Five Lacomb Kitties

 I've been running a fundraiser, so we can try get the rest of the Lacomb kitties fixed.  While we're nowhere close to getting enough for all of them, we did get five more fixed yesterday.

That makes 8 fixed there now, with 15 to go, but they will try to get some of the tamer kittens into the local shelter.   I hope they can do that.  The local shelter has a lot more resources than I do but they do like to charge massive budget breaking intake fees.

Artemis, a girl

A boy they call Golbez

Little girl they named Intern

Tomorrow, if they're successful at trapping, five more will be fixed.

Another little girl they call Terra

A boy, Turbo

When I went to get in the car yesterday morning, to take the cats to the clinic, I freaked out.  One trap, the only one that was their trap, was empty!   It's a cheap small trap and both ends appeared to have been compromised.  I briefly thought that kitten must have escaped the car too, because I'd been standing there, with the car door open, labeling the traps.

I got inside the car, closed the door and began to search under and behind the two front seats.  There are not many places a cat can hide in my car. But I hadn't unloaded my kayak gear yet.  My paddle, my lifejacket, the kayak seat, a few other kayak items, were all crammed in front of the backseat.  But, a board covers the entire back.  Back seat is laid forward, with the board atop it, so I can haul things. (mostly cats) I found the cat using a mirror and flashlight.   Catching, not as easy, due to the cramped space, but I managed it.  Soon she was back in a trap, but this time, one of my trusted ones.   I keep mine in good shape.

When I got home, I removed all my kayak gear and then, in some sort of energy burst, cleaned the garage out, organizing, and ditching stuff I don't use.   Granted, not a big job.  I don't have much stuff.  I only keep stuff I use.  With a few exceptions, like my ancient REI sleeping bag (rated to minus 55) and backpack, clear back from Alaska days.   Why I keep those two items, I don't know, except I still like to look at them and think about those days.  I would never use that sleeping bag out camping.  It's way too hot for me and its a mummy bag.  Last decade or so, my legs have to be free or I can't sleep.  If I lost heat again, like I have in the past when the furnace quits, that's the go to, used unzipped, that keeps me warm.  Otherwise, its crammed into its stuff bag on a shelf.

Speaking of the furnace, I realized I needed to clean the heat pump before winter sets in.  The dryer vents right out onto it, from the house, causing the coil fins to get linted up.   It wasn't that easy on me to clean it.  I had to remove like 8 metal panels on the outside, after shutting it off inside and also pulling out the breaker for it so it for sure could get no power.  I should have vacuumed it out, but I just flicked off the layer of lint and dirt with a moist cloth, then sprayed it from the inside to the outside.  Getting those metal outside panels back on was a pain too.   

After that I thought what's the good of doing that if I don't at least try to redirect the dryer lint away from the heat pump.  So I pulled off the feathered outside dryer vent cover, and put a a bracket on it that fits onto the portable AC unit duct I have for the garage when its super hot in the summer and I have to hold cats.  Then I fastened that outside cover I'd removed onto the end of the AC unit's vent duct, which is maybe five feet long, and then attached it to the house.  Since its flexible, I curled it away from the heat pump down along the side of the house.  It doesn't get the lint that far away from the heat pump but sure better than venting straight onto it.  I wanted the feathered cover on the end to keep mice and slugs, or whatever, from traveling up the dryer vent duct into the house and dryer. So the opening stays closed unless air is blowing out it. 

Struggles with dryer lint and vent ducts.  Hate those struggles.

I took a trap up to a long fixed colony, on Sunday, for the couple living there, in a fifth wheeler, to catch a new arrival female, who showed up with kittens.  The colony was fixed two or three years ago.  Then the young female showed up this summer.  The kittens are darling.   The couple who live there have been getting them tame, but so far, I can't find a rescue open to take them.

There are two tabby boys

This little girl is a chocolate torbi!

I gave her some kitten dry food and a box of wet food cans and she will be catching the female on Sunday, to be fixed Monday.

They are trying to keep them safe, but everything on earth would like to eat a fat kitten.  So I don't know.

The two Gills Landing teen boys, Ash and Clyde, will come here this morning, from where they've been held in Lebanon, and then tomorrow, I will meet up with a Silverton Barn Cat placement team member, and hand them off.   They also have a barn home open for Chatty and Sunny.  I just have to recatch them.   They can take those two next Tuesday.  I have got to get on that.  

They're also looking for a home for Tabitha, from the 7-11 colony in Sweet Home.  The former manager was able to catch her and she's in my bathroom.   I was thrilled to find out she is still alive.   She was miserable however, being secretly fed at the dumpsters and sleeping under the dumpster.  But the lady feeding her got caught doing it, on security cam and chastised, so she had to get her safe quickly.   She's been an easy keeper in the bathroom.  She adores just sleeping on a soft blanket.  She doesn't want to be petted but lets me, if I try.  I'm hoping she gets a "soft home", one where she has it super easy and great shelter, delicious food.

She was the most fun loving of all the cats at the colony, the most personality, when I was trapping there last spring, before I got the boot.   Now, she seems a little broken, after all that went on there.

I joined a Gleaner group here. Today I go on my first field glean with them.   You just have to put in six hours a month volunteering and that's nothing.   It should help a lot with the food situation I experience due to high prices of everything.  The city decided to add more fees to the monthly water bill, which made me panic.