Page 10 VoLJR ..i'ltMt INITV 1 T 'ra - December 19, 2012
Photo by Sean C. Morgan
A fallen tree blocks Highway 228 just west of the Holley Store. A power
line is tangled in the tree. Power was knocked out to the area after the tree
fell and tore the wire down around 9 p.m.
I Storm
From page 1
in the mid-valley, according to
Liana Ramirez, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service
in Portland. A gust recorded in
Albany reached 54 mph. Corvallis
had a gust of 44 mph.
Corvallis recorded 1.03 inches
of rain Sunday, she said. "It wasn't
as strong as we anticipated."
The position of the low
pressure area was exactly what
forecasters predicted, but it just
wasn't as strong. The storm
also pushed through faster than
expected.
This week, forecasters were
looking for snow, Monday and
Wednesday, Ramirez said. She
expected it to hit the valley floor,
and most sites would have a
dusting, with one to three inches
above 500 feet.
The snowfall is likely to be
scattered, with some locations
clear.
Past Wednesday, she said the
forecast calls for wet, cool and
breezy weather, with top gusts at
20 mph.
Police Chief Bob Burford said
that police officers saw a lot of
fallen limbs, a basketball hogp had
been blown over and there were
several burglar alarm activations
in Sweet Home.
Pacific Power reported no
substantial power outages in the
Sweet Home area.
Lebanon Pacific Power
customers had 1,000 customers
out of power at about 11 p.m.
Sunday, with just 13 left after 4
p.m. Monday.
Kendall Holmes
Lebanon, OR
541-451-5777
022012-01782AC
i
FINANCIAL
At Weyerhaeuser we give thanks for the
community around us and wish you a
happy, joyous and peaceful holiday
and a prosperous new year ahead.
gk Weyerhaeuser
I Cyclone
From page 1
A few days after his initial ap-
pearance, the big tom was back and,
within a few days, Miller managed
to trap him - after he'd sprayed a
row of garbage bags full of raked
leaves. She took him to a veterinary
clinic to get him neutered.
Back home, she tried to imple-
ment the vet's instructions that the
cat remain quiet for the next week.
"No one informed him of this
rule," she said. "The minute the trap
opened, he exploded into the room.
Bouncing off tables, knocking over
chairs and racing up the wall, he
started running repeated laps over
my head near the ceiling! I was
amazed that he didn't stroke-out on
me. I backed out of the room."
-Miller named him Cyclone.
"I think what made himstand
out was his wild ways when he first
arrived," she said. "He was the first
cat in all the years of my rescuing
that ran up the walls and started run-
ning frantically just under the ceil-
ing, like a track star on an Olympic
track !
"Some cats will hit the walls
repeatedly in their fright, but he has
been the only one who actually ran
the laps over my head."
Cyclone lived up to his name.
""Any time I entered the room,
he became a whirling dervish; cap-
tivity was not to his liking," she
said.
Eventually, he pried off a plas-
tic trellis the Millers had protecting
the window screen, and escaped
over the rooftops. He reappeared
threeweeks later severely injured.
"He crawled on his belly under
o-gate and laid there," she said.
"He'd been in a serious confronta-
tion. I nursed him back to health. '?
By that September, a calmer
Cyclone joined the other house cats,
but even though he was neutered,
he was still a "formidable, very al-
pha" cat, she said. "He was a pretty
unique boy.
"The other cats were scared
of him. One look from him would
send most of the others scattering to
the wind."
Then, a month later, Cyclone
simply vanished.
Cyclone in 2003, left, and in bad
later, right.
" I posted flyers, rang door-
bells, flashed photos, yet no one
claimed to have seen him," Miller
said. "He was gone."
Fast-forward to last month
when he reappeared out of the
night.
"The distinct markings on his
face and the patterned coat gave him
away visible even under his gaunt
and dirty appearance," she said.
Approaching him, she said she
spoke to him softly.
"I couldn't believe my eyes,"
Miller said. "I'd given him up for
lost.
"Raising his head slowly, he
gave one silent meow then col-
lapsed. I gathered him into my arms,
his loose skin hung off the sides of
his body."
Alarmed, she took him inside
and gave him an examination.
"Every bone onhis back bulged
against his almost transparent skin.
His tailbone protruded awkwardly.
No visible fat or muscle appeared
anywhere on his body."
Miller set-him up in a large
cage with blankets, a heating pad,
food and kitty litter, and began giv-
ing the cat subcutaneous fluids to
correct or prevent dehydration.
"I turned him quickly into a
sprinkler every time," she said. "Ev-
ery piece of food I offered to him he
gobbled up eagerly, so I added wa-
ter with every morsel."
A veterinarian the next day
diagnosed Cyclone with anemia,
dehydration and a severe upper re-
spiratory infection.
The vet, who had performed
Cyclone's neutering operation in
2003, was amazed when Miller told
condition upon returning nine years
him it was the same cat.
In three weeks he shot up from
four pounds to nine as she fed him
several times a day - canned cat
food, dry food and "safe" human
food.
Cyclone has calmed down
considerably, Miller said. He now
spends his days sleeping, eating
and hanging out on her porch in an
enclosure that Miller said she and
friends hastily constructed to give
him space away from other cats. He
enjoys snuggling up next to her on
the "sacrificial" sofa ("also known
as the main scratching post") that he
grudgingly shares with some of the
other cats.
His face is battle-scarred and
he has age spots on his nose. She
figures he was 3 when they first met,
so that makes him about 12 now.
He's also very concerned when he
sees a broom.
"People often use brooms or
hoses to scare away stray cats," she
said.
But otherwise, Miller said, the
cat "is really doing well."
"His body is slowly transform-
ing to the cat I know him to be." she
said. "My Prodigal Cyclone has.-
turned.
"What I feel honored about in
talking about Cyclone is that he re-
membered ME," she said. "He knew
he was in trouble and he came back
to a home he remembered that treat-
ed him with kindness. That makes
what I do so worthwhile, to earn the
trust of such a stubborn stray.
"I just want to give cat owners
hope this holiday season that you
should never give up when it comes
to cats being outside."
Cat rescuer followed dad's example
By Scott Swanson
Of the New Era
Mary Anne Miller runs CATS,
Inc. (Caring About The Strays), a
feline sanctuary on Highway 20
about three miles west of Sweet
Home.
She is a certified rescue spe-
cialist in traumatized, abused and
abandoned strays and feral cats.
At last count, she said, she had
32 cats, many saved from various
dire circumstances. A sparsely fur-
nished (other than cat platforms)
but clean adjoining structure is
where the cats live, though they
can access her house through a
tunnel system made of culvert
pipes.
Miller, 57. said she has no
@SHING
YOU A
HEAVENLY
HOLIDAY
We hope that your holiday is harmonious in every way, and that your
home echoes with the sounds of laughter as you celebrate Christmas.
Thank you for your loyal business this past year. We look forward to
seeing you in the new year.
Main Street, Sweet Home, .
idea how many she's helped over
the years - she quit counting back
in 1980, when the total was ap-
proximately 500.
"I know that some rescuers
are about numbers, but I am about
the lives and improwng them -
putting these cats and kittens into
homes where people value them
and don't just think they are dis-
posable," she said. "I keep index
cards on all my rescues and my at-
tic is full of those stored boxes, but
I have never counted them. I take
the cats no one else wants to take -
the abandoned and neglected, the
ones who need love the most.
She got her start in the cat-
rescue field while living-in South-
em California in the 1970s. Her
father, a postal clerk in Westmin-
ster for years, had to cross a big
field when he walked to work and
would find cats and bring them
home.
"Most of the pictures of me
• See CATS, page 11
