I cried my eyes out last night, watching on TV parents reunite with kids who didn't die in their school when the monster tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma.  I cried my eyes out to hear of teachers who covered kids with their own bodies to protect them.   It was too much for me, to hear of kids in trouble and people trying to sa

Last week, a craigslist post caught my eye.  "Did you lose an orange and black cat?" The post went on to say a man was seen dumping a black and orange cat from a live trap at Crystal Lake Boat Landing in Corvallis.  That's likely a torti.  It said she was dumped out like trash, looked confused, then ran into t

I've added a link, to my blog, down on the far right, to my redbubble art site.  I want to make money for local spay neuter.  Poppa is closing very very soon now.  I won't be able to do squat anymore, to help stop the local overpopulation problem.  There's one local nonprofit still trying, however, with limited funds an

I visited with Mango at Heartland yesterday morning.  I had just delivered seven cats there to be fixed.  They were a mom and five kittens from Lebanon, plus Grumpy Cat, renamed Hobo, the old stray Siamese mix, who showed up a few months ago at an otherwise fixed feral colony.  Hobo is a train wreck.  He has ear mites s

I got happy the other day.  That's because I made time to take a walk in a favorite park.  Over in Corvallis.  At Bald Hill. I love that park.  I used to live near it.  I recovered after back surgery by walking up it four times a week. There are miles of trails.  You can access the park from an Oak Creek Drive parki

I got a used bike awhile back.  I fell in love with it.  I had gone to see a different bike, a Diamondback, but it was far too small.  The guy buys bikes at garage sales and estate sales, then resells them.  He doesn't fix them up though.  Not like the guy who in Eugene, who contacted me after I posted about wanting a

I was watering my garden this morning and I found something amazing. The old man next door has three cats barely cared for. They free roam. They poop in my garden spaces.  I go around once a week and scoop it all up, but I always miss some.  This morning, I saw the sow bugs didn't miss the poop I had not scooped.  They

I did not believe I'd live to see this day. Many of us, lives ruined by destructive psychiatric diagnostic labeling, all subjective, knew this for years. Finally, some weight behind the obvious.  I am floored by this turn of events, happy beyond happy. Read another take on the decision here!

I get a call yesterday.  It's a Lebanon man.  He's looking for a way to fix a feral colony, wants to know if I can help.  I tell him I probably cannot help, not with Poppa funds and no real clinic space to get a lot of cats fixed before my funding ends completely. I tell him about the FCCO, about their program, that it

I am dumping Facebook, for the most part, as a time waster.  I still message friends using Facebook.  But I seriously squandered time there.  With little return. My new time waster is craigslist.  I've always hated craigslist.  But because people post such terrible things on the pets list.  "We want to get rid o

Mango is looking good at Heartland! Mango is still at Heartland, still not officially up for adoption because he's still recuperating from those horrible injuries. Finally, one of his large facial abcesses burst!  So he's looking even better.  Especially after his lion cut.  His terrible mats were shaved off.  However,

I'm on a tropical beach, laid out in a lounge chair.  Sun is just perfect, shining down, warm.  I'm in shorts and a blouse, nice wide brimmed hat, book across me, sunglasses crooked, drool escaping my half open mouth. I'm asleep!  Gloriously dozing in the sun, the ocean 200 feet in front of my feet. I jostle awake.  Th

A friend told me, before I moved in here, that suicide rates are highest on cul de sacs.  I pooh whooed that then.  I don't anymore. A cul de sac is like an inbred family.  There's no escaping your neighbors.  They know when you come and when you go.  It's a dead end life. I want to leave so badly I'd be willing to l

I suffer from Foot in Mouth disease.  I am socially inept and have very limited human contact experience. This does not stop me from opening my mouth.  What comes out---well, I am never sure what will come out. I can talk to cats.  I am sooo comfortable talking to cats, verbally or otherwise. But people-----noooooo! Â

Mango, the long hair orange stray, I ran into in the parking lot of the Shell station on Highway 34, late last Tuesday night, is now at Heartland. I got him fixed the very next day, after trapping the poor boy, who was running aimlessly amongst moving cars, in that parking lot.  He was in imminent danger and I can't watch

Well, another long day for me that is about to end, as I renew my relationship with a bottle of Nyquil and my bed. Half a sip of Nyquil and I'm out like a light.  Plus it helps my allergies, which are bad this year. I had two big males needing fixed already in my garage. I had the brown mackeral tabby from the Albany i

The five Albany cats from that house, where I've been trapping inside the house, were fixed yesterday at the FCCO.  They included a big black and white male; a young black and white male and three young girls, one black and white, one black and one gray.   I released three of those cats this morning, the two males and the

I caught the big long hair gray and white male whom I first saw in my yard two days ago.  He may have been around longer than that.  Sam's been pee marking up a storm, which is what he does when another unfixed male roams through the yard.  I've caught 38 cats now, roaming unfixed through my yard, since moving here six y

I had reservations at Heartland to get five cats fixed Thursday.  KATA had referred a Crabtree woman to me, who had a dozen unfixed cats, some pregnant.  She was very desperate.  In the end, however, KATA arranged with Heartland that all her cats could be fixed Thursday, except the one lactating Persian, and her kittens.

Several years ago, I took a drift on a river. And what happened that day, to myself and the friend with me, remains a mystery. We have parted ways now.  We talked about the experience secretly, in bits and pieces, and gradually let it go.  But I'll never return to that section of the N. Santiam.  Never. It started as a

I'm no whiz with clippers.  Um, I might be getting better.  Definitely am improving. My long hair cats get the clip job twice yearly. To free them, and this house, of excessive hair.  Hairy more often because he is, well he's super hairy!  Sure he's feral, but he likes his hair done.  I start out with him in a fish n

I was horrified to read another one sided story about mental illness in a family.  The only side given, by the reporter, was that of a sister, long estranged from the brother who is the focus of the story.  In fact, it sounds like this family feud, between brother and sister, has gone on since childhood. Nonetheless, the

Chirpy Slurpy, my big loving humble torti here, who loves Starry, Electra and Miss Daisy, was not always so happy.  It has been almost three years since I pulled her out of the headlight compartment of an old dead car just outside of Lebanon. It was a stressful time for me.  When I was called by the daughter of the prope

It would not start today.  Made some horrible whacking sound.  Not the clicking of a dead battery.  A whacking sound. Later on, it started as if nothing had gone on. I don't like that.  I want something not working to stay not working so I can figure out what is wrong and fix it.  Now, I know it will happen again, wh

I made some art of photos I've taken.  I found these three photo frames on sale.  I want to hang them in my bathroom.  So this is one of the final projects.  It's Smolder, out in the cat yard atop a cat climb.  Distorted by Picassa. And this one, of Sam, is now hanging over the can, in my bathroom. This last of

Ugly, that's what it is.  Whatever I've got.  Ugly. Started last Friday night.  Suddenly.  My stomach region turned to cement, felt like, with sharp spines.  Chills and body aches and fatigue hit too.  I slept all weekend, with a few brief "up" periods. Finally Monday came around and I thought was better.

This is one of the 8 cats I rescued when left behind from the Albany nursery. Three of the cats went to a Portland rescue. They just posted this video of Audrey on their Facebook page. Isn't she awesome? I guess they have a home lined up for her now also. Animal Rescue and Care Fund, Inc., thank you for taking in Carly

When I first moved into this house, I was a nervous wreck.  I'd nearly killed myself in the move from that slumshack in Corvallis.  It was hell, to take apart the cat yard and all I had to do to move, mostly alone.  My brothers came one day and loaded stuff into a truck and brought it over.  But I had to do the rest alo

Solo's vet bill is due.  I just got an e-mail sent around by a friend up in Portland of Odd Cat Out, the sanctuary run by Poppa Inc's president who took her in awhile back. Solo is from Albany.  I trapped her behind a house next to the 7-11.  She was trying to eat out of the dumpster there. Just a tiny kitten trying to

I came down with something, suddenly Friday evening, right after returning from the FCCO clinic.  My stomach was tied in knots, felt like, and extremely painful.  I was experiencing chills and body aches. I was very fatigued.  I laid down, in my clothes, was just going to rest, but then did not wake up for nine hours. Â