Teddy and Starr

 Teddy and Starr are a brother and sister originally from a Corvallis homeless camp.

There were so many cats at just this one camp, with ever changing campers and two sides to the camp.  From the easy side, on the south side of the creek, there was a short trail to the camp from a small parking spot off the main road.   The parking area said "No Parking" and I got ticketed by the ever  zealous Corvallis police department there once, when returning cats.  I never liked trapping in Corvallis, the police gave me such a hard time.   I was there so briefly, the car back open with cats in traps obvious, but the officer told me to take my volunteer efforts back to Albany and gave me a ticket.  

It's different here.  I was shocked by the difference when I moved here.  In my first encounter with officers, I was parked, watching a trap from the entrance to a seed warehouse business, in the dark on a weekend.  The traps were set clear up under the underpass to the highway, not an easy feat to even scramble up that concreted steep slope to the flat area where the underside of the overpass bridge joined the land again.  An officer rolled up to me, got out, came to my window and asked what I was doing here, in the dark and I thought "oh brother, this won't be good".  But when I told him what I was doing there, he actually said "thank you for doing this" and took off.  I was floored.  I'd never been treated with such courtesy before by the law.  

The far side of the camps, the other side of the creek, was occupied by just three long term homeless folk.  I got warned early on one woman could turn violent when drunk but she was always very sweet to me and told me many of her troubles.  I had to walk in quite a ways, from an adjoining street, on a sometimes flooded path, to get to that side.   

Over time I got over 50 cats and kittens trapped there, and then hauled most out, even the adults, when most of the campers were evicted a couple years later.

I caught Teddy and Starr, two of my long term family members, when they were older kittens, wild and ringworm infected.

This woman from Baltimore I'd met online had come to visit me.  I'd never met her and it was a big risk on my part to let a stranger visit for ten days.  It turned out to be a nightmare, really, and I just wanted her visit to be over.   She was so much work and I suspected she was using something.    She had two high school age kids she was "home schooling".  But really wasn't at all, as she boasted there was no oversight and they looked after their own schooling.  I asked how they'd survive if she died and she didn't know.  They rarely left the house, she said, had no friends and had never held jobs.   

She did die, a few years after she visited, got pneumonia, didn't tell them she was taking illicit drugs, and had a fatal drug interaction with something they gave her in the hospital.  I only know because her daughter contacted me, by then an adult, with no idea how to survive, how to pay the rent or anything else.   Good luck, I told her, and I meant it.  I thought then about all the adult children I know, living with an older parent, in the same boat, should something happen.  People are not doing their adult kids any favors not teaching them how to survive and work. 

  The Baltimore woman was with me, in the car, soundly sleeping, when I caught Teddy, Starr and Honey, three wild kittens, on the easy side of the camp.  On that side the drinking and yelling were pretty extreme, until a certain hour, I learned, when they were all passed out or asleep.   I put out a huge plate of wet food, and the starving kittens came out of the brush, like ghosts appearing and disappearing.  I was able to hand grab the three and get back to the car with them, where the lady from Baltimore snored loudly and did not even awaken til we were back home.

  Every kitten in that camp had ringworm, so that had to be treated.  Eventually I'd run out of home options, there'd been so many kittens I took out of that camp.   Starr never really tamed.  Honey went to a home finally, but was returned two months later.  She was so happy to be home again, she ran in circles then ran to find her friends, touching noses with each, in sheer joy to be back.  Honey died a couple years ago of multiple organ failure (she was euthanized) brought on by what the vet termed fast growing digestive lymphoma.   She was such a wonderful happy girl.  Starr and Teddy are 13 years old now.  And still here.

Teddy, with Calamity, who has passed on

Teddy with Oci.  Oci has also passed on.

Teddy with the very sweet Juno, who loves everyone, like Teddy.

Starr, on the right, with Oci.

Starr, with Mums behind her

Sweet Starr, still not tame, but beautiful and gets along with everyone.

They're 13 years old now, but both still seem in good health.  While Teddy likes to be petted (not held), Starr remains her wild self.

It's hard for me to look back on photos of cats that have passed.   Honey's memory can bring me to tears.  Even looking at Oci and Calamity's photos does the same.  

Although my youtube channel is now largely unused, since the demise of Windows Movie Maker, a program I loved, I found this video on my channel I made of the homeless camp cats.