Memory Disk Overdrive

 Have you ever run into someone who knows you, from over a decade ago, but your mind is pulling up "item not found" when you search your memory files.  

Lady called me and said I helped her a long time ago, maybe 12 or 14 years ago, with cats, up near Lyons.  Now she's had more show up, but has moved to another location in Lyons by now.  She still has two of those original cats I helped her catch and get fixed--both now elderly and tame.

She caught two of the four unfixed ones last night.  I went up to get them.   They currently just have a pickup with open bed and its been downpouring here.   The cats will be fixed tomorrow at Alpine in Corvallis.   

So I drove on up to retrieve them.  I drove the usual route to Lyons, up through Scio and on.   She's far side of highway 22 now.   North of it, I mean, for clarity.  Not far from the Gingerbread House.   I wanted to stop there for breakfast and I will have lunch there tomorrow when I return them.  For old times sake.  I've gone to the Ginger Bread House for as many years as I can remember.

I passed Hannah Bridge turnoff on the way.  Brings back the memories too.   Hannah Bridge is one of many covered bridges around here.  But there's a really nice little swimming hole pretty much under it.   I've gone there now and then for years too.  The county finally upgraded the parking lot and trail down.  I love it but only go there middle of week to avoid crowds.  It's on Thomas Creek which is swollen right now from all the rain.

We talked about the fires of 2020 when I picked up the cats.  That was the Memorial Day night fire that roared down the Santiam Canyon like a hurricane (other places too) and destroyed so much, from Detroit to Lyons, trapping people, killing people, wiping out homes and beloved wild places.  She had a catering company then.  They delivered dinners that night, up to the forest service folks fighting the fire.  She said the lady who took the delivery was nervous.  She became nervous too, over the wind, with a fire already burning.   She told her friend, "Let's get out of here."  So they came back down to Lyons and she went home and packed her car up, filling every tiny place, loaded her 8 cats and dogs, but her husband wanted to go to bed.  She didn't let him and they evacuated.  Their place wasn't burned.  The fire stopped not far from their place however.

There are two others, both boys, they want to catch and get fixed.   But they were happy they caught the girls.  

This is Little Fern.  They think its a girl.

This is Miss Bobbi, who is a girl, with a bobtail

After I got home, and got paper lining the traps, and fed them, I came inside and texted the neighbor to see if she wanted to go out for coffee.   She did and off we went.  We were soon joined by another friend.

After that she wanted to go to a meat truck sale in a parking lot.  I said "Meat from where?"  She didn't know.  The truck was a small delivery type, white, no logo, and there was a line.  You couldn't see prices or anything anywhere, or what they had.  You had to stand in line, and one person was allowed under the canopy to buy at a time.  "Yikes," I thought.  "Doesn't seem right," I thought.

I went and waited in her car.  After 30 or 40 minutes, they loaded four boxes in the back of her car.  I asked what she got---a lot.  Too much for her freezer in fact.  She said they were from Missouri.  I thought "uh oh" and I thought "that doesn't sound right."   Lobster tails even.  From Missouri?   

None of my business though, what she buys.  

Despite doing all this cleaning, last few rainy days, there's more to do, because the cats don't stop tracking it in from the cat yard.   

Every bit of ground everywhere is muddy or sogged out four to six inches in standing water.  Yuk.

All next week---more rain, snow in the mountains.  The problem with heavy spring snow is if we get a sudden warming, all that snow melts and adds to the overloaded streams and rivers and flooding happens.

I was bored yesterday and Gigi was demanding, on my lap and mad if not on my lap, so I took snapshots of her close up.

The younger crowd entertained themselves in a couple of empty Chewy boxes.  They're always a favorite toy, while they last.

Otherwise, all is just the same here.  

I'm going to search my blog later on, see if I can find reference to the cats I got fixed 12 to 14 years ago for this couple.   I didn't have a nonprofit back then.  Once she told me the name of the road they lived on back then, I remembered the situation.   I could drive right to it, in fact.  But records from that long ago are now on CD's or thumb drives somewhere.  This was a long long time ago, back when I was hooked up with so many affordable options and was taking in over 30 cats a month to be fixed, often 60 or more in fact.   We don't have all those options anymore.  I looked for them on my blog briefly but became nostalgic looking at cat photos and videos.   I saw my adoption plea video for Blueberry, back in 2012.  She never got a home.  She went to Heartland for a couple months.  I was told she was adopted by a vet student, but it was really someone who wanted to be a vet who returned her after two months.  I was told she'd be euthanized by email if I didn't come over and get her instantly.  I did, racing, heart pounding.  I found her in a carrier in their bathroom, trembling she was so frightened and brought her here, where the moment she realized she was back, she relaxed.  She's 15 now, an old gal, arthritic hip from a fall off a cat run years ago but otherwise ok for one of my elderlies.  

It was gut twisting to see that video of her from 15 years ago. I'm happy she's lived out her life here with me--safe and happy.  Time flies.   

Off to more cleaning.