Caught!

 I finally caught the young black yard stray, causing issues all over the neighborhood, with his yowling and fighting (mainly with old Fritter).

I spotted him trying to make friends with one of my cats through the cat yard fence this afternoon, so reset the trap I've had out there trying to catch him.  I really didn't think he'd go in.  He hasn't ever expressed interest in the trap or the food in it before.

But this time, I looked out 20 minutes later, and he was in it.

Finally.   At one time, after he showed up in my yard and neighbors yards, I went door to door, trying to find out if someone owns him.  I had no luck, although right when I was asking at one house down the block, another lady I'd talked to, yelled from her car, Is that him you're talking about?   Sure enough, he was frantically trotting down 30th street, but ducked into a backyard.

We now believe he's just another abandoned kitty.   A set of apartments had been vacated for remodel nearby.   Probably he lived there and got left.

Who knows though.

He can get neutered Tuesday.  In the meantime, he'll occupy the now empty holding cage.

Another War

 I wake up too early and discover we're in another war.   Yet another regime change sort of war.  And here I thought this admin was against international meddling and yet we've meddled like never before.

I don't know how this war is being paid for.   I still haven't opened my electric bill.  Last month's was scary high.  I don't want a heart attack just opening it to see the balance I owe.   All I'm saying is electric bills have skyrocketed since the current P took office.  Is there a connection?  I just don't know.  

Gas prices have shot up. Food is still high.   Where's affordability?   Gone to the shits.

Affordable life is gone for so many now.  Why?  

Gone to the war dogs spending every cent on troop deployments, propaganda kings gathered to gaggle and giggle and plot, and to the most elaborate and expensive weapons possible.  The golden sheen of power is too much for people, when there's no one to say no, and only feet licking neutered yes men all around.  Gone to the ICE machine, to the FBI head boozing it up at the Olympics, gone to the........just gone.

I can rant but nothing changes about human nature and hormones combined with entitled positions of power.    

Back to cats it is for me.  

Last week has been tough.  Caring for the three Berlin road cats, as they wait for homes, barn home in the case of Roadie and Mowgli.   Eleven, well she is a special loving wonderful kitty.

The tech at Rad came up with a home willing to take all three.  She vouched for the home, having adopted two cats to them already, who were supposed to be barn cats but ended up fat happy house cats.

I took the three up yesterday, with six others I took to FCCO.  I checked in the six cats, then handed over Eleven, Mowgli and Roadie to their new people.   After I did, I sat in my car and balled.

The long hours and days and effort that went in to getting all those cats safe along Berlin road when the feeder quit feeding and had not gotten any fixed, coupled with my desire to better their lives, not make them even worse, all that effort, physical, time, financial--broke free of my soul in tears.

The Seven Mile couple had ten more spots yesterday and a Halsey woman had six.   The Seven Mile couple really don't have any idea how many if any cats are still not fixed in their colony.  We'd already taken 20 in to be fixed a month or more ago.   I knew of two needing fixed at the hay barn, but the goat barn is a mystery since they live in the loft and come and go to yet another building too, but in the night.  

They set traps at the goat barn and the hay barn but caught nothing but a  couple already fixed cats.  Finally Thursday I went out and sat hours upon hours in a lawn chair forty feet from the hay barn with the drop trap set up.   Finally I caught one of the two unfixed ones out there.  It was near dark by then and my toes felt frozen.   

I left the trapping to them then, and headed to Halsey.  That caregiver had caught five of her six.   I went home with the six and later the Seven Mile couple texted to say they'd caught no more.   

I spent the day yesterday, while the cats were being fixed, at my friends place.  I got there about 9:15, laid down on her couch and was asleep by 9:30.  I only know this because I turned on a movie, on her TV, and remember only a few minutes of it.  I woke up just after noon.   She works during the day.  Being able to have a warm place, with bathroom, and comfortable couch have reduced the difficulty level of taking cats to Portland to be fixed in a big way.

Five of the six cats, when I picked them up, were still out cold, laid out.  I was worried.  What if they didn't come out of it ok.   It took over an hour to get to the rest area in the congestion traffic of Friday.  I stopped there and was horrified to find them still unresponsive.  I rubbed wet food liquid on their gums by flashlight, rubbed them and finally got three of the five to lift their heads.  I moved the other two in their traps to right behind the opening between the two front car seats so the heater could blow directly on them.

Once home, with them still not awake, I put them in the bathroom with heat frisbees and soon both were waking up.

That was a relief.  They were probably done last.

Now I am up for the day and find out we are at war.   Again.  

I can understand how tempting it must be to try to make things better for common folk in far off countries.    I get that urge everytime I hear of a cat situation that needs "fixed".   But.....they're hardly comparable endeavors, I know.

I took these photos stopped in the road down outside Halsey after I picked up the five cats there, on Thursday evening.

I'll add photos of the cats fixed later on.

Photos of the six fixed cats.   Five from Halsey are all black and all females.

This is the tabico girl from Seven Mile colony

There were eagles out all over the valley.  There were four in the tree across from the home of the five cats I returned.

The Winter Misery

 Whine whine whine.

Rain, damp, cold, algae, muck, mud, yuck.

It's been a depressing few days or has it been weeks, years?  February never seems to end.    Neither does the constant rain, drizzle, cloudiness, muck.

Mowgli the Siamese girl, along with Roadie, are finally leaving Friday, along with Eleven, to a home in Portland.

Brianna, the tech at the clinic, found this home for them.

The wild ones can be wild and Eleven can get the love she needs there, I'm told.

I hope so.

I am also scheduled to transport 16 cats to the FCCO that day from two different caregivers.  Both will trap their own.  I delivered the traps to both in the last days.  I'll take along the other three, going to the home, when I go on Friday.

I had left one of my drop traps at the trailer park.  It was used yesterday to catch another female needing fixed there.  She goes in today to Rad to be fixed, along with an owned tame Lebanon girl, plus two more I went and collected in LEbanon at a house I've been to before.   Years ago, I got about 40 cats fixed there.   Some of those are still alive.    

Fathead from Lebanon, allegedly a boy

Misty from Lebanon

Suzie from the trailer park

I don't have a photo yet of Burrito, the owned Lebanon girl getting fixed today.  Her owner is transporting her over to the clinic this morning.

All I want to do these last days is sleep, any chance I get.   I must be part bear.

Wonderful Day! The Uncaught is Caught

 What a great evening I had.

She's caught!!  That final Siamese out there along that rural road.  

I took the drop trap.   I had to add extra lengths of cord I had it set up so far from me.   

I couldn't believe it when she emerged from the brush and went right under it.  I yanked that cord with confidence.  I knew it was the night.

She's already fixed.  I caught her last July and got her fixed at Radpets and she would not have gone back then except she was lactating.  

All's well that ends well.  Now she can get a barn home with her colony mate Roadie, who has been patiently waiting in the garage.  SCR is on it!

The 8 Cats Fixed Yesterday

 Here are the 8 cats fixed yesterday.

Big black male

2nd big black male

Teen black male (I think)

All three of these have the trademark trailer park white chest spot.

This big gray male also has the white chest spot

This teen black is a girl

Tabby kitten who has been tamed and now inside

Tabby on white boy kitten, also tamed from feral, now inside

And the tabby female.

I believe there were only two girls out of the 8 total.

More Trailer Parkies

 The trailer park keeps on giving.  8 more for the 8 spots a resident got for cats there.

Took all day though.  I couldn't trap last night, was really sick to my stomach.  At first I didn't connect the dots as to why.  But then I did.  Taco Bell!   Always makes me sick, from gas.  But I forget that sometimes, over years, and think how good it sounds.  Doesn't hurt its dirt cheap.  You can get a value box for $5.  Maybe that should be a clue about quality.

No, really its the beans.  I can't eat beans.   Yes, the usual reason but on steroids for me.  I only forget when half  brain dead and its dead of winter here so my brain has followed suite.

My brain is on auto pilot these days and pretty much in hibernation.   I really don't need it much currently.  That makes me laugh that I said that.

So, after recovering this morning, I head on over to the dismal bleak windy cold damp job of catching 8 trailer park cats for tomorrow's appointments.  One resident has the drop trap outside her 5th wheel and faithfully watches for unfixed cats (she knows of about 4 but they are sporadics).  She never sees even one of them.  She was all day at it too.

I go set up my other drop trap by the laundry and give up after two freezing hours.  Then I go set two traps on the porch of a lady who invites me inside to wait, where she has the heat cranked up toasty warm.

After a couple hours, I head back to the drop trap I'd closed off and set it up and catch two unfixed ones.  I catch a big black male and a little black.  I'd been after the little black the last time there too and was happy to get her.  About that time the warm house lady says there's one in a trap I set there, so I go get that one. It's a tabby I know too, that needs fixed.

I go home for a break after that.  But soon get called back to the trailer park and go pick up another big black male, caught in a trap at warm house lady trailer.   Then she wants me to go get her burger king for dinner.  Off I head just as a guy with an unfixed male texts that he has that one in a trap.   I go get burger king for warm house lady, return, deliver it, then go get the gray boy, now in a trap.   Now I have five adults.  I go over to the trailer where I got five fixed last time.  I'd dropped off a trap earlier and they now have caught the final teen of their group.   She's black too.

Now I have six cats.  I go to another trailer who has taken in four feral kittens and tamed them.  One is already fixed.  I pick up two more of them, to get done tomorrow.   I don't know which one their mom is.   

So I have 8 cats and that's the whole story.  I'm home now.   Off to bed early.   Full day of hanging out in the freezing cold at the trailer park.   

By tomorrow--60 taken to be fixed from there.  

Tiny Eyes, Booboo and Pretty choose the tuna dinner under the drop trap.  All three are already fixed.

Teen black caught by laundry

Honking big black male caught by laundry

I don't have photos of the other six caught yet.

This fixed black takes one look at my car, and vanishes.  Look at that beautiful right ear tip.  "I'm fixed", it announces to the world.

Willow, and my has she ever grown since fixed, and Fatso, who never passes a plate of food anywhere.  He's fixed too.  

Non Barn Cat Material

 Well, the good news is the already fixed girl from the rural road is doing very well.  She eats, sleeps and loves to be loved.

So I give her lots of love.

She is skinny, way low on weight, and perhaps older.   She is in no way barn cat material.   She's lap cat ready.

Her days need spent on a comfy blankee or someone's lap nights as they watch TV.

A post has been passed around by new owners of yet another place on same road.  Seems the former tenants left behind 14 or more cats, tame, just left them behind.   I don't know what is wrong around here the way people treat animals.  Pretty darn horrific.   A woman living south of Corvallis, I see on facebook, decided to help and took two of them so far home only to find out both are positive for FIV.  (Feline Aids).

No good deed goes unpunished.  But those former residents certainly should be punished for doing that to animals.  FIV is really preventible.  Fix your cats.

Over and over again people dump or abandon their animals around here and the number of people who don't fix their pets and cause such horrible suffering and costs to others is astounding.

No respect for life in these parts.  Or personal responsiblity values.   I think that's pretty much taught into people from parents.

I'd been contacted by an older woman (by that I mean older than I am and that doesn't include a lot of people anymore).   She is caring for five teens in a sheep barn.  I loaned her traps to feed in beforehand and she fed in them and then didn't feed this morning, so I caught them in about 15 minutes time.   When people do as asked, it works that way.   Few people do as asked.   So I appreciate this woman greatly.

Here are photos of three of the five teens.

Frosty, a girl

Snowball, a boy

Curious, a girl

I'll add photos of the other two when I get them taken.

That's it for today.

Happy, a boy

Slappy, a girl

And for good measure, here's Rosabell, from Sweet Home, a pregnant girl, spayed yesterday.  Too young to be pregnant!!!!   Now is no longer.  She is owned and the owners badly wanted her fixed but could not afford full price.

Rosabell was spayed yesterday at Rad in Corvallis.

After I met them on the highway to return her, I went to the trailer park to trap for Thursdays appoiintments but was feeling very ill.  Gas!   Then I remembered I'd weakened and got a Taco Bell box to eat the day before while I tried to catch the tabby left in Waterloo.  I hadn't eaten there in years.  And there's a reason for that.   Makes me sick everytime.  This time was no exception.  I feel a little better this morning.  I had to give up trapping last night though to come home and moan and groan through a difficult evening, until I finally just went to bed at 8:00 p.m.