop, really.  I have my reasons.

It's hot here now, so any cat catching or kitten grabbing must be done early morning.  The heat lingers is why, into the night, but usually is gone by 11 p.m.

So I got five on Wednesday and right away almost, Animal Rescue and Care Fund, in Portland, said they'd take them, bring them up.  So I did.  Wednesday afternoon.    They were only here with me maybe two hours.   Two delightful girls, a torti and a torbi, plus three boys---two orange tabbies and a gray tabby.   All of them were healthy and tame and I could hand pick them up from the front porch old chair and in the grass beside the mobile home.  That wasn't so bad.

These two orange tabby boys, plus the torti darling kitten and the torbi kitten were among the five I took to ARCF.  The fifth was a gray tabby short hair boy kitten.

Lady living there in a fifth wheels told me to come back that night about 8, to get more.  So I did.  Well I tried.  She messages me when I'm like five minutes out telling me not to come, wasn't a good time.  I was upset over that.

But I went back this morning and hand grabbed four more, then trapped three other kittens, after feeding the adults, most of them girls, tons of wet food to keep them happy.  It was hot, broiling really, yellow jackets swarmed the wet cat food, same old, you know.   But I got all the kittens I could find.  I know there were supposed to be more, but  the predator problem out there is quite significant.

I set them up in the cage in the living room and took a nap.  I met Karen this evening up in Keizer north of Salem and handed them off in a parking lot.  That probably sounds a little shady. 

I sure wish I could figure a way to get all 12 adults I saw up there fixed immediately.  I sure hate the lack of spay neuter spots available, preventing me from doing just that.  I don't like not just getting something done right now, solving a problem that needs solved.  But I don't have the tools to do it.  No affordable open spay neuter.  Darn it anyhow.

At least 12 kittens are getting fixed, up in Portland, and then new homes.  That's something.