A Very Wet Road Trip with Cats

 I picked up the park cats yesterday morning.   Then, in the afternoon, I picked up the black male from a Corvallis car dealership.   And later, a friend brought over the two Millersburg boys in a big huge trap.  They caught them together, using the bottle under the door, yank the bottle out with string method, so both would be caught at once.

All five were fixed today up at the OFOSA shelter in Hillsboro.  I got there right at 8:30.  I left at 6:30 a.m.

I diddled and dawdled then decided to head out to Hagg Lake for the day.  It's not far from the shelter.   I had to pay a day use fee.  As usual my credit card refused to be read.  I've only had this one six months, and almost immediately the chip in it failed.  Sometimes the magnetic strip works but mostly it doesn't either.  Its awkward, since if I can't get the strip to read, since the chip won't, I have to have cash to cover purchases.  

This is especially hard in gassing up now, since our gas stations have mostly switched to self serve, after this state forever rejected self serve.   I try to pay with cash, but that means holding up the line of cars waiting because you have to go inside the station to prepay cash, which often means waiting in a line inside there, behind other people buying junk food or whatever.  You have to underestimate how much your tank will hold, too, or then you have to make another trip inside to get change owed you, if you over prepay.  All while other cars are waiting behind you impatiently.

Darn non working credit cards anyway.   I've put off getting a new one since they'll probably cancel this one in the meantime and what a pain, since all my bills are on auto pay with it.

Ah the tribulations of the digital and credit age.

I drove around the lake.  It's really a small reservoir behind an earthen dam.   My two favorite things I like about Hagg Lake are the beautiful picnic areas and multitudes of wonderful trails.   But today it poured nonstop and I barely got out of the car.  Snow remnants speckled the ground in places.  They didn't melt either, in the downpour which I thought was odd.   

Here's an example of one beautiful place, where you can picnic, along Scroggins Creek.

As usual the cats were done promptly and I was home before 5:00 p.m.   My Millersburg friend came and got her neighbors two boy barn cats, and they will get to spend a few days in the heated garage, since its about to get very cold here.  Or so they say.

I'll return the other three cats in the morning.  She also brought me a pizza and a salad to go with it!

That was so thoughtful.  

Yesterday, a Lebanon male trapped by a young woman was fixed over in Corvallis.   She'd kind of trapped she said not knowing he wasn't fixed, just wanting to help him, but he wasn't behaving like the tame cat she hoped he was, in her bathroom, and she did not want to release him unifxed.   Anyhow, Happy Cat Club paid the bill at a Corvallis clinic who had a deal on doing ferals and could get him in quickly.

I got some cancellation appointments Monday.  They're to go for a mom and her kittens, cared for in a Sweet Home trailer park.  However, this is pending because of the weather event we may have here.   I may be unable to drive to Sweet Home Sunday, who knows.  Not the weather people who don't know if the cold front will drop down the valley this far or not and if it does, whether it will mean snow, freezing rain or nothing much at all.   I'd much rather have snow, than another ice storm should I be the one to choose, which I'm not.

I know we're not really supposed to get above freezing, day or night, til like next Tuesday, which means another killer electric bill.   The electric bill last month was like a horror movie.

Here are the cute little faces of the kitties fixed today.  Four boys and one lone girl.

Big Black Corvallis boy

And the Millersburg brothers.

Lastly, the park cats, one boy and the lone female.

The only girl today

That's it for today.  Since not even the weather folk know what exactly could happen down the valley here, this weekend, I guess we wait and see.