Today, Feral Fixers brought in 54 more cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. 35 of these cats were feral while the other 19 were friendly ferals.

This is the biggest load we've brought in this year (though not the biggest ever) and, as always, a big load like this takes a lot of help. Super-volunteer Charli helped me pick up the cats from Tammy's this morning and bring them to PAWS (Thanks Charli!) while super-volunteer Jodie helped me pick up the cats from PAWS this evening and bring them back to Tammy's for recovery (Thanks Jodie!). Super-volunteer Sue once again loaned me the use of her van so I could transport more cats in one load (Thanks Sue!) and, as always, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's both in the morning and evening helping with everything that needed doing (Thanks Judy!).

One of the cats was deemed too ill to have surgery, so we had a total of 53 cats fixed today. This brings us to a total for November (so far) of 155, for this year 1,074 and overall 4,579.

The 1,074 represents another new yearly record for us - the most cats we've ever had fixed in a single year - and we're not yet done for 2012. Each year we've been in existence, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and now 2012, we've fixed more cats than the previous year. And, for the past three years, 2010, 2011 and now 2012, we've fixed over 1,000 cats in each of those years.

There are so many people to thank for all of this, and I try to do it in every blog post, but I once again have to give a special shout-out to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic. They have high-volume spay/neuter down to an art. Many times I have been there and have seen PAWS staff giving clinic tours to people who come from other states (and other countries!) to learn how PAWS does what they do. Considering the high-volume they do, the number of 'curve-balls', special requests and other emergencies they have to deal with on a daily basis, they continue to exhibit a very high level of professionalism and competence. Plus they continue to be fun to work with - able to share a laugh or funny comment with everyone, but always with an eye on taking care of the animals and practicing and promoting spay/neuter. And they are so supportive of TNR, and always have been. I can't tell you the number of times we've come in to PAWS with more cats than we've been allotted that day, or cats with special needs, or mistakes we've made in paperwork or whatever, and they just smile, tell us not to worry and get it all done. They understand that we cannot always accurately predict the number of cats we'll be bringing - those darn ferals have a mind of their own! And they understand that Feral Fixers is an all-volunteer organization, and they work with our volunteers and treat them all with respect. Truly Feral Fixers could not do what it does without a place as competent and supportive as PAWS is - thanks guys - you rock!

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