Long Day in Coos Bay. 17 More Local Cats Fixed!

Victory for the Cats!  17 more fixed.  But it wasn't easy.

I had some Lebanon cats who needed fixed, off a craigslist ad contact.  Seven of them from one apartment.   The calico there really belonged to a woman now couch surfing it in Sweet Home.  Homeless.  No income.  And the Lebanon woman wanted her gone, as it was too many in her small place.

Last minute though, paranoia overcame the Lebanon woman.  She thought I must be stealing cats.  I didn't want to lose those cats, have them reproduce more.  We don't need more cats.  I had time to calm down, think about what I might say, before going to pick them up, not sure if I would be getting them fixed or not, Friday evening.

It's hard to round up cats, to get the numbers right for the appointments I make at a clinic.  I don't want to short a clinic once I make the appointments.  People though are a bit fritzy.  It'll be a "yes" one moment and they won't even be home when I arrive to pick up, the next.  I like the round up craziness, the uncertainity, the challenges.  I have to be at my best.  I have to debate people, bribe people, cajole, so their cats or cats they feed can be fixed, often for nothing.  Wrong in many ways.  But this is what I do and these are cats I take to be fixed that otherwise aren't going to be fixed, reproducing, costing society, taxpayers, people who care, later on.  People in this area, many areas, are dirt poor.  But they love their animals.

I arrived there at that complex evening before last and was hailed by the apartment dweller from the second floor runway.  "We have to talk to you.  Come up, come inside."  Up the stairs I go, limping slightly as my right leg was inflamed.  I had already passed, when driving up the street to the apartment entrance, the house with the open carport crawling in cats.  Later that evening, I left a ragtag note duct taped to their back door, offering help with spay neuter.  I get no response to my knock, or to the note.  I never do.

But I keep trying.

I get to the second floor door.  "Come inside, all the way in." the woman orders.  I do.  "Close the door.  All the way.  You didn't close it all the way."   I comply.  I'm at their mercy. Like the cats.  About five people are inside, eyeing me, sternly.  I wouldn't give my cats off to a stranger to drive off with either.  I understand.  They want to know who the hell I am and why I would be offering to get their cats fixed, for nothing if they can't afford it.  I'm ready.  I'm more than ready.

"I am the most fanatical cat lover you will ever meet,"  I declare, with heart born of truth.

They laugh.  I give them my adoption website.  I give them S/nipped's website.  I talked flea allergies and food allergies and worms.

I leave with seven precious cats, crawling in fleas.  

Bandit, male flamepoint Siamese, fixed yesterday at S/nipped.  If you look very closely, you can the fleas on his face down in his fur.

Jasper, big chocolate point Siamese male, also flea covered, had a tapeworm sticking partially out his butt.  I paid out  myself for two droncit injections at S/nipped, for tapeworms.  Jasper and Reeses, the unwanted calico, were recipients of tapeworm treatment.  If I had had the money, all 17 would have received droncit injections.  This was a car load of flea crawling cats I took to be fixed.  On the ride home, their fleas were dead and dying.  But they get tapeworms when they swallow an infected flea.  

Oreo, black and white male fixed yesterday.

Sassy, brown tabby female fixed yesterday, one of three girls in 17 I took down.  Yup, 14 of them were boys.

Simba, big org tabby male fixed yesterday.

Sissy, the torti point Siamese female, now fixed.

Here is Reeses, the calico, while under anesthesia at S/nipped, just before her spay.  She's in my garage.   If I can't find a shelter to take her, I will drive her up to the Sweet Home homeless person staying with friends.  That was the deal, she'd take her back if I couldn't find somewhere for her.  And I can't.  It's so sad.

A Lebanon Cat Wrangler rounded up Russell here, who is cute as a button to be fixed.  In months past, same woman got his mom fixed at the FCCO, then later on, brought me his sister to be fixed. Owners of these cats, I've never met them but thankful that Veronica made sure they got fixed.  He was crawling in fleas.

Buster too was cute as a button.  Neighbors got another kitten when their last cat vanished.  Glad Buster is fixed.

Joker, and his brother, below, Milo, were also fixed yesterday.  They are from Sweet Home but were born to a mom who lives around a business on highway 34 who has already had two litters, the most recent, 8.  These boys were adopted from her first litter.  I am trying to get that mom cat fixed.

Milo, Joker's brother.

I took six Albany males to be fixed too.  This young boy, Twitch,  lives near the Heritage Mall.

Aspen, a big black tux Albany male, lives on Salem Road.

LJ was finally fixed too, a big brown tabby male living near Ferry street and free roaming.  

Boots here, and his brother, Heathcliff, below, were fixed from a Marian St. house yesterday.  A third boy teen from there, Brady, medium hair gray, also was fixed, but I forgot to take his photo.

Heathcliff.

After registering the cats at the clinic yesterday morning, I took off looking for somewhere to take a snooze.  I usually end up at Sunset Bay Beach, which is not very far from the clinic.  It was a beautiful sunny day. The surf was high and the tide was in, leaving no beach for laying out a blanket to nap.  I did find one spot, almost to the parking lot and positioned myself behind a curled beach log, that angled up, in front of my feeet.  I figured if a wave came up high enough to wash me towards the ocean, I could grab the exposed log.

The surfers and paddle boarders were out trying to catch waves.  I was trying to catch ZZZzzzzzzzz's......I did doze off for a couple of hours.

S/nipped's lobby was decked out for the holidays!

The trip down was exhausting and rewarding.  I'm a diehard, an obsessive relentless proponent of spay neuter.  I put my actions where my mouth is.

17 more local cats fixed.

A victory!

A small one, given the scope of the problem.

People out there, can you give a cranky tired out creaky joint old cat trapper some assistance? Get a cat fixed somewhere!  Now that would make me happy!

Happy New Year!

A Few Good Cats

Honey, from the Corvallis Homeless Camp (formerly). 

Christmas card pole!

Formerly unwanted Meesa with the Christmas Tree!

A few brief moments of snow.

Sam on the right.  Blueberry on the left.

Genius Cat Juno (formerly roamed a seed warehouse)

Mums the magnificent!

Old Electra with her buddy the kind hearted Slurpy.

The always fashionable and cute Deaf Miss Daisy, pretending to sleep so her photo can be taken.

Fat Oci, whose right eye always gleams due to damage, Forest, in the middle, glad he didn't join the pile of dead cat bones at the Bone Pile Colony, and Comet of Heatherdale (formerly speaking).

Button, the torbi, sister of Tweetie, both among kittens I removed from Columbus Greens Trailer Park, when the old woman who fed 16 cats dropped dead.  I took them all out. The family pledged to donate and help find them homes but they were lying.   As usual.  Nonetheless, they were saved.  All got other homes except Tweetie and Button.  The interesting part is the family put something in the paper obit, or someone did, that a fund was set up, through the funeral home, for donations to go to me to help care for the cats the deceased left behind, only I knew nothing about that inclusion in the obit and the funeral home didn't even have my contact information.  I called the funeral home to find out what the fuck, and they claimed there had been two donations but another employee claimed there were none.  I said why would you set up a fund without even knowing where to send the money, if you got donations, are you pocketing it, is this another fricking racket?  I got no good answer and no donations.  But I don't want to end up dead at that funeral home.  And those brothers, who claimed they loved their mom, and that they would donate and all, help find homes for all those poor kittens, the A-hole bro's (as I refer to them in my mind when I think of them), they're both contractors and I never want to see them again either.  I'll flip them off.  I sure will. 

Hairy, freezing in the garage cat room, which is why I put a heater in there this evening.  He likes being warm and well fed, which is why he just received a plate of warmed wet cat food.  I am the willing cat slave!  

Magnificent long and large Smolder, son of Sage.  He's not a kitten anymore.

What Do I Want for Christmas?

I don't want anything for Christmas!  I have everything I need right now.  I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear and love.

I have everything I need and more...

For instance, I find myself with four computers.  I have one my brother sent me last spring and the one that crashed before  he sent that one.  It took me months, but I got it going again.  Was a challenge that became an obsession. I thought one of my friends would want it if I fixed it.  But nobody does. That's because it is old.  Like me.  I don't know how to scrub a hard drive so I won't try to sell it.  What shall I do with it?   Well, I can take it apart, recycle what can be recycled, learn more about them in doing it. I can do that with it.  Even though I got it going and it is usable, it is still slow.

I have two laptops given me by other people who didn't want them anymore.  The latest one given me, I really like.  But there's only so much time I spend on a computer and only so much I do on a computer (check Facebook, my e-mail, read the news, keep my cat fixing records)  I upload my cats photos and videos to petfinder but I haven't had a serious adoption hit off petfinder for months and will be closing that site in June, when Poppa Inc. closes.  After that I won't even be keeping cat fixing records either.  I don't do a lot on a oomputer.  I'm sure I'm missing out on something I could be doing on a computer, and am not doing on it.

I like fixing computers though, or trying to fix them.  I don't run across people who want a used or older computer or laptop though and not knowing how to scrub a hard drive decently, well that keeps me from selling them.  I keep at least one in reserve, in case the current one crashes.  So I'll be keeping the latest laptop, and freeing myself of the older slow tower I fixed and the really old laptop soon.

I rarely watch TV anymore.  I get only a handful of channels and nothing on those channels interests me much. My TV watching has dropped off farther and farther and is now limited to news and sometimes Survivor! I do not fantasize about being a contestant on Survivor, however.  Looks like hell to me.   I don't miss not watching much TV.

I used to watch Grimm, because it is filmed in Portland, but now I can't find it at the time it used to be on, and haven't bothered to discover why it's not on at that time anymore or where it might have moved to.  And I don't miss not watching it.  30 Rock always has made me laugh so sometimes I remember to watch it.  I like comedies but not many make me laugh.  The Office used to make me laugh but it hasn't in a very long time so I quit watching it.

I have lots of books currently, but I love to read.  Once a book is read, I send it off to the Corvallis thrift store that helps fund Heartland Humane.  I get my books from thrift stores, garage sales, and library book sales.  I like curling up in bed at night with a book.  Those digital book things they sell, wouldn't last a month with me. My neighbor showed me off hers, said it saved her, when her daughter gave her that, from boredom and despair.  She's unemployed and upper middle age like me.  Has not been able to find work in two years. I lusted over that when she showed it to me, but then I flashed with reality. The cats would kill it for sure, pee on it, throw up on it, or I'd drop it, or accidentally go swimming with it.  I fall asleep with my books often.  Imagine doing that with a digital reader!  Or being out trapping trying to read one of those things and a can of tuna slops onto it.

 I'm too messy for most digital devices.  I seem to kill them quickly with my ways!

I sound like an old person set in her ways.  I am getting ancient.  I recently let a friend listen to the popping sounds my knee and ankle make.  I think she was impressed.  The noises are impressive.  What can I say?

If you think that's bad, you should see how I dress!  My wardrobe is mostly falling apart jeans that don't fit and T shirts from garage sales or free boxes.  I'm good with that too.  After all, I don't go out, rarely see people and most of my days are spent barefoot.  I like going barefoot.  I have problem feet and wearing shoes makes my right foot and leg hurt.  I'd be barefoot constantly if the weather would cooperate.

I lead a very simple life.

I used to feel guilty about being happy. And not admit to it.  Or to loving life.  But now I just enjoy it.  I can't believe my luck nights, smothered in cats, all cozy in my bed.  I know there is terrible suffering in this world.  Sometimes it seems indulgent to have what I have, a place to live, a car that runs, food to eat.  One person having all that when all over the world people suffer in horrible conditions and poverty.

I've suffered plenty in my life.  I know every circumstance is fleeting.  Health.  Housing.  Food.  I don't see anything wrong with living in the moment and being happy right now with my cozy little space.

I can't think of one darn thing I want for Christmas or need.  That's just fine by me.  Because if I have too much stuff here, it gets to me and I start getting rid of things fast.  Reminds me, I should thin out my ancient T-shirt collection.  Some are very dingy, full of holes and stained.

I know I'm very lucky.  I have a roof over my head.  My car still runs.  And I have food to eat and cats who love me.  What more could one need than that?

We don't have to have much of anything to be happy.  I didn't realize that for years.  Well, it's never too late to figure things out!

I think I figured out also that Christmas isn't really that materialistic.  People want badly to tell someone they care or have been thinking of them, and the way many people do that is to send a card or small gift at Christmas.  Those ugly sweaters you get, that don't fit, that's really love being sent your way. That's how I figure it now.

I do wish I had a ton of money to pay off mortgages for friends, set up a vet fund to provide vet care for the cats here, and make my brothers lives easier.  And I would set up a spay neuter fund so I could continue cat wrangling.   I guess I wish for some kind of a miracle so I could continue cat wrangling.

What do I want for Christmas?  Nothing!!  Nada!  Zilch.  Because I have everything I could ever want in the world already!

I love Christmas.  I love the lights, the excitement, and how people act better to others sometimes this time of year.  I love the excitement kids have, the acts of generosity and the way people get together.

The random acts of violence in our country lately, the mall shooting up in Portland, the horror that occurred yesterday in a school of all places, children slaughtered, they make me cry.

But those horrible acts of late were committed by only two people.  Two people!  The vast majority of people present during these terrible events tried to save others, help others, shield others or are people devastated in sadness now.  My heart is with them.

Here are some of my favorite things:  hot chocolate with a peppermint candy cane; cats sleeping on my face, standing on a bluff in a windstorm, singing in my car (off tune), to a favorite song with the windows rolled down, rain splattering my face, watching the leaves turn color in the fall, coming in wet and cold and taking a hot shower, coffee with a friend, walking with a friend (which I've started doing), talking to my brothers, reading a book that can't be put down, saving a cat that's been thrown out like trash, seeing my friends at various spay neuter clinics, like the Coos Bay S/nipped clinic (which causes me to go warm inside), getting a full nights' sleep, catching a very hard to catch cat, after much plotting on how to do so, and going for a swim at night in some lake, floating on my back, in the water, with my ears underwater, and staring up into the stars ...

I sure have plenty of cats.  What I DO want for Christmas, is great homes for some of them.  Like little Blueberry! Now that would be too awesome!

Christmas Decorated!

My tree up and decorated!

Did I over do on the lights?  I crawled up on the roof to light up the ancient antenna.  I think it looks awesome.  I am channeling Art Griswold.

Stiletto loves the tree!  They all do!

Blueberry is so funny and loves to play!  She wants a real home though!  She is earnest and a show off too.  She was so happy to be back here.  She'd gone to Heartland and after a month there, was adopted out.  But after a month in her new home, they returned her to Heartland and Heartland asked me to come get her.  She was shaking in fear when I went into their bathroom, where she was set up in a big carrier.  But when I got her home and took her into my bathroom, where she'd first lived after her rescue from the mean streets of Lebanon, and recognized where she was, I felt her relax in my arms.  She was so relieved to be "home".  The cats love it here, feel safe, loved, makes for an adoption dilemma!  Blueberry had bonded with Juno, when she was in my bathroom, recovering from heat stroke, before Blueberry went to Heartland.  Juno immediately was drawn back to Blueberry and Blueberry to her.  They were happy to see one another.

Brambles, from the Hate Thy Neighbor Colony originally, is my very loving chronic herpes boy. He too is getting older.

Comet, formerly of Heatherdale trailer park, is one of my big boys, getting older now, wants to be on my bed with me, sometimes is a bully, but really badly wants mothered by Miss Daisy (his fav) or Slurpy.  What I've discovered with bullies is they usually are insecure, and want loved.  So if a cat here starts to bully, sure, yes, I stop it, but then I start giving the bully more attention and that stops it longer.

Echo, one of the Quirky sisters, is still very quirky.  Those two are strange indeed.

Gretal, after three dentals I think it was, last year, and finally all her teeth are gone, is thriving.  She gained weight, plays and has friends here now. Gretal was allergic to her teeth.  The first dental she had, at a Corvallis vet clinic, left in roots of the teeth pulled.  Later, I took her to a different vet who pulled those roots and more teeth.  In the end, they all had to go, because she was allergic.  I believe that was also the case with Feather, but I did not catch it in time, and she died, of kidney failure.  There seems to be a close link to kidney failure and bad teeth in cats.  I say that only because I've seen it over and over again.  

Tilly, one of the business cat family, is a sweet girl, who loves to play.

Starr, from the Corvallis homeless camp, Teddy's sister, is a huge cat, a mackeral tabby, much larger than her brother, Teddy.  She is very shy, but lately has made overtures that she would like some personal attention.  Teddy is anything but shy.

Buffy loves the trap bed.  I have two old non functioning traps I've turned into hanging cat beds.  Buffy has claimed this one and woe be to the cat who tries to steal her place in the coveted hanging trap bed.  You don't mess with Buffy.

Teddy, Starr's brother, is smaller, very friendly and stately!

Juno, and sometimes Calamity, claim the second trap bed, attached to the bunk bed.

Meesa, discarded as a kitten to roam as a stray, in down town Albany when young, had a litter of four in a utility room.  I was called.  The two boy kittens got a home together.  The girls didn't and they're the Quirky sisters.  Meesa is their young mother.  She wants nothing to do with her girls now.  They're too strange for even a mother.

Forest is getting big and beautiful.

Oci is my fat cat and she is fat.  I free feed here, worried they would all starve quickly if something happened to me when I'm out.  So I'm trying to exercise her more.  Oci was abandoned in Millersburg, with Sam and over a dozen other cats.

Vision, now 18, a Willamette River cat.  We have a long long history.  She's beginning to look a little ragged.

Electra, another old gal here, at 14, also slowing with age, with Starry, one of her buddies, who, even when Electra gets cranky, sticks by her.  You could say Starry is a fan, a respecter of this tough old gal.