A Day in Sweet Home

 I spent most of yesterday in Sweet Home.  Well, just outside Sweet Home.

I got a Starbucks coffee card for my birthday from my friends in Vancouver WA.  I've known those folks since they adopted Samson from me way way back.  I lived in Corvallis then, in a shack basically.  Samson was from a gosh awful hoarder trailer in Lebanon with cat poop piles a couple feet high in places.  

So anyhow, I stopped in and got a Carmel Macchiato.  I only go to Starbucks if I get a gift card.  It'd be stupid otherwise to spend $4 or $5 on a cup of coffee I can make at home.

But it was a treat to get it made up by someone else.

Starbucks coffee has a lot of caffeine I've discovered, way more than the morning cup I make.   

That was in Lebanon I got that.  I was buzzed by the time I hit Sweet Home and drove down the narrow gravel driveway to the wheelchair man's place.

I set two traps before I knocked on his door to tell him I was there.  He was in a mood about the cats, but this time not wanting them gone and wondering why I haven't found them homes.  This time he was telling me to come back next year, that he might run out of cats if I get them all fixed.  "Ok," I said, "no.  Number one, these cats are young enough they'll outlive both you and I.  Number two, there are plenty of cats out there needing homes, especially wilder ones, and if you "run out" I'll bring you more.  But only if you don't feed them rice."  "Ok," he gave in, "you're the professional."  I liked being called a "professional".

I went to my car then, to watch the traps and shoo away the fixed ones trying to go in them.  I knew this was inefficient. The young boys, all now fixed, Easy, Sandy and Forest, were toying with me.  They were in a playful mood, and began going into the traps set, looking at me to catch my eye first.  They knew what they were doing, that it would spring behind them, and then I'd chide them and turn them loose.  Smart boys.  They'd sneak up behind my car too, eyeing me in the side mirrors, and seemed to dare one another on who could come closest.   

I finally caught two cats with single traps set.  I had the drop trap in my car and knew I should just set it up, but I needed to pee badly by then.   I didn't even want to move, I needed to go that badly.  Starbucks coffee!

Cedar, a girl

Flighty is a young tabby on white girl.

 I wasn't going to ask to use his bathroom.   I told him I"d be right back, that I had to go into town for something.  I told him I was going to go see my friends new baby goats.  They'd been born in the night, four of them.  I never knew a mom goat could have four kids!   I really did want to see them and texted my friend, hoping she was home and awake. They were born in the middle of the night.

She was not awake and did not respond for two more hours.  Oh darn, how I wanted to see those baby goats.

The medical driver who alerted me to the colony in the first place, also has an unfixed boy.  I texted her, and asked what her schedule was, that I was in Sweet Home and could get her boy.   She had kept him confined for the night so he'd be ready.  Her other boy ran off and hasn't been home in weeks so she is anxious to get Clinger fixed, hoping he won't run off.

Clinger, from Sweet Home, is being neutered today.

She had a work medical run, she said, that turned out to be the wheelchair man, who had a doctor appointment.  This made me excited to hear.  It would be easier to drop trap, with him gone.  I used the bathroom at Safeway then headed back to the colony.  I immediately set up the drop trap and caught the long hair brown tabby male quickly.   

Quinn is being neutered today.

Quinn before I caught him

Wildfire, a fire torti tux girl.

But then wheelchair man was back already, having written down the wrong time for his appointment.  After he brought me candy, and was in and out of his house a couple other times, I caught the fire torti, Wildfire, and left it at that, because I had the max number of cats in hand I could get fixed today.  I saw four more cats, at least, there, who still need fixed.

With the four fixed today, 12 are now fixed there, 2 kittens removed, and 4 or so left to catch and get fixed.

That's Louise on the left.  She's already fixed, and one of two unfixed brothers on the right.  Louise was in heat at spay and probably still smells unfixed.  The boy thinks he's going to get lucky but Louise keeps him at least three cat lengths away, just with attitude.  

Forest is one of the Band of Three, the playful boys who like to mess with me.  Sandy, another fixed boy, is behind him.

That was my day yesterday.  I can't say I was there late.  I was home by 2:30 p.m. and in bed early.  This morning I was up at 5:30, to clean the traps the cats had overnighted inside, label them with their names, then off to the clinic.  I have to be there to check in by 7:15 a.m.   

Now its nap time, with my own cats.