A Day in the Life.....

 I went to Waldo with one neighbor and a friend of her visiting from California.    Was not exactly the day I'd hoped for but it was what it was.  And it was great fun just to go with two ladies and joke and chat in the car.

They're not morning people, not even late morning people.   So we got a very very late start.   Being OCD and always on time, I was up early to do all the cat chores I have here needing done daily.  And the laundry and dishes.   

When they then did not answer texts, I proceeded with yardwork.   I was about to head to Lebanon to do something with a friend instead since it was near noon, when they said they still wanted to go.   I went back and forth thinking its too late since its a two hour drive there, longer if you drive slow, but finally decided to go anyhow.

Well we got there mid afternoon.   Which is really late to get to a mountain lake.   Long story short, I finally put my raft in the water after 4:00 for a very short time.  And that was difficult, given I had to blow it up and then drag it, and its heavy, 150 feet through trees to the lake.   I'd intended to blow it up and launch it at the boat ramp day use area, but that didn't happen.   

We got home very late, after navigating I5 post Duck game traffic.  I nodded in and out of sleep in the backseat with their two dogs.   I apologized over and over for even suggesting we go up to see Waldo.  There was nothing for them to do up there.  They're not active people and I don't think they even saw much of the lake, but rather planted at a picnic table in the campground and chatted.   It was what it was.

I remembered both why I love that raft so much and why the kayak is so much easier.  The awkwardness and weight of the raft make it nearly impossible to get far to a lake alone, unless I had some wheels for the back.  I'll have to make some because I do love that raft.  I blow it up using a pump attached to the car battery through the cigarette lighter.

Although exhausted from the Waldo trip the next morning I had to be out trapping at the Albany colony by 7:00 a.m.  I was brain dead and sore all over from the day before.   As I drove towards the freeway overpass I saw two balloons in the early morning sky.   Mist hung low over the bare dirt fields.  Fall is here.

I only caught three at the Albany colony in three hours, using the drop trap.  Good thing is, they were the only three unfixed cats I saw in those three hours.  The others I saw--all fixed.  In this video, taken through my embarassingly dirty windshield, you see only fixed cats.   But they're so darn cute, the kittens, fixed at the FCCO, the sleek gray adult, also fixed, anyhow, I like watching them.

  

All three are black and I will add photos later on.   Two kittens, one adult.   I'd allotted four spots to this colony and now had only three.   I gave them names from the Inspector Montalbano book series.  I'm long done reading every Inspector Montalbano book, but I really loved them.   

Caterella, the only adult

Giuseppi

Guido

I called the Lebanon apartment complex lady, where Ricky came from, to see if she could catch that calico, that before, broke out of a carrier when she was headed to my car with the cat.  She couldn't get her caught and said she has 3 8 week old calico kittens too.  Great.

I went over then to get the prolific Lebanon female and was going to take another kitten the woman had, to round out for five spots, but she wasn't there when I got there, so I headed across the street to the complex.  The Ricky complex.

I'd caught two older kittens a week before there, that her sister feeds.  There was a third, that she had not caught.  I'd left her a trap.  I spotted the third kitten immediately, set a trap and caught it in about three minutes.   So the 3rd kitten, named Pepper now, will go get fixed.  Pepper's siblings will be fixed at the FCCO on the 6th.  The woman across the street, who is trying to get everyone fixed around there, has them in a very large cage but she says they remain wild things.  She has like 19 spay neuter appointments first week of October up at the FCCO.  I'll be doing the transport.

After I caught the kitten, I went back across the street to the cat lady's house and by then she had the prolific female.  Off I went then, home, having my quota for today.

This is Mama the Prolific.   She had two litters this summer alone, the last numbering 9 kittens.  And she is teensy.

This is Pepper, from the complex, one of three who showed up hungry there.  They are all wild and no one knows who their mom is.

I took the five up this morning, stopped and got coffee at a favorite stand in Jefferson on the way home and now have the day to myself.  Ha, I love that.

Going to hang out with my cats.