The Way it Is

 You can't change people.  Especially once they're adults.  

I have to accept people the way they are.  We're all messed up in our own way.   I remember long long ago, at a tie dye party in Corvallis south town, my friends current live in boyfriend, sitting in a lawn chair with a beer, said "Jody you try too hard.   None of us are anybody.  We're all fucked up.  Relax and have a good time with life."  The gospel according to Dave, who had married and divorced five times by then, and was a bit financially strapped by various child support orders.

I'm reminding myself  about the gospel of Dave because the Lebanon feeder lady I've been following around for over a decade, getting cats fixed she feeds in the most unlikely spots, along rural roads, public parks, never getting them fixed, started another colony on that same rural road where I trapped, removed 15 or so she fed a year ago.

Someone sent me a photo, not her, someone driving along there.  But, I know the place the photo was taken very very well, having spent so much time along there when she was in the hospital, to finally catch all the cats in four different locations along that road alone, get them fixed, and with the barn cat folks help, get them relocated.

I knew it wouldn't end though and it didn't.  Even though she wasn't feeding cats, she then fed skunks or whatever might want the cat food, in the same places.   Last spring, she told me two cats showed up there.  I said they'll breed more cats, you need to catch them, get them fixed.  She did not.  She never has.  So it didn't really surprise me when the lady driving along there sent me this photo:

Mom and Kitten in the brush

I sent the feeder lady the photo and just got one response.  I didn't think I'd get any response.   She said there had been 3 kittens but she thought two had been killed and said there were other adults.  Thankfully the lady who saw these two went back and caught the kitten.  A little girl, maybe 7 weeks old.  She said the kitten has lice.   I told her Frontline and Revolution both kill lice.  She had Revolution.

I think all but one of the River Path kittens are now in homes.  My neighbor, who took them from me weeks ago,  is really good at it.   I think the last one is leaving today to a home.   That's really good news.  I sent her a photo yesterday at about the same time she sent me one.   A wild turkey hen, alone, no flock, was down in front of another neighbors garage.   That's a first on the block.  Flocks roam around at will in many neighborhoods, particularly in Lebanon, known for wild turkeys.  But a lone hen?  That's odd.   Its hard to consider a lone wild turkey a real turkey because they are flocks, family and loners don't make it long.  By the time I got home from picking up the two cats at the clinic in Corvallis and returning them to their two caregivers, the turkey was nowhere to be seen.

I meant to take three cats to the clinic yesterday.  I was going to take that big orange tabby Waterloo male.   Then one from Crabtree, a colony there, and give a ride to another cat whose caretaker had an appointment but had to work.  That cat just needed a ride over and back.

I called the Waterloo lady about 4:30, to be sure she had the cat contained.  That was Monday.   She answered but she said she was in Albany, something about the police at her storage locker with her, and she was going through stuff.  I have no idea what that was about.  I was miffed.  She hadn't bothered to call me and I would have been over in Waterloo at 5:00 wondering where the hell she was. 

 It was pouring down rain, in buckets, made it hard to see driving.   I still had to pick up the cat getting a ride with me to the clinic from Lebanon.  I couldn't put her off any longer since she had a kids ball game to go to.  I had planned to pick up both the Waterloo cat and Lebanon cat, same trip, near same time.  I finally had to go get the Lebanon cat, as I had promised.   Once I had her in the car, sitting in the Walmart parking lot in the pouring rain, after 5:30 by now, I texted the Waterloo lady I was going home.  She had not even left Albany yet to go back to her home in Waterloo and her cat was out free roaming somewhere.   She briefly tried to play victim, that I wouldn't wait on her, but I wasn't buying into that crap.

The Crabtree cat is from a large colony that is over half fixed now, thanks to the effort of the feeder man and a friend of his and mine.  

Little Black is a male and was fixed yesterday.

Little Black a little boy

Thi black tux girl from Lebanon, a stray cared for by a woman, turned out to be already spayed.  At least she got an eartip and vaccines and now the lady knows she's fixed.

My nonprofit paid for four other cats the day before.  They were from a colony at an Albany apartment complex.   And today, two more cats will be fixed from outside Lebanon, but the lady who trapped them, at an abandoned house, where they had been abandoned, will transport.  They are going to a barn home she said, through SCR, afterwards.  She found the barn home for them, then had them apply through SCR, to make it easier, since she doesn't have the setups that they do, to loan out.  

So this week, its 8 cats helped, by my itty bitty nonprofit.   I feel all happy glowy inside every time another cat gets fixed.   Like a bell rings!  (getting into the season)

It's veterans day today.  There's a parade in town.   I have gone to it a number of times but also skipped it many times.  You must take your own chair, find a place which often involves a lot of walking while carrying a chair, sit or stand a very long time.   These days my back, knee, pick a joint, can't take that.   

Last night, Gigi claimed my lap and does not like me to move.

Gigi knows best.