My Old Cats

 It's so sad to watch my family, my cats, get so old.   

Comet is the oldest.  Soloman, whose sister died this summer, is frail and 16.  I'll lose both within the next months, if not sooner.  Soloman and Panda, who died, came from a terrible apartment complex in Lebanon, with lazy entitled people, whom I had to crawl over and around, while they played video games, to trap, along with many others, whom I returned.  I took in four, one of whom died of a saddle clot, one of whom got a home.  They were youngish adults then.    Soloman once went to a home, but they demanded I come get him the next day because he cried so loudly.  He was lonely.

Comet, back in 2013, when he was merely middle aged.

Soloman back in 2011

My dear Peeman Sam is 16 too.  He came from a Millersburg trailer.  People had kicked out all their cats, left dogs locked inside, and vanished.   Everybody got homes finally, of all those cats, except Peeman Sam and Oci, who died a couple years ago.   My brother always liked Sam, and would say he wanted him but never took him home.  Instead he adopted a cousin of Shady's.  She was a bit older than Shady, just by a few months.  She died of cancer though a few years ago.  They don't want another pet.

Here's Sam way back in 2011.  How young he looked then. 

Tweetie and Button, sisters, both very wild, who stay out in the yard, although they can come in if they wanted too---14.  They came from underneath a trailer in Albany, where they'd been living after their person died suddenly.  I'd gotten 20 some cats fixed for her.  I found everybody homes but them.  They didn't tame down enough, older teens by the time the family contacted me, asked me to find all her cats homes, said they'd donate and help--never did.  The usual.

Tweetie, with very extreme ear tip.  It always bothered me.  She and her sister were fixed at a private vet.

Button, Tweetie's sister

Tugs and Mums, also sisters--15.  I called the cats fed by an old lady, who died, living in a run down Lebanon cottage, the shovel killer church cats, because the neighbor said a guy going to the church next door offered to kill all the cats with a shovel.  Instead they all came here.  Tugs and Mums were the leftovers who never got a home.  

Tugs

Mums with Sam

Shady is 15.  Buffy almost that now.   Shady and Buffy came from the BS colony outside Albany.  I got over 120 cats fixed between a few houses.  The vet apologized later for asking me to solve that big situation.   Buffy's brother, Mops, died a couple years ago, suddenly, heart event.

Shady, now completely deaf, but still doing ok in her old age

Buffy, now quite elderly, has never taken crap off anyone and likely never will

Echo and Fantasia, the Quirky Sisters I call them, for their strange personalities---seem young at 12.  They come from a place in downtown here, where I got dozens fixed over the years, got many many cats homes from that location, including Tiny Tim, who flopped down the sidewalk with a knee destroyed by a dog attack, the vet said.  His leg was amputated.  He was tame and he's the reason I know Kate, who adopted him when she lived down in Huntington Beach.  I took the last plane ride of my life, with my brother's airline points, to fly him down to his new home.  That was years and years ago.  It was a great experience.  I got treated like a queen on that flight by Alaska airlines, moved to first class, given a bottle of wine.  They let me take Tim out of the carrier too and made over him.  I wanted to live on that airplane after that kind of treatment.  Kate gave me a three hour tour of HB too.  I stuck my feet in the ocean down from the famous walkway.   Kate moved back to WA state with Tim for a few years, and finally is now back in HB, Tim in tow.  He's an old man cat now.

Echo

Fantasia

They lost Meesa, their mother, a few years back, to a large abdominal tumor.

Sure, Slinko and Smolder are in the old boys club too.   Probably many of these faces are quite familiar if you've read my blog very long.

Well, I can't say I'm sorry for helping any of these cats, nor for the constant work of caring for them all these years.    It's not for the faint of heart.  The daily work load would frighten most people.  I'm not most people.  

What can I say but I love them all very very much.  I never intended to end up with so many cats now very old cats but I did and so I care for them, see them through to their end.  When you try to get a zillion cats fixed and people don't want them, I took them in, when I did adoptions, then tried to find them homes.   But...taming a zillion teens or kittens, trapping, finding them homes, people returning them, what then?  You care for them til they die, that's what.   I did stop doing adoptions a few years back though.   Had to.   

 They are The Family.  That's how I refer to them.  They have lots of room here, cat runs, cat lairs, an entire fenced yard, rooms to themselves, window lookouts, food galore, toys and catnip.   Even the wildest ones get dental care.  I mean, I love them.

Everybody needs somebody.   I'm like that.  I need somebody to love and to love me.  I don't have a human family really.  Oh yeah, I have a couple brothers but I haven't seen them in ages and if I do see them its for a few hours on a holiday.  So there you have it.  When you have a need, you fill it somehow and I did.