Five More Cats

 I took five cats up to be fixed yesterday.   

I went Sunday morning back up to the Sweet Home 7-11 colony.   I was there by 7:00 a.m. and didn't get home til 3:00.  That's 8 hours and I caught only one of the unfixed ones and wouldn't you know, one I didn't know was even there.

He's a black tux boy, younger and smaller than four of the big massive scary boys around there.  Two of them are fixed now, but the other two I was after, along with two others who are girls and likely pregnant by now.

8 hours, one cat.

Tumilo from 7-11 colony

My friend who checks on cat dumping spots, found two more tame kitties, obviously brothers. They came running out of brush at a pullout on a rural road to her.  Both cats have short crooked tails.  Which is a sure sign of inbreeding.   I took both of them up to be fixed yesterday.  I imagine she will try to get them in, one at a time, to the only shelter around these parts, but it costs money to relinquish a cat to them.  Also, it helps get them in if they're already fixed.

Twisted Mister

Zigzag

The other two fixed were both girls.  The Lebanon girl Jane, well a Lebanon rescue took in her kittens, but she still needed fixed so now Jane is fixed.  She's so tiny!   And the other cat is a girl from Albany.  She came to the family asking for help during the ice storm.  They let her in and she promptly gave birth.  But kittens are eating on their own now so Princess Mamba could be fixed.

Jane from Lebanon

Princess Mamba from Albany

There's a big ta do in Lebanon right now.  Some claimed it was a movie being filmed over not far from my Lebanon friends' place.  Instead, its an episode of Hoarders--Buried Alive.  Yup.   That crew could stay in this area for two years filming episodes, I swear.   Anyhow, only in Lebanon would a hoarder house episode filming become a big circus like event.  Whomever the hoarder is will probably become a local celebrity.

Anyhow, while I was up those long hours in Sweet Home after 7-11 cats, I took a break and went to the reservoir.   It's super low, but another lawsuit by fish people dictates they can't fill it til mid May.   Who knows if we'll have a reservoir to enjoy this summer or not.

The lake looks so small when its as low as it is, because the surface area is currently so small.  Its gotta be down 40 feet at least from full pool.   Boat ramps high and dry.  I don't like to see it this low, but I had to find a bathroom and public restrooms are hard to find.  I knew there's a vault toilet at Calkins.  I didn't want to drive home and come back later in the evening when trapping is easier either, because the cost of gas is edging toward $5 a gallon and there's just hardly any way to survive anymore with prices the way they are.  Not just gas and utilities, but food prices are beyond real.

When these groups decide to sue, like they did over the reservoirs, they seem to target poor areas, where the people who live there don't have money or clout to fight them and I think they see us as people who just don't matter.   Their elitism was exposed when one fish group lady said in response to a reporter asking about loss of business and somewhere to recreate for locals, that they (us) could travel to other Oregon lakes.  Like we all have that kind of money.   I shouldn't think about that, just hope they get filled and the rich people who live in other places and even other states, leave us be.

I don't usually say this publicly, but the COVID years were the best years of my life financially speaking.   Those relief checks the government sent out let me get my car fixed (twice) and also buy my beloved sit on top kayak.  I know that's terrible to say when so many thousands died all over the world, and health care providers were stressed to the max.  I know its very selfish to say it.

I took this photo and the next from a pullout along highway 20 across from The Point restaurant.  You can look across to see Gedney Creek boat ramp high and dry.

This photo looks down toward the arm where Calkins boat ramp is.  Again it looks so diminished when so low.  You can see the bridge that crosses that arm if you look closely, but there's almost no water in that arm right now.

Then I went to Calkins boat ramp to find it ridiculously waterless.  I'm sitting on the dock between the two boat ramps past the concrete ends of the boat ramps looking way down to the tiny bit of water in that arm.  I've never seen it this low before.

From the top of the ramps.  The docks float when the water level is normal.  Right now there's almost no water in this arm.  We kayakers and rafters prefer calkins boat ramp because its not extremely steep and long like Gedney Creek and Sunnyside.

Muck, yuck and almost no water in this arm.

We're still mired in overcast, rain and gloom weatherwise here.