A Lucky Break for Flop and Sheriff

 I had a little surprise yesterday morning.  The woman who helped with the jail cats messaged me to say the sheriffs office left her a message that they had trapped a cat.   We had failed to tell them we'd already trapped the mom and her kittens, so they had set out a trap and, low and behold, caught an adult male.

I told her, if she could, to bring him on over and she did, after letting the sheriffs office know we could not take in more.   At about the same time, a Brownsville woman arrived to pick up newspaper.  I'd already loaned her traps.  She has four spots today but hadn't caught two of the males she was after.

Sheriff, as I call him, the gray tabby male

Flop, the mom cat, who will go to the barn, garage home with Sheriff

Skippy, Flop's boy kitten

I began lamenting the problem of the unfixed male about to arrive when she said she'd take him, not only to be fixed but adopt him, AND FLOP, the mom, as barn cats.  I wanted to do a dance of joy!

Sheriff arrived shortly after.  Skinny, scared to death, sleepy too.   But he settled right down, ate a plate of food, and was here a few hours only before the Brownsville lady picked him up.

She'll pick up Flop tomorrow or the next day.  Still working on taming her kittens, but it will sure be easier without mom watching them like a hawk.

With Sheriff gone and my chores done, I loaded my kayak and headed off to the lake.  It's very close the fire, like five miles or less from it, but there has been no wind to speak of.   I never even smelled smoke while there.  It was quite busy at first, serene and calm waters, and I had a blast.  

I had very little energy so I didn't kayak that far.   I paddled across the lake arm, and picked a couple quarts of blackberries, which was one of my main purposes for going.  I got the berries and why would I not pick as many as I can during their peak season---free food.  The price of food around here is so high, I never pass by free food.  I felt like getting that much food justified the gas money to get up to the lake.

After filling my container with berries, I started down the side of the arm to the tip and was startled to see a bike and some trash around it there.  Then below it, a man drinking straight from a bottle of vodka.  We exchanged conversation.   Was he living out there?  Probably.  I've noticed the trails on the arm have become far more pronounced this year.

What a place to live!   In the summer at least.

I traversed around the tip of the arm, and then crossed the larger body of the lake to the far side, paddled past the swim barriers at Lewis Creek Day Use area and found a beach.  Trouble was, a fishing boat pretty much followed me there and they anchored their motor boat less than 20 feet from me and began casting out lines.  I thought that was selfish behavior.  The lake was not crowded.  There was no need to anchor 20 feet from a kayaker.   The boat was very well equipped for fishing, fancy I'd say.  A lady, probably his wife, was sleeping on the seats and a young woman, teenage, was engaged in reading or something else.  They never spoke a word.  He had multiple poles and didn't catch any fish and finally finally they left so I could actually swim without getting snagged by a fish line.   

In my mind, and on here, since I really have no one to say it to otherwise, I call some of the motor boat people "entitled rich a holes".   

Here's another example from yesterday:  When I was trying to leave the lake, I pulled my kayak up on the edge of the boat ramp.  Moments later, a big huge massive van pulling a big huge massive motor boat with lots of people comes up from the parking lot and just starts backing down the ramp, to launch, and I had to get out of the way or be run down.   That led to more under breath cursing on my part over "a hole" rich entitled motor boaters.  I want to throw up a hairball on some of these folks.

They also seem completely oblivious to their actions.

Run down a kayaker?  What kayaker?   Anchor a few feet from someone trying to swim?   What swimmer and they need to get out of OUR way if there really was a swimmer at that beach.  

Anyhow, after the fishing boat moved on, I could swim, and stayed in the water til I started to shrivel up.   Was so nice, the serene lake, the water temperature, the sounds of lapping water and birds.   

Then it was time to paddle back across the larger part of the lake to the point, across that arm and to the boat ramp.   As I came back around the tip of the point, I was startled to see a black furry head in the water.    My initial reaction was "it's a bear".  It was not a bear.  It was a black lab out swimming.  His owner, a different guy out on the point, told me his dogs name but I forgot it almost immediately.  I have no memory for names unless I make them sticky.  The vodka guy was nowhere to be seen now.    

It's too bad about the Maui fires.   So many people lost everything and several dozen are dead.  Or more.  I try not to think about the horror all the animals and birds are going through, the ones who survived.

The Wiley Fire, out by Sweet Home, only six miles from it in fact, isn't growing fast, since we have no wind.  The level 1 evac zones now include two county parks and areas just south of Foster Reservoir.  This was another reason I went to the reservoir yesterday--know it might suddenly close if the fire moves.  The evac zones, closures could suddenly change, because we're about to experience possibly upper 90's to low 100's for a few days with unknown winds.   I don't think Sweet Home or Cascadia will burn.   Maybe I'm just wishful thinking again but there's no way I can possibly imagine such a terrible event so I choose to believe it can't happen and that's probably realistic given that we are not experiencing wind.