NEWS FROM CAMP WEBEGONE
It's been quite a past four months, in this trial run for our big year-long camp-hosting journey in 2015, but this first leg is at last coming to a close. However, as we begin gearing up for the last week of the our first camp hosting effort, we're in for a surprise.
CHERYL'S NEWS
On morning rounds one day,
I noticed a cat wandering around at one of the campsites.
After asking around if someone had
lost a cat, and finding none, I eventually realized that the cat had been abandoned in the
campground. Julianna was staying with us at the time and the three of
us tried to rescue the cat.
But, since our site is away from the rest of
the camp, the cat was hanging around where there was the most food
debris, far from us, so we were not able to rescue the cat ourselves.
Eventually, though, one of the campers
befriended the cat and brought her to our site.
She was very thin and very
friendly. When she arrived, she was so hungry that she quickly nabbed and swallowed whole - without tasting - a piece of
pineapple, moving too quick for
Rich to respond.
Little Podunk is what we called her. She obviously wasn't
feral, but used to being around humans.
Rich and I thought she was
pregnant, as her teats were developed. Rich "the great hunter" stalked
her to her lair in the woods, and there he discovered some four-week-old
kittens, or thereabouts. Huge emotional upset for me.
So, now we have a cat and three kittens to rescue. First
step: accustom the three kittens to us in the short time before we leave, so we can rescue them before then. One of the kittens, a dark calico, is particularly
wary of us, and we know that we may not be able to rescue her in time.
But, one
step at a time.
Rich and I sit at their lair for about an hour 2-3
times each day. During this process Little Podunk moved the kittens.
So, we have to start over. Again, Rich "the great hunter" discovers the lair. We are
not going to be able to get close to this one. The kittens are now a
week older and easier to engage. The light calico is the most
adventurous.
After watching me for a
while, she wanders over close, though not close enough to touch - daring the
big beast. Then circled back to momma. The next day she sat under my
chair for a short time.
I found a likely stick to entice them to
play. They were not the least interested in string, though Little
Podunk would play with it. So we played stick with them for a couple
days.
Then came the day to rescue them. In the morning I am able to rescue
the light calico, receiving only a few scratches. With Rich's help we
put her in a backpack, and I took her to the trailer. In the afternoon
I am able to rescue the tabby kitten while playing stick with him.
The dark calico will not come near us at all now. The next day, Thursday,
we take Little Podunk, light calico and the tabby to a no-kill
shelter in Medford. We cry.
After rescuing the tabby
kitten, we did not see the dark calico. It has been over 24 hours and
we wondered if the kitten became a snack for one of the other creatures
that live in the area.
Friday comes, we are packed and ready to head
out to La Pine. I suggest we go to the lair and bit farewell to the
unrescued kitten. We both have very heavy hearts and liquid eyes. As
we approach the lair, Rich says he sees her! Joy, hope, but also despair. Because
there is still the possibility that we will not be able to rescue
her.
It is obvious that she will not come close to us. We stay
another day and wonder just how many days it will take to rescue this
little shy one.
RICH'S NEWS
So now we had this very
reluctant kitten, and one of the skills I learned in Haiti was how to
trap a particular annoying mouse who was waking me at night knocking
stuff off my shelves. This mouse was partial to popcorn kernels, so I
put some in a metal bowl, put that in a basin, put a board over the
top with just enough room for the mouse to get in and waited with a
string attached to simply pull it over the basin.
Peace Corps has
lasting impact.
Using this same technique I rigged a small cat
carrier my brother gave us, putting food inside and a few nibbles
leading to the carrier and string attached to the door. Knowing the
kitten was VERY hungry, we spent Saturday morning waiting for her to
get up the courage to go into the carrier.
It took some enticing
with food and the passage of time, but eventually the kitten did
enter the carrier, and Cheryl pulled the door shut. I had taken a
walk after my morning sit with string in hand, and when I returned, found Cheryl has
rescued the kitten and is walking to our trailer with carrier in hand. We were excited, relieved and trying to sort the rest of the
emotions this rescue had brought to us.
Saturday Morning
Sitting in a camp chair
about seven yards away from the carrier with string in hand, playing
the waiting game, asking for help from the universe, the
kitten approaches the carrier again. This time she does not glance my
way and fully enters the carrier. To this day I do not know how I
walked the yards to the carrier and kept the string taut so the door
stayed closed. When I closed the carrier door, the kitten launched
herself at the door. When I got there she was tooth and claw at the
door.
But I knew that reuniting her with her momma will ease her trauma. Rich and I eat lunch and
then drive to the cat shelter, delivering the last kitten. All three kittens and their momma
now safely rescued.
We then drive to La Pine. It was an exhausting,
emotional two weeks with which to end our stay at Camp Webegone. Whew!
