The Last Seven

 Official appointments end today!!!  Summer off!

Today, seven Brownsville cats are being fixed two clinics.

Three are leftovers from the 11 trapped last Thursday, 8 of whom were fixed Friday at FCCO.

The two boys are being fixed at RAD in Corvallis, while Willow, the little girl is being done at OHSS clinic, along with four from the other Brownsville colony, the one where 26 have already been fixed.  30 fixed there as of today.

At Willows colony, 18 have now been fixed as of today.

Between those two colonies alone---48 cats fixed.  Can you believe that?  From two places.

More blooms on the Butterfly bushes.

Its hot today, be mid 90's or higher by late afternoon.  Someone else is picking up the five being fixed in Salem this afternoon since I have a doctor's appointment.

They will drop them off here.

Morris, being fixed today from the larger Brownsville colony

Also Roddy, a female from same place

And Roddy's two surviving kittens--Willie and Nillie

 When I went to get the four from the colony yesterday, I saw some of the already fixed ones, with those right ear tips.  Here are a couple of them, looking good.

Lastly Willow from the other Brownsville colony.

And the two boys, being fixed at RAD

48 cats fixed from just two places.   The number shocks even me.   That's just two places I've worked.

Happy 4th everybody.

Foliage

 Plants are growing like crazy and fruiting.  Right before everything dries out.

No matter how much rain we get and we got over the usual amount in June this year, you can be sure the weather people will put up drought maps.  Never fails.  No matter how much rain, no matter how soggy we've been.....it's a sure thing.

So they get ignored on it.   Maybe rightfully so.

After returning 8 of the cats to the Brownsville colony yesterday afternoon, I was in awe once again, at the sheer beauty of the valley.  There's nothing like seeing it from the heights afforded on Brownsville road.

I only stopped briefly this time, to take some quick photos because there are always cars travelling at high speeds along there.

Cutting of grass seed, other seed crops and hay has mostly already taken place.  The fields are cut with windrowers.  The season of death I call it sometimes.  I cringe to think of that Tangent colony I helped with.  They are surrounded in grass seed fields that the cats roam.  If caught out when the windrowers come through, their legs get chopped off.  I think they said they lost two or was it four last year to the windrowers.   It's a horrible death.  The windrowers chop up so many animals and birds in the fields.  The vultures then move in, by the score, along with eagles, hawks, owls, foxes, you name it, to clean up the pieces of the dead and the injured.  For those animals and birds, it is a season of plenty.

In the above video, vultures and eagles soar above the freshly cut fields.

I've still got three Brownsville colony kittens in my bathroom.   Bri, the tech at RAD, is taking the two boys there tomorrow, to be fixed.  She can't take the girl, they're too booked solid.  The boys are quick to get done.

I'm taking them to her late this afternoon, just before I go to the bigger Brownsville colony, where I've already taken 26 to be fixed.  He had a couple tame ones from the colony and she had kittens, only two of whom survived.  Now he claims the boy is trying to mount the kittens and thinks he's a pedophile so wants them all fixed.  Finally!!   My last spots for the summer are Monday, so I better get them done, I thought, and the fifth will be the other Brownsville colony girl kitten.

HCC is low on funds so its a good idea to take summer off.   For that reason too.

I didn't plant sunflowers out front this spring.   I didn't want to water them.  Water here is highly expensive, if you can believe it.  A wet state that charges high amounts in its cities for water.  Too much for many of us to water anything.  As uncertainty clouds my financial future, with medicaid and housing under threat from our admin, I am trying to save every penny.  I don't want to be homeless.  I don't want to have no medical access.  It's a fruitless endeavor.  Anxiety has plagued my nights lately.  Not only over those two things, but over the ancient failing car situation I find myself in.    The apple tree takes one inch of water a week, I read, so I do that.

Yesterday I fine sanded then polished the murky clouded plastic headlight covers on my car.   I try to do something every day to improve things around here.  A few days ago, I replaced a fallen rotted cat yard run shelf.   There are lots needing replaced by now.  The cat yard is 20 years old.

But I had sunflower volunteers out back, from birdseed.

Volunteer Sunflowers and butterfly bushes

Every other year, the apple tree produces fruit.  Too much fruit.   I've been breaking off many of the young apples so those left will have a better chance and be healthier.  But....its a big job.

The hydranga blooms are deep purple.   Just before the bloom, I add coffee grounds around the base.   It loves coffee and rewards with very deep colored blooms.

And my volunteer catnip comes up everywhere.  Good thing because my cats want it, need it, love it.  They're all addicts.

Happy Sunday!!

Came Shining Through!

 The Brownsville colony folk came shining through!

Not til late last night, but better late than never.

They caught all ten kittens and one of the adults.  Still two adults to catch there, but 8 more fixed today.  They only had 8 spots or 11 would have been done today.

I held out the smallest ones and Brianna thinks she can work the two boy kittens in to be done Wednesday at her clinic and the girl can possibly be done Monday at OHSS.  I couldn't weigh her last night, she freaked out and climbed the walls.

I didn't get home til near 11:00 p.m. then had to weigh the wild thing kittens, the ones I couldn't tell by looking that they were weight grade.  I held back the 3 smallest because FCCO could only do 8 anyhow.

I got only a bit over two hours of sleep, too, before having to get up and get ready to go to Portland.   Fortunately I'd slept some yesterday afternoon.

I took my blankets and pillow and headed straight to the rest area after checking in the cats and went to sleep in the back of my car.  I must have slept five or six hours.  The day went by so fast.  Works that  way when I'm asleep.

So I drove home with the cats well rested and wasn't annoyed by the severe congestion on I5.

The 8 are fed and watered for their night recuperating.  The three others are tearing up what was once my bathroom.  Now to do my cat chores and its a done deal.

This is the only cat of the 8 with a name---they call him Broken.

Tomorrow, these 8 can go home.  Bob went home last night to same place after being fixed at RAD.

Last Rites. Oops, Last Spots

 Last few spots for spay neuter before the official break.

I took in five today.  I was going to drive over six.  The sixth is a friendly male a friend has fed for a couple months now, even had inside her place, but he's not fixed and she wanted him fixed.  

But this morning, harried and late, she came to leave him here and decided to go herself. So she followed me over to the Corvallis RadPets clinic.

She also helped me take in the other five.

The other five are three kittens from Lacomb.   A lady trapped them in her barn and is trying to tame them for homes.  Cy, one of them, isn't taming fast.  Lumpy and Velvet are.  Lumpy she so named because she acquired a large squishy like a balloon lump on her jaw and  below one ear.  Hopefully its just an abscess.

The clinic will check it out today and treat it.

The kittens' mom was fixed a couple weeks ago.

Lumpy and Velvet

Cy

I was hoping the Brownsville folks would catch two, two nights ago, who could round out the five spots today.  Did they?  No.  Not a one.

But finally last night, with me there, they dropped the trap over Bob, one of the unfixed boys.  Wow.  One cat.

Bob from Brownsville

Tomorrow they have 8 FCCO appointments.  So far today--they have caught one adult and two kittens.   There are two more adults needing caught and 8 more kittens.  Lots to choose from.  Lets hope they can get five more of the crew caught at least.

So as a fifth cat, I took along a girl clear from Brooks, whose owner was desperate to get her fixed.   She has a bad flea allergy and is really skinny, proabably from worms.

Shelby from Brooks

I pick up the five at the clinic at 3:00.  In the meantime, I'm going to go down to the Brownsville colony and pick up the three caught and leave a couple more traps.  

At least they've now caught 4 of the 14 needing caught and fixed.   Better than zero.

Back to the Lake

 I went up to the lake for a few hours today and had a blast.  I paddled quite a distance but also relaxed a lot, just drifting nearly dozing.  Would have liked to have napped.

It was mostly kayakers and paddle boarders out on the lake, dozens of them.  Also, at Lewis Creek county park, the yearly water polo tournie was going down, lots of yelling encouragement, buzzers, whistles, and what looked to be a shark feeding frenzy between the nets.  That's what water polo looks like to me--chaos!   

The lake level was up again.  The water was clear and cool and beautiful.   Gorgeous day.

Late afternoon called for clouds return and right on time, as I drove home, there they were dulling up the sky, bringing down the temp.  Supposed to be this way two more days.

At the cliffs, aka high rocks, teens were jumping off.  I asked one if I could take a video of his plunge and he said sure, so I did.  Here it is.  He looks quite experienced at it.   Tossed a rock off first like cliff divers do (yes I watch Tik Toks of cliff diving).   

I once took that plunge on a dare, from the cliffs.   Kids were making fun of me.  Them up top, me swimming.   I had enough of it finally, got out of the water and climbed to the top of the high rocks, pushed in front of all of them, who were hemming and hawing not wanting to be the first to jump, and without hesitation leaped off.  Ha!    What an idiot.  I made my point.  I guess.

I jumped once from the 2nd bridge too.   The scariest part of that was climbing over that high round guard rail.  It may be illegal now to jump from the bridge.  It may have been then, when I jumped.

I no longer have any desire to climb up and jump off.  Mainly the climb up part of it.  Also I should mention, there's poison oak along those cliffs.

I found a runaway dock.  It was in a nice spot against the shore so I clambored onto it and laid out for awhile.   

I don't know where it got loose from.   I like it where its ended up.

After I got home, I unloaded the kayak and loaded some traps and went to the Rock Hill colony.  I only went there to wait on the Brownsville colony folk who were going to catch the only unfixed adult female left there this evening.  There's only tight parking up there so nowhere the cats won't see my car arrive and they know my car.  So I just waited up on Rock Hill. But, as I had suspected, they did not catch her.   Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime I sat around with the colony caretaker up at the Rock Hill colony, watching her fixed cats race around and play, talking about this and that.   She has one, maybe two boys still needing fixed and I said I'd come try to get them Sunday.   My last appointments are Monday.   It was nice to see her and the cats playing wildly.   I took them to be fixed not that long ago.

Projects

 Today it was clean the garage day.

Didn't help it was like 90 degrees inside it.

Nonetheless I set to it.   When did I get behind on it?   Way back in late April, when I caught about 40 cats and got them fixed in four days, most of them I took clear to Portland.

My back hasn't recovered and neither had my garage.   Today I got it mostly cleaned up.

Doing too much lifting and carrying along with exhaustion and long drives back during those days affected a spot on my back that sent at first tingling and uselessness along my right leg to my ankle.  That finally went away leaving only pain, worse in the morning.  The pain is sometimes a burning type pain, that goes down across my hip from my back and down my outer thigh.   Its not fun.

Ice relieves it, so I ice the spot on my spine where it originates several times a day and at night.

I only have to ice that one spot to take it all away too.

I'll be sore tomorrow.  All that clean up today.  But...I also decided to catch Cookie.  She's very feral and spends all her time in the cat yard and garage cat room.   She's been dragging a mat, hanging from one side.  She's another of the super long hairs with fine matting undercoat.  She is the hardest to catch of all the long hairs and so feral I have to be fast and get what I can get done.

I caught her using the remote control rigged to the one large trap still here.  The other two are loaned out.   The one here is my crooked trap since I backed into it in my garage years ago.   I then brought her into the bathroom in the trap and let her out into my homemade net.  I put a towel over her.  She was fighting and growling.  I lifted the net edge, reached in with the clippers and got what I could as fast as I could.   She got too hot fast.  I'd had the AC off and it was 80 in the house.   Darn it, I thought, if it'd been cool I could have shaved her a bit more decently but at least I got the mats off and flea treated and wormed her.  She started open mouth breathing from heat and stress and I let her go instantly then.

It's not an activity for the faint of heart.

This is the big mat that had been hanging off her side.  Got it off at least.

Some of her hair I got off in record time

Took this over my shoulder right after I released and just before she shot back out of the bathroom back out to the cat yard.   Would have liked to have been able to shave her down all over but I got the worst off.

That was my day.  Got some things done needing done.

Cold Records?

 The news said we might set cold records yesterday and today.

Start of summer and we got rain here, could not even reach 60 degrees with snow falling in the mountains.

Great, eh?

Well maybe better than 100 or 105 degrees.   

Next week might hold some sun.  Forecasts change so quickly.

I can't believe we bombed another country.   Happened while I napped, had no idea.

Its unconstitutional but our current Holy Leader has no qualms about violating that ancient document.  Meanwhile in Texas they are requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in schools.  Must be a don't do what I do, do what I tell you to do sort of thing, if you think about it.  Also...its unconstitutional but again, nobody cares about that old piece of paper anymore here.

Strawberry season is almost done in the valley.    We're spoiled really.  Once you taste Oregon berries, there's no way you can eat ones that come from elsewhere.  The California strawberries are so gross by comparison, without flavor.   

I had strawberry shortcake tonight.  I also make "freezies" of strawberries I cut up and put in the blender with yogurt and whatever other fruit I have.   I keep them in the freezer in extra car cups I've accumulated, and get one out when its hot.  I do not like blueberries as well as strawberries.  I have raspberries growing in my yard and pick them as they are ripe now.  They're too expensive at the farm stands.  And mine aren't chemical sprayed.   The blackberries won't be ripe for awhile.  They've only begun blooming.

My final cat appointments are the end of next week.   I have no idea if the people catching cats will be successful. The Brownsville folks have ten spots FCCO but 14 or so cats.  I left them a drop trap and my two larger live traps and they were supposed to pick off the adults sooner and I'd get them in somewhere but they haven't caught even one. Or even tried.   I'm frustrated but its their issue not mine, I have to keep telling myself.

After 20 more spots end of next week, then on the Monday after, I'm done for the summer.  It's a huge relief to me.  

I found that my rear bumper on the car was falling off on one side too, and spent a day rigging a repair for it.  It may or may not have caused the ticking sound.   I haven't driven it much since fixing it.  Only to go get the strawberries.  When I got to the strawberry farm, right when it opened, there was already a line up of people.   Whew, I got some before they ran out.

This is what the bumper brackers that hold on the two sides of the bumper cover should look like--one coming from the top, one from the bottom, joined together and secured beneath the car.  This is the side that had them still in good repair.

Here is what the other side looked like.  It had been causing serious noise, vibration, rattling, and maybe even the ticking, not sure.   The top one was broken near the bolt holding it in and the bottom one was detached from where it moored to the top one.

I debated trying to think of how to fix it, then just decided to pull hard on both after removing the bolt and broken piece of the upper one, and attach both under that bolt.

 

So I did and so far so good.

The repair, at least for now.  Hope it holds.

When the rain stops I have to raise the front and look for things there.   I have no desire to do anything like that in pouring rain.   

I'm just lazing around basically, playing with my cats, finishing books.  Falling asleep with the TV on, like a proper older person.   

I can't help but think of little kids, people, animals, when bombs are being dropped.  Lives lost, suffering caused, hardships upon hardships, destruction.   And here I sit sometimes complaining about nothing at all.