When the news hit, that Albany is cleanng out the homeless camps at Simpson Park, it brought back the memories, some not so great.
It was a long time ago, over 20 years ago in fact, but I can't recall just when, that a city councilman from Albany requested that little old me, who lived in Corvallis then, clean out the multitude of cats left behind when Albany got the rights from Millersburg for the area known as Simpson Park. There were homeless camps back in there, lots of them and lots of trash too.
The Park runs along the river behnd the railroad trucks between Albany and Millersburg. I don't know who really owns it. Albany now I guess, but enforcement issues fall to Linn County.
I had no money then and wasn't a nonprofit, although I got cats fixed under a Hillsboro based nonprofit. They did not pay for anything else however, just spays and neuters. How could someone without money living in a tiny teensy shack basically and driving a run down old car, accomplish this?
I suppose I agreed to it simply out of low self esteem and because it made me feel wanted, useful, to have such a request of little old me made by a city councilman in another city. Me? I thought.
So I did it. It was really hard on me. The costs, the physicality of hauling cats and kittens out over trains sitting on tracks. It was hot too. And I had no help.
I finally recruited booted out homeless folk to help, who risked arrest going back into their former home, to help and show me where the cats were at. Nobody else was going to help.
I don't even recall how many I got out of there. Lots. Or the year.
I called it Camp Boondoggle. I had one homeless man take a photo of me in the midst of the trash, for fun, but I can't find the photos. Been trying all morning to retrieve those off CD's that are themselves over 20 years old. No phone. No digital camera back then. I don't think I even had a computer.
I'm not surprised at all homeless campers are back in there. Probably there are homeless now cats there too.
Ah well. Here's the current story on the clean out.
I think the same news station did the story on it way back then, and even a story about the cats.
I remember a local nonprofit lady came when she heard the news was coming and threw one of her nonprofits shirts at me, ordered I put it on, which I didn't, and tried to scam donations towards her, when she hadn't lifted a finger to help. Par for the course.
The news lady ended up adopting one of the kittens.
So sad that so many people, for whatever reason, are homeless, as well as the animals that surround them. The bit of good news was that one of the kittens was adopted by the news lady.
ReplyDeleteActually I think they all got pretty darn good homes. Poppa Inc. paid for their spays, neuters. They funded my spay neuter efforts then. Lots of addiction issues around here, were back then too. Nothing has changed really.
DeleteSometimes we have to do stupid things to learn the lesson of our worth. At least now if someone were to ask you to do the same thing, you wouldn't. (Or, you'd bill them for it.)
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible they're paying the junk removal company almost $200k to clean up the trash left and do some brush clearing. I heard nothing in current news about animals left behind or their fates but likely there are animals again caught up tragically in this and left to fend for themselves.
DeleteIt wasn't stupid to help those cats. Nobody else would have done it. I did learn I could do something nobody else would do, with no real help and not much money.
DeleteThe camps happen here too, on a smaller scale and maybe not quite the level of people with outstanding warrants. After a couple of years of 'discussions' my local council has now decided camps need to be removed, also in a humane manner by steering people to social services.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cheek by the city to ask you to round up cats without payment. You should sue but I suppose it was too long ago.
Yeah, I thought it was so weird to begin with that the councilman would ask me. I didn't even live in this town then.
DeleteThey're everywhere in this county. Move them out of one place, they pop up in another. Most living in the camps, not seeking help out, are addicted to bad things. However I've come to realize divorce or boyfriend/girlfriend breakups, job loss and moving here without a job before you come, are also things that cause homelessness. Also convicted felons who can't find jobs once out, all these complicated things. No idea how it would be solved.
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