I plugged up the escape holes and let her out in the house again. Although there were no confrontations with the others, you can see her uneasiness being inside the house. She vanished into the tunnel leading the cat enclosure and then she just vanished again. I found some hair where she pushed in the screens surrounding the tunnel leading out of the window and spotted her headed for the barn. If her fear of houses is this great, who am I to ask her to accept living inside of one?

Mike is going to make a large entryway in her cage from that window to the outside. This way she can go inside the cage to eat or rest, but will be able to go outside if she can’t handle being inside. It is going to take a bit of juggling with the jigsaw to get the right cut- right now, if I open her window all the way, she can get most of her body out on the platform but her hipbones. So Mike will be enlarging that entrance for her.

There is a nice farmer’s wife at the farm next to this hell hole. She is going to call me if she sees anything in the traps. My kitten traps were loaned out months ago and haven’t made it back here yet so I had to use full traps. I asked her if she might be able to feed the babies if she sees them and she sighed and said her husband keeps hunting dogs and they chase anything that moves. She will feed them when they are trapped until I can get there.

You don’t want to know what happened to the queen, but she is totally out of the picture. 🙁 I can only pray that the kittens didn’t witness her demise because if they did, they are long gone.

Sometimes, I feel so helpless. Sweet Home Police Department just called me. They just did a raid on a place swarming with cats. There is a queen with 8 brand new kittens they need to place right away. I told them about the distemper outbreak and that under no circumstances could I help this time. She asked if I knew of anyone who could take them- and the sad answer is there is no one in this immediate area who can. The fact is there is never enough dollars to help the ones here and more than enough cats waiting and needing to be helped. I just lost my monthly donation of food and cat litter. I have an appointment next Thursday with another source which I hope will step up to the plate and help us help these guys out.

I apologized to the detective who called but I know if I did take in such small ones, they wouldn’t have a chance if they somehow got exposed to the distemper 🙁

Tonight, I was alerted to the fact that at the farm off in the middle of nowhere there are now 3 feral kittens that were left when the owner got arrested and carted away. Most of his livestock have been taken by the relatives, but the queen (I have been told) has been disposed of 🙁 and her kittens ran off into the woods. I am going tomorrow to set my traps and try to capture these babies before the woodland predators (or the ones with two legs) return to do more damage. It is my hope that I can trap them, get them spayed, neutered, vaccinated and find them a loving home. Of course, they are black which at this time is to their favor. They may not be so easy to find in the dark when predators are about.

A few minutes ago, I went out in the patio and gave my kitty call. I heard a meow that sounded just a touch familiar- it was Patience! I knew it was. I followed the sound to see her sitting outside the back door clamoring to come in! I don’t know how she got outside- though Mike did find a sort of opening down by the water heater, but I am so thankful that she felt safe enough to come back inside on her own! Thank you to all of you who prayed for her safe return.

She got out of her enclosure late last night. I last saw her at 11:00 p.m. when I went to feed. Somehow she escaped and I just got through doing a systematic search of the house, the tunnels and the cat enclosure. I cannot find this sweet kitty anywhere! I am so sad and concerned for her. Most alarming is that I don’t hear the other cats encountering her either; no growls, swats, or voices of alarm. I don’t know where she is and after a five hour search, I am out of ideas. My hope is somehow she got outside and she is safe, because to think otherwise is not a good outcome. She is very vocal but only at night, I will stay up all night tonight and see if I can hear her somewhere. Please pray for her if you will.

Last night while lying in bed trying to sleep, I could hear Patience softly meowing. I started praying for divine guidance with her. I know that her last encounter with houses was pretty ugly because she was owned by a hoarder. Is she wondering where all those piles of rotting garbage went? Is she talking to God, or planning an escape? I finally got up and went out to visit with her. That’s when I saw a small hole in the wire at the bottom of the door just covered with her fur.

I looked at her for the longest time. It was 2:00 in the morning and freezing outside, but I opened up the cage door and gently scooped her up. Scruffing her neck so I wouldn’t get bit or scratched and supporting her rear so as not to hurt her, I went over to the window and opened it.

I placed her outside on the platform. Gave her a gentle pat of goodbye and told her I hoped I would see her again. Then I shut the window, turned off the lights and turned to go back into the bedroom and get some sleep.

The minute I reached the bedroom door, I heard this horrible meowing from outside! I rushed over to turn on the outside lights (thinking she was getting attacked by something) and there she was by the door clamoring to come back IN! I opened the door and she scooted inside and wrapped herself around my legs. So, I picked her up and put her back in to the cage.

This is similiar to what she used to live in:

And here she is this morning! She even allowed me to start combing some matts out of her fur! Yes, I am surprised about her “non-feral” nature now.

Day2:

I wouldn’t call her a happy cat, but with another nasty storm barreling our way- at least I know she is safe-

Patience

It was only a matter of time before Jedi’s cage came to good use again!

Had a couple interested in meeting Bentley, so last night, off I went to meet with the two of them with Bentely in tow. I have Onstar and had I followed the route directions they loaded into my car system, I probably wouldn’t be in the land of the living today!

The computer directed me to turn down this one street in Eugene. I did as directed and as I was driving through some industrial complexes, the street lights vanished and it got really dark. It was only 7:30 but it was stormy as all heck! I had this strange feeling as the voice directed me further down this road. It went from paved to gravel then to dirt. I stopped, got out of the car and just listened. I could hear water all around me. I grabbed the flashlight and shined it in the road ahead to see there was no road ahead! There was a lake- but as I played the light around, I could see something to the right of the lake, sort of sticking out of the water. Turned out to be a stop sign! The road had washed out and somehow the warning signs and other emergency signals had ended up in the water instead of blocking the road!

I got back in the car and contacted OnStar and they stayed on the line with me until I made it to the destination point safely. I’m glad I had that feeling and stopped to check out this road.

Then I met the couple interested in Bentley, and they were nice. They had a lovely place but it was an apartment and Bentley, his activity level isn’t suited for apartment living. The more I stayed and talked to them, I just got the feeling that they realy didn’t want a kitten or a cat- they wanted an unusual kitten or cat- a conversation piece (if that makes sense?) I asked them to think about it and left with Bentley with me. When I got home, I emailed them and told them I didn’t think that he would fit well in their lives.

Did I think they were unsuitable for a cat? No, not at all. I am sure they would have loved him and cared for him till the end of his days. I just didn’t think that what they were really looking for had set in with them yet and I didn’t want him stuck in an apartment looking out the window and wondering where his freedom went.

Here is Noah, who now will come down out of the rafters as soon as he hears me enter the shop. Someone has put love into this tom- but for right now, I am just not going to trap him. I don’t want to traumatize him and believe in about a week, he will allow me to just put him in the carrier and take him to the vet. I’ll get him neutered then release him outside. If he does belong to someone, then when he gets home- they will be surprised by his missing parts! Most of the neighbors don’t care for cats in the manner I do. I was told yesterday that on the back road, there is a gentleman and his wife who “collect kittens.” They bring them inside and love on them until they are tired of them (or until the kitten grows into a cat) Then they put them outside and ignore them and go get other kittens and start the process over..sigh. I have to wonder if he is part of the “ignored group.” I can’t get on their property- it’s heavily fenced with scary signs that I would just as well steer clear of. Some of these people living rurally are a bit “odd.

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Before I relay my scare this morning (at 4:00 a.m.) let me set the scene: Like so many others in the United States right now, our state is enduring some pretty prickly weather. The outside cats have mostly gone to ground, hunkering down until they feel it’s safe to poke their heads out (no more limbs snapping and plummeting to the ground) obstacles flying through the air and scary high winds, heavy snow or rain.

Last week a large spruce tree limb fell on the front part of the shop roof. This is the room where I feed the cats who come into the shop. Because of the weather, after the limb was removed, we just tarped over the top of the roof with the hole, then put a second tarp inside the room (to catch falling tree debris).

Ok, so this morning, I walk into the room and the tarp is lower than it should be. I really don’t think much of it. The winds were fierce last night and even though part of the roof is tarped, the winds can still get under it. I don’t turn the shop lights on, I work by flashlight only, so I am in a semi-darkened room, ducking down so the tarp doesn’t hit me in the head. As I bend down and open up a can of food, I hear a rustling noise. Thinking it might be Noah (the kitty who came in on the last flood of rain) I look up into the rafters and call him softly. I play the beam of light along the rafters, but he isn’t in his usual place.

I turn around to finish feeding (and forget to stoop this time) and something plops on my head and just starts growling. The tarp is still in place, but whatever is in there- isn’t happy! It’s sort of a rumble growl unlike a cat. I’ve heard it before (it’s a coon sound) It’s just sitting on my head and not moving, and quite frankly, neither am I!”Growl….growl…rumble…snort-” the noises are growing in frequency. I quickly duck down to the ground-scramble out one of the other doors into the main shop- hit the breaker box and turn on ALL the lights- bells whistles the whole deal. The compressor starts roaring- MIke’s grinder fan sounds off all the lights go on and this poor, scared racoon scrambles out from under the tarp and heads for the cat door at top speed!

I throw open the outer double doors just to be sure the intruder is gone and see the coon running up our pine tree and vanishing from sight. I don’t know who was scared more hairless- him or me? As I was making my way back to the house, my legs weren’t working right and I slid in a pile of slush and fell right on my butt! At least the windstorm last night had nicely left me with a big pile of fresh pine needles to cushion my fall!