Cats. o.0;; CATS. 150 CATS.
Dude, I am SO tired. ^^
Had to get up early to be at the PotmanRitz by 8am to meet LA, Dr J, Landa, Xan, Jean, and Zat for the yearly vaccination 'party' at the Cat Man's. The Cat Man, as you may recall me mentioning a time or 2 before, is a gentleman named Mr Huang who started 'rescuing' the cats around his home in Baoshan district and wound up as a hoarder with over 225 animals including 10 dogs. Over the last 7years, through spays, neuters, assessments, euthanasia's and adoptions, the population has been reduced to about 150, and 6 dogs. They are also looking much healthier - Dr J announced the ear mites, a plague for the last few years, seem to have disappeared, and there were no war wounds that needed treating this time around.
Sadness, we did find a jaundiced kitty that had been very roly-poly and fat a few months ago, now a dehydrated bag of skin and bones. Dr J did a quick check-up and pronounced liver failure. She's being brought to the clinic today where he'll verify the diagnosis, but she's going to be put down, poor thing.
So, the procedure for the day? Xander and LA, with the local housekeeper, caught the cats and brought them out. Jean (the vet tech intern) loaded the syringes with the vaccinations and handed it off to Dr J who injected. Then I shot them with a dose of Frontline, Zat squirted red dye on them so we'd know who was done, and Landa refilled with Frontline syringes to hand off to me. The first 60 or so were done in an hour. Then we had to go after the real ferals and the ones who hid in the loft and in the boxes. We had to use nets to catch these guys, and man, the sounds they made, you'd swear we were torturing them. They fought like mini-tigers even through the nets and it was hard enough to jab FL on their ears when they kept trying to bite the syringes. James almost got his fingers taken off by a large tabby who managed to slip her mouth through a hole in the net just as he was trying to inject her.
It took almost 2 and a half hours to get the remainder done. We wound up vaccinating about 120 of them, and Front Lining all of them. 30 cats couldn't be vaxxed because they had BT (short form in Chinese for 'snotty noses' and we can't vax sick animals).
While we were doing this, we were also noting which ones had rotting mouths - 3 have to go to the clinic next week to have teeth yanked - and which ones need to be shaved (we have about 6 long-hairs who are so matted they look like they're hiding golf balls on their bodies). Landa will come back out with her driver next week and pick up the ones who are being shaved.
Long day. HOT day. Came home covered with vax spray (some of the needles broke when the cats fought for freedom and we all got sprayed a few times), cat pee (just on my jeans and just a little, unlike poor LA who got sprayed several times), dye splatters, and enough cat hair to make another cat. But it's done for this year, and Landa took the obligatory 'Vaxxing Day 2010' group shot which I'll post once she sends them out.
Am now showered, refreshed, had a late lunch, and am ready to add on to the LGO fic that has passed 15,000 words and is only halfway complete. I owe a debt of thanks to lucathia_rykatu who offered to beta read this monster. :D
Don't know if Est is coming over tonight. She came over last night for a 3 hour venting/bitching session that both of us sorely needed. :D It was fun, and she's promised to bring her paint brushes tonight if she comes back over so I can finally start painting on my canvas's. I finished sketching 2 yesterday and I'm itching to paint. ^^
Lastly, Sammy was fixed on Friday and since then has become this needy, clingy ball of orange and white fur. Quite a change when just on Thursday I couldn't cuddle him for more than a minute before he wanted to jump down. I was expecting it to take at least a week for all the testosterone to leave his body. ^^
Holy hell.
18700 / 30000 Had to change it to 30,000 words before I post the first part. Almost 20,000 in and still not anywhere close to being finished. I want this sucker close to DONE before I post. No more WIP's. This, I vow. *shakes fist*
Had to get up early to be at the PotmanRitz by 8am to meet LA, Dr J, Landa, Xan, Jean, and Zat for the yearly vaccination 'party' at the Cat Man's. The Cat Man, as you may recall me mentioning a time or 2 before, is a gentleman named Mr Huang who started 'rescuing' the cats around his home in Baoshan district and wound up as a hoarder with over 225 animals including 10 dogs. Over the last 7years, through spays, neuters, assessments, euthanasia's and adoptions, the population has been reduced to about 150, and 6 dogs. They are also looking much healthier - Dr J announced the ear mites, a plague for the last few years, seem to have disappeared, and there were no war wounds that needed treating this time around.
Sadness, we did find a jaundiced kitty that had been very roly-poly and fat a few months ago, now a dehydrated bag of skin and bones. Dr J did a quick check-up and pronounced liver failure. She's being brought to the clinic today where he'll verify the diagnosis, but she's going to be put down, poor thing.
So, the procedure for the day? Xander and LA, with the local housekeeper, caught the cats and brought them out. Jean (the vet tech intern) loaded the syringes with the vaccinations and handed it off to Dr J who injected. Then I shot them with a dose of Frontline, Zat squirted red dye on them so we'd know who was done, and Landa refilled with Frontline syringes to hand off to me. The first 60 or so were done in an hour. Then we had to go after the real ferals and the ones who hid in the loft and in the boxes. We had to use nets to catch these guys, and man, the sounds they made, you'd swear we were torturing them. They fought like mini-tigers even through the nets and it was hard enough to jab FL on their ears when they kept trying to bite the syringes. James almost got his fingers taken off by a large tabby who managed to slip her mouth through a hole in the net just as he was trying to inject her.
It took almost 2 and a half hours to get the remainder done. We wound up vaccinating about 120 of them, and Front Lining all of them. 30 cats couldn't be vaxxed because they had BT (short form in Chinese for 'snotty noses' and we can't vax sick animals).
While we were doing this, we were also noting which ones had rotting mouths - 3 have to go to the clinic next week to have teeth yanked - and which ones need to be shaved (we have about 6 long-hairs who are so matted they look like they're hiding golf balls on their bodies). Landa will come back out with her driver next week and pick up the ones who are being shaved.
Long day. HOT day. Came home covered with vax spray (some of the needles broke when the cats fought for freedom and we all got sprayed a few times), cat pee (just on my jeans and just a little, unlike poor LA who got sprayed several times), dye splatters, and enough cat hair to make another cat. But it's done for this year, and Landa took the obligatory 'Vaxxing Day 2010' group shot which I'll post once she sends them out.
Am now showered, refreshed, had a late lunch, and am ready to add on to the LGO fic that has passed 15,000 words and is only halfway complete. I owe a debt of thanks to lucathia_rykatu who offered to beta read this monster. :D
Don't know if Est is coming over tonight. She came over last night for a 3 hour venting/bitching session that both of us sorely needed. :D It was fun, and she's promised to bring her paint brushes tonight if she comes back over so I can finally start painting on my canvas's. I finished sketching 2 yesterday and I'm itching to paint. ^^
Lastly, Sammy was fixed on Friday and since then has become this needy, clingy ball of orange and white fur. Quite a change when just on Thursday I couldn't cuddle him for more than a minute before he wanted to jump down. I was expecting it to take at least a week for all the testosterone to leave his body. ^^
Holy hell.
18700 / 30000 Had to change it to 30,000 words before I post the first part. Almost 20,000 in and still not anywhere close to being finished. I want this sucker close to DONE before I post. No more WIP's. This, I vow. *shakes fist*