Rainy Day in Portland with Cats

 When the FCCO said I could bring the five cats from Sweet Home up to be fixed Wednesday, I jumped on it.  That was Tuesday.  

I immediately contacted the family with the cats up at a Sweet Home trailer park.  They were actually moving out that day, to somewhere else, but were eager for them to be done.   They contained them within an hour and I headed up.   This was a stray tame mom they'd taken care of at the trailer park and her four teen offspring.

I know that trailer park well.   I've been in and out of there so many times over the years its kind of sad.  KATA also, before they called it quits.

This cat, with horrendous earmites and a fluid filled tumor hanging off her chin was abandoned at that same trailer park years ago.  Heartland removed that tumor and Andrea, a friend, adopted her.  She has since died of kidney failure but had some good easy loved years with Andrea.

They quickly handed me the five cats back in the carriers I'd handed them.  I'd grabbed carriers for them, when I got the notice, to be fast about getting up there.  I was excited!   Spots have been hard to scrounge lately.  These cats were originally scheduled to be fixed March 1 at FCCO.   Before that they were going to go in to be fixed at OHSS, when I got some cancellation appointments but then my cancellation appointments were cancelled when the ice storm hit.

I left about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with the five.  I got up at 5:00 a.m. to get my cat chores done here before I left.  

The five include the torti mom, who is tame and the four shyer teens, two boys and two girls.

The traffic was slow all the way up so it was good I gave myself two hours for the one hour drive.  It took all of that to get there in heavy stop and go traffic.  

I knew it was going to be a rainy icky day and I was happy to have a distraction from the downpours with the trip with cats.

What else was I going to do?

I headed to various stores, to walk, number one, so I wouldn't get too stove up from sitting in a cold damp car most of the day, and number two, I'd brought my shopping list.   

I went back to the FCCO at 2:30 and got in the back of my car, with my pillow and blanket and took a nap for a little over an hour.  Someone was waiting in a car next to me reading a book.

Jessica from PDX Cat Trapper came up to my car just as I woke up and we chatted for awhile.  She's so funny!   She makes me laugh.

The trip home was stop and go for the usual miles and then off and on pouring rain.  I don't mind driving in the dark and rain.   Never have.

I returned the cats yesterday to their new place of residence, outside of Sweet Home.  The family is staying with a friend I guess.    She was letting them out in the utility room at the back of the house, so they can acclimate to their new home and area.  In the meantime, I took a bag of cat food the FCCO donated to them to the front porch.  Suddenly the door cracked open and out shot a massive dog.   I'm talking tall, as tall as my waist--a Great Dane.

It was then I noticed the Beware of Dog sign on their porch.  I froze.  The dog sniffed me out then I saw the tail start to move and I said "oh my gosh, you're such a good dog" and the tail whipped back and forth rapidly.   A gentle giant!  Now, out of the house came a little human, maybe four, wanting to show me her boots.   I told her they were particularly awesome boots, like none I'd seen before and she was satisfied.

I delivered traps to another Lebanon location where they have four cats needing fixed and stopped in at D and M's place, to say hello and couch sit because I was sooooo sleepy.   I've known D and M over cats for awhile.  First I knew his mom and helped her get a lot of cats fixed she fed.  Then I met him when she began a decline, went into a nursing home and died.  I helped recatch the cats still alive then and he got them in at Meow Village.   

I met them again at their  friends place.  They were helping him and he cared for a few cats needing fixed.  So we caught them and got them fixed.   Now a neighbor feeds them because that man had to go into a care home too.   Then D got cancer, and then had a stroke and M, his wife, cares for him with hospice help.  They are kind dear people.

I came home and tried to do paperwork with a time limit for turn in and fouled it all up being too tired to do anything requiring a brain cell.

I gave up productivity and lounged the rest of the day!