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Not on My Watch: As the Hurricane Churns

As Hurricane Earl churns in the Atlantic, I sit and wait and wonder if it's going to behave and only give the folks here in Connecticut a glancing blow of high winds and torrential rain or if the weather reports will be wrong and Earl will take a devious leap west and blast us with its' Category 2 fury.

I realized that should we ever take a direct hit that I have nowhere to go that would allow cats-and certainly not foster cats that also have ringworm. I couldn't even put them in the car with the healthy cats.

I'd be forced to stay behind.

So Sam and I got up at 6AM. This was not my idea of a good time. No one should get up until at least 9AM and 10AM would be even better. Anyway, we wanted to get to the grocery store and buy some non-perishable items like pudding cups, nuts, chocolate covered raisins. You know-important things that will keep us healthy if we lose power—which happens if you fart too hard around here. We expect the power will go out-which also means, no WATER.

We live in a house where everything is run by electricity-including the pump that goes to our 390' deep well. That means no shower and NO FLUSHING. Not fun. We have those 5 gallon bottles of water and a dispenser. Some of the bottles are empty so we filled them with tap water. Ah ha! Now we will be able to flush, though holding a 40 pound jug of water, aiming over the toilet tank, then hoping you don't miss and dump it all over the floor or miss and get it into the toilet BOWL, which would splatter whatever was currently IN the bowl all over the walls.

Gosh, I hope the power doesn't go out tomorrow. I just don't think there's enough bleach in the world to clean my walls after that.

As I wait to find out if my little house in the woods is going to be decimated by Hurricane Earl, I thought I'd catch you up on a BUNCH of news...in no particular order...

1. HOPE IS OUT OF THE ANIMAL HOSPITAL!

Her leg, HELLO!, is HEALED! She will walk just fine. She beat the infections, but traded them off for a cold. That said she is well enough now to go into foster care. I heard her foster home is terrific and her rescuers, called The Cat Women, should be getting a check from me via Sweetwater Vet Hospital, to cover ALL of HOPE's medical bills! There will be a bit left over and that will go into a fund to help other cats who need vet care.

HOPE has a new name: Ariel. This will mark her new journey. In a very strange coincidence, Ariel's foster mom is none other than Mary Jo-who is the subject of item number 2!

2. BIG, ORANGE MAINE COON IS SAFE!

Big Orange's owner is a senior citizen with dementia who cannot care for her cat and whose (jerkwad) of a son refuses to allow the cat in the house! The poor cat has been attacked by local (equally jerky) kids. Mary Jo (sound familiar?) stepped up to help rescue this big lug. When news got out about his troubles lots of folks chimed in, willing to help. I got the word out to my rescue babes and one of them offered to give him a home. I can't say more than that because the details aren't worked out, but even if not, Big Orange is SAFE. Mary Jo got him today only to find out the (jerkwad of the century) son now wants to get a puppy since the cat is gone. Is there no justice for this cat? Perhaps a wonderful life in a better home will do the trick?

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©2010 Mary Jo. Her original poster trying to find help for Big Orange.

3. RINGWORM. WE HAVE A WINNER! (or is that LOSER?)

There aren't enough swear words to cover how I feel about Pattycake getting ringworm. She had it in transport, but only a tiny dot on her ear. I didn't even NOTICE what you see below. Granted the area was shaved after Dr. Larry's Vet Tech, Mighty Lauren found it!

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©2010 Robin A.F. Olson. Fungus Amongus.

And of course, a few days later I felt some "crud" on her brother, Moonpie's ear so he's got it, too. Both cats are in the bathroom for eternity, or another month. Then they will be 5 months old and even harder to find a forever home for. If this is as bad as it gets I will be grateful. If the 4 little kittens in the foster room get it, too...that will be really bad...if my cats get it...well...not good...not good at all.

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©2010 Robin A.F. Olson. They share everything...ugh.

4. Bob has a URI. Spencer has really bad feline acne that I just can't get rid of, Nicky PEED on the floor right in front of us so he's at the Vet getting tests done and poor Gracie's dermatitis just won't go away!

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©2010 Robin A.F. Olson. Bob. No fever but sneezing and coughing. My poor baby!

This is why having TWO cats is nice. If one gets sick, no problem. If both got sick, no problem! When they ALL start to get sick? PROBLEM! Having EIGHT CATS is NOT FOR SOMEONE WITH A WEAK CONSTITUTION-which is WHY I should have TWO CATS!

4. Jasper County Animal Control STILL NEEDS A FEW MORE CATS RESCUED SO THEY WON'T HAVE TO PUT ANY KITTIES DOWN. BUT...

Thanks to Barb Lowe at Winging Cat Rescue and two other rescue groups, five cats from Jasper were saved, along with three others from Douglas and eight by our friend Joan Flores in TN, along with six from Heard County and three more who were supposedly rescued but their rescue DUMPED THEM!!!!!...so they were RE-RESCUED!

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©2010 Jasper Co. Animal Control. This is Frances.

That's 25 MORE CATS SAVED!!!

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©2010 Jasper Co. Animal Control. This is Maybelline.

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©2010 Jasper Co. Animal Control. This is Saber. Yay Saber!

Yes, there's a price for rescuing all these cats. Barb needs Scotch and a vacation somewhere quiet AND she needs $400.00 to cover transport. Let's show her how we can help her money woes disappear and thank her for all her hard work, saving these babies!

5. My little kittens are pushing three pounds a piece, except for Cinnie-Minnie who is just a tiny little thing.

Oh, and they're super cute, but I don't get to spend nearly enough time with them!

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©2010 Robin A.F. Olson. From left to right: Yodel, Sugar Pie, Honey B. and Cinnamon.

6. Little Maria WILL be having her surgery next week! Stay tuned for LOTS MORE NEWS ABOUT THIS BIG EVENT FOR A LITTLE KITTY!

That is if my power doesn't go out tomorrow...and Earl keeps his distance.

Comments

In spite of your low regard for those of us living in the south we do have a lot of hurricane experience. If you really are going to be hit by this storm consider filling your bathtub for flushing water. You may meed to drink the stuff you can put in containers. Also, consider making the temperature of your fridge & freezer a little colder in anticipation of power loss. Flashlights, radios & lots of batteries should go without saving. And as for food, canned tuna can be amazing when you get tired of pudding cups. Of course, you have to be smart enough to have a hand-operated can opener available for that. Good luck!

I'm not sure if your comment is meant to be a joke or you're seriously angry with me. My low regard for the south is due to a serious majority of people with obvious disregard for not spaying or neutering their animals and for treating them like trash. There are also folks in the south, who I'm working with to put a dent in rampant pet overpopulation and consider to be my friends, who really care and who are trying to make a difference in their communities. I believe I've been very clear that there are two camps here. Sadly, the folks who do rescue or who do right by their animals aren't in high enough numbers.

Thanks for the advice, but here in the north, we get hit by hurricanes, nor'easters, tornados and blizzards. We even figured out how to use hand-operated can openers awhile back and those whatchamacallit thingies...generators.

Lots of good news here! Yay for all the rescues!

Earl had best stay AWAY from my wedding on Saturday. He is NOT on the guest list....

I hope you have a wonderful day, but you should make plans for being inside, just in case! Make sure to share some photos with us of your big day!

Congratulations and Best Wishes to you both!

Congratulations on your wedding! I hope you have a great day!

If you ever do have to evacuate, I say take the cats and keep going until you find some motel that will accept you. But I sure hope it doesn't come to that!

I am from the south. Well south of here for sure. Some consider Virginia the south.
And you didn't offend me one little itty bitty. And yes, Georgia has the highest kill rate
of anywhere in the US. Let's just same some people from the south are....STUPID! VERY, VERY STUPID.
But not that nice person up above who told you to fill your bathtub with water. Now I just wish that nice person
would tell all those STUPID people in Georgia to spay and neuter their pets.

So happy to hear that there were amazing people able to rescue those in need.

One of these days, I'll have a bigger home so I'm able to do the same. :/ Until then, though, I'm rooting for them all!

Best of luck with the storm, hopefully by the time it gets to you it isn't too much of a big deal.

I hope all goes well and is safe for you and the cats. The first thing that came to mind was to stock up on cat carriers. What comes to mind is the sad situation of hurricane Katrina, how many animals were left behind mostly because there were either dead or they were not allowed on the rescue buses. The interesting part of it was that a very FEW people were able to sneak a few on board without people knowing right off, like a bird, even a kitty that perhaps was sooo frightened that it didn't even make a sound. But perhaps with all the chatter of what was going on, it's kitty meows were perhaps lost in the midst of the chaos, but the owner was just not going anywhere without it. Also I remember an story on CBS that a family had money to stay at a hotel that was sympathetic at the time to let the family take thier cat with them inside, and you see a scene of this coon jumping across the bed. A bit heartwarming in that you see not only how people were caring for each other in that time of need, but didn't want to forget their other part of the family, their cat.
Be safe, should things turn for the worse. - meowmix

One of the positive things that has come out of the Katrina disaster is now more and more evacuation plans include people being allowed to take their pets. The PR from rescue groups picking up animals that had to be left behind because families were not allowed to take them with them when they evacuated spurred a lot of policy changes.

A friend whose parents lived in NOLA during Katrina told me her mom would not leave her cats and was not allowed on a plane out of the city (one of the last ones to go before the storm hit,) so instead they were forced to drive 12+ hours to safety. Fast forward to the next hurricane that was headed for NOLA, and the flight attendant took the cat carriers and strapped them in for my friend's mom before takeoff. No one complained or batted an eye even tho "technically" it was against airline rules.

Robin - best of luck with The Storm - we'll blow extra hard here in the Midwest for you!
And about many-gallon flushes - you just need ONE gallon, from a bucket! When finished with the business at hand, just dump a gallon in the bowl - fast. That makes a flush. Slow doesn't do it - like from the milk jug that filled the bucket... Again, Good Luck!

Just thinking about you and wondering how you are doing, hoping the big rains stay at a managable level.

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