Hole in the Wall Gang Kittens Plus Polly Now with KATA!

Today, KATA (Kitty Angel Adoption Team), located out of Foster, Oregon, which is really Sweet Home, took in the four hole in the wall kittens.  Now those little buggers have been around.  After the gray tux kitten first dropped four feet from the hole in the concrete foundation wall, to the cement stairs below, they have been around.  First they were fostered in Lebanon.  Then I whisked them off to join their just spayed mom, Ava, up in Wilsonville.  After I was asked to retrieve the fosters there, they have been with me.  Now, they're up in Foster.  Well traveled kittens.  It shows. They ADORE people!

Black tux little male kitten.

Hole in the Wall Gang right after rescue.

Young mother Ava, with her kittens sleeping atop her.

The Jumper.  This is the kitten who first dove out that hole in the wall, to land four feet below.  This is him just after rescue.

Three of the Hole in the Wall kittens.

And that's Polly in the background there ,with her brother up front, the day I sent them off to be fostered in Lebanon.  The little boy also needs a home.

Polly has been around some too, and loves those Hole in the Wall kittens.   When nobody cared about her up at that property and were going to shoot the kittens, for that beginning, Polly has already visited a vet twice.  Can you believe that?  A little stray kitten, unnoticed in her suffering, starving, hated,  now just surrounded in love everywhere she goes.

I'm going to cry right now writing about her.

I've still got three teens--tough guy Freddie, angel Snow and beautiful Rose.  I've got Ava, the Hole in the Wall kittens' young mom and I don't know what to do with her.  And I've got Snow and Freddie's mom, the white girl, but she's been offered sanctuary near Sherwood and will leave Monday.

People have stepped up.  The usual suspects, I should say, have stepped up.  The kind and caring people I hang out with, the action heroes who don't sit around and complain or sigh over problems, they jump in and solve it or try to, with all their hearts.

They give humans a good name.

Am proud to know so many.

Grimm Popcorn Breaks Tooth

Was chomping some microwave popcorn I got at the Grocery Outlet for $.33.  You think that's cheap?

That popcorn was highly expensive.

I was engrossed in Grimm, which is filmed in Portland, and quite witty, I think.  And eating the popcorn.

It wasn't fully popped.  Bad omen.

Suddenly I bit down on an unpopped kernal and felt something give in my mouth.  It was half a tooth giving way.  The half was kind of hanging, attached still up under my gum.  I pulled it out.

The tooth broke at the filling, leaving exposed amalgam, although some detached with the outer shell of the outside of my tooth, also.  That expose amalgam will chip off.

I don't have a dentist.

My dentist retired.  I'm on ODS plan with OHP (Oregon Health Plan).  When I asked for a list of alternate dentists in the area, I was given quite a few names but most had the same two numbers after them.  Those numbers turned out to be for the Boys and Girls clubs of Corvallis and Albany.  They hold free dental clinics now and then.  FOR KIDS!

The only other dentist in this area taking ODS OHP is Affordable, same two dentists, in Corvallis and Lebanon offices.  I had a terrible experience years ago with Affordable.  It was down right scary.  I will never go back.

So I'm up shit creek again, without that paddle I need. Still haven't found it.  Now with a broken half tooth stub in my mouth.  What to do.  I've been e-mailing area dentists asking if they take "the plan" but I know they don't already.  Nobody does.  I can switch to another plan, but I can't get a list of dentists taking new patients until I switch, I was told, and if they have no dentists in this area taking new patients, I can't switch plans for an entire year.  How nuts is that?  That's what I was told when I called the state line asking what to do now.

A broken off tooth likely would costs thousands these days, to crown, if there's enough left to crown.  We are talking thousands!!!

Or it could be pulled, the half tooth, plus the root stumps and then the one molar left up there will drift in my gums and have to be pulled too.  I'm on the way to toothlessness, due to inability to afford dental care or even find a dentist that will take OHP and the plan I have.  Gosh darn it all.

Snow and Rose

Snow and Rose will be fixed Sunday.  They're the last two kittens caught up at the colony.   I could not have done it without a Lebanon woman's help.  A man up there living on the property had promised to check the traps that afternoon and evening and if they were not caught in traps, catch them with my drop trap, which I left him.

But the Lebanon woman was my back up.  She offered to check the traps.  In the end, the man didn't check them at all and I'm glad Becky did.  The sad lonely Siamese kitten was caught first, with Snow, the white male kitten, nestled outside the trap beside her, to comfort her.  The other trap was closed but nothing in it.  So Becky reset and rebaited it.  When I rushed up there, after she told me the Siamese was caught, I imagined having to sit up there on edge, tip toeing so as not to disturb the people (how crazy is that), and wait it out with the drop trap for the white kitten.  But the white kitten was in the trap.  I didn't care then about who I disturbed.  I whooped and hollered for joy!

Snow's mom was fixed yesterday at Heartland along with a teen female I caught at a Corvallis business I've been trapping off and on all summer.  I also caught two other teens. But they will have to wait til Sunday to be fixed, too.

I have three more to catch there.  And it needs done.  New management there wants all the cats gone.  The colony has been there for years and years, although they never got them all fixed.  Now they will be and I don't know what their fate will be, but at least they will all be fixed.

KATA took in Juliet, the long hair black tux female kitten from the colony.  They may also soon take in the small four and their mom, plus Polly, the black and white, who had something go wrong with her, but now is doing just fine, outside of ringworm.  Like the four young ones.

The white adult female will have to return to the colony, which I hate to do, but there are no other options for her.  There are very few cats left up there, thanks to me, the FCCO, and friends.  The least they can do is care for those left up there.

It's always hard.

Rose, the Lynx Point girl kitten.

Snow, the white male kitten.

White adult female fixed yesterday.

The  young black long hair female teen from the Corvallis business fixed yesterday.

Corvallis business brown tabby teen, caught yesterday, but not yet fixed.

Black fluffy teen from the Corvallis business, caught yesterday, not yet fixed.

Juliet, from the Bone Pile Colony, now with KATA.

Two Weeks and 30 Cats Later.....

It was two weeks ago to the day, when I got the call.  A woman was on the phone.  She wanted me to take in a dozen kittens.  I said I could not do that, that I only get cats fixed.  She said the kittens were starving and she had no money to buy food.

I went up there the same day and took two 16 lb bags of cat food.  I also trapped two kittens, a little gray tux and a Siamese female.  And my Lebanon friend and I picked up four tiny kittens, one of whom had made a jump from a crawlspace opening down to  concrete, four feet below.  The other three, were lined up behind the hinged board that covered the hole, ready also to make the plunge.  They'd lived their lives thus far in total darkness.  I grabbed all four.

The next evening I came back.  I had a few extra FCCO reservations for Friday.  I intended to catch four adults.  That night, however, another family member was there, who lives in a room in a shop and told me they intended to shoot the kittens,  They'd already dug the hole where they'd bury them.

I stayed most of the night and trapped 14 more.  20 in those two days.

The number is up to 30 now, with the last two kittens caught tonight.  Through it all, not one of the four adults on property has lifted a finger or even bothered to check a trap.   In fact, many times they behave as if my presence there is an imposition on them.  I've given them four big bags of cat food now also.  I have to swallow quite a lot in such situations.  Most of the unwanted cats were offspring or offspring of offspring of their own tame cats.  I got three of those fixed, too.  There are three unfixed owned tame males still out there.  They might "let me" fix two.  Like I say, I have to swallow quite a lot.

Now I need homes for these kittens.  One was taken to OHS by the woman who very briefly fostered him.  Three were taken into foster by an FCCO volunteer.  Another two are being fostered in Salem.  Safehaven Humane took in four.  Heartland Humane took in one.  One is in foster in Lebanon.  And the rest, well they're here.

I have Freddie, the wildest, a brown tabby male teen, now fixed.  I have his brother Snow, freshly caught tonight, soft as silk, white as snow, a little boy.  I have Juliet, a young black tux long hair girl with a black button nose.  I have a Lynx Point Siamese girl, caught tonight also, not yet named.  I have Ava, a gray long hair female and her four young kittens.  She's nursing them.  They're out in the garage in a cage.  And I have Polly, a black and white mottled young female kitten, who wasn't doing well in foster.

It is quite a lot of work, all these kittens.  Polly must be fed a fluid/food mix every few hours.  Boy is it a lot of work.

So I let Juno out into the population.  She at first was ecstatic, sniffing noses with everybody.  Then she met my nasty cats and is now hiding behind the frig.  She wants to go back into her sanctuary, the bathroom, but the door is closed, because Snow and the Siamese are in there now. Sam is in a frenzy of insecurity, marking up a storm, getting into it with the other cats.   He needs some extra attention, reassurance.  I need to move out some kittens.  Finding rescues and shelters to take them is not easy.

I'm done up there, unless they contact me back about fixing the tame males.  But see, I'm just not inclined to go all the way up there again and get them contained when they won't for their own cats.  I've saved the kittens.  I've fixed the females and most of the males and if they don't make any effort to get their own males to me to be fixed, their males will roam off next spring, looking for females, and they'll never come back.

Last Kitten Caught--Snow, young all white fluffy male kitten.

Siamese female kitten, second to last kitten caught.

White adult female, to be fixed tomorrow.  She will go back.  I have nowhere for her.

Photos of Cats Fixed Yesterday

13 Cats were fixed yesterday at the FCCO, three from an Albany colony and 10 from the Lebanon colony.  These Lebanon cats included three kittens I trapped the time before and had in my bathroom: a brown tabby male kitten (Terminator), a gray tux kitten (Grasshopper) and a black long hair boy kitten (Andre the Black).  After these three were fixed yesterday, two, Andre and Grasshopper, along with a third kitten I trapped Thursday night, who also was fixed Friday, a fox face Siamese of whom I have no picture, went to an FCCO volunteer who will foster and tame them and find them homes.

Terminator, along with a second white female kitten I trapped Thursday night, went temporarily to Wilsonville after being fixed Friday and they will then go to a foster man in Salem.

Sylvester, tame owned male from the Lebanon colony, fixed yesterday.

Big brown tabby male fixed yesterday and returned to the Lebanon colony today.

White female kitten, caught Thursday night, fixed Friday and now in foster.

Terminator, the brown tabby male kitten, and beyond him the white female, fixed yesterday and beyond her, the medium hair white kitten not yet caught.

Grasshopper, the gray tux kitten, now in foster care up in Portland.

Terminator, the brown tabby kitten, when still at the colony, sleeping with his white kitten buddies.



So, the bathroom three kittens left, to be fixed then on to foster options, and I trapped seven more at the colony that Thursday night, who were also fixed.  Two more kittens, one of two white ones left up there and one of two Siamese, and five adults.  Two of those, a tame black and white male, and a big brown tabby male, were returned this morning.  The other three, all adult females, are still here and I have a barn home for them if I don't just take them back.  After all, that is their home and it is very tough on adult ferals to relocate.

Adult black tux female fixed yesterday from the Lebanon colony.

Long hair dark brown tabby tux female fixed yesterday.

DLH black tux female fixed yesterday.

The three fixed from the Albany colony were all girls.  Last week, the other seven cats got fixed.

The white with black adult female fixed yesterday (in photo above and below).

Gray and white teen female fixed yesterday.

Black and white teen female fixed yesterday.

13 More Cats Fixed. Five More Kittens Into Foster from Lebanon Colony.

Last night I trapped six more cats up at the Lebanon colony.  I also loaded up a tame unfixed male, owned by a property resident.  27 removed for fixing and foster now from there.  As of tomorrow, only four of those 27 have returned.  All the rest are in foster, shelters, rescues or homes now except three adult females, who are going next week to a barn home.  That's a damn good and quick outcome for that situation, although there is still a little work to do.  The Albany colony man also trapped the last three there  at his colony that needed fixed.  That one is done.

Up at the Lebanon colony last night, I caught another white kitten, who turned out also to be a girl, and I caught one of the two Siamese kittens left.  I felt so terrible to not catch that last little Siamese kitten as she will not survive long if not caught.

I caught a big brown tabby male and he will go back tomorrow, as he is likely not part of the colony, but a roam in looking for love.  He's neutered now!

I caught three young adult females, two black and white, one long hair, one short hair, and a young dark brown tabby tux medium hair female too.  I have a barn home lined up for those three girls, once I get colony caretaker permission.  I know she wants all but the tame ones gone, so am sure she'll jump at the offer.

I also took up the three kittens in my bathroom to be fixed and they didn't come home with me.  I took the gray tux, Grasshopper, Andre the Black, the black long hair boy kitten, and Terminator, the brown tabby boy.  A long time FCCO volunteer offered to take Grasshopper, Andre and the Siamese trapped last night.  I was so happy.

I left the white girl kitten, who was alive in fleas, and Terminator a.k.a. Young Einstein, with the Wilsonville woman, who had already taken in 8 of the Lebanon cats, although she already got one tame enough for OHS and he's there now. So she's down to seven. Or was until I left white girl and Terminator there.  But they won't be there long.  Those 8 she intially fostered included Gray long hair mom Ava and the Hole in the Wall kittens.  A man new to foster, a catman from Salem, will pick up the white girl and the brown tabby soon to tame into proper house kittens.

So I came home with just the three young adult girls from the Lebanon colony, the tame owned male and the brown tabby big guy, the likely roam in.  The latter two will go back home tomorrow and the three girls will wait here, to see if I can connect with the colony caretakers or get permission otherwise from the property owner, to send them off to the offered barn home next week.

Great outcome for those Lebanon cats thus far and for the property occupants.  Been a lot of work, but now I think I'm down to six up there needing fixed, three of those being owned tame males.

And with the Albany colony now done too, I'm looking at a break.  Sure I will catch those last three up at the Lebanon colony, the kittens being the most urgent, but the situation is nearly contained and a feeling of relief and accomplishment floods my soul.

 Gratitude for all the help I received also overwhelms me.  The Wilsonville woman, who also donated cat food besides fostering so many,  a Portland woman who donated some kitten food, a Canadian who sends me canned kitten food which has been so helpful, a lifeline actually, the Salem man taking on two, the FCCO volunteer who took in three today to foster, the Lebanon woman, whom I helped earlier this summer fix her colony of about 20 cats and get the 24 kittens out and into shelters and rescues, now helping foster kittens, a Corvallis woman who donated a couple bags of cat food which I took up to the colony caretaker, Safehaven taking four and Heartland one, when already overwhelmed, like everybody else, in unwanteds.

I have met the best people out helping cats I could ever dream of meeting in my life!

I went to K's to sleep after dropping of the cats, and saw some familiar faces.

Ava, from the Lebanon colony, with her kittens, the Hole in the Wall Gang.  

Worth Saving!  Ava looks so self satisfied with her kittens draped over her.  A very happy proud mother.  (for now)

Picasso, whom K also took in from me.  He's from Lebanon too, from that woman who left the dirty carriers they had been housed in for a couple days before she brought Picasso and Mufasa over, to be fixed. She never did pick those up. She was trying to save them and find them homes, so relinquished them eagerly to K when she offered.  The boys are about to head off to OHS (Oregon Humane) and put up for adoption.

This is what Picasso looked like when I took him in.

Mufasa is the most fun loving friendly cat you could imagine.

This was him back when I took him to be fixed from the Lebanon woman trying to find the boys homes.

This is the white adult female who still needs caught and fixed, from the colony.

Hole in the Wall kittens again, now up in Wilsonville.

Gouda and Brie, both girls, fixed last week from the colony, now in Wilsonville.   Their brother, Pepper Jack, is at OHS.  K said he was ready to be put up for adoption, purring and tame.

Grasshopper, the gray tux kitten, was fixed yesterday and taken in to foster by a long time FCCO volunteer, along with Andre the Black and the latest Siamese I'd trapped up there.

Andre the Black is behind Miley in this photo.  Miley is at Heartland.

I caught this white female kitten night before last at the colony and she was fixed yesterday.  She was alive in fleas.  She will be fostered along with Young Einstein, the brown tabby male kitten, in Salem.  Getting some of these kittens tamed down is still going to be a lot of work for those who have taken the task on.  

Exhaustion Puts Me Out of Commission. Photos of the 30 Cats Fixed in 3 Days.

I over did things, tackling the big Lebanon situation during two long trips with cats to be fixed a day apart.  I took 15 cats to Portland last Friday, after being up most of the night, out at that Lebanon colony, trapping kittens I was told would otherwise be shot.

There was the second trip with 15 more clear to S/nipped in Coos Bay on Sunday.  I overnighted most of the cats fixed last Friday in my garage, which is more work for me, returning them Saturday, before picking up the 15 going Sunday, really really early Sunday (left at 4:30 a.m.).

Granted I slept three hours Sunday on a delightful beach near the S/nipped clinic (Sunset Bay) while the cats were being fixed down there, and about five hours Saturday night before the alarm jolted me back into action.  But the work load lately has been astounding.  So have the accomplishments, however.

Today I pay in inability to move.  I also fell in the bathroom last night.  I slipped on water spilled by a very anxious brown tabby kitten from the Bone Pile colony.  I thought I could catch myself, almost saw my own fall from an outside view, in slo mo.  Down I went.  Hard.  Stuff went flying.  Kittens went flying.  I lay there moaning for a few minutes, mostly a wallow in self pity, then got up, cleaned up the fall mess and got on with my life.

Exhaustion can warp perception and turn a bright day black. Exhaustion can prompt e-mails that are difficult later to undo!

I had not even been keeping up on news.  I heard enough, last night, in my warped exhausted state, of Mitt Romney's rich man fund raiser, speaking of the useless worthless poor of our country, which includes me, to make me angry, to want to vent my anger with nasty comments after reports of his comments online.  All my life I've endured the nasty comments about people on government assistance. The constant condemnation propels me to make amends for my sin of being on SSI, me being always full of guilt endowed upon me as child.  It was not even I who applied for SSI.  I didn't even know what that was way back, when I was recruited into the mental health system, when my real problems were rooted in childhood and my father and no self esteem.  A caseworker applied.  I didn't have anything to do with it or even know.

I make amends by volunteering longer hours than most people put in who work for pay and by solving cat situations no paid person will touch.  Sure, I love helping cats, but I also am full of guilt over my sin of being poor and on SSI.  Guilt is one reason I work so hard for no pay and pay out to make this community, this area better, while making my own life harder.  How crazy is that, Mitt Romney?  You have no clue of what and who you speak.

I'll never have a real life of any sort.  Mitt Romney seemed to be talking about me, I thought, and others like me, in that "the poor are useless good for nothings who need whipped into shape" Romney speech.  Made me mad.  But exhaustion played its part in my outrage.  Today, eh, not so much.  These politicians!  There's something seriously mental about anybody who seeks that much power or control.  Nut jobs.  However, some are dangerous.

I slept long and well last night, but my sore neck and muscles will not have anything to do with exertion.  When my body needs rest, I know it isn't faking.  So I rest.

I've been holding Miley, the little girl Siamese, fixed Sunday at S/nipped.  She's sweet and fun and purrs her head off.  She's going to Safehaven tomorrow.  A guy in Salem is taking on the very scared older kitten, the brown tabby male.  Karmen knew this guy from high school, recently reconnected on FB, and recruited him.  He wanted to start out taming the problem child, the brown tabby boy who misses his mommy most. I'm good with that.

I'll take one of the two that will then be left, after Miley and Terminator leave, up to the Lebanon fosterer, whose two fosters from the same place will also go to Safehaven tomorrow, along with Miley.  So I will have only one of the 18 I took from that place left here.  Sure, there are more up there needing out.  But this cat trapper is completely done in.

For now.

In the meantime, I have not posted pictures of any of the last 30 cats I've taken in to be fixed.  Here goes!

First the cats fixed September 14th, at the FCCO.  Seven come from a colony just outside Albany.  Three more to catch there.  The colony consists of two females with their four kittens each.

Adult gray female fixed the 14th.

Black male kitten, fixed the 14th.

2nd black male kitten fixed the 14th.

Gray female kitten fixed the 14th.

Gray male kitten, fixed the 14th.

Black and white male kitten fixed the 14th.

Female black and white kitten fixed the 14th.

Then there were two brothers fixed, the last needing done from another small Albany colony.  This handsome boy was fixed Friday, the 14th.

And so was his handsome stoic laid back seal point Siamese brother.

Then six from the Lebanon Bone Pile Colony also were fixed last Friday the 14th.

Ava, a DLH gray tux, was fixed, and later reunited with kittens found in a foundation hole.  Ava and her kittens are now in foster.

Cheeto, a polydactyl owned tame calico, from the property, who has produced multiple litters, is finally spayed.  I returned her, but I trapped her three kittens and they won't be going back.

This tame male was also fixed and returned as he is owned by a resident of the property.

These two teens were fixed, the black tux a boy, the white a girl, and now are in foster.

This girl teen, also from the Bone Pile colony, was fixed and is in foster too.  

That does it for the 15 fixed last Friday!  Ready for photos of the 15 fixed Sunday at S/nipped?

Albany Scottish Fold mix female fixed S/nipped the 16th.

"Tabby", an Oakville road female fixed last Sunday.  I took the male from this house to be fixed a few weeks back, and Heartland took in this female's kittens. 

This kitten, Church, a male, and his four brothers were fixed.  I got their mom fixed awhile back.  The woman has another female with four kittens  that still need fixed.

She'd also taken in two older kittens.  Grady here was one of them and fixed now at least.

Three of the five younger kittens were black and so one picture will do.

Moo, the white and black male kitten fixed from this household Sunday.

Rounding out the seven fixed from this one Albany household this time around, is Sister, the only girl of the mix, a brown tabby.

Lebanon torti fixed Sunday.  She has kittens who will need fixed also.

Lebanon male fixed Sunday.  Bob's his name.

Then there were three girl kittens fixed, rescued when found on Old Holly Road by campers.  This is one of them and the two photos below are the other two.

Last but not least, this little Siamese girl, now in my bathroom, from the Bone Pile colony, was fixed Sunday.

There you have it 30 cats in three days!  Making the greater mid valley area a better place to live for animals and humans alike!