19 Local Cats Fixed Today

I'm completely worn out. However, today, the good news is, 19 more local cats got fixed. 15 came from the new rural Linn County colony. The caretakers reported seeing another this morning, but I left them two traps and hopefully, they will catch the teen, before I return the other 15.

Six of the 15 were boys. Here they are:Buff orange big boy, fixed today.
Orange tabby teen male, fixed today.
Gray tabby male kitten, fixed today.
Gray male, fixed today.
Gray tux male fixed today.
Silver tabby tux male fixed today.

And the nine girls!Muted torbi kitten, spayed today.
Another muted torbi kitten spayed today.
Orange tabby and white female kitten, spayed today.
Fire torbi, spayed today.
Gray tabby tux female, spayed today.
Sweet calico, spayed today.
Big torbi tux female, spayed today.
Gray tabby female, spayed today.Muted torti, spayed today.

The 16th is another from the Lebanon Big Boys colony--a polydactyl all black manx. I don't know if it's another big boy. Haven't checked the records. Picked him up last night, on the way back from the other colony. The Lebanon folks met me at the Shell station. The Shell station is the new cat drop off pick up. Used to be Leathers gas station there on 34 at I5. But now it's the Shell station. Things change.
The black manx is indeed another big boy, but now fixed!
I'd left the Lebanon folks two traps. They still have one really big boy to catch and the two indoor tame boys who are scheduled to be fixed Monday.

And the female with kittens somewhere. We're cutting it down though, cat by cat.

The 17th and 18th cats were two Albany kitties, taken in as strays.Albany black female, fixed today.
Albany black tux male fixed today.

And the 19th is the prize of the century, the big problem tom from the Side by Side colonies in Albany, a fighter, who injures other cats badly, really lousy attitude and I hope that improves, with the loss of the major male bad attitude organs. He's a nice looking guy. The big males, once neutered, are often the nicest cats on earth. Let's hope niceness takes over this big guy in three weeks to one month. I've been after him since January.

With his capture, I'm done there. Feels good to be done somewhere.

I'm totally zonkered senseless. I did sleep several hours at the rest area.

It's Miller Time.

The New Colony

These are some of the 11 cats caught so far at the new rural Linn colony I am trapping

.




I'm trapping another rural Linn colony. Last night, in what seemed like near hurricane force winds, I caught 11 (to my surprise).

There may be a total of 15, the woman caretaker says. The man says 11 or 12. Well, I know there are at least twelve, because an orange tabby tux teen was running around as I left, with 11 in my car.

The woman caretaker says she's not counting in the 15 on her list a big buff tom I caught because she'd never seen him before. So that would mean 16.

I cleaned out my garage again yesterday. Good thing too. In the process I got two cages ready to hold some of the cats, before they are fixed.

I put three in one of the cages and four in another, so they could have litter boxes and be more comfortable before they are fixed.

In the big cage, is the tame calico, the half tame orange tabby, her brother, a gray tabby tux, who is quite vocal, and a muted torti. All four are teens.

In the other cage, I have three cats--a very large torbi tux female, a smaller torbi, and a very small gray tabby kitten.

The other four had to settle for trap life. They are the big buff tom, a another short hair light gray tabby tux, a solid gray and a long hair gray tux boy.

How many are actually down there? Don't know.

The winds must have been strong last night on the coast. I passed a field on highway 34 full of gulls. The gulls usually only enter the valley when the weather is dreadful on the coast.

When I went over to the Side by Side colony, intent on ending my efforts there to catch the one big male left, the little black tux boy was in the trap again. AGAIN! He was the one I caught last Sunday also. He likes going back into the trap. I reset the trap instead of removing it. Feeling lucky I guess.

If I catch that big male, I'll know it's time to invest in a lottery ticket. The jackpot is close to $500 million. It'll be a sign from the heavens!

And, strangely, shortly after writing the above paragraph, I get a text, delayed for whatever reason, from that colony caretaker, that the big male is in the trap. Caretaker was off at work, so I headed over, ecstatic. Except, my car was making a horrible metalic grating noise, but only when moving. I looked under the car, sure I was dragging something, but nothing was there. I had to kneel in puddles to look. I was down a block from my place and around the corner. I went another half block, aching to go pick up that big male in the trap, but the noise was embarrassingly loud and sounded like major damage was happening. It was a circular sound. Something on the wheel. Brakes I thought.

I called my brother who answered and let him hear the noise over the cell. He said it was a stuck or dragging brake and to go to Les Schwab. They were not open yet. I'd already called over a dozen people, pleading with someone to help me pick up the male. Mostly no answers. Some people do work, ha ha.

One man said he was too poor to drive the five or so miles round trip but if I'd pay him.......I'd help this guy gets a bunch of cats fixed and this didn't set very well. Another guy I'd helped with several dozen cats said he'd do it but he wasn't happy about it. By this time, my Brownsville cat woman friend was on her way, bless her soul. She told me to tell the whiner man, who said he'd come but didn't want to, to forget it. I called him back and all he said was, "Oh, that's so much better for me." No asking what I was going to do about my broken car, nothing.

Oh boy, what a bummer it can be to realize nobody near is likely going to help me out if I need some help. Scary to realize that, actually, sobering. But Vivienne came through and bless her soul. She took me over and we picked up the big boy. She brought home and then followed me to Les Schwab. But by then, whatever was jamming up one brake causing probably the pad to grate on the rotor, or whatever was inbetween the pad and rotor to grate, dropped out. Or something released. I took it to be checked out anyhow, but nothing wrong was found. I was vastly relieved.

Caught the big male!!! Yay! Been after him since January!!

I'm buying that lottery ticket.

Right now, I'm freezing from being wet for several hours. Into the shower I go.

13 Local Cats to S/nipped Yesterday

Yesterday, 13 local cats made the long journey down to the Coos Bay S/nipped clinic.

It was a difficult round up. One moment I thought I would not have any cats to take, and the next, I had cats everywhere needing fixed.

I was disappointed in my efforts to catch two Albany boys who need fixed because the caretaker of the boys wanted to "do it another time" after I arrived at the agreed upon time with my drop trap. She had not called.

I did not catch the Side by Side colony male as I"d hoped, but the caretaker now seems hell bent on catching him.

I took down an Albany teen female and an Albany teen male. The little tabby boy had showed up on someone's porch when only two months old, crying and starved. So now she feeds him. Sad little Albany teen male, thrown out as a kitten, fixed yesterday.
Albany teen female from 34th street fixed yesterday.

The Corvallis woman who e-mailed some time ago, wanting a stray mom and her three teen kittens from her last litter fixed, finally called me Saturday and brought them right over. Mom was very pregnant again. All four were fixed yesterday.Harry Potter, black tux teen male fixed yesterday.
Bojangles, the long hair black tux teen male fixed yesterday.
Artemus, the mom of the three teens, and very pregnant again, now spayed! She's so sweet!
Hodor, black tux teen male, fixed yesterday.

I'd also been asked for spay neuter assistance by a Lebanon couple. I went up, but the trapping did not go well. They have three little yapper dogs who yapped nonstop and if that was not enough, humped my leg anytime they felt that urge. My leg must be very attractive to small dogs.

They have many inside fixed cats and often let their fixed cats out, or they get out by accident. They had one big tame gray tabby male in a carrier, ready. He showed up just a couple weeks ago. I dubbed him Henry, for the records.

I set some traps, but we caught a huge feral Siamese in his Harbor Freight trap. Those traps are dangerous. Cats can nose up under the door. There's a space at the bottom after the door closes. Cats slam against the bottom and can get out, or they get their head under but not their body, thrash, and break their necks or strangle. I had to hold my foot against the bottom of the trap and the bottom of the trap door while the man scrambled for zip ties to secure the trap. I left it to them then to trap during the day.

They caught two more in traps I left set, and the neighbor had three unfixed males. They were supposed to also have two more of their own tame males ready, but when I arrived at 9:00 p.m., they didn't have them ready. In fact, they couldn't find one of the boys and the other was running around the house, hiding if the man tried to grab him. The guy was getting frustrated. He'd yell at his wife, she'd yell back, the dogs were yapping and humping my leg, which they seemed to do more if stressed, as I tried to find and catch the one male, playing cat and mouse with me. I gave up.

He had the three neighbor males, whom they had bred there, in huge carriers. I'd asked them to put them in the smallest carriers possible. Getting those into my car was hard enough. I knew I'd have to transfer them to something else. It was already getting late and I had to be up so early. I left with five more from the two households, the three tame boys, then the two wild ones. I already had two from them at home, the Siamese and tame stray, so in the end, I took down seven from this location. They all turned out to be boys, although one, Frissy, was already neutered. Mayhem, Bengal Siamese mix male, fixed yesterday.
Razmesus, big surly gray tux male, fixed yesterday.
Henry, the mild natured big stray, who wandered in a couple weeks ago.
Frissy, whom we thought was a pregnant female, but turned out to be a fat already neutered male. They think they remember getting him fixed when very young.
Andy, the big feral Siamese male, fixed yesterday.
Amos, gray tabby tux male, fixed yesterday.
Jason, another Bengal Siamese mix male, fixed yesterday.

The couple in the end were so relieved to get so many big males fixed. There are two more wild males to catch, their two tame males, plus a female who had kittens in the barn who will need fixed, along with any surviving kittens.

The day was long but very pleasant. I love that clinic and the people who run it and work there. The vet was familiar to me. He used to volunteer at Eugene FCCO clinics and now apparently is doing contract spay neuter.

I finally took a nap on the recovery bed and then, when the male cats started coming out of surgery, moved upstairs to the rescue cat room, to sprawl out on bedding on the floor with the rescues piled around me and happy to have a human to nap against.

I stopped in at the Elk place on the way home. The cats were done very timely. Everyone went home to their various owners too, so no need for me to caretake any of the cats over night.






I was going to sleep in this morning. Phone rings. It's the Millersburg couple who adopted Bart our of the feral colony they pass on their walk. They'd trapped Captain Awesome, the last remaining cat in the colony. He free roams widely and turned up at their place so I loaned them a trap. They caught him in the night. He's being fixed over at Heartland right now.Captain Awesome!

Captain Awesome was euthanized, as he tested positive for FIV. Please fix those boy cats. Save the boys!

It's Snowing in Albany Oregon!

Check out my snow woman, decked out in daffodils from my own yard. I had to pull them out of the snow!
Meesa is happy to be inside today!
Sam contemplates the falling snow.
Slurpy uses snow day to catch up on more sleep. Oh wait, she does that every day!
Spring daffodils compete with new threat--spring snow!
My snow woman! She's made for this weather.