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Cat Eyes---A Cat Woman's Photos
A few weeks ago, I put out a plea for donations to help with two situations. One of the situations was a colony being fed in south Corvallis, the Dilapidated Duplex or DD colony I've dubbed it. The cats are fed by an older couple. The landlord and a neighbor were threatening the cats, even though the old couple's own two cats were fixed and the strays resulted from a variety of irresponsible tenants.
Donations came in. Thanks to all who responded.
I have trapped 12 of the 15 outside cats so far. All were fixed, including three females who were in heat and one who was pregnant. I needed barn homes for these cats and those are not easy to find. But, as luck or fate would have it, I got a call from a former Corvallis family who had relocated to Albany. They fed strays in Albany and I had helped them in two locations get strays fixed. Well, they had finally made it out of Albany, to the country. They had called because they were unable to catch one of the strays they had fed, who was fixed, and didn't want to leave her behind. They also offered to take in some in need cats, since now they have space. They took in ten of the Dilapidated Duplex colony south Corvallis cats! And, I went and trapped the cat they'd not been able to catch before moving and delivered her back to them also.
Just after all 12 cats left (two went to another location), the husband of the old couple in south Corvallis, who had fed these cats, ended up in the hospital in heart failure. So it was a miracle that they got help when they desperately needed it, with the cats. I also took the two kittens they had inside, from one of the outside mothers.
The male kitten, Goose, was neutered free of charge at a Eugene vet clinic. The clinic was helping the community by offering to fix males free that day, through a friend of mine, in West Fir, who has a nonprofit and rounded the unfixed males up. The torti female kitten was fixed the next day, also in Eugene, and taken into foster, along with the male kitten, by yet another animal active friend of mine, who lives in Oakridge. So far, 14 cats from the Corvallis DD situation have been trapped, fixed and rehomed. There are still 3 needing to be trapped.
The second situation I needed donation help with, when I sent out that last plea, was the Family Feud colony in Lebanon. A grandmother had ended up in a nursing home. Her granddaughter, who had cared for the cats around her grandma's house, was locked out of the house by an uncle, because the two do not get along. The cats were left in limbo.
I trapped six of the 8 outside fed Lebanon cats also, including three in heat females, and they were fixed and also got a barn home, south of Cottage Grove. The two are being fed still and will be trapped by a Lebanon woman. That was one very long exhausting week! 32 cats were fixed that week alone. 19 were rehomed that week.
The next week was one of great sadness for me. A dozen or more cats were killed out on Marilyn street at a colony I've been trapping by a free roaming dog. I knew all the cats killed. I had taken them in to be fixed. I got only nine cats fixed as a result the week before last. I even sat out there nights in my car, intent on protecting the cats of that area from this dog.
On those two short streets in Albany, I have gotten 83 cats fixed now mostly using Poppa Inc. funds. Remember, if you have extra money, donate to Poppa for fixing mid valley cats. www.poppainc.org. Most of these have been around the property of the kind old man, who has no cats of his own, but who feeds the neighborhood caste off cats. The latest was a tame orange and white male, Chachi, who roamed into the old man's colony and a long hair brown tabby pregnant feral female who had been there several years. I have also been trapping, along with two other women, at an abandoned house on the connecting street.
There are three more cats to catch in the HTN colony proper, but I have also been going door to door on those two connected streets. I met two older women last week, one close to 90, with only one leg, and her niece, in her mid 70's, who cares for her aunt, in the door to door search for unfixed cats. They said they feed two or three strays and some owned cats.
I set traps and sure enough, caught a tame gorgeous long hair male. I released him only to catch a young brown tabby female, also owned. I finally caught a feral--a gray and white male who was neutered, then a gray tab on white male, who was also neutered. I then went to neighbors across the street and found who owned the brown tabby female, plus an unfixed male. The owners of the orange long hair had an unfixed female, but Tigger, the orange male, is neutered. Their neighbors also had an unfixed female.
All four of these owned tame cats went with me to Tigard Animal Hospital yesterday, along with four of five unfixed cats from Front street in Albany, and were fixed. 8 more, six of them females, who never would have been otherwise fixed.
In the meantime, I had received a call from Corvallis. The woman who called adopted three cats from me when a student at OSU. She is now married. Her inlaws live just outside Corvallis and had trapped a white cat. They didn't know what to do with it. I called the inlaws and talked to them. Someone on an adjoining street had expressed interest once in adopting Snowman, although it never happened. But he had told me about neighbors who had a ton of white cats out front and that they likely needed help getting them fixed. So when the inlaws caught a white cat, I asked who lived behind them. Sure enough, it was the whitey colony folks who are their back fence neighbors, facing another road.
I went and got the white cat they had in the trap, who turned out to be very tame, got him neutered, then drove around and talked to the folks with all the white cats. They were very glad for the help. They have no incomes, outside of the adult kids having small wage jobs. The mother is just now getting disability. They've had garbage service disconnected for a long time, as a result of financial issues and fixing cats was not even on the radar financially.
I've trapped 11 of their cats now. There may be two more white cats to catch. 9 of the 11 have been all white which is why I dubbed this colony Whitey2. I call it Whitey2 because I trapped a mostly white cat colony out on Circle Blvd., fed by homeless folks. I have to trap the Whitey2 cats even though once trapped most prove completely tame. I have treated all not only for fleas, but for earmites and worms, at my own expense. The inlaws will be trapping the two they feed, both manx's, both likely females, this week.
Nine cats were fixed the week before last. Last week, 26 more. I have a long list still of cats needing to go in, both tame and feral. Fixing donations and spay sponsors are always very much needed. Again, donations can be made directly to Poppa by going to their website: www.poppainc.org and designating the money is to go to help Jody's mid valley fixing fund. Or, one can call Countryside Vet Clinic directly to donate. 541-327-3758 but be sure to designate any money donated is to go to my spay/neuter fund, not to the gift card fund I have there, which pays for vet visits, antibiotics and other procedures for rescued kitties. Poppa helps only with spay/neuter.
Let's get those cats out there fixed, before kitten season hits. The Neuterscooter will again be in Oregon late March. Visit their website. You can sign up to receive bulletins about upcoming visits and post fliers to help publicize their clinic. The Neuterscooter is a for profit low cost mobile spay/neuter clinic. They use local cat captains to locate a suitable building, make most appointments online and are an efficient effective program. Usually 100 cats are fixed by only one vet in one day in this extremely organized clinic operation.
People can make appointments at the Neuterscooter website: www.neuterscooter.com. Cost, if prepaid online, for a tame house cat or kitten is $40, which includes free shots. People can pay extra for other services, like FIV/Felk testing, flea treatment, worming. If the person pays day of clinic for the fixing, the cost is $50. The cost for ferals is $20, but they must really be ferals and all ferals to qualify for this reduced price, must be brought in live traps. So spread the word to people about the Neuterscooter clinic, also.
Thank you for caring about the strays of Oregon. Sometimes I feel so exhausted and overwhelmed I want to quit. But I never do and I never will. I have an addiction to fixing! And maybe I'm delusional. I still think we can solve this overpopulation problem, but it will take more people out there knocking on doors to find unfixed cats and get them in.
May the cats be with you!
Feral Night Cat Trapper Rescue
POSTSCRIPT...LA has just instituted an ordinance that most Dogs & Cats must be spayed/neutered by 4 months old. Thanks to Bob Barker and his hard work on this!!!
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