Sammy finally has no more concerns with those pesky ovaries. The local
animal rescue group sponsored a spay day for cats this past Friday and I got
Sammy done for a mere $20. We also took the recently abandoned female, Hobo,
that was taken in by my neighbor to get fixed. When I told her new owner
about the program he was quite happy to give me the money up front and told
me to swing by and get her when I was ready to go.

I dropped them off Friday morning and made arrangements for my wife to pick
them up that afternoon at release time. Both are home and doing well. I
started my new job Friday and was unable to be there when they were
released. Got home Saturday afternoon after wrapping up the week for the
job. Sam was getting around normally, eating well, not bothering her
sutures - generally okay. Of course the remaining 4 kittens were quite happy
to see me too. I dozed off on the couch earlier and awoke to find two of
them curled up on my lap, one stuffed in beside me, and one curled up at my
feet.

The local animal shelter continues to be a huge pain in the a.s - not to be
confused with the rescue group that sponsored the spay day. I find that the
current director has only been on the job about 2 months, and has
practically no previous experience in any sort of animal care facility.
Their current policies are attempting to adopt out any and all cats that
come into the shelter without regard for their health or suitability for
placement. Now that they are full up, there is a waiting list for people
bringing in strays, etc. The result is many cats being dumped all over the
area.

The owner of the rescue organization was previously the director of the
shelter in question and stays in touch with some of her former employees
there. She says there are a few known instances of different people bringing
in the same abandoned cat for placement over a period of weeks. This pretty
well confirms for me that people being told of a waiting list are simply
dumping the animal in another area where others find it and also attempt
placement through the shelter. Those people are in turn dumping the animal
somewhere else when confronted with the waiting list. Meanwhile, the shelter
is full of cats. At one point a large share of the population there was
ill - two of the holding cage rooms and one of the colony rooms were full of
cats with some sort of respiratory illness.

I suppose in a perfect world, all animal shelters would be no kill. Faced
with a huge surplus cat population inthis area, I don't see the current
policies as a solution. The animals abandoned continue to cause problems all
over rthe area, property damage, fighting with and injuring resident animals
where they are dumped and of course - continuing to procreate as they go.

I had an invasion by a large semi-feral tom the other night. He was
attracted by the two females here awaiting their spay appointment. He had
attempted fighting with Sammy through the back door screen and was driven
away the first night. Next night this old guy became aware of the kittens
inside and was intent on killing them. He attempted to claw his way in
through the screen and later jumped up on the living room window screen - a
full 4 feet off the ground. I was alerted by all the snarling and commotion.
This old tom was trying to get at one of the kittens who was laying in the
window. With the local shelter no longer taking cats in and the rescue
shelter being full up too, what do you reckon my alternative was? I could
trap and cage him easy enough - then what? He was dealt with - unpleasant as
it may have been. Sorry to have to do things that way but what the hell ya
gonna do? Animal control here only deals with dogs. There are no other
alternatives for a creature like this.