The Feeding

 I took the five kitties to the clinic yesterday morning, in Corvallis, to be fixed and vaccinated.

I came home then, to do a few chores here, then headed off to do the promised feeding of that ladies cats.

She had surgery yesterday morning.  She was to be home by afternoon or late afternoon and was most likely home before I got back, from feeding all her cats, in about 7 places.

I was dismayed it took so long, but I should have known, with all the driving.  It's 35 or more minutes to the first spot.  And now people are telling me she can't possibly be back to driving in five days as she told me she would be.

My only solution is try to catch them all, get them fixed, and into barn homes, and be done with all that, I think.   I can't be devoting that much time every day.  

Today first I am returning the five cats up to Cascadia.   They're very sweet but want out of the bathroom badly.   Makes it tough to use my own bathroom.  

They will be very happy to get home.   Four of the five are girls, which means "catastrophe averted" for spring.

Then I'm going to start right off with trying to get some of the unfixed cats the Lebanon woman feeds caught to be fixed.   I'm not messing around.  It's ridiculous to not try to both get them fixed and get them into barn homes.   Nobody needs 2 1/2 hours of unpaid work added to their schedule each day for who knows how long, because this being a five day gig wasn't truthful.

There are more cats than I thought, or was told about at least.  Just yesterday, I encountered 8 unfixed cats, among those she feeds.

Supposed to be two, at one location, saw three.  The two teens were both there yesterday but so was an adult tabby.  It is possible it could be one I got fixed there months ago, but had to return, since she was lactating.  I'm not sure.

One of the two teens

I took the back way then to the next location and stopped to look at the beehives.  She used to feed near here but I don't think she does anymore.  

The area is just known as The Beehives.  Or The Ponds.  There are also a couple fishing ponds.  It's been open for public dog walking, fishing, etc, for years but she told me the property has now sold.   I don't know how she got that info. Would have to be to a very rich entity if that's true, as its vast.  It's also in the flood plain.  I think its the current owner who stores his hives there, rents them out in spring.

At the next area, I saw no cats.  Then two other areas, saw one unfixed boy, and a boy I got fixed ten years ago, and the only remaining true park cat.

Cumi was the offspring of a tame female a nutty camp host brought into the park, along with dozens of other cats she got from people or off free sites.  She then let them breed wild kittens in the brush.   Then, she was fired, moved and left them all.

I must have caught 100 cats in that park associated with her and the other camp host, who was also sent off somewhere else, same day as the other camp host got fired, and also left his cats behind.  It was a huge job, and although I tried to get the county to donate, they refused.  

 I got most of them into rescues or barn homes but not Cumi and fed him myself for five years not realizing the Lebanon woman was also feeding as she'd been friends with the camp host.  Various other people said they'd feed him but all of them were flakes and didn't do it.   In the meantime, more and more cats were dumped there and I'd get them fixed as they arrived.  The Lebanon woman has taken in several, I have four here too, who could not go to a barn due to their extremely long matting fur.  

Several dumped there have gone on to great homes, like Chester, a big buff and white male, and Fluffy, a tabby male, whom I first had to take to Astoria for a dental before he got a home in Portland, through a rescue there and now helps her foster kittens, because he adores kittens.   I could go on and on....so many.   A mom and her kittens were dumped right in front of someone.  Took me two days to find the last kitten.  Had to do it in the night.

I don't even know the number helped there by now.  Last fall, it was two more kittens, who came running out of the brush when they saw my car.    Here's Cumi, a very old boy now.

And here's the latest unfixed male, in the brush.  She calls him Gandolf and has been feeding him for months.   He could be an easy catch, if only I had the reservations to get him fixed fast.

At another location, I thought it was just two teens left, since I already had caught three there, and got them into a barn home.   

But now there's a big allegedly tame orange tabby/white boy, unfixed, and when I turned around yesterday, feeling I was being watched, I saw a tiny torti, maybe just a kitten, watching me.  Who is that one and where did she come from.

Here are the two teens, who need caught, one black, one tabby, along with the big orange and white boy.

This is the tiny torti I saw, when I felt I was being watched.  Photo taken from quite a distance and zoomed.  I can't tell if that black band on throat is coloring or something around her neck.  When I moved to get a better look, she vanished like a ghost into the brush.    She is a priority, to make sure she's not got something stuck around her neck, but its likely photo distortion or shadow due to the distance.  Cruelty is common around here.  Committing horrors against strays is joked about openly and bragged about on community pages, like its normal.   I don't know what is wrong around here so that people feel safe bragging about cruelty to animals.   Only cowards deliberately inflict horrors on things smaller and weaker than they are.  

Anyway I have my work cut out for me.   I hope the Lebanon woman's surgery went well.  She has lots of family in the area and rarely communicates with me, so I may not know until I contact her in five days, to say, "you said I would only need to feed five days".   And see what's up then.  She told me, she was told she had to be up and walking around with a walker by the day after surgery, in order for it to be successful.   You don't move, you lose, I guess---an adage that seems to hold true blue especially following joint surgery.