Ten Cats Fixed Today

I had seven spay neuter reservations today in Salem, then was gifted three more.

I took the extras although yesterday I was extremely stressed and exhausted from the day before.  All that driving to the McMinnville clinic and back, and the day before, two trips to Sweet Home alone, along with demands from a couple people that were outrageous, had driven me to the breaking point.

I returned the three kittens fixed from the other homeless camp in Cascadia.  I was told to go ask a guy there about getting my catalytic replaced, that he might know a cheaper place.  He didn't.  But he said "I need to get five female dogs fixed."  The camp is overrun in dogs.  They are everywhere and outnumber cats two to one.

Anyhow I called my friend who works at the McMinnville clinic to ask if it could be done there and we chatted about it.  Two of his female dogs are just five week old pups from one of the other females.

Anyhow I'll try to find something.  I guess.

Early yesterday morning I'd headed to near Waterloo, near the river too.  Some folks had contacted me about a mom cat, who had already had kittens again, and six offspring from her last litter.   So I took out the drop trap early in the week and had them feed under it.  They feed the teens in the open garage.  They didn't want to catch the mom yet because they thought she had newborns somewhere in another outbuilding.

 Yesterday morning was zero hour.  I felt the pressure to perform, as usual, to catch them all, as I drove along the river towards their place, which is back off the road in the trees.  Huge trees.  Massive trees.  Redwoods!   The base diameter of the one by the garage is greater than I am tall.  I couldn't take my eyes off those ancient trees.

It was difficult to concentrate on setting up the drop trap in their presence.   I wanted to sit and lean against one of them, let them bear the burdens of my little life.  They can do that.  They're so massive and strong.  I didn't know what to say with those ancient trees right there, that would not sound small.  They affect me that way.

It was raining yesterday, strangely.   We've had no rain in a very long time.  I sat back in my car from the drop trap with the string run through my window.  The other end is attached to the stand that holds it up.  The cats eat under the drop trap, while the stand holds up one side.  I yank the string, pulling out the stand, dropping the trap over the cats.  I run cover the entire drop trap then with sheets.  Then I put the back of a tomahawk transfer trap up to the transfer door on the drop trap and lift both doors at once.  The light attracts them to the opening since the drop trap is covered and they think its a way out and run into the live trap and I slam down its transfer door and that is that. That's how it works.

Anyhow, five kittens eventually were eating under the drop trap at once.  I never saw the sixth. I yanked the cord and dropped the trap over all five and transferred them out to live traps one by one.   I left with the trap drop propped up but no bait under it and a live trap set beside it.

Nobody got into that live trap until almost 7:00 p.m.  Finally, the sixth kitten was caught.  I was up in Cascadia however, returning those three kittens fixed Wednesday.  Coming back through, I also picked up three cats Helen had caught over on another street, and a boy from the RV park.  There are a few left to catch at the RV park but we've got most of them there fixed now.

This morning, after I took the ten cats to the clinic, I headed straight back to the Cascadia homeless camp, hoping to catch the last two kittens. I had terrible trouble, after climbing that rocky gravel road and trying to park my car on that steep slope.  The emergency brake would not hold.  Shoot.   Not even with it in gear and the tires turned.  I cursed under my breath.  I'd taken it in to Schwab to have that fixed and they didn't fix the problem. I finally found a flatter place where I could hold it in place by turning the tires then blocking the back wheels.

 I couldn't find the kittens or see them.  I made a pathetic attempt at a mother cat "meow" and instantly heard a muffled kitten mew response.  It seemed to be coming from the old RV that's pretty much falling apart on the inside.  On the outside you can still see it was once an RV.  I thought they were inside that somewhere.

Finally the woman, of the couple who lives in the camp trailer a dozen feet across from the old RV, came out of the trailer, clutching a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.  I hear the kittens, I said,  but I can't figure out where they are. 

I found a video, on my phone, with the sounds of a mother cat mewing for kittens and played it.  They'd respond with frantic mews.  We figured out they were inside a storage space on the side of the RV.  Its door was maybe 16 inches by 8 inches tall and opened upwards.  She said they liked to go in there and sleep.  However the day before they'd moved a frig onto a pallet next to the RV and about two inches of that heavy frig blocked the storage space door from opening.  The kittens had been in there when that frig was moved.  They were trapped!

Oh man, I thought.  If I hadn't come up they would have died in there.  But now that they were in there, I wanted to use that space to catch them.  Didn't work out. I tried to set a trap at one end of the open little door, after moving the frig, so it could open and blocking the open area with sheets and towels from my car.  The little black tux easily just popped out over my futile blockade and was gone. 

Suddenly the woman tugged at my shirt and pointed.  He was under the drop trap I'd set up when I first got there, eating.  I yanked the cord and he or she was caught.  The calico however would not emerge from the storage space.  I peeked in with a flashlight and mirror in time to see her squeeze through a hole made for wiring and vanish.

I left a trap set where they feed the kittens, beside a water bowl.  But I've not heard from them today that she's caught.  I'll have to drive up there and try again.

Here's the kitten I did catch, a little black tux.  YOu should have heard the purring and mews when I turned him loose in the bathroom with his mom, Cascadia, and sister.

Darn that calico though.  She's not alone up there.  The couple have an unfixed male who likes her. Of course.  What could go wrong there. Unfixed boy.  Calico teen girl.

Here are photos of the ten cats fixed today.  We'll start with the six kittens from River road.

Two of the three orange kittens are girls, but I don't recall which.  This is Sammy 

Sunbeam

Tangerine

Tawny, a boy

Tootsie, a torbi girl

Tiki, a little boy

Next here's the latest RV park capture--more orange!  Mickey!

Mickey from the RV park

And lastly the three Helen went and caught up last Sunday, some KATA venture I think, on Clark Mill Road in Sweet HOme.  These will all now go back home.

Eclipse, a girl

Galaxy, a boy

Orion, a boy

Ok, that's it then.  Helen came and got the three she was caring for.  I'll return the other seven in the morning.   Right now, I'm off to bed at a nice early hour.