Exhaustion

 Yesterday was a very very long day.  And in the 90's.

Day before yesterday I collected an already planned group of six, from Lebanon, a mom and her five kittens.   However, she initially did not get mom, so I went and got the kittens she'd tamed while they ran around her barn after being born there.  She managed to get all five into a massive carrier, by around 5:00 p.m.  Then had to drive back after 7 p.m. when she caught the mom.  Was happy she'd been caught.

Mom, of the five Lebanon kittens

Two of the five kittens were girls.  So it was a three and three male female mix of those six.

Tuesday morning I'd planned to go to the lake, before picking up the kittens and mom at 5:00.  But, another caretaker, in Waterloo, who is difficult to pin down once she says she wants a cat fixed, who had refused a spay for the stray mom the week before, got in at FCCO also for Wednesday, due to cancellations.  I raced up there to Waterloo to catch them, when I heard they could be done, with my drop trap and spent an hour catching all six wild thing kittens, then the mom, who is tame.  

Now what to do with them for the day.  Too hot to be in my garage, so I turned all seven loose in the bathroom, where it would be cool all day and they'd have food, water and a litter box.  The Waterloo mom cat is tame, but her kittens are not.  She was dumped at the park late April pregnant, seen there by a friend, who even took a video of her, then she vanished.  Later she turns up just over the little dike hill in residential and had her kittens there, under the porch steps.

Tame mom from Waterloo

Tabby Tux kitten

Lilac Point and tabby kitten

There were two black tux kittens.  This is one of them.

Two of the tabby kittens when I first caught them

The Waterloo mom's kittens include two brown tabbies, one tabby tux, two black tuxes and a Lilac Pt. Siamese.  I didn't get the records, they're sent to the caretaker of the cats, by email.   I'm still trying to get the Siamese records because a friend wants him or her, to try to tame and the Waterloo folks don't want any of them.

I decided to go to the lake anyhow even though it was by now 11:00 after I got back from catching the 7 in Waterloo.  I loaded up my kayak stuff and kayak and was at the lake for almost 3 hours, before driving back to a friends place in Lebanon, leaving the kayak in her garage and then heading out to pick up the five kittens who'd been caught.  I'd have to return later for the mom.

The wind was up at the lake, white caps, so there were not many kayaks out.  There were some of the big huge fancy ski boats out.

 It wasn't easy dealing with two batches of kittens and their moms, in the heat that evening.   I did it though and loaded them up early morning to leave by 6:30 a.m. for Portland.  My check in time for the cats at the clinic was 8:00 a.m.

I threw my inner tube water float, deflated, and the little pump to inflate it with, into my car, before leaving that morning, understanding I would be unable to spend my day in various parking lots due to heat predictions.

After checking in the 13 cats/kittens for surgery, at the clinic, I had breakfast then headed to a reservoir near Forest Grove.  I've been to Hagg Lake many times.  The lake area is beautiful with a trail all the way around it, but the lake itself, not so much.  It's known for algae blooms, a bare hard dirt bank and then the sucking mud at shoreline.  It can take off your sandals and cling to your legs.  That kind of icky suck you under mud.  But once you clear the mudline and I clear it by trying to leap over it directly into the water, its infinitely cooling to be submerged when its 90 out.   

I had to leave the lake by 2:30 to make it back to the clinic for sure by 4:00, through the traffic, even though it wasn't that far in miles.   I got there about 3:35 so I didn't have to wait too long before it was my turn to go up and get the 13 cats at the check out table out front and load them back into my car.

I got home two hours later, again going through mind destroying traffic clogs on the freeway.  I don't know how people who have to make that commute daily actually survive, with minds intact.

I unloaded the 7 cats from Waterloo, the tame mom and her six kittens, into the bathroom, one trap at a time.  I just turned them loose in there, carried the trap back outside, took out dirty papers, since this morning was garbage day and put them in the bin.   I was so hot and dripping from just doing that.  It was still about 86 or 88 degrees out  Then I drove the six from Lebanon back to their rural home.  She had a cage set up to recuperate them in and was prepared, thank goodness, and carried the traps into her place herself.   I couldn't move from my car by then.

Got home, did minimal chores for my own cats, fell into bed.

My friend in  WA wants to adopt the Siamese kitten from Waterloo and try to tame him or her.  She might be coming down today to pick up but I'm not sure what time.  I was going to return the others to Waterloo before she came but my energy level is low and I just got dressed and its almost 10 a.m. 

Good day for local cats yesterday was, at least.  13 more fixed.   I'll recover.