Warehouse Kittens

 Been helping a seed warehouse employee and his girlfriend by giving advice, probably not great advice, and loaning traps, as they attempt to catch kittens and their mom inside the warehouse.

It's not like seed warehouses are unfamiliar territory to me.   I love them, have spent so much time inside them over the years and met the funniest, kindest and quirkiest people ever in so doing.

One warehouse on Seven Mile alone--over 200 cats I caught there.   I used to climb the pallets of seed bags to net kittens way up near the ceiling, open equipment shed doors to have clouds of bats fly out past me, brushing my face as they went--lots of experiences at seed warehouses.

Our county is known as the grass seed capital of the world.   In the spring, the growing grass fields shine in the sun and I almost feel like I live in the hobbits shire, its so beautiful, with the fields all green and the rolling hills and snow capped distant mountains.  Right now, the fields are dirt brown, plowed under creating clouds behind the machines of August dust, sending plumes up into the sky like wildfire smoke.

Anyway I haven't been to this warehouse but the worker borrowed traps and has been hard at it and caught four so far of the six kittens and their mom.  He thought at first there were only four kittens, but there are six.

His girlfriend brought up two of the kittens today, so I could weigh them.  I didn't know how to advise them, if I didn't know how old they are.  They both weighed in at about one pound, 8 oz., which means they are about six weeks of age.  I had gone to Walmart and bought them kitten food, wet and dry, and some KMR.   I just want them to succeed, they're so kind and so determined to help this little family.

I wanted to play with the pair the rest of the day because kittens are so much fun, but I had to let them go back to their mom and two siblings after an hour.

Look at this darling torbi girl!

Caught so far are three orange tabby kittens, this torbi, and the light orange cream mom, whom the worker can pet but not pick up.

The mom, Annie, he said, had to be caught first because she would not stay out of traps.

This is Annie the mom, with her little torbi girl kitten, who was the first kitten caught.

These are really kind people helping them.   Mom is getting fixed tomorrow over at the surgery clinic in Corvallis, just to get it done because the kittens are already weaned.

I hope they get her over there ok.  Guess there are other cats at the warehouse also needing fixed.  That will be for later on.

Tomorrow evening I start that project over at the 80 year old couples place.  Yeah, I've been there before, two or maybe three times over the years and they've now got more unfixed cats.   She will get me very high on coffee, lol.  I think she lives on it.  But its good coffee.   They have 15 FCCO spots Wednesday but a Lebanon woman volunteered to drive them up for the couple.   Three cheers for that!!!  I just have to trap them, hold them before and after surgery.  I have not been out there to their place for years so don't know what to expect and they're not the type to prefeed in traps or make it easy on me with trapping.  The trapping happens by magic, you know.  Lol, they just trust magically I'll figure it out and get them caught and I probably will.

Thursday six of a Lebanon lady's 12 to 14 cats will be fixed in Corvallis.   She will take them over, while Happy Cat Club, my nonprofit, my teensy little low budget endeavor, will pay.  How we keep on going, I don't know, but it sure helps people, not just the cats, to get the cats fixed.

I looked at the calandar this week with longing.  If the rain stops, I thought, maybe I could still go camping one night.   I have not gotten away for even one night this summer.   Alas, the forest service campgrounds, that are far more affordable than state and county ones, generally close mid September, for the winter.   

The Albany couple whose cats are now all fixed came over yesterday evening and took away that old awful recliner.  They are doing a dump run.  I have a new old recliner I got free at the parking lot flea market.   He also brought his handsaw and cut the board in the back of my personal car.  Now I just need to hinge the two pieces of plywood together he cut and I could go campiing and sleep in the car, and I think it will be very comfortable.  I have a foam pad and a sleeping bag stuffed in pillows to put down on the board,  but the window to do that is closing fast.