The environment contains the animals and supports them as the Earth supports the people on it. The animals need help from the humans. Animals belong to the planet just as do humans. They have a right to live just as we do. When we kill animals needlessly, it is like killing a part of the Earth, of nature. Controlling their breeding is our natural option and solution to over-crowding. What you get in return is a part of life that gives love back to you because it knows you love it. Without love in this life, life is not worth living for any of us.
Tomorrow is the feral cat clinic in Las Vegas and it looks like my daughters, animal rights activists themselves, will not be making the drive with me, so I have to gather courage to load 5 caged cats, all in quiet misery, into a little sports job car and trek on over to Vegas, an hour and half drive and get in line.
The good part of all this stressful time, is the line is long. People line up to get checked in with their ferals. I had eleven cages full last month. One Sunday of the month the clinic is open. Vets donate their time for the lives of homeless pets so that animal control does not kill them as pests, in the cities. Alot of people had as many animals as I did at that time, and together, last month the number of cats fixed were over 200.
Bobbi said she's expecting over 300 cats to arrive tomorrow, as it's mating season. I asked her on the phone, is this mating season?
Is that the reason 4 huge male toms appeared from out of nowhere, claiming the food I put down for my own batch of fixed cats?
And God, they are beauties. Males seem to be huger than the females and twice as mean looking. the other night I caught the amazon black male, plus 2 others in my back bedroom.
A female slipped down into my heater vents and peed down there. Now I can't turn on my furnace because of the smell.
I'm a clean freak, so this makes me stressed out, and I can't sleep at night because the smell is so bad. I've been cleaning the furnace vents, but can only reach so far into them with my brush.
She's under my bed now and I must figure out how not to get scratched and bitten when I place her back into the trap cage for the ride.
Around midnite last night I took a shower which fills the air with moisture, and for some reason this made the smell go away. btw, don't use pinesol or ammonia for urine stains. if you do, now you have a sickly odor of pinesol mixed with urine! lol! Pet neutralizers do work, but temporary and it depends on the brand.
I must keep in mind uppermost the welfare of the cats and not my own misery as I go through this, keeping their population down.
I found one cat sitting on my engine block when I opened the hood. I could have had an accident if I'd driven down the road with her there. Intuition told me to check under there, the oil level.
Thinking why should I check the oil, I went ahead and opened the hood, Spirit is protecting these animals and me too.
On a lighter note the 11 fixed have more loving natures now, and I see them frisking and playing and cleaning each other happily, as they know they can live here and I won't chase them away just because of the numbers of them. They are my family right now and I wasn't going to get attached, but now I am trying to decide which ones I simply could not live without, if I happen to move from this area in the future.
Orange 6 toes tom is a fav. I like the way he lets the others eat first. he's very polite. then the siamese mix has 6 toes too, very pretty she is and has taken to laying in my potted plant outdoors as her special place.
The others are slowly accepting her joining us and she has learned to shove her face into the food bowl like the others.
I think I have 6 toes's father here in the bedroom. He can't be more than a few years old but his eyes look like that of an old defeated man, full of pain and sorrow. I hope the neuter will extend his life and that he will know he's welcome to live with my clan and have kibbles every day.
Then I think I have Aunt Priscilla's mom or dad also sharing the same bedroom. She's huge and has the same exact face that Priscilla does, sort of mischievous, both these guys have long hair, tails like a feather duster waving in the wind. Priscilla, out of 14 cats took less domestication and now comes to me when called, rolls over purring and talking and lets me pick her up. The two guys in the bedroom finally stopped hissing at me, but are trying to push out through the screen window; have to close the window as the rubber is wearing out there.
These cats almost seem to shapeshift! I had the patio door open 2 inches and one female made herself very skinny and slid out! Lol! how did she get her head through that tiny space? The door no longer slides either, due to missing castors. As well how did the other female get the furnace cover off?
It wasn't screwed down, but was on there pretty tight. Never underestimate a cat's ability to escape. Truly, as they say cats must have 9 lives, they are survivors, but without food and care, they can become diseased and live short lives as it's a struggle for them out there.
Feral cats are cats that may have had a home at one time, but the owner failed to fix them and let them outside and they had babies, then the babies had babies and you have yourself a feral colony in that case.
All across the nation there are colonies and they are dependent on people for sustenance. A homeless cat becomes distrustful of people. Sometimes folks just can't find the cat and move out of the area. Other times they abandon the cat on purpose.
They make it somebody's else's problem. Mine. And a bunch of others like me who recognize we need to do something for the cats, before rounding them up and killing them.
It wouldn't be so bad, but one cat and her subsequent offspring can produce thousands of homeless cats. I heard a nursing mother can even become pregnant again. That's harsh.
With a human, as comparison when the human mother is nursing, she secrets a chemical whereby it protects her from becoming pg while she is nursing; not so with cats I guess.
I bought a huge cage to contain a few cats until spay day, and the shapeshifter managed to bend back a metal sodered on piece and escape. It looks like this one will not get fixed until March possibly, if I can catch her again.
Veda, my neighbor told me a cat with the face of a skull crawled under her trailer with 2 broken legs and would cry under there. She finally got it out of there and it was put to sleep. Veda saw kitten in the street getting run over once. Veda is happy I'm on the job!
She has 6 small yapping dogs to attend to, plus one fixed cat in her house.
She told me, Alysia, I'm doing my part too. Somebody had tied to a table leg a little chihuahua in front of PetSmart.
Who you gonna call? why, Veda of course. Veda is older and somewhat crippled but she is doing her part for the sake of life. For animals.
I guess what I fear the most is my car breaking down on the highway with 5 cats in the back. I should think through a plan if that happened. I'd call the clinic and tell them please send out someone to pick them up right away.
After Sunday, maybe I can back to expressing music, my hobby again and writing on higher thought, but right now, I'm on a mission for life and it takes every spare moment of dedication and concentration because an animal can outwit you if they think their survival is at stake.
well, this certainly helped me to write this down. Please share with me in these changing times what would be your special mission and how do you keep the faith? It doesn't have to be necessarily environmental issues, but could be anything at all. We all have our role to play in life and I'm interested in yours.
My advice to myself is to be knowing these hard times pass away and in the end we only remember how good it was to go through them and behold the light of a new day and how strong we can be to get past them.
Love, alysia
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-6-Toes
BTW, I have so far 680 signatures on the above petition. That's pretty good and I thank each one that signed it. Goal is 1,000 before I take further action on it. And yay!!! 6 Toes, one of my favs, is saved! We got 11 cats fixed last month at the Heaven Can Wait clinic in Vegas, for feral cats, vets donate their time for the sake of homeless feral cats, once a month, to cut down their breeding situation. It's call the TNR program and works great.
Tomorrow! I fix another 5 and I will be nervously driving them over in a small car. They will be caged..hopefully they will be quiet as the others were on the drive.
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