FCCO Trip Yesterday

 It's tough to tackle big situations alone.   I wish more people around here would help.  

Plenty of people to armchair quarterback.   Plenty of complainers too, that when you get right down to it, to solve it as an outsider, won't help one bit to solve a solvable problem, that others have just watched develop over a lengthy time and done nothing but complain about it.

Complainers are common as ants at a picnic.   Doers are very tough to find in our culture.

I ended up with 8 cats caught for the 8 spots yesterday at the FCCO.    I could barely sleep Wednesday night though, mind going full speed with worry, after I was told there was to be a feeding ban at the trailer park.   After trapping about 30 cats there to be fixed.   What a waste of my time, money, and emotionally staggering to think they'd suddenly just decree the cats there starve to death.

Cruelty as a solution.  

Early morning yesterday, I heard one of the cats in the traps in the garage crying.  I went out, determined I could pet him, brought him into the bathroom, checked his "rear area" status, discovered he is an already fixed male.  I can pet him, sure, but he's not very tame. I left him in the bathroom for the day while I went to Portland with the other seven.

 I'll take him back to the trailer park today as likely, hopefully he has an owner somewhere in all those trailers.  I hope he's not just a throwaway there, when someone moved, which is how all those cats ended up in the predicament they are in---people not fixing their pets, leaving them behind to breed when they move out.   

I left about 5:45 a.m. yesterday with the other 7, headed to Portland and the FCCO clinic.  After leaving them there, I headed to Karen's place.   She'd said I could nap there the day, had a TV with netflix, it was so nice for a change.   A bathroom to use!   Usually I nap in the back of my car at the rest area.

I put a movie on netflix, laid out on her couch, promptly fell asleep.  Woke up as the movie was ending.  Started another.   This one I was able to watch most of.  Karen came home from work for lunch about 12:30 I think.   She brought Chipolte, a mostly vegetable and avocado bowl.  It was delicious.  I'm not used to this kind of treatment.  She couldn't stay long.   Seemed like such a short time after she left I had to get going too, to pick up the cats.  Her group up there also had cats at FCCO.  She too was blitzed, tired out.

One of the 7, one fed by the lady who has been getting the appointments, turned out already spayed.  No ear tip. Which means she too is either owned now or was once owned there and left.   I don't know which.

I will probably have to take her back too, just in case she is owned.   she doesn't act tame.  But lots of tame cats might not, when in the frightening situation of being caught in a trap.

This is her, the already fixed girl.  She's a pretty cat.  

I don't get the records.  They are emailed to the person who made the appointments.   So she's getting the manager there to print out the records from her phone but there wasn't enough ink in the printer for her to do so yesterday.  In other words I only know sexes on a few of the cats fixed.

This one is a girl

I'm going to assume this big huge black tux is a male.

There were two other blacks in the six fixed.  One is a male but I don't know which one.

This is the other black one caught.  

This is a young male, the one I'd dubbed Canal Cat.  

Here's Canal cat walking the banks of the canal running through the park.  He's a pretty boy.

Young black tux female

So anyhow, that's the story.   SCR has barn homes for 4 of the 7 already.  If I take back the prev. spay girl, that would only leave me with two of them to hold for placement.  I don't like holding onto big males here, like that big black tux.  So I might return all but the four SCR has a placement for.  I can always go catch more when a barn placement comes open.   Meanwhile the big male's hormones can start to minimalize.

So far, at the trailer park, I caught six in November, just after hearing about it.   Four girls---two tortis, the gray kitten Willow and the tabby kitten Sequoia.  Two boys--Booboo, a gray and white, brother to the tortis, and Hangry, a big huge brown tabby male.

I took 15 more to the FCCO in December, plus 3 black males I took to OHSS clinic.  That's makes 24.  Caught 8 more for this latest trip but two turned out to be already fixed but not eartipped.   In all now I've caught 32 there, with two already fixed.  13 have been black of the 32.   Four have been black tux.   7 brown tabbies.  2 gray.  2 gray tux.  Anyhow.....

Insane Weather

 The weather today was wild.   Pouring rain.  Wild wind.   Hail and/or snow mixed in pounding rain.

It was a helluva day to trap.  I returned Timber, Snowflake and Gandi to the barn.  He wasn't out yet, so I went up to the loft and put out a lot of food.   I haven't seen the four teens this time, not Sunday and not today.  I trapped them mid December, got them fixed and returned them.  Hope they're ok and just don't want to show themselves to me.

It was wild when I was out there, rain pounding down, high wind.

Driving back to the trailer park, where I've been trapping the wind whipped my car.

I got more drama there at the trailer park than I bargained for.  They got 8 spots for tomorrow at the FCCO.  Not a whisper though about the fact a feeding ban was being put in place, orders from the owner, not the manager.   I was shocked when I found that out tonight, when leaving, with 8 of their cats in my car.  I'd been communicating with the manager too.  Why hadn't she told me?   

Once I found out, I begged for the cats lives, so they wouldn't starve to death.  Most were born there.  Isn't their fault.   She was all for trying to talk the owner into giving them some time.  By tomorrow, a good share will be fixed.   She'd filled out the form to start getting them barn homes through Silverton Cat Rescue.

This all came about because of a vindictive complaint, one neighbor against another.

Not much said in the complaint was actually true either.

Trailer park drama I call it.  And it abounds.  But these poor cats shouldn't suffer as a result.

I'm hoping for miracles with SCR barn cat placement team.   They are afterall Miracle Workers.

Cross your fingers.   And toes.  And anything else.

I don't know if tomorrow's weather will be as crazy or not.

Mythological Creatures

 Well, Spare Parts, I think things just got worse.  

I was so optimistic our leader would finally just fall asleep at the wheel, so to speak, and all would be well.

When I saw them all on TV, the military people and politicians, aflush with glowing testosteroni pack pride, I knew trouble was abrewing on the horizon. I knew it wouldn't be enough, to snatch a very unpopular corrupt leader from his bed in a little country down south.  But oh man, Poor Greenland, what'd they do to deserve to be next in line? What do you do when a former good friend now wants to kill you?   I don't know what you do.   The EU says Greenland belongs to its people.

We're apparently to finance the ongoing military takeover endeavors by taking billions from help for the poor.   Well why not, they don't have a lobby or a military and aren't very attractive for the most part.  Technically speaking, the money will only be taken from the poor in five states, all very large (equals more money) and democratic.

Is this all a dream?  What happened to the American good guys (and gals)?   Why are we doing this?   I thought we were not going to this anymore, in fact.   The BS that goes on and on, the lying to cover even more lies, make up realities to sell to people who smlie and nod but don't believe a darn thing said....I'm old now and this just keeps going on.   

What do I know.   Mr. Spare Parts, you are right, things may get a lot worse.

Here's the good news.  

Four cats went to the clinic today.  Three of them are from the loft colony.  The big huge lovely gray and white long hair---he turned out to be an already neutered male and he was microchipped.  I got the owner's number from the chip number.  I left her a message and she called back.  She lives in Salem.  She adopted "Boots" as a kitten and got him fixed and chipped.  But then he started pee marking in the house when his owner got pregnant.   That's when she rehomed him to a woman living in an apartment complex in Albany.    She can't recall her name.  That was three years ago.  She did try to check on him through her facebook page but the woman had either deleted her account or blocked her.  

So the old guy at the loft colony will keep Gandi, as I had named him, since nobody knows how he ended up way out where he did, in the three years since he'd been adopted in Albany.   

So...the other two from the loft colony, are a boy and a girl.   The black one, Snowflake, is the adult female.  She is likely the mom of those four teens fixed last December.   The long hair tabby, Timber, is a big huge boy.

Boots, a.k.a. Gandi

The fourth cat that went along is a tame owned female from Sweet Home named Kuya.   She's already been in heat and was driving her people nuts.  Now she's spayed.

Snowflake, the adult female from loft colony

Here she is out there at the colony

Timber

And here is Kuya from Sweet Home.

Kuya

The creatures in WA are not known to me.  If I looked into their eyes I would not recognize what I saw.

Last Three?

 I went out to the loft colony this evening and caught the three I know about that don't have ear tips.   Might have all newcomers caught now.  That would make 7 newcomers caught since mid December.   

I caught 18 already out there 3 years ago to be fixed but didn't return about a third of those.  Five of those 18 I caught mid January 3 years ago were big boys, several of whom had just shown up.  I imagine they were coming in expecting to breed with females there.  He has not seen them since however.

I don't really think these latest 7 I've caught are newcomers although he calls them that.  The first four I caught and were fixed mid December were all teens, like siblings, born last fall teens.  

Then I caught today the large brown tabby long hair and there are at least three or four other tabby long hairs.  Not like this one is an outsider. 

Well, to stop beating around about it, I caught the long hair gray tux tame one.  The cats' hair is too long to tell if its a female or a neutered male.  Acts male, however, but the vet will figure it out. Safely.  Under anesthesia.   

Then I caught the two others I"d seen without eartips--a short hair black adult and a long hair tabby.  

Otherwise its been raining (pouring actually) and miserable weather and makes me just want to sleep all day and all night.

It was kind of a letdown to catch those three cats so quickly this evening.  He hadn't fed the cats so two fixed ones immediately jumped into my car when I arrived to scrounge for food inside it.  They wanted wet food.  They don't get it from him and they know my car now, and know I'll have some with me.

I wasn't even out there 40 minutes.   But those 40 minutes were the highlight of an otherwise tediously boring rainy weekend.

This is the tame newcomer.  Looks like a boy but has no balls and none of the cats have shown up there fixed so far.  This one is relatively new, compared to the regulars at least, but  he has been feeding it many months already and the cat adores him.

Another Year in the History Books

 Today's just another day in a year labeled new.  It's all just numbers.   Humans obsessed with counting.

We just follow cycles of the sun and stars and weather patterns when the sun is at different angles to our personal space.   

Sure its important when to know to plant what so it will grow and all that.

I started out this new numbered year by sleeping in and getting the garbage to the curb so it could be picked up today.  

2026 will be the same, generally speaking, as 2025, in so far as the usual suspects will make the usual promises, distort truth, rip off others, con people.  People will die tragically.   Nothing much will change I'm sure.  There's a security in that thought.  Humans will be humans, always and forever, til some asteroid obliterates earth or something like that happens.

On that thought---Happy New Year!!! 

 Any reason is a good enough reason to party and shoot off some fireworks!  You're still alive, aren't ya?  That's the reason to celebrate.

The Transporter

 Today I'm just a transporter.   Karen from Portland brought down a cat from a large colony her group helped with.   Unfortunately a lot of them needed expensive dentals.   They use a clinic up there, but the last one needing a dental couldn't get in for quite some time.

So they scheduled her at Radpets in Corvallis but don't have volunteers that don't work, so asked if they brought her down, could I transport and pick her up after her dental.

I agreed to do it since I have nothing else going on til next week, cat wise, around here.   Karen was here with her early evening and I took her over to RAD this morning.  I'll pick her up at 3:00 and Karen will come down this evening to get her.   She'll get to go back to her friends and familiar location after she recovers.

Her name was simply Cat Number 13.  But I called her 13, since every cat needs a proper name.

She's very pretty.

I had to find my ice scraper this morning.  Turned cold and my car was covered in ice.

But now the sun is out and  just seeing the sun makes me happy.  Happier, that is.  I had such a nice evening cuddling with my delightful old cats while reading in bed last night.  I thought "wow, this is the life."

I'm drying out, or trying to dry out, the carpet pad in leaky new old car.  The leak is no longer but the mildew smell is worse than the cat car smell.  Pulling back the carpet to expose the pad underneath, that got wet, really exposed the smell too.  Yuck!   I doused the whole area in baking soda and run the heater on high to help the drying process along.  Just what I need--another smelly old car.   

Lovely eh?   Carpet pulled back, baking soda everywhere, glove box still out and in the back of the car somewhere.  It'll get dried out and I'll kill the mildew off and put everything back together.  It's a process.

I could smother that side for awhile in aromatic cat litter, the kind they've added fragrance to, which always makes me want to retch (those fake fragrances), and I may do that and use a clothespin on my nose.   I'll just say yuck again to emphasize my displeasure with fake fragrances.  I can't even walk the laundry soap aisle at Walmart, those smells are so overpowering and icky.

Yesterday at Walmart I passed a lady drenched in perfume of some sort.  After passing her and going down another aisle I could tell she'd been in that aisle too because she left behind that stench.

There are so many birds this winter eating at the feeder.   Usually in the winter the birds, all but a few, vanish.   There are Oregon Juncos (now with a new name but I go with the old one), English sparrows, finches, bushtits and the resident Scrub Jays, to name a few.  Only a couple Mourning Doves remain and they are the constant target of a relentless Coopers Hawk.  

Car Heater System Leak

 The leak from the blower motor, heater core area got to me finally when everything I'd put on the passenger side floor, on my trip back home, got soaked.

Today I took out the glove compartment and pulled back the carpet to find the drain tube.

There was water in the bottom of the blower motor, which is what was producing the gurgling bubbling noise.   And I watched the water spurt from near the drain tube origin at the heater core.

Fortunately the fluid is clear, not tinted red.  In other words, no antifreeze in it, so hopefully no heater core issue.  Just a clogged drain hose, mostly likely.  But also I need to clean out the cowling where the air intake for the HVAC is, to be sure rain can't get in if the vent is clogged in debris.  Rain could actually be causing this too, if air  inside isn't set to recirculate.

Here's a paragraph explaining that:

"Yes, rain can get into the heater/blower system if the external air intake (usually under the windshield cowl) has clogged drains or debris, forcing water up and into the HVAC housing, but modern cars have drains and flaps to direct most rain out, though issues like clogged cowl drains or failed seals can cause leaks, often appearing as wetness on the passenger floorboard. When drawing outside air (not recirculating), the system pulls from the cowl, so if that area floods, water can enter and potentially reach the blower or cabin air filter area, leading to musty smells or actual water leakage."

Here's a video I took of all that water sloshing around where it shouldn't be, inside the heater blower motor.  The  glove compartment is out of the way, and you are looking down into the bottom of the heater blower motor casing.  Second video shows the leak from the heater system, dripping, sometimes spurting off that black round wire wrap, but its actually coming from above and behind that. 

 I pulled off the drain tube from the floorboard, where it goes through, then cleaned it out best I could with a long zip tie back up through towards the heater core,  twisting the zip tie.   Some small rocks came out, then more.   And instantly the water drained from the blower cover bottom and down the tube out onto an already soaked paper towel roll I put under the drain tube.

I put the drain tube down a water bottle for now, left the carpet and pad exposed so I hope they dry out eventually.  But I need to clean out up top too, the cowling just under the windshield.   Until I get that done I'll be sure air is on recirculate.  It's nap time right now.   I didn't poke the drain tube back into the floorboard drain hole because I want to see how much is draining into that bottle and what it looks like because I'm just curious.  I sure hope cleaning that tube out solves the issue.  Tired of everything soaked on the passenger side floor but the gurgling bubbling sound of the water in the blower motor casing didn't really bother me much.