Back in the Saddle

 

Mom and Kitten, now up in Portland with ARCF.  I only knew them 12 hours, but we had such a grand time while they were with me.  I LOVE them!   I drove the pair, plus mom's sister, Derf, who was spayed today, up to Portland to hand off to ARCF.

I am back in the saddle.  I took five cats up to be fixed today.  In addition I have an unfixed mom with her lone surviving kitten in the bathroom.  The kitten is between two and three weeks old, is all.

And I recaught Phantom---my scary smart escape artist little torti long hair, from the park.   It was 3:00 a.m. when I got up to use the bathroom, and went out to see if by chance she was in a trap.  I'd set the kitten trap again, clear up under the roof eaves, atop the cat run.  I climbed the aluminum ladder, leaned against the cat yard perimeter by the edge of the garage, barefoot, with the ground frozen--white with frost, and pulled the trap out of the narrow space atop the run below the eave, where the run enters the cat yard.  For now, she's in a cage in the garage because the bathroom is occupied with the mom and her kitten.  She's a mess.  I think she's been living under the neighbors shed.  She needs a bath.  After the mom and kitten leave this afternoon, she'll move to the bathroom and I'll clean her up.

The mom and kitten are from the apartment with too many unfixed cats, under threat of eviction from the landlord and also being visited by Animal Control over it.   Today, after I pick up the five cats from the clinic, I'll  drive north and meet up with Animal Rescue and Care Fund.  They will not only take the mom and kitten, from the apartment, but also the mom's sister, who is being fixed today.  So that will take down her numbers by three cats.  She's also getting two more into the local shelter today.  The rest of her cats will be fixed next Monday and another Portland rescue contacted her back and will take some of the others, once fixed.   Getting them fixed first is a big plus in getting them into rescues.  She gets to keep four, so after two of the adults go to Portland today and two more to the other shelter, she'll be left with only six to place.  That's good.

Derp is being fixed today and then will travel north with me to Portland to get a chance at a new home and life.

Foo Man, a dominant male with a sweet personality, will be fixed today, but
return to the apartment for now, until placement for him can be found.

This is Derf's sister, Adolf (lady's son named her) who has a single two week old girl kitten.
She too will go north this afternoon, late, to be fostered by Animal Rescue and Care Fund.

The other three cats are from a Lebanon apartment I'm very familiar with, since I've taken dozens of cats to be fixed over the years from the two apartments in one house, the house beside it and the duplex other side of it.  In fact one of the cats here, Blueberry, is from that location long long ago.   I trapped her in a woodpile beside the apartment of note.  She initially went to the Corvallis shelter, was there over a month, then went to a home.  The home returned her two months later and I was contacted to come get her or she'd be euthanized.  I raced over to find her in a carrier in their bathroom literally shaking in fright.  I brought her back here, to the bathroom initially, and when she saw she was "home", she completely relaxed.  She's been here ever since and is an old lady now.

Anyhow, this lady was living in an RV, was from Idaho, and picked up a stray female who ran into her RV somewhere along the road and they were meandering.  She was pregnant and had kittens.  They found a home for two of them but still had the three, one of whom is now in heat.  The teenagers' mom escaped the couple somewhere and they've not seen her again.  She was desperate to get them fixed and so now they are getting fixed.

Claudia

Harry

Ocho

Anyhow, that's the story for today.

My car began making this terrible noise today.  It was so bad I could hear it inside the car at highway speed.  People stared and shook their heads.   Clunker!    I called my mechanic because its coming from the belts that were just replaced.  The car has no automatic tensioner he told me, when he called back and they probably had stretched a bit, since they're new, and need tightened.  I hope that's all it is and not a bearing because it sounds metallic and like its coming from that third pulley down there at the back.  I'm taking it in at 11:00 tomorrow.