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The Feral Blog

Cats Galore: Adoptions, Events, and Crafting for Feral Fixers!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

So Many Cats!

  • 6/25 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 5 female, 5 male. Adoptions are going to be rockin’!
  • 6/26 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 7 female, 5 male. 
  • 6/26 – DCAS – 7 friendlies, 12 ferals, 8 female, 10 male.
  • 7/2 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 5 female, 5 male.
  • 7/3 - DCAS – 17 friendlies, 4 ferals, 11 female, 10 male. Two kittens that were not becoming tame turned out to have Pectus Exclavatum -  if you click on the link the surgery requires such intimate and constant care that it was just not possible for completely feral kittens and they were euthanized. Never encountered this condition before, the ribs are immobile, they must have been so uncomfortable, but we could not handle them sufficiently to find this out before they were sedated for surgery.

Total: June 65 total, July 29, year-to-date 365, since 2007 16,099!

Only 4 ferals in traps. The rest of the room is kittens, cages for the friendly adults having surgery, a cat awaiting relocation, and Costas, a 14 year old wonderful boy recovering from a dental.
17 Friendlies on 7/3/25 trip
Out of this disarray, 19 cats get neutered!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Adoption Event – 7/12/25

Our next adoption event is Saturday, July 12th 11 - 3pm at Feral Fixers. Come check out our foster cats and kittens! So many kittens have now been neutered and are available! Fill out an application in advance, Adoptables page has most of our cats posted, but advisable to have your application on file if you see the best match!

4 Ferals
Lukasz, Feral Fixers foster, used his crafting skills to donate to Feral Fixers, donating a portion of profits selling bracelets during a 4th of July Fest!

Two Events in One Day!

In addition to an Adoption event, we’re holding a Volunteer & Foster info event – Saturday, 7/12/25 starting at 5:30pm. See our building, talk to our volunteers, see how you can help us with our goals! Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. Make a difference!

We Could Not Do What We Do Without YOU!

Happy Father's Day!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Happy Father’s Day to all cat dads! Cats seem to get something extra from the guys they live with, and the benefits go both ways! Hugs and purrs all ‘round today! Thank you to everyone that cares about the cats we support – what a difference you make!

BARK Act Could Boost pet donations

The bipartisan bill would remove barriers to donating surplus pet food and supplies to support shelters and reduce waste.

Keeping On!

6/12 – DCAS – 6 friendlies, 20 ferals, 13 female, 13 male. First litter of the Spring getting ready for adoption!

Total: June 26, year-to-date 297, since 2007 16,031!

The room can look chaotic - ferals for surgery, ferals post surgery waiting for relocation, kittens still in traps waiting for being more handleable, kittens in crates, oh my!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

So Many Cats, So Many Supplies Needed!

Showing a picture of a typical day of donations of newspaper and towels. Also, a shipment purchased from Chewy to keep us stocked up – those boxes are heavy! Our cost? $1,000+ to feed the ferals on hand before and after surgery, the kittens – we have 100 on hand right now, the adults we are fostering. It all adds up! Please check out our wish lists, all donations are a huge help in what we do!

6/9 was a great day for donations and our stocking up purchases arrived!

Adoption Event – 6/21/25

Our next adoption event is Saturday, June 21st 11 - 3pm at Feral Fixers. Come check out our foster cats and kittens! Fill out an application in advance, Adoptables page has most of our cats posted, but there are always changes.

We Could Not Do What We Do Without YOU!

16,000!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Imagine Open Access Chip Scanning!

Chicago Animal Care and Control has a microchip scanner for the public! No taking that found pet to the vet or the asking the police department to scan. Faster pet returns! Wouldn’t it be great if we could have this in the ‘burbs?!!

Working Cat Programs – “Creative Placements”

Feral Fixers relocates cats thru our Working Cat Program. If cats cannot go back where they came from – and we try to keep that at a minimum – we are contacted by farms, industrial businesses, a huge variety of locations. The option is getting more and more publicity - read this article about a Working Cats program in Florida.

#16,000!!!

We have neutered 16,005 cats since 2007! Can you image the hundreds of thousands of cats that otherwise would be filling our neighborhoods? The number of cats that would require euthanasia as there simply is nowhere to put them! We’re still hard at work, hoping to run out of feral cats at some point 😊!

  • 5/13 - DCAS – 1 male feral. With a severe neck wound, he healed quickly with injectable antibiotics and was able to go back to his location in a few days
  • 5/15 – DCAS – 15 ferals, 5 female, 10 male, one already neutered.
  • 5/20 – DCAS – 3 ferals, 1 friendly, 1 male, 3 female – one already spayed.
  • 5/29 – DCAS – 4 friendlies, 34 ferals, 24 female, 10 male, one already neutered. 2 females had pyometra – life threatening infection, one male has fractured molars – we’ll hold onto him and get him a dental, his caretakers are very fond of him.

Total: May 84, year-to-date 271, since 2007 16,005!

Female feral Pleasant is our 16,000th cat!!! Pre and post op. Thank you Dr. Turner! "#16,000 was spayed on the DCAS mobile vehicle.

 

5/15 cats and crates of kittens!
05/29/25 - 38 cats for surgery and crates of kittens!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Adoption Event – 6/8/25

There's a Crisis - Can You Help?

Have you seen the posts and news segments about the volume of owner surrenders at Cook County? There is a crisis.

Pet owners are experiencing a financial and housing emergency and many times owner surrender is their only option. This link is about Cook County but there are no real boundaries for these animals. What affects Cook County affects DuPage, a tsunami of animals is happening. DuPage County Animal Services is doing their best to keep animals moving on to adoptive homes, rescues have to be worried that the numbers will continue growing with the current state of financial uncertainty. The picture, below, of the line at Animal Control is very scary (last Wednesday). We've done everything we can by doing as many s/n surgeries as we can.

As Many As Possible, As Soon As Possible 

Feral Fixers has had so many cats become friendly - soon after being trapped, weeks or months later, resulting in many older kittens and adults on hand. Adoptions are down. Kittens are coming - we have sooo many in foster already, due for spay/neuter in the next month and then they will be available for adoption. If we could find homes for the adults it would make such a difference in their lives. And yours.

Our next adoption event is Sunday, June 8th 1-4pm at Feral Fixers. We will have many of our loving fosters there - cats that we know so much about. We are constantly getting positive feedback from our adopters. Fill out an application in advance, look at our Adoptables page, think long and hard about bringing one of these fabulous cats to your home and family - it is worth it!


So Many Kittens
So many kittens! These guys are coming to the building today. Mom was TNR'd Thursday and they've been on their own for awhile, caretakers found them last night. First step – make sure they are eating on their own!

In actual fact kittens may only be 2 weeks old and hopefully putting with mom will work for them.

Discovered Kittens
Kittens were discovered in the bushes on Thursday when Kliome was having surgery. They were without mom for about 72 hours. We are so happy she has taken them back and seems to be nursing them well – even post op!

We Need Newspapers!

We use so many newspapers! Recently someone cleared out their stockpile of newspapers from 1996! Interesting to see just how much larger those were compared to current size. Yeah, they were a little aged, but still absorbent! Please try to sift out the sale papers before donating, they just are not absorbent and we end up taking bags home to put in our own recycling – not quite enough items to merit a recycling dumpster at the building. We have a bin at the front door, please try to bag up the papers so they don’t blow away. Newspapers are an absolute necessity to what we do, no way ‘round it and we appreciate everyone who is sending them our way! Even tho they don’t say so, the feral cats appreciate it as well!!!

We Could Not Do What We Do Without YOU!

From The President

It's 2025!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

2025 – Already Here!

2024 has been a very long year, hasn’t it? Yet it seems to have been over in the blink of an eye!

The volunteers, donors, caretakers, fosters, all playing a part in Feral Fixers accomplishing 854 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. We have adopted approximately 342 cats and kittens to wonderful homes with the help of our adoption, foster and animal care volunteers and there are two days left in the year as I write this. We have assisted many sick and injured cats. We’ve done so much that is positive and will have long-lasting effects for both cats and humans.

We have to mention the challenges of the year – spay/neuter clinics shut down for reconstruction or permanently, veterinarians leaving the work force, all reducing the number of available surgery slots we could obtain. Pet owners faced housing and financial issues, resulting in more cats being outside and intact. Every shelter is full – we keep saying that and it does not improve.

Judging by the number of phone calls we have received and the locations we just could not get to, 2025 may be an even busier year. We resume trapping when the overnight temperatures are above 30 degrees consistently – that date is anyone’s guess in Chicagoland these days. We have to take the situations on a case- by-case basis. More people are bringing cats into their homes and arranging s/n themselves and we applaud them!

Through it all, our donors have helped so much. While fundraising takes time and there has not been near enough of that this year, we have been able to keep the lights on, the cats fed, the litter boxes scooped and spay/neuter to the capacity of the surgeries available to us.

We are hoping that increased capacity for surgery will increase our yearly s/n numbers in 2025 – the only way we are going to get ahead. We are hoping that more people will be able to volunteer, foster and adopt!

Even though this is hard work, we have to remember the impact we have had, how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering that has been alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been made so far!

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 17 years! Remember –

As Many As Possible

As Soon As Possible

It's 2024, finally...

Written by: Tammy McAuley

2023 – What A Year

Together, volunteers, donors, caretakers, everyone involved with Feral Fixers, we have accomplished 926 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. With the help of our dedicated adoption and foster and animal care volunteers, we have found homes for 360 cats and kittens. In just this year, you can see the impact as we reduced the volume of cats outdoors, we reduced the overpopulation crisis from every direction, helping felines and humans alike.

The challenges have been immense. 

Kitten numbers have increased dramatically –societal changes may be the biggest impact: lack of vet access, money, movement of our population – combining households, isolation and hoarding, etc. People are actually paying more attention to the cats outside and are discovering the pregnant cat, the litter of kittens much more readily than in the past which results in overall increased volume that we are contacted about. Every shelter is full. Everyone is doing their best to save every cat they can. Adults and kittens are becoming friendly at an increased pace. Years ago, a feral was a feral was a feral. Not anymore. Kittens sometimes are friendly from the time they are trapped, adults will have a complete turnaround to being friendly. National organizations are seeing this and the only advice they can offer is that even if a cat is friendly, put it back outside – there just aren’t enough homes.

Volunteers. The data can be looked at in many different ways, but finding information that DuPage County ranked 2nd in 102 Illinois Counties of charities per square mile illustrates why it is so difficult finding and maintaining volunteers. No one seems to have as much time as we used to. There are so many choices of where to spend that valuable volunteer time. Our lives can change in an instant and our personal responsibilities must take priority. Feral Fixers has wonderful volunteers, and we treasure them every day. We need more, the volunteer staff is not a constant and can change quickly. From trapping to transport, fostering and shifts of cat care at the building, cleaning – oh my, the cleaning! We do need volunteers who can snuggle kittens just as much as we need those who can sweep floors and do laundry. Social people who can interact with adopters on adoption days, help with events, host events! Everyone has their own strengths and abilities, please share them with us!

Need everywhere. We can average five calls a day for help.

*Discovered kittens under the shed, come help. *My mother let a pregnant cat into her house, come trap and take the kittens. *My cat has lost its mind and is attacking me, help. *I have 15 cats in and around my house (usually results in 60+ cats). *I live outside your area, but I can bring the cats to you. *Been feeding a cat for 2 years, not neutered, now he’s injured from fighting, come help. On social media, you may often see “call Feral Fixers, they will help you” and we do help so many!

With all these challenges we must remember the impact we have had, can you imagine how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering we have alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been accomplished! 

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 16+ years!

With Your Help

Written by: Tammy McAuley

731 spay/neuters of cats and kittens. We brought in +/- 320 friendly cats & kittens. Some of these were previously neutered adults who decided to become friendly after being neutered. There have been approximately 300 adoptions, but still have 33 officially posted for adoption and many more in foster homes. We have helped many cats with injuries and conditions from simple upper respiratory to congenital defects the cats were born with. We have provided food for caretakers. Removed feral cats from inside homes when there was no other way to get them out. Seen the change in cats who were completely feral transitioning into loving lap cats. Relocated cats that could no longer stay where they were due to overpopulation or change of circumstances. You have helped us do so much! So much goes on behind the scenes beyond our reports of spay/neuter trips and you are all part of caring for the stray and feral cats of DuPage County!

What Can We Expect In 2023?

We continue to face the unknown. Who could have expected that across the nation, we are short 15,000 veterinarians? Who could have expected that our nation could be short millions of spay/neuter surgeries? So many different factors are affecting daily lives, it will be interesting to see the impact on cats outdoors, how many kittens will be born to these unneutered females still roaming that no one was able to get to. Prices have gone up for cat food, cat litter, gasoline to take them to appointments & adoptions, and on and on. What can we do? We can continue to get as many spay/neuter appointments as we possibly can and to FILL those appointments, making caretakers aware that they must contact us as soon as a cat is consistent in attendance. It is the ONLY way to lower costs in the future. Once those kittens arrive, we will care for them, using resources for current day expenses, not for preventing even greater expenditures in the future – that is unsustainable and returns us to the past when feral cats were euthanized regularly.

Trapping will resume around the end of March, beginning of April. Keep an eye out for ferals in your area, talk to your neighbors, help us help you to care for those cats.

What Can You Do?

The Amazon Smile donation in November, which covered purchases made between July 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, came to $606.70. That means that our donors spent $121,340 in that time period and .5% was donated by Amazon Smile – Yay! Use AmazonSmile and designate Feral Fixers – could not be an easier way to raise funds!

Visit our wish lists at Amazon & Chewy – we always need food; canned food in particular goes fast when you are supporting so MANY kittens! Gift cards allow us to purchase what our greatest need at the time is – paper towels, bleach, laundry detergent, litter boxes – amazing the variety of things we purchase to keep going! 

Spread our information to coworkers, family, social media – we have donors across the country! Cats have a ripple effect, they don’t stay in one place and affect wider resources than those on their street, in their town, in their county – even in their state! New people are volunteering with us due to sharing information, but we need more volunteers, many more. Trappers, transporters, cleaners in the building, animal care in the building, fosters, event volunteers, the list goes on. You tell us what you want to do to help, and we try to make that fit for both of our benefits!

Frosty Claws in 2023 

We seem to be returning to some degree of normalcy. As a result, we will be holding our 2023 Frosty Claws on Sunday, January 15th from 12 noon to 4pm at the Villa Park VFW. We may have huge attendance that day because of skipping years, please be patient. This is an event for our caretakers, adopters, donors, to talk about cats and network with some fundraising and food. We are about to start assembling our Silent Auction and door prize items – we may not have as much “stuff” as in previous years – we will post items as they are created, as soon as we have a chance. We look forward to seeing everyone who can attend!

The Kittyman Sea Shanty

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Something to brighten your day...