Thursday, October 31, 2013

Keep Going?

I guess we're going to keep trying.  Heartache is my middle name.

 The Lacomb woman who found this situation and is trying to help is having a lot of stress from other things in her life.  She needs this, to believe she didn't give up on it.  I guess I do also.  Even if one lives, and has a life to live, that's something.  They are otherwise doomed to starvation, or being shot or poisoned.

We still have the Heartland staffer willing to take the grays and blacks.  There are two blacks left out on the property and possibly four grays.  Flopsy or Honey Booboo, one or the other, didn't escape, don't know which.  And I have Vino, the gray male, here, plus Mona Lisa, the muted torti, who qualifies as gray.

We are so hoping the Tangent woman might still take some.  Even though two escaped, that is a great place for cats and she is a huge animal lover.

Don't know yet, if that can happen, but hoping.

Not sure about the original barn home she thought would take 8.  They now say four or five, I think, not sure.  It's someone the Lacomb woman knows.

I won't send any here to there, without being able to check it out myself.  Just can't.  I would take the ones here to the Tangent place, however, because I've seen it and it's awesome.

Anyhow, heartache abounds in this life.   Going forward, trying, is the only way to survive it.

It helps me at least to meet in the process other people also helping animals best they can despite their own busy stress filled lives.

These are awesome women I have met, the Tangent woman, the Lacomb woman, then the Heartland woman, am humbled really, and I will give it my all.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Cats Are Escape Artisits. But Nobody Believes Me. More Cats Lost....

Cats are escape artists.  This is true.  I wouldn't lie about such a thing.  I try to pound this into people's brains.  It doesn't seem to stick.  People believe what they want to believe.

Five more of the Lebanon cats are gone, escaped from the Lacomb garage room.

Why?  A window was cracked open so they could have fresh air.  The window was kept from opening further simply by a stick placed in the window track.  That got quickly knocked out.  Then the cats simply pushed through the cracked window and flimsy screen and were gone.

At least they were all fixed.

At least they had been held there 8 days.  Maybe they'll stick around.  She does have outbuildings and has food out and two other cats who free roam during the day.

They were to be relocated to a barn home.

Ace and Flopsy remained, unwilling to leave their cozy room with heating pads and food aplenty.

However, Mango, Thumper, Jamaica, Honey Booboo and Crush are on the lam.

Thumper, Jamaica and Honey Booboo were going to go to a different barn home, that wanted only dark colored cats, later this month.

A cat can't help themselves.  If they see something that can be done, a stick moved, a window pushed open, they're not going to not do that.  That is the way of the cat.

I am frustrated and tired and sore but those cats at that Lebanon property are doomed cats, going to die terrible deaths there, if not removed. 

People who feed cats without fixing them are selfish.  You'd think if they really did care, other than throwing out some cat food, in the end, when they'd created a tragic mess for the cats, they would spend some major effort and time helping get them fixed and finding them somewhere. 

So the woman lost five out of her place.  She worked so hard to create a cozy space for them, but just forgot that one little thing, that a cat will find any way out if left any possible way out, even if they don't particularly want out.  They'll do it just because it can be done.  You have to admire such a trait.  And watch out for it.

Good luck Mango, Crush, Honey Booboo, Thumper and Jamaica.  If you stick around there, where you escaped, you'll have a great life.  You really will.  Bless you.  Sorry people are mostly selfish shitholes.  But the people who held you in their garage tried so hard to save you.  Stick around there, my friends, and you'll be ok.

I have to bow out of this situation.  Very sad it has to be but there's nowhere to hold these cats until barn homes can be found.  I don't know where the six in my bathroom will go either.  All we're doing is killing them slowly.


Hopefully it will work out for the cats in both escapee cases, as both areas are great and both woman terrific animal lovers.

There's no plan for anywhere to hold the rest of the cats, if they are trapped, after they are fixed, or places for them to go, outside of the ones the Heartland staffer would have taken, three of whom are now on the lam in Lacomb.  And they would have to be held somewhere until the first of December at least.

So I threw it back on the woman who was trying to save them originally.  I told her if she wanted to trap them I'd transport them to be fixed but she would need to take them after that.  It's up to her if she wants to go ahead.  I know she's super busy.  All people who want to help, like she did, are super busy because there are not very many of them.   I was never intending to hold or house more cats.  I have too many already and no space to hold more.  Now I've got six and need to figure out somewhere for them to go. 

The woman who found the situation is a diehard church goer.  Seems a bit strange none of her church people would help.  And it was me, an atheist, who did help.  Seems strange also my neighbor goes to the same church and when asked if she would help, said she couldn't because she was trying to find homes for the neighbor man's cats after he died.  The woman seeking help told me this innocently, not knowing the neighbor was lying and had not helped place the old man's cats in any way, shape or form.  I clued her in.

That one cracked me up to hear.  That'd be Dano and Sunny she's talking about.  Lying in church is not cool. Bet she never thought she'd be caught in that lie.

There you have it.  Very sad today over the whole thing.  Feel like a failure for those poor lost souls.

The KATA woman holding many of the kittens took some in to be checked because they had swollen (bellies) and were sick.  One was given a parvo snap test and she was told that one had distemper since the test was positive and advised all 11 should be euthanized.  Instead, she called the KATA director, when advised to euthanize, who said "no".

See distemper would have killed those immune compromised unvaccinated kittens instantly, like overnight, she knew.  They took them the next day to their Sweet Home vet who said they're fine, bright eyes, normal temps, eating, but they do have worms.

Roundworms kill plenty of kittens, by the way.   If they're badly infested with roundworms, even worming them can kill them with twists and blockages of the intestines in huge wads of paralyzed worms.

But good save by KATA.  Their vet said he doesn't trust snap tests much.  No doubt lots of lives are lost over snap tests of various sorts.


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Onward! With Tragic Setbacks

If you never try anything big, never take risks, your life is pretty darn boring.

But with risks, often come tragedy.   How a person goes on after something goes bad, says probably more than if everything came out roses.

A good hearted woman offered to hold the unfixed four adult cats I had in traps in my garage, from the Lebanon situation.  Why?  Because I hurt my back somehow, and in the end, could not lift even an empty trap.  But I had those four trapped Friday in my garage.  And no way to even care for them.

The woman offered to hold them.  I usually never do that, not with unfixed cats, in case they get away.  But I had no choice.  She's a good person, sincere, and experienced.

Unfortunately, two of the girls escaped her cage.  I did not find out until I went down yesterday with the fixed ones she was also going to take.

And somehow, trying to open her gate, I received a strong whap from her electric fence.  I'm still not sure how that happened or why it was strong enough to throw me backwards a few feet or leave a burn mark across one finger.

I've contacted plenty of electric fences, sometimes purposely, on a dare.  This zap seemed much stronger.  Or maybe it was the "shock" factor.  Surprise!

Guess I'm lucky.  My back seems better after the electric shock and fly through the air.

A needed reboot?

Long and short of it is I felt so bad for those escapee girls.  Guilty, for not checking the containment cage, responsible for two unfixed females out there now.

It's a lovely property, perfect for cats however, and she has other very happy cats there, that hopefully the girls will see, which can make them relax, feel safe, so maybe they will just hang out there.   Usually cats who escape confinement early, will hunker down nearby or book it for home.  If they book it for home, it will prove fatal for them, since there are two freeways inbetween.

Hopefully they will see this is a far better place they've ended up in, and stick around that property.  It is better, really great for cats there.  And later, we can catch them and get them fixed.

If there is a way out of anywhere, a cat will find it.  That is one truth pounded into me over and over again by experiences just like these.  My cat friend in Sweet Home told me, in condolence, she took a dozen or so cats to someone who built a very nice seemingly secure containment cage.  Next morning, not one cat was left inside it.  Every one of them escaped.

There were two unfixed cats left inside the cage.  I brought them back home, along with the fixed ones she was going to take.  She didn't have time to fix the cages, being off to her week of work out of town.

Keep an eye out, for the girls, in Tangent, near highway 34 and I5, on Three Lakes road, Grand Prairie, Spicer and Highway 20 up to KGAL, if you would please.  If you spot them, let me know.  One of those escapees is Felicity, the gorgeous long hair fire torti.  The other is Siri, a classic torti, who looks black from a distance.

Devastation overtook me last night.  Sadness.  I had 8 cats here again, the six who were going to live there and the two unfixed ones of the four she was holding until they could be fixed.  What was I going to do.  I thought maybe I should give it up, that it was crazy to try to save that colony.

But it isn't crazy.  It's the sane kind thing to do.

Crazy people don't care about anything but themselves and their stupid dead material possessions.  There are plenty of crazy people out there.   The woman who held them, although two escaped, she's one of the kind people.  So am I and I'm not changing due to setbacks.

I'm going to keep trying.  The Lacomb woman came by, and picked up Flopsy and Vino, two of the fixed gray ones, to take take up and add to the five fixed ones she is holding.

And this morning, there is this e-mail waiting for me to wake up and read.  Barn home offer.  For all the black and gray cats--11 in all.    My heart is singing!

Ace needs a tame boy home.  And keep a look out for Felicity and Siri, in case they decided to try to get home.

Gorgeous Felicity.  Breaks my heart she is one who is gone.



Siri, the classic torti, note the orange right foot (tortis can be hard to tell apart).



Monday, October 28, 2013

Old Friends

I've had a lot of cats come through my yard since I moved here.  I've faithfully gotten them fixed.  Forty some in all.  I rehomed a good share of those cats and even a stray rabbit two neighbors hated and wanted dead or gone.
The Dead Neighbor's cat, Sunny, watches the stray rabbit, whom he really liked, along with another stray cat, off behind the rabbit.  The old man loved the rabbit, and his cats did also.  They all played together.  But two neighbors, with gardens, complained and complained and wanted the rabbit dead.  So I trapped the rabbit and she went to the Corvallis Rabbit Whisperer.

Lately some of those cats, big boys mostly, who get thrown out at a higher rate than the girls, when people don't fix them and they start acting like big boys, fighting and marking, have returned.  Old friends, who look up at me watching them through the window, then return to eating.

Last night one of the five brown tabby boys I've gotten fixed since moving here, was back again.

Roger Roger is the brown tabby who visited again last night.  I got him fixed a couple years ago.
 Then, along came Mr. BW (black and white) fixed back in July of 2011.  Hadn't seen him in awhile and it was too dark to get another photo, but here is what he looked like back when I got him fixed:

He's huge and beautiful and sleek now.

This spring and summer alone I took in five more to be fixed.



There was Jake, the tame brown tabby boy, who stuck around a few weeks after his neuter, but then, as I tried to find him a home, he vanished.  Now I see him now and then, in front of a house nearly 3/4 mile away.


This old Lynx Point feral came through this spring.  I trapped him and got him fixed.  I've seen him only a few times since.  Spring is when they come through, roaming, looking for girls!   If they stop through here, they are severely disappointed, (nothing unfixed allowed here) and end up in an "altered state".


Goliath came through, a shaggy huge gray and white male, this spring.  I'd already tried to get some cats fixed a few blocks away, a cat house with irresponsible people in and out and unfixed cats. I'd asked about who was impregnating the cats and they described a big long hair gray and white male.  Well, a month later, guess who showed up here?  And guess who got neutered as a result?  Later, I'd see him trotting along the bike path along a nearby street and knew he was headed to my place hoping for wet food.  So I'd beat him back and have it out and ready.  Who doesn't have a soft spot for a big old tough guy who has never had it easy who just wants some wet food?


Next it was Blackhawk, this spring, coming through, and fighting and even going into the Old Man's house, which spooked him out, because he'd yowl and go after his cats.  So he got neutered.  I know where he lives but you come through here, unfixed, cause issues, you leave fixed.  Too bad.

Last but not least, and rounding out the five cats helped this year alone from this block, is little Ben Zen, the kitten living in my neighbors sewer vent pipe.  Where did he come from?  Nobody knows.  But KATA took him in after I caught him in my neighbors garage.

This is not the best area where I live.  Druggees and crime abound.  This week a neighbors house was broken into while they were inside.  The three thieves, visible on another neighbors security cam, unloaded stuff from his garage for two entire hours in the night.  One thief stood outside a neighbors sons bedroom to receive stuff being handed over a fence.  The robbed neighbor is devastated and it makes everybody else madder than hell.

How sad is it to think he worked long hours for the thousands of dollars of things stolen and those things will be sold for almost nothing and probably the money will be used to buy drugs.  How sad is that?  This area is over run in drug people and crimes just like that.

I feel unsafe here.   I wish I could move away.

But people who steal and do drugs don't fix their cats or care for them.  Or for their own kids and most have them.

That's why there have been so many desperate cats coming through my yard in the few years I've been here.  Bad bad area.  It's almost like a doomed town, that one day will be just shuttered rotten buildings and homes, completely abandoned.  Maybe that is what should be.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Guess Who is Tame?

Ace is tame!

Want to adopt a big baby and we're talking big.  Really really big!

Ace is the gray and white, facing off with Crush, although they never actually fought, just yowled, cheek to cheek. 

Ace is huge, powerful and muscular.  And he's tame.  And wants a real home.  I can picture him sprawled out over your lap right now.  Please have an adequately sized lap.

Adopt Ace!


Friday, October 25, 2013

More Let Em Mulitiply Colony Cat Photos

I trapped four more adults at the colony this afternoon, plus the final litter of gray kitten--a muted calico.

I also was inexplicably unable to lift a trap.  My left hip and leg went into some awful pain.  Strangely, the usual pain in my right leg was absent.  Did it shift on me?  I had to call a friend to come carry the traps to the car, then follow me home to unload them.  I'm going to need help with these cats.

I guess we have til at least the first now, to get the rest out.  I counted about 11 more.  I saw a calico left, two blacks, maybe four grays, and four of various shades of buff and orange.

I caught Felicity, the gorgeous long hair fire torti.  I caught the muted torti.  I caught the classic torti.  I caught another orange male too.

Felicity, now caught but not fixed yet. 
When I caught the little muted torti kitten, she was crying and scared.  The calico, and other cats, came running to try to help her.
Scared kitten in the trap.
This young gray also ran to help the kitten, along with an orange boy and a black girl.
A young orange mackerel tabby watches an older orange tabby enter the trap.



The older orange tabby eventually was caught.  The young mackerel tabby has not been caught.
The calico, who has not been caught, checks out the orange tabby, who has.

Then she slinks off....

But not without a last glance back.
Meanwhile the young mackerel tabby is back, cleaning up spilled bait with the classic torti, who got herself caught.


One of the unfixed blacks licks his or her lips after stealing tuna bites from a trap.
Then poses for a photo!
The muted torti adult shows up.

Does not take her long to be caught!
Gray in the distance.

Gray through the window.

Buff tux, not caught, gets a drink.

Ten Lebanon Let's Just Watch Them Multiply Colony Cats Fixed Yesterday

Ten of the adult and teenage cats from the Let's Just Watch Them Multiply colony were fixed yesterday through Kitty Angel Team Adoption at Heartland Humane.

I took five of those up to the woman trying to help the colony, to her Lacomb home, last night.  It's such a lovely place along the river.  So peaceful with the sounds of the river running.

She had a great room in her garage set up for them.  It's a small room, but very adequate.  She had hidey holes, pillows, beds, heating pads, oh my.  Ace and Crush, the two big males, could not be together, so her husband had built a cool window ledge shelf cage for one of the big boys.  Ace, the massive gray and white male, got the private room.

You would think Ace and Crush, the massive orange tabby male, would be beat up, with ragged ears and fight wounds.  But they're not.  That's because of the way they stand off, yowling, cheek to cheek, sometimes for hours, but never laying out effort in actual fighting.  In fact, the woman holding them has already been petting Ace.  

Big babies!

She is also holding two young black cats fixed yesterday--Jamaica, a girl, and Thumper, a boy.  Mango, the buff orange tabby tux female, is the fifth cat she is holding.

I have in my bathroom four of the five I have here.  Banksy, a young orange tabby, is out in a cage in my garage.  I lost energy or they'd all be out there.  I just turned the other four loose in my bathroom.  They are two young gray girls, Flopsy and Honey Booboo, a young gray male--Vino, and Camis, the calico teen.

14 more at least out there at the colony.  I just want to get them trapped, out of there and be done with that part of it.  Where to hold them even til they can be fixed.  Where to put them then.

We have three barn homes, but only certain cats can go to certain places and some that are supposed to go to the two side by side barn homes, who are taking maybe a total six I think, have not yet been caught to be fixed.  And no more fixing dates until November 5th either.

If six go to those two barn homes, and the Tangent barn home takes six, that will still leave a dozen cats in need of barn homes.  A Heartland staffer said she'd take some, but she can't take them until December.  Some can be held til then, in the Lacomb barn room, once others move out.  Am waiting to hear how many the staffer would be willing to take on, if we can hold them until December for her.  The woman is absolutely wonderful, so it would be worth the wait.

 In the meantime, the search continues for more barn homes.  We've been super lucky finding three for immediate placement (once the cats are fixed) and one maybe for farther down the road, a month away.

In the meantime, my attitude sours over people who don't fix their pets.  Craigslist is still loaded with free kittens.  In this day and age, with so many programs out there, so many people still behave like uneducated selfish spoiled brats lacking personal responsibility or caring hearts and in possession of lazy and entitled attitudes.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Never Never Never Land



I dived in, drove out to that hopeless place, where somebody didn't understand the principles of numbers and breeding.  Lots of people don't get that.  Not only with cats and dogs, but with making kids.

There are more than 14 teens and adults.  The woman who created this situation stood around mainly, with her hands in her pockets while I was there.

The raccoon, also dependent on her food, showed up and would not leave until fed.  Then a herd of wild turkeys came thundering through, also used to eating there.  They too will one day come through and find their friendly diner is now hostile territory.

I wanted to catch the two biggest males, so their hormones can start to wane.  I did catch them, but not before I watched their brand of face off.  I guess they never actually fight, but face off, cheek to cheek, often for hours, yowling loudly.  Too funny.

Peace will be achieved between these two through surgical procedure.


I caught two gray kittens.  Previously I caught a gray tux litter mate.  There is a muted torti in the litter I have not caught.  All the kittens are with KATA.

This buff tabby tux is allegedly a female and currently in a trap in my car.

This rather mild natured big tom is in my car waiting to be neutered tomorrow.

I have not caught this cat yet.  I have to wait until more barn homes are found.

This is Camis, from the colony, who has been in my bathroom.

I have not caught this classic torti yet either.

I haven't caught this muted torti kitten, nor the orange tabby on white in the brush to her right.

Part of the thundering turkey herd!
This little guy was crouched in the brush, dehydrated and starved.  I just grabbed him.  Once home, I gave him sub cu fluids, cleaned his eyes, got him on a warming frisbee and fed him, after which he was one happy little guy.  He's with KATA now.
WE NEED MORE BARN HOMES!
 The number removed so far from this one situation is 34 cats and kittens.  There are at least 14 more adult and teen cats out there, needing removed immediately, fixed and into barn homes.  There are also at least two more kittens.

FIX YOUR CATS.  IF YOU FEED THEM, YOU FIX THEM!
You can donate to help these cats through Kitty Angel Adoption Team in Foster, OR.  They have taken in, so far, 11 kittens from this situation and are sponsoring the spays tomorrow of ten adults and teens.
Click here to go to K.A.T. Adoption's website.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Light!

I believe we have now found barn homes to take ten to twelve of the adults/teen cats from the situation outside Lebanon.  Isn't that terrific?

One more barn home and we could have this over and done!


This is one of the teenagers from the colony, now in my bathroom.  I trapped her by accident, when after the last kittens, but she is already allowing me to pet her.  I call her Camis, or Cami for short.  She is maybe seven months old.  KATA may help me get her fixed this Thursday.  She will be going to the barn home taking most of the teenagers and will be gone by Saturday.

I should not count on these homes until the deal is sealed and the cats are there, should I?   Still need to find one more barn home to take whomever is left, three or four more.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Barn Homes for Doomed Cats. Help Me Find Them!

The cats at that Lebanon colony do not deserve to be exterminated, which is to be their fate, if homes aren't found soon for them.

I went out to the rural location today and met the woman trying to help.  Fortunately, she too has a cold, so I didn't have to worry about giving her mine.  The woman who lives there, who has been foreclosed on, isn't helping find them homes at all.  She fed and didn't fix and is about to leave them.

The other woman has already taken out 20 kittens.  Safehaven took 8 of those 20.  KATA (Kitty Angel Team Adoption) a group of volunteers, most of whom work full time jobs, none of whom get paid, took in seven of the 20, and may take in more kittens.


Cathy, the woman helping, has found homes amongst friends for others and still has two at home.  Now she has three at home, because I caught another tonight when out there.  We don't really know how many more kittens need out of there.  I went out to see if I could find more and to see how many adults.  I set up the drop trap and cats came out of the woodwork.

I saw two blacks, two calicos, four young grays/muted tortis, four orange and buff orange, at least, a gray and white male, a black and white and a fire torti long hair, who is gorgeous and looks like a red fox.  I counted at least 14, I think.  Not counting the little kitten I caught.

They are not that feral, to come as close as they did to a complete stranger.  But they are not cats you pick up and hold on your lap.  Not yet anyway.

Cathy has one barn home signed on for two or three adults.

We decided to just make reservations to get them all fixed and do that and hope for the best.  Hope that barn homes will come out of the woodwork to save these kitties.  You can help make that happen by spreading the word about their urgent need.

Come on people, help me find those barn homes.  Not just any will do.  They have to be people who will hold those cats in style (Cathy's husband is going to make relocation cages for those without a suitable confinement space) for three weeks or so, the indoctrination period, a time they settle in, since it's a terrifying thing to lose your home and most of your family and be carted off to somewhere you don't know at all.  Those cats need a good time to adjust and be babied.  If you want it to work out, you do it and if you can't do that small thing, you're not a barn home candidate.

Let's find some homes for these lovely lives.  It can be done.  But the word needs spread far and wide.

These pictures are horrible I took tonight, because it was almost dark and I took them from a distance, so they are blurred and awful but you can see some of them, how beautiful they are, lives who should not be exterminated.


This photo is awful but this cat is drop dead gorgeous!








Fix your cats people.  When you don't, they suffer and die and if other people try to save them, then they incur the costs and heartaches that should be yours.  Oh how I would love to sue every damn person who has vacated on this responsibility.  Stand up and be responsible.  Show your beating heart.   Otherwise, you're already dead.

Dashing

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