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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2021)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | OCTOBER 14, 2021 | 5A Pet Tips‘n’ Tales: The light of ‘Luna’ By Mary Ellen “Angel Scribe” ‘Luna’ in Latin means ‘moon’, in mythology ‘moon goddess’, it is an ab- breviation for ‘lunatic’ and means ‘extreme folly’. All four definitions fit Joy and Dean’s crazy-new kitten to a ‘T’. In the mid- dle of the night, their little looney zooms around the house then demands they wake up to give her atten- tion. When you are done with the pandemic and think life is heavy, send prayers to Joy as she heals. Her life has been filled with terri- fying moments: COVID, chemo and exhaustion. The kitten’s adoption 100 percent infuses Joy with laughter and love. “Adopting a kitten was easier for me to care for than a dog,” said Joy. “Luna has gifted our home with happiness, comfort and companionship. We laugh at her crazy-wild aban- donment and acrobatics. She has not purr-fected her athletic moves. The results are hilarious. She runs and jumps in herself appointed role of ‘paw-fes- sional bug hunter’. She appears to be flying as she leaps after anything with wings or eight legs. Crick- et ‘snacks’ are doomed be- cause their noise reveals their hiding spot. In her relentless search for prey, she’s climbed onto our tall bookcases. We have no clue how she got there to leaving paw prints in the dust. “One morning, I felt something unexpected IN bed. My foot touched something furry. Some- time during the night, Luna had slid under the covers burrowing clear to the bottom of the bed. How she breathes is a mystery. “On garbage day, we are careful sitting down on the bed because she fearfully hides ‘undercover’ because of the scary garbage truck. Her other favorite place to sleep is in a furry-donut shaped bed. The bed and the cat are the same color camouflaging her cat-nap- ping location.” Luna is addicted to her toy with a handle. She leaps up, grabs it, flips in the air, and runs away with her “kill” until its handle gets stuck in the fur-niture. She also loves playing with a wild turkey feather on a string. If she destroys the feath- er by teething on it, her parents are not financially devastated as their yard is full of wild turkeys. While teething, she drooled on her parents and when she lost her fangs, she briefly had a double row of teeth like a Halloween cat! Joy and Dean’s country home’s neighbors are cou- gars, coyotes and bears. Oh my! So, they started trim- ming Luna’s paw-nails as a baby because their wild one is an inside only cat. She’s now safe -- and so is their fur-niture. Her feral mother was captured and spayed (Lu- na’s, not Joy’s). The kitten siblings all look different. They obvi- ously had different fathers. In five years, one unal- tered cat’s offspring can ex- plode to 11,000. Currently, veterinarians are booking spay and neuter appoint- ments as far out as four months away! Result? moon.” TIPS Joy introduces Luna’s new toys by sprinkling them with catnip. There are cougar sight- ings all over Cottage Grove and lots of missing pets. If your cats go outside they are no longer safe. Time to build a catio. Dogs walking on leashes and in back- yards are also vulnerable. Cougar vocalizations sound like a birds twill- ing; chirps; a cat with lar- yngitis; or a dog’s squeaky COURTESY PHOTO toy. You may be hearing Joy’s Luna is the ‘light’ of her life. one and not realize that they are in your backyard Cats and kittens are owing. He continued his stalking pets. flooding shelters as vet- purr-test for the entire trip. cats’ vocaliza- erinarians are in demand He only went silent once Wild tion: www.youtube.com/ and appointments came the vehicle stopped at their watch?v=U3ktDHQIYmY to late. It is paramount to new home. Coyote vocalization: www. neuter and spay, prevent- “Sparky became ‘horse’,” youtube.com/watch?v=d- ing animals from becom- explained Joy. “His muf- NXGlIgiJ8A ing starved, injured, home- fled voice never deterred Tell us about your pet. less and euthanized when him; he objected the en- angelscribe@msn.com trapped. Luna was one of tire trip. Fortunately, he Pet Tips and Tales on Face- the lucky ones to find a regained his normal voice book. home. three days later. I’m happy w w w. f a c eb o o k . c o m / Pe t - Thirty years ago, when we adopted Luna as ‘laugh- TipsandTales Joy and Dean moved to ter is the cheapest medi- Adopt Loving Pets their ranch, they had a cine and best healer’. I love www.PetFinder.com five-hour drive with their looking at the kitten as she Cottage Grove Cottage cat Sparky. Their vehicle’s curls up sleeping with her Grove Humane Society for door was barely closed peaceful purr-essence like Neuter/Spay Assistance Pro- when Sparky began me- sitting in the light of the gram: 541-942-3130 Judge rejects Oregon state troopers’ COVID vaccine mandate lawsuit By Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle oregoncapitalchronicle. com Oregon state troopers who refuse to get vacci- nated for COVID failed in their initial attempt to block an Oct. 18 vaccina- tion deadline after a state judge ruled against them late Thursday. Nearly three dozen troopers, along with the Oregon Fraternal Order of Police and a union representing Klamath County firefighters, sued Governor Kate Brown over her order that all ex- ecutive branch employ- ees, health care workers and educators be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18. Thursday’s ruling from Jefferson County Circuit Court senior judge Jack Landau leaves the Oct. 18 deadline in place, though several other lawsuits in other venues over the mandate are still pend- ing. Landau wrote that the troopers and others didn’t demonstrate that their legal arguments contesting the mandate would likely win in fu- ture proceedings. “The governor and the state of Oregon have an unquestioned interest in protecting the health and wellbeing of the state’s employees,” he wrote. “Likewise, they have an undeniable interest in protecting the public from the dangers posed by the COVID-19 virus.” The officers’ attorney, 6-day weather forecast FRIDAY SATURDAY 67° | 43° 69° | 46° Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy SUNDAY MONDAY 57° | 39° 64° | 42° Portland-based Daniel Thenell, is also represent- ing a coalition of health care workers and a group of firefighters in two ad- ditional lawsuits against Brown and the Oregon Health Authority over vaccine mandates. Neither case has yet received a hearing, but Thenell’s arguments in each suit are nearly iden- tical. He argued that only the Legislature, not Brown, can pass vaccine mandates. Landau de- termined that Brown’s orders during a state of emergency do have the force of law, because the Legislature expanded the governor’s power during a declared emergency. The officers and Thenell’s other plaintiffs also argue that a vaccine mandate violates their rights to free expression and free practice of re- ligion. Brown’s orders allow for exemptions if employees refuse to get vaccinated because of their religious beliefs. However, Landau ruled that refusing a vaccine is not protected speech in and of itself. Instead, he wrote, refusing to comply with the vaccine mandate as a form of expression is like trespassing as a form of protest: however pure the motives, it’s still against the law. “Standing in the mid- dle of a street obstructing traffic or illegally parking a car are not immunized merely because they are intended as expressions of opinion,” he wrote. The deadline for work- ers affected by their man- date to receive their final dose of a COVID vaccine in order to be fully vacci- nated by Oct. 18 already passed, but the Oregon Health Authority this week advised employers to avoid firing unvacci- nated employees. Where possible, they should allow workers to work remotely, take va- cation or go on unpaid leave, but they cannot continue working with the public after Oct. 18 if they’re not vaccinated, the agency’s director said. Voted Best Senior Living Community in South Lane County! BEST SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY Community Free rides Sharing offered Warming between Shelter Eugene and prepares for Roseburg winter service Umpqua Public Transpor- tation District (UPTD) has started a new bus route called the Lane-Douglas Connector (LDC). This new service offers safe, reliable, accessible trans- portation to veterans and the general public in rural com- munities for better access to healthcare services and shop- ping opportunities. Lane-Douglas Connector operates from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays with scheduled stops at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Roseburg, Ray’s Food in Drain, Walmart and PeaceHealth Medical Center in Cottage Grove, and the Veterans Affairs Clinic in Eu- gene (LTD bus stop nearby). The stop in Drain serves as a connection point for pas- sengers of the North Douglas Betterment shuttle. The route is operated by South Lane Wheels as a pilot project funded by the Rural Veterans Healthcare Trans- portation grant. For service information and timetable go to: www. southlanetransit.com, or to schedule a ride, call UPTD dispatch toll-free at 888-232- 8121. Community Sharing Warming Shelter is gearing up for its second season of service. The warming shelter was established in January this year to make use of pal- let shelters, portable units owned by Lane County, when nights dip to 29 de- grees Fahrenheit or below. The collaborative pro- gram replaced Cottage Grove’s previous sheltering service, Beds for Freezing Nights, which said it will not be in operation this season. Community Sharing Warming Shelter has a stat- ed seasonal opening period from Nov. 1 to March 31. Nonprofit Community Sharing and City of Cottage Grove staff are partnering to prepare the warming shelter facility for this win- ter’s opening. In order to open, volun- teers are needed to assist with the operation of the warming shelters. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Community Sharing at 541-942-2176 or the Community Center at 541-942-1185. The Flower Basket and Gift Boutique In South Lane County “A Flower Shop and so much more” AM Showers Partly Cloudy TUESDAY WEDNESDAY 68° | 44° Partly Cloudy 65° | 46° Partly Cloudy Save your money by bundling home & auto. (541) 942-0555 Medicaid Suites Available Our caring staff and management team are exceptional! 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