Hairy Has an Ear Polyp

With the wind howling yesterday, I went out to close the cats from access to the cat yard, fearful one of the trees would come down in the night and take out the cat yard.  Not long after I did that, a branch came crashing down off the maple and crunched the top of one side of the cat yard when it did.

The branch is about seven inches across at its thickest and brought down with it all its off branches, most three to four inches in diameter.  Maple is heavy wood.  I am so lucky I did not have my car parked out in my driveway when this happened.  My beloved car would have been terribly damaged.

It left a badly damaged branch standing, that will come down in some other windstorm if I don't get it down myself.

That big branch needs cut off below the scar where the other branch split and peeled off.  There are two branches above the scar, one thin, one big.

Here's what is left, after the one branch was torn off by wind.  That will have to come down too.

So when I was out in the garage cat room, Hairy began crying.  He never does this.  But his ears have been bothering him again.  I've treated them for mites and yeast but the problem recurs.  This time I took him into the bathroom and clipped his hair and irrigated his ears with some otic solution that is supposed to help with yeast, keep it from growing back.

I had my headlamp this time and my reading glasses.  Deep inside his left ear, I could see a white soft looking blob.  I thought "What is that?"  Infection maybe?  But back at my computer, a friend back east, suggested it might be an ear polyp.  I looked up photos of ear polyps and sure enough, looks just like one of the photos.

 

This is not a photo of Hairy's ear, but this is exactly what the thing in his ear looks like. It bleeds into his ear.  I thought he was deaf when he came here, so I believe he's had it a long time and I just didn't see it.  I read ear polyps generally affect cats from one to four years of age.  It is not known what causes them but they are thought to arise from inflammation or may be genetic. They often grow back if just pulled off or sliced off at the thin stump.  The most effective "cure" is surgical removal that includes removal of some of the bone beneath the polyp.  

Hairy is old.  I don't know how old.  He's been here three years.  Heartland had called and said they had an already ear tipped (fixed feral) cat brought in by someone who lives on Country Club Dr. in Corvallis, in a live trap, that he'd been coming through their cat door for food.  Heartland didn't want to kill him.  I agreed to take him.  I had someone who would place him as a feral.  I took him immediately to that woman but had to retrieve him a few weeks later.  Hairy is a chow hound.

He was tested, in the process, and the vet then estimated his age at somewhere around or over 10.  That was three years ago.  Hairy is very very hairy, including around and in his ears.  This isn't a good thing to have hairy ears as they trap moisture and yeast infections are common with hairy eared cats.  His hair is so fine and mats so easily I have to clip him frequently.  I hold him at first in a net, but then just let him hide his head under a blanket.  He likes being rid of that fine easily matting hair.

He's in my bathroom now and I have a call in to my vet to see what should be done.  

Took this a year ago.

Hairy, after partial haircut last spring.

 In the meantime, I am slowly cleaning up the mess from that huge limb falling.  My sawzall battery only lasts for about three cuts.  Then it must be charged for a few hours.  So clean up will be a slow process. 

While the cat yard fence did not fall, the 2x4 at the top across which it fell is cracked and broken, although still in place, held by the cat wire.  Darn storm anyhow.

I've cut up some of the fallen branches.  Maple, once seasoned, makes great burning wood, for stoves, and also for campfires.  It also can be turned into nice cat trees!

More mess, but nice useful wood.

Hairy has an appointment for Thursday now.  I drop him off in the morning.  They'll put him out and check him out, including his ears, that thing in one ear, and his teeth and he will get a rabies shot update.  The cats don't free roam, but bats can get through the cat yard fencing and netting.  I like to be safe about that and he's probably had only one vaccination in his life, when he was fixed.

I feel pretty safe about rabies once a cat has had three vaccines in their life.  Rabies is nothing to mess around with and vaccination is the why rabies is rare in the US.  It's a public health duty I feel.  There are some duties to the greater good, that supersede personal opinion or convenience.

I've gotten most of the mess cleaned up now and cut up, except for the biggest trunk, about 20 feet or 22 feet long.  The cats would love it if I just moved that into the cat yard, for them to walk on or I may make a cat log house from it later.  The three to four inch branches I cut into lengths to season and use as cat shelf supports in the cat yard.  The one to two inch branches I cut to be used for fire or stove wood.  The smaller branches I broke up by hand and foot, and piled and hope to talk neighbors with space in their yard debris cans to allow me that space use.

Windy Rainy Oregon

Been a bit windy and rainy here this afternoon.   The storm was predicted.  Another is to move in tomorrow.  This is so wrong.  September is supposed to be warm and sunny with bright crisp nights where the stars stand out and the air feels electric.

But no.

Not this year.

This year we get deluged with early onslaughts, a dismal forecast for the future of the next nine months of our soggy gray moldy Oregon lives.

Stock up on batteries, liquor and books, Oregonians.  Winter is here.

This afternoon, a large branch was torn from my maple by the wind.  It crunched the top of one side of the cat yard, but otherwise, did no damage.  I was lucky.  My car could have been parked out there.

Winterizing Like Crazy

There has been no transition from summer.  Summer is gone in Oregon.  Fall is a no show.  Oregon went directly from summer to winter.

This weekend proves it.  We're set to get even more rain.  Maybe two or three inches.  Maybe more.

Accuweather says Sunday may be breezy.  Oregon weather people say gusts 40 to 50 mph.   Ok, that's breezy.

We're used to quite high winds here in Oregon and don't think much about it.  But the trees do.  They come crashing down like fallen warriors if the ground is saturated and when they fall, they often knock out our power here.

Every single winter the trees fall in Oregon storms like dominos.  Over roads.  Over power lines.  And, as long as they don't take out our house or our car, or kill us, we don't care.

I love bringing out the flashlight and the sterno stove when the power is out.  It's like camping, without the campground fees.

Weather reports say there could be localized flooding.  But the coast range is to get more rain than the Cascades.  The coast range lies between the valley and the coast while the Cascades run north and south on the east edge of the valley.  When the Cascades get heavy rain or sudden snow melts the valley to the east of the Willamette River is more likely to flood.  When the Coast Range gets high rainfall, the areas west of the Willamette are more likely to see flooding.  I am east of the Willamette River, but not by far, maybe by a mile, as the crow flies.

 I put the windows back up on the end of the window cat box that leads into the under eaves cat run to the cat yard.  Helps  keep out the cold here winters.  I got them cheap at the Habitat store.  I added insulation underneath the window cat box, too and sealed up around it with caulk.

I cut all the blackberries out from the back fence.  They'll grow back.  I love blackberries but I get evil comments about them and how they need to go from some neighbors.  So I make a half hearted show of ridding them along the back fence.  But I don't kill them and they grow back better than ever and I will eat blackberries from my backyard again, come next August.

I used three of the four fake shutters my brother removed when he replaced the front windows to cover two different cat houses.

An old hinge holds that shutter in place so I can lift it up.

Two old shutters, with 2x2 frames inside their backs, that I added, form one side of this hodge podge cat structure, that has seen a lot of years and rebuilds.  Underneath is a storage container cat house, with another off to the far right, on the end.

A few weeks ago, I got three old plastic spools at the Habitat Store.  I could not resist they were so cheap.  I could see them then as cat trees.  I bought three sizes and intend to stack them, with the smallest on top.  I removed one end of the top two spools.

I just got to this project finally.  First thing I needed to make was a wooden base, to go on the very bottom, so I cut one out from some of the junk OSB in my rafters.  I had no choice on color to paint and it doesn't matter, since the wooden parts will not be seen.  They are only to hold the three spools together.  The bottom is to give the thing some stability.  So far I just have the pieces all cut that will hold it all together.  I have some spray adhesive I also got at the Habitat store that I will use to attach carpet remnants eventually.

Here are two of the spools, the upper two levels of the future cat tree.  They are heavy plastic.  I already removed one end on each.  You could make cat scratching posts, removing one end, or stands leaving both ends on, out of them individually and create stability by filling the cylinder with sand or rock, so it would be more likely to stand upright.

This is the base I cut, that will be on the very bottom.  The smaller circle of wood I will use on the second level, to help attach it to the top of the bottom level spool.  I am running a 1"x1.5" board down the middle because I did not have a pole of any kind to run down the holes in the middle and I don't want to spend any money on it and just use what I have.  That center hole accommodates the 1x1.5.

I cut these to hold the top cylinder in place atop the second level spool top.  I cut two of them, and will glue them together.

Here they are with the centers cut out.

Eventually they will fit like this, holding the top cylinder in place.  I'm planning this thing as I go.  Nothing fancy.  Cat wheel will be next, but I am making myself finish first projects in the works, including getting the place ready for winter.

That's as far as I got because I had to paint the wood, to protect it, and paint does not dry as fast with the weather turned as it has.  So....I will end this with cat photos.  And why not.

Daisy gives Slurpy an ear clean.

Gretal, up in the cat run.  I was out in the driveway and she was watching me work.

Tugs atop the exclusion room.  She is very mischievous! An imp, actually.  I have two imps here.  Shady is the other.

Nemo on the left, Gidget, from the Albany apartment complex, on the right, in back.  Nemo today moved back inside from the cat yard, for the winter, as did Blueberry.  Gidget is getting a bit pudgy, but fit in quickly with the other cats.  She's been here since last January.  I took this photo through one of the cat yard "windows".  I had to add chicken wire to the chain link because a bird flew into the cat yard once and then panicked and could not find the chain link to exit.  And what bird wouldn't panic with all those cats in there.  I dropped the top of the cat yard to let the poor bird escape, which it did, but I did not want it to happen again.  My cats never spotted the bird, who made that navigation error  that ended inside bird hell.  The bird was redeemed, by me, and lived to tell the tale.  But now, with the chicken wire over the chain link, it can't happen again.

Slinko, also from the Albany complex, has many friends here now.

Slinko at the end of the cat run.  He loves the cat run.  I may make more outside cat runs.  Why not?

Good old insecure wonderful Peeman Sam! He's getting old. I just love my Samwise.

Happy rainy weekend, Oregon!

My Rainy Day Project--The Cat Wheel Construct

Long ago, I decided a cat wheel would be great for my cats, so they would exercise and have some fun.

I built a really lousy cat wheel, using old metal pipe, a bushing, not a bearing, for it to spin on, and old ceder fence boards.  Despite it being heavy and ucky, made from semi rotting wood I had around, they loved it. But...it finally fell apart.

This was long before you could find companies making them, for sale, and people on youtube making their own.  I wonder if mine was one of the first.

But now there are companies making and selling cat wheels.  They are in demand and constantly out of stock and they cost hundreds of dollars.

The wheels sold by the constantly out of stock Cat Wheel company cost around $500, before shipping.  Here is their website:  The Cat Wheel company website.

The McClaw cat wheel company in England is trying to expand, out of a home base business but their wheels are several hundred dollars also, but very very nice looking!

Check out Maclaw cat wheels here.

GoPet cat wheels are $475 not counting shipping:

Check out GoPet cat wheels for sale here.

I found plans on a website for a cheap easy cat wheel here:

See how to make a DIY cat wheel here.

This is a DIY and the finished product is not so attractive, but could be, with some alterations.

I went to Home Depot for something else today and also to get out of the house.  I priced the parts I would need for the wheel.

A wheel mount, rated for loads up to 250 lbs., about $8.  But I have a wheel on my homemade cart with a fairly decent mount and bearings, that I could use instead.  I won't use that cart this winter.  Or I can see what the Restore has.

I found a piece of 4x4 sanded cabinet plywood for $22.  I would cut it into a circle for the back.  I have lumber enough for the wheel stand.

Then, if I followed this plan, I would mount 1"x1.5" 12 to 14" long pieces around the perimeter of the circle, using hardware angles, about 12 of them and staple a piece of masonite to those wood pieces.  So I'd need to buy 12 or so hardware angles and a couple 6 ft. lengths of 1"x1.5" wood.  Masonite is about $8 for a 4'x8' sheet, but they had only one sheet in stock of the thickness that bends easily.

I want two layers, one on each side of the 1"x1.5" wood pieces.   Or I could put foam mat, like a yoga mat, on the inside running surface.  The bumps from the wood pieces would provide some traction also.  Either way, this is a cheap and easy plan.  I was warned about cutting that circle, to get it right, nice and round, by someone else who made their own cat wheel.

I won't use carpet on the inside as they did.  Cats catch their claws in the carpet.  Anyhow, I'm eager to give this plan a try.

Others do a variation of this plan, which requires more space and time.  You bend very thin plywood around the base, two to three layers thick, over time, glue it, clamp it, wait, glue another section, clamp, wait, but I don't have the room to do that.  Or that many clamps.  That creates a much nicer looking wheel, especially if you then sand, stain and varnish it.  But it costs more to make.

Here's a video of the one made from the plans in the link I first provided.  Works just fine. They use a cheap wheel and axle stuck through the base post.  They said they packed the hole in the base post with Vaseline to prevent squeaking.  And here I thought I'd need something like a car wheel bearing!



The ultimate DIY cat wheel build on youtube comes through user Tigger Time and includes a five part how to instructional.  It is something, once finished, and also fairly easy, but requires more skill than the first one.  Here is a video of the finished product!



Let's all build cat wheels!

Cat wheel nation!

So Long Boys

Dano is now living in Portland with Sunny

Sunny moved on with Dano to his new home today in Portland.

Matty, the one-eyed girl cat, from the Dead Neighbor, was the only one of his three I could get into a shelter.  Safehaven took Matty and adopted her out from there.  I so hope she got a decent loving home.

So the neighbor is dead and now his three cats are gone too.  I will miss them.  It's like a big hollow cloud over there now, a black hole, souls are missing, calling out but I can't see them.

Matty used to come tease me when I was in the yard, wanting to play.  Dano and Sunny were not as friendly.  They all loved the old man, however, and before he was ill, would all pile atop his lap as he watched movies then fell asleep in his easy chair.  Outside, they followed him around at his feet, all three of them. I wish I'd taken a photo.

It's the end of an era.  Despite his gruffness, drinking issues that caused him nights to yell and curse at his own cats, racist comments, and right wing political ranting, he would tell me I was Jesus to the cats of this area.  He was the only one.  Bless his old fart cantankerous stubborn soul for that.

Nobody's perfect!

Good luck, kitties.  I know you all three wanted to stay with me, had always wanted that, I'm so sorry I couldn't do three more.  I'm really sorry.  I know you three trusted me, loved the whole set up here so much you tried to break in several times, to be part of what you thought you were missing out on, being out there, living with him.  I'm so sorry.  If  I had money and were younger, a bit more space....well I am sorry.

Good luck to you Matty and Sunny and Dano.  I am crying right now because, well, it's been tough to worry as I have, to not know if I could manage three more or find you decent people and homes.  But I couldn't leave you guys abandoned, locked out of your own house, sad like you were, trying to scratch at his door, not understanding why nobody let you in.  I couldn't leave you to this vicious area either.  I knew you would not survive long.  How hard and sad life can be.

The old man didn't suffer long.  He was coming and going up to the last couple of months.  It's better when suffering, with no good ending in store, isn't drawn out long.  I thought he was going to shoot himself to end it, I really did and I didn't blame him.  There was ammunition on his coffee table.  I didn't say a word, but I really thought that was his intention.

He was broke when he died.  He'd sold off  his stuff the last couple of years to just survive.  The only thing he had of any value at his end were his cats.  Living breathing souls he loved.  I loved them too.  I can't help myself in that regard.  I have a lot of extra love in my heart to spend.  I wonder if I'll spend it all before I die and be broke of love by then.  I wonder.

Good luck to you, Dano and Sunny now, in your new home, don't forget me.  I won't forget you.  How could I?  Just like I can't forget your old man and his ways, and smile.  He was a character!  He loved you.

Daisy Dreamer Sort of Day

Daisy daydreams

Daisy and good friend Starry on my lap

Dead Neighbor cat Dano sleeps after hours of hard play.

Dead Neighbor cat Sunny peers at me through the kitchen window from the cat run.

Sunny and Dano are leaving here tomorrow.

Fantasia, one of the slightly psychotic Quirky Sisters, on the table.

Mums, Tugs' sister, usually is out in the cat yard, but now with the weather turning, has decided my bed is very soft!

Mums and Peeman Sam have always been best buddies.

Dano and Sunny Leaving Saturday

Happy to report, very happy to report, Dano and Sunny are leaving Saturday for a home in Portland.

Thank you so much to all who helped find this placement, supported me in my attempts to find a home with words of encouragement and to those who paid part of their vet bill.  Makes me very happy.

I've been fighting leg, hip, shoulder and back pain, on my right side, doing too much lately, painting the house, wrestling large metal objects to recycle for some money, at the recyclers,  and those forty pound unwieldy bags of wood pellet fuel I use for cat litter do not get any lighter or easier to load and unload.  Also been doing inside the house exercises I found online, supposedly help create back and stomach muscle to support the spine but instead seem to be irritating those back leg nerves.

I better couch potato it for awhile.

I figured I could rest up when its pouring outside, which its supposed to start doing again tomorrow.

My right leg has never been quite right.  I had the back surgery after the major nerve was crushed, for maybe too long, that supplies my right leg.  In the end, I'd lost right knee nerve reflex completely.  I call it my loose knee, because it sometimes feels like it is falling apart and that to continue, I need to hold it together myself.  My right leg for some reason wants to position so my right foot sticks out at 90 degrees from straight ahead.  What is up with that I wonder. Like its hooked up wrong.

Getting old I guess.  Falling apart I guess.

It's too long too, half inch longer than the left, at least.

I found a ballot I'd mislaid in my garage after checking my mail who knows when.  I don't vote anymore.  Isn't that shocking?

I've lived a long time and nothing has really changed in those decades I've lived, no matter who is in office.  There are the same promises from this side and that side but nothing changes.  It's that old Who song, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...".  Guess I've taken it to heart now and I don't bother getting into it or believing politics or politicians can make things better.  Sealing the deal was that sneaky little anti rescue bill slipped through the OR legislature this summer.  I realized its all who wants what if they have power and they have money, to smooze with others similarly endowed, then they get what they want.

Too much money and influence from big money involved now.  They're in their own little world, the power and money people.  And I'm in mine.

So I shredded the ballot I found.  I had not even known there was some election going on, and shredded the thought from my mind. I don't have any guilt not voting.

There are people now putting out nasty fliers in Portland decrying the fact disabled people or people on food stamps should be allowed to even live, let alone vote. Who next will they target?  People over 40 and single but love kids?  People under 30 with a disabled parent who once went to Disneyland?  White people without facial hair who limp?  Mixed race people who are also short?  People with bad haircuts who do not have tattoos?

I've lived a rough tough life.  I just want peace now, but if cornered I'll fight.  That's still in me.

I don't see any reason to waste my time with politics, this side or that side, all the yelling and screaming and nastiness and nothing ever changes.  Waste of time.  Waste of life.   I salute all the idealists out there, the people who don't walk the line or think the same as everyone else.  In those people is our hope.  The different people.  The out of box thinking people.  Ah well, enough of that.

One more thing, can't help myself.  Right after I left the system, after being beaten, all that, on a psyche ward by staff, I thought I'd find comradship, friends in the psychiatric survivor movement.  I was invited to join the board of a psyche consumer agency, state funded, out of Portland and did so, mainly because I was downtrodden, had been so abused much of my life, and really wanted some kind of "tribe" to be part of.  However, two women employees of that agency, quit, and, sent out letters of resignation, with the reasons outlined, alleging gross misconduct by the director, and felt these should be addressed at the next board meeting.

So, even though I'd been evicted from my housing, since it had failed many inspections due to being a slum, and in pain from trying to move a waterlogged door that had collapsed from moisture content and nearly hit me when it did, I agreed to present the letters at the board meeting, at the urging of one board member in particular, who had traveled down from Portland to urge me to go.  I figured alternative motives, but he assured me there were none and he would support me in presenting the letters.

He didn't.  He remained dead silent as I presented them.  The allegations included use of state car for private personal reasons; smoking pot in the state car, misuse of state cell phone for personal reasons....all the things railed against by these very same people when done by other agencies.  I was soundly ridiculed, with board members, who were not in attendance, calling in to ridicule me, attack me personally instead of addressing the issues raised.  The guy who had come down to urge I present them also attacked me.  Wow.  I left, handed my letter of resignation to them, as I left, and told each and every one of them present to never contact me again.  The guy who allegedly committed the grievances in the letter, got an even higher paying state job.  The guy who set me up became the director of that agency and I live my life here, glad to be free of such nonsense.

Nothing changes.

I'm really happy for Dano and Sunny.  This woman, who is taking them, she seems like a very kind hearted person.   She's a nurse now, but once was a vet tech.  What does that say about her?  A lot I think.

Here's to all the people out there, caught in financial straits, laid off, unemployed, worried, but still alive.  Here's to you and hope for your future.

Here's to me, my cats and all my beloved friends!  Thank you. 

To end, here are food photos and who does not like food photos?

I didn't plant tomatoes this year.  But they came up anyway, as volunteers.  I had too many, but I did not want them to go to waste.  So I dried them, in the oven on the lowest heat, for as long as it took.  Before that, I cut them in half, patted them dry, mixed them up with some olive oil, tiny bit of salt, and various spices, like garlic powder and turmeric.  These are unbelievably good.  I was going to freeze them and use them in cooking later in the winter.  But I can't keep out of them as snacks.  They have chewy centers but crunchy edges and outsides.  Try it.  They're yummy yummy good!

While not entirely photo attractive, this soup I made in the crock pot, slow cooked all day, is fantastic!  I don't know what all I put into it, what I had left in the frig plus black rice (forbidden rice).  This included mushrooms and the last cabbage out of my garden.  It included peppers of two varieties, from my garden and finely chopped garlic.  Plus various herbs, spices and some horse raddish.  Second day soup is better than first day soup, so I don't eat soup until the second day.  This is so good, I ate a bowl for breakfast.  So, for me to fore-go my usual oatmeal, for soup, you know its delicious!

Downspout Drain Connection Fail and Redo

I found some ten foot sections of sewer pipe at the Restore, and got five for water containment between the downspouts on the south end of the house, where the underground drain line was destroyed by a fence stud a neighbor put in, before I moved in, that is less than four inches from the house.

Some had holes cracked in them, but on only one side, so big deal.  They were cheap as all get out.

However, the connectors I got did not fit tightly into this pipe, for some reason.  It's not as thick as regular PVC.  What a pain in the neck.  I had tried to solicit help in finding connections that would fit or ideas, at Home Depot, but the employee sent to help, one Carlos, was not interested in doing anything but telling me "we don't sell that stuff".  When I asked where I might get the right connectors, he shrugged and walked away.  Gee, thanks.

So with rain pouring down in torrents today, I did a quick white trash type fix.  It will need redone, because I lacked gaskets.  But most of the water goes now where it's supposed to go, down the storm drain, and not under my house.

I call it the Kitty Litter Bucket Solution!

Pipe to the left brings the water from the far downspout into the bucket.

There's the plastic pipe sticking up from the bottom that carries water underground to the street.  I will fix this so the hole in the bottom of the bucket is smaller than the inside diameter of that drainage pipe, and fill in dirt around it, so the  top of the pipe sticking up is level with the ground, or cut it off.  I didn't have the will to do all this in a downpour today.  Right now the hole I cut in the bottom fits over it, without a gasket, so there is some leakage around the hole edges into the ground.

At the other end, a kitty litter bucket receives the water from the downspout that then drains out through a pipe, stuck through a hole I cut in the side with a box cutter.

The only thing I had to use for a gasket, since I cut the hole sloppily, was a piece I cut from a very old yoga mat.  I had used it once to line cages.  It then had become a doormat.  Now part of the mat is a gasket.

Go ahead, sky, open up again.  Rain on me.  I don't care!

I'm waterproof.

After I came home with Dano and Sunny this morning, from the vet clinic, Dano went to sleep on my pillow.  In the photo above, Starry checks him out.  Both boys were scared at the vet clinic, but Sunny was really scared.

I slept through my alarm.  Sunny had done his escape artist thing, releasing himself from the bathroom.  Frantic and without morning coffee, I searched him out and unceremoniously netted him so I would not be late to the 8:00 a.m. appointment.  This did not please him.

Dano calmed down some, after initially freaking out some, over one employees clothing color, for some reason.  But he was good after that.  But Sunny really freaked and had to be given sedation.

Their blood lab results should be back by this evening.  Sure it was expensive to take two cats to the vet for FIV/Felk tests, exams and basic blood panel.  But when I have already enough cats, plenty of cats, and there is a chance to get them into a good home, and the thing that stands between a home for them, and me keeping them for life, is about $250, what would you do?

I'll tell you what I am going to do, I'm going to shell out and not end up with my dead neighbor's cats.

I could not leave them out to be forgotten, in bad weather, with nobody, after he died.  I could not believe nobody else seemed to care they were out there, after his death.  They're lives!   His possessions are being sold and bought and given here and there.  But nobody wanted them.  Or to help them.

So yes, I've paid my dues in helping my neighbor after his passing.  I would hope someone would do  that for me, when I die.  It's the only thing I have I care about--my cats.  It's all he cared about.  He didn't give a shit about his dead lifeless stuff.

I could not handle two more cats here though.  No options came up locally for the boys.  Some others have stepped in to help with their bill, too, and to them, well, I could kiss them!  Handling that much alone would have been overwhelming!

I hope that blood work they had comes out just fine because if it does, Dano and Sunny get to leave Albany for the green grass of a new home on Saturday.

Scored! A Home for Dano and Sunny

I think I've got a great home for Dano and Sunny, up in Portland, thanks to a friend up there, who spread the word.  (Thank you Glenda).

There's a catch.  Since they're senior boys, the new home wants them first to be FIV/Felk tested and have basic blood work.  You know how that goes, taint cheap to get that done.

I'm going forward doing it, because I have no other option for these boys and can't take on two more myself.    I may be set back awhile financially, but I have no choice, I can't keep two more cats.  It's the way it is, so I'm revved over even finding them this option, despite the costs.  It is a great home.

The words of the OHS director in pushing that anti rescue bill through, this summer, really kind of get to me at times like these.  The part where she said  they have a chance to regulate these rescues and should do it because many are just in it for the profit, something to that effect...  Really makes me see red to think about that.

Not all of us are, lady.  What's a person to do, when a neighbor dies and his cats are locked out of their home and nobody steps up to help them?  What is a person to do? Look away?   There are no services for cats in the county were I live.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.

So tomorrow they go in to my own vet.  I called the old man's Albany vet, hoping to get a price break since he was their client, but that went nowhere.  No breaks for me for helping out the dead neighbors cats.

I don't want to lose this home and will go forward as quickly as I can, to make this happen.

Another mass shooting I see on the news.  I don't know what to think anymore.  Why are people so angry that they will kill people they don't even know, to take out their rage.   These mass shootings are so commonplace now in America, sad to say, we here have become used to them, almost expect them.  America is very violent and in many ways, violence is worshiped here.  As it is in many places.  Violent movies.  Violent video games.  Shallow selfish values.

 Guns are very easy to come by.  Pair that with so many angry people, you're going to have these shootings.  Guess the shooter was a civilian employee there, from Texas, so maybe it was a workplace firing or revenge thing.  Who knows.  People use all sorts of excuses to kill other people when very basically they just want to kill people and vent their rage.  Revenge is pretty common.  Religion is probably the most common reason people kill in mass, strangely.

Who knows.  I sure don't.

I am very happy right now I have food to eat,  a roof to keep out the rain, my cats who love me, and.....a home lined up for Dano and Sunny!

Yay!

Goodbye Summer

It was this summer I was going to try to get out into Oregon's beautiful wilderness areas, do some camping and hiking.

In the end, I've done nothing, except for that one ill fated expensive camp trip.  It was nice to go that weekend, but it wasn't that fun, outside of rowing my raft around Blue Lake.

If you want to know why, I'll give one hint:  why do alcoholics go camping?  They just move their drinking to someplace else, a public space, that affects other people who have not gone camping just to drink outdoors or hear drunk people.

I have gone up to the reservoir five times to row and swim.  Those were fun days!

I just don't have any money to do anything or drive anywhere or pay anyone to take care of the cats here.  So I am limited.  I wish I was not, but its just the way it is.

Most Oregon campgrounds cost anywhere from $12 to $20 a night.  Add in gas to get there and paying someone to take care of my cats, and even two nights become a very expensive trip.

The comcast deal through the telemarketing group TLK did not come through.  Remember that guy, who was apparently telemarketing from the toilet (I heard a toilet flush in the background)?  He apparently never recorded the order after failing to transfer to the person he said would take the order and seal the deal.  The deal would have given me six months of higher speed internet and 50 cable channels, including HBO and streampix for about what I pay now for internet only.  I was drooling over the thought of having some TV.  My antenna reception has really gone downhill, so now I am lucky to get two channels, PBS and FOX, out of Portland.

I was disappointed the guy never registered the order.  So much so I contacted comcast, who said indeed nothing new had been added to my account.  They had no such good deal, said it must have been a TLK deal.  My current internet only deal has two and a half months left on it, then the price jumps severely and I'll have to stop it. 

Looking at complaints about TLK online, however, maybe I am lucky, because there are lots of complaints TLK promises one price, but when the bill comes through, from comcast, its a much higher price.  So maybe the telemarketers lie to get themselves account sign up bonuses.  You never know these days, since the victims have no recording of the promises made on a call.  Maybe he never placed the order because he felt bad that he was lying about the price of the deal and couldn't do it.  I'd be terrible at telemarketing, trying to push deals onto people who probably cannot afford them.  I could not do it.

Everyone communicates through internet now.  Without it, I'd be in the stone age trying to live in modern America.  Communicating clumsily with sign language while others text, message, tweet and e-mail.

So I hope I can find a deal somewhere.  I've got a little over two months to find one.  I e-mailed TLK, in hopes I could still get that deal, although they won't know who called me or even from where.

I've had no luck finding Dano and Sunny homes.  This too has me down in the dumps.  I did get one ad response, but it was pscyho or preteen with issues, pretending interest.  Classic Linn County.

Today it was supposed to be 90 degrees here, the last great day of summer weather, with tomorrow's temps dipping by 20 degrees.  Instead its fogged over, and dripping.  I feel better about that, because I knew I should have figured out something to do, on the last day of rugged heat forecast, instead of doing nothing as I've done all summer, except putter around here, clean litterboxes and do projects that really are meaningless.

It might be like facing death to stand at the brink of another Oregon winter.  I get panicked and wish I'd done more with my life in the summer.

The low clouds and fog, today, so far at least, let me forgive myself for not taking advantage of summer once again.

Dead Neighbors Cats Video. Help Me Find These Boys a Home!

Dano is so sweet!   He does somersaults when you pet him, lowering his head to the floor until he rolls forward and flops onto his back.  He's also one of those cats who stands on his back legs.  Dano is highly adoptable if I can just find the people who would love him.

Sunny his sidekick is not as outgoing but would be great along with Dano, if adopted as a pair.  Sunny would not be any trouble at all, not demanding, not needy, just wants a place to live.

They are great cats and really want a home.  Help spread the word!  Thank you!

Cats! Mine.

Dano, in my bathroom, this morning, door open.

Now that his fleas are dead again, I try to let Dano out of the bathroom for a few, to see how my cats will behave towards him.  He's good with them, tries not to create issues, but you know some of my cats, how they are....

Sam eyes Dano (Shaulin in background) with a jealous eye.

Butt Sniff amongst friends.  Sam and Shaulin are good friends, but Sam wanted to eat first, so came the butt sniff, which sometimes can mean "move aside, I'm first".

Panda Posing!

Panda and her brother, Soloman, are now almost 8 years old.  Time flies so fast.  Hard to believe most of the cats here would now be considered senior citizens.

I have three "most ancients":  Hairy, the feral someone trapped in Corvallis and took to Heartland to be killed, only they didn't kill him, they tried to find him somewhere to go.  I took him, as I thought I had somewhere for him, but I had to retrieve him from there.  He took an entire year to adjust and now is living the good life and still loves his chow, which is how we made friends in the first place.

Heartland had said the people who brought him in said he'd come through their cat door, wanting food and then would fight with their cat for food.  So, when I first took him from Heartland, in a trap, I quickly opened the trap and slipped in a plate with wet food on it.  He stared me down, then gulped it down.  I gave him another.  So we were friends then. I knew what he wanted.  He was a big boy and hungry is all!  And had been for some time, probably since whomever had him fixed (he was already ear tipped when he arrived at Heartland), left him behind.  But he is not young, probably at least 12, and likely much older than 12.

Vision is at least 19. Another of my three "most ancients".  And my beloved Electra, at 14, is feeling her age, and not as active as she once was.  Miss Daisy is older now too.  She is 12 and that makes me sad, because she is my beloved.  Gretal is now 8 years old.  How time flies.

I do not know how old Sam is.  He was an adult when I found him abandoned in Millersburg, with Oci (and many others whom I found homes for, when a woman abandoned the cats and her trailer).  Sam is probably between 7 and 10 years of age.  Oci, however, from the same place, was only 8 months old or so at that time she came here.  So she's only about six years old now.

Largely, this is a senior citizen assisted living center for cats.  And people.  I taint young myself.

Juno, from the seed warehouse, still adores her new life here.

Calamity!

Calamity was one of three kittens born not far from where I live to an abandoned mother cat.  She was born feral.  Her brother was killed by a dog.  Her sister, a Siamese mix, got a home quickly.  Calamity didn't.  So here she remains.

Guess Who?

You would not think a group of cats as I have here could live together in relative peace and be so happy and mostly, healthy.  People cannot fathom this could be, when they might have two or three cats who fight and pee mark.  I do have pee marking that goes on sometimes, but not that often anymore.  And fighting, not often either and that's usually when someone feels left out or we're not playing enough.  More attention, more play, and treating hairballs usually resolves spatting issues.  I don't tolerate bullying and send the bully into time out, first for a few hours, and if repeat occurs, for a day, or even up to three days.  The bully cage is either in the garage or inside, in a corner.  Usually, it is not needed.

I think it is a combination the cats love here, of having lots of friends, so they are never alone, sleep in piles, and play wildly together.  That combined with lots of exercise, with all the cat runs and access to the cat yard and cat climbs and interactive play with me, I think that helps them stay happy and healthy.  I don't have money to buy them premium food, so it must be the exercise, play and having friends.

It astounds me too, that so many cats can live in peace together, have so much fun and be so happy that when I adopt one out, they sulk and cry, and when returned here, if the adoption fails, race around for joy in circles and go into celebration (with their friends).  What a dilemma for me.  Someone told me once they have too much fun here and if I want adoptions to work out better, I should cut down on all the play, make life harder for them, so they don't mind leaving.

Nah.