Four More Fixed

 I took four cats up to the FCCO yesterday morning to be fixed.

Most importantly--the three Crabtree teens went.   I didn't sleep a whole lot the night before.  Something in my brain didn't want to miss the 6:00 a.m. alarm.  So I gave up at 5:00 a.m. and got up.  I'd gotten a later check in time--8:30 a.m. which means leave at 7:00 to be sure to get there on time, in case of severe congestion.

I had to transfer them from the large cage into individual live traps.   This proved to be very simple with this crew.  The torti teen was up on the shelf while the other two were inside the carrier bed.   I close the carrier door, to keep them inside, removed the litter box and put a set live trap in its place, then took off the blanket covering much of the cage.  This propelled the little girl to try to hide from me and now the only place she could hide was inside the set live trap.  So she was easy.  I removed the trap with her inside from the cage.   I then took out the carrier and transferred the two inside it, to live traps one by one.  I slid the slide up back door of a transfer trap over the carrier opening, then lifted the live trap door and the flamepoint came out of the carrier first, into the trap.  I slid the door down and moved that trap out of the way and slid a second in, same way and the buff and white came out quickly into the trap.

I had four spots.  Instead of spending hours over behind the gas station, where now a homeless RV camper stays nights, parked against the fence, where I trap, I took a Sweet HOme big boy.  He'd showed up at a previously completely fixed colony.  Second time a big male has showed up there, only to quickly get neutered.  In 2019, I caught over 20 cats, kittens and teens there.  Quite a few of the teens went into rescue.  The lady there, who sells eggs from their own flock, won't put up with unfixed cats coming in now.  He can stay if fixed however.

With no more spots now til second week of September, I picked him up there, to be fixed as the fourth cat to fill that last spot, fearing he'd stand no chance, if those hormones weren't curtailed fast.

He's a really big sweet guy!   He went along for the ride to the FCCO.

The fuzzy flamepoint teen from Crabtree turned out to be a girl. So there were two girls among the three teens.   

Cats can get pregnant at four months so very happy we caught them.

Here's the big guy from Sweet Home.

Will he survive there?  Don't know.  Be a couple months before his hormones diminish.   They have a large pack of coyotes who run the field behind their place and a very busy major highway out front.   

I was going to head up to Waldo Lake in ten days, for a one night stand with the lake I love most in Oregon.  My only real getaway for the summer.   But....a wildfire broke out a couple days ago, lightning caused, about 3 miles from the lake and they've closed the western side trails and probably are emptying the campgrounds on the east side today.   The entire Waldo Lake wilderness area is now closed.   It made me cry.  I was so excited about that one night out.   Maybe they'll get the fire out before the campgrounds close for the winter in about a month.

Last night, I was so depressed over it.  I lamented my isolated life and being unable to find anyone to do anything with too.   Just tired I guess.   

Waldo Lake is pristine, beautiful, in a wilderness area.  No motor boats allowed on the lake. No generators allowed in the campgrounds.  So......a lot nicer experience than most Oregon campgrounds which become more like drunken loud rowdy homeless camps, only add in roaring vehicles of all sorts, and if at a lake, screaming jet skiis and motor boats too.    I lost interest in loud crammed together camping a long time ago.

Vivian from Silverton picked up the four cats at the FCCO for me which was nice.  I was exhausted and too tired to stay in Portland somewhere in some parking lot all day.   She says she doesn't mind the driving.  In case you're not from Oregon, Silverton is out east of Salem, not a short drive for her even to Albany from her home.

My neighbors leave for good in under a week.   I dont' have any idea who bought the house and will be moving in.  The one thing I realized at the bird lady's block party was how much that small neighborhood resents the big multi building apartment complex built just beyond the end of their formerly dead end street.  It's all they talked about among themselves and when the police arrived, because they make visits to the Night Out parties, one officer got cornered and even brought out a notebook to write down the complaints about the apartments.  One lady had gone to the city council meeting to air complaints about the traffic and other things associated with the massive structures that destroyed their neighborhood quality of life, but left in tears, the bird lady said.   

The apartments have an exit onto a major street but instead of using that, most of them seem to come and go on the ill maintained piece of street that used to be the dead end.  I couldn't believe the traffic coming and going, as I sat there, about 20 feet off the street, in the bird lady's driveway.

Anyhow, there really are no constraints on unfettered development here.  They're putting in 30 houses a block and a half from me.   Just south of town, almost 300 I think houses are going up in former farmer fields.  Even though only a few are currently built and occupied, the traffic has so drastically increased its hard to get back on Columbus Street, coming down Seven Mile from Lebanon.  Too many cars now, from the development.  They now need to put in a stoplight, at Seven Mile and Columbus.   I doubt they will, they'll just let it be a mess until too many car crashes happen.

They could double or triple this town's size with developments and still there'd be no shortage of out of staters wanting to move here.  The majority seem to come from California, but there are tons of Texas license plates and Idaho ones too on the roads.  When I become discouraged and lonely, I look to blame things for my mood.  Development with resulting population increase is a great outlet!    Why not?   Population booms increase prices and traffic--the boons of existance, especially when you live on limited funds.