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Practicing and Promoting Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in DuPage County, Illinois
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Are You Ready for Frosty Claws?Attending Frosty Claws?Deadline for Early Registration is fast approaching but you are welcome to walk in the door - donation is $20. We will have food and raffles, Silent Auction and lots of other cat lovers to meet. Friendships have formed at Frosty Claws! The Stick Raffle is back this year. Bring your coins to donate as we will have a coin sorter – “Coins For Cats!” While you do not have to be present to win the Auction and Raffles, prizes need to be picked up at our building, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard in the following week or so. We have a lot of high-value items this year – airline tickets with luggage, a woman’s bike, a beautiful hand-crafted cat tree, handmade quilts, hand knitted Afghan, and so much more! We are still putting prizes together (there’s a lot of alcohol!) but we’ve posted some on Facebook to keep you informed. This is a great opportunity to talk to volunteers and find out how you can make a lasting difference for the cats! You can see picture of some of the Silent Auction items at the end of this blog post. Lives Change – We Need Volunteers!People are facing many changes these days and THE CATS need more volunteers! There are many ways to volunteer but right now we need to fill AM in the TNR room – that involves cleaning and feeding the ferals and if there are cats/kittens approaching tameness, scooping litter boxes in their crates. TNR is always in flux. There might be one cat or 35+, depending on time of year and how many s/n slots we have available for the week. Individuals need to be calm, speak softly, physically capable of moving a trap with a cat in it (could be 20lb weight), have attention to detail, and NOT try to make every cat adoptable, which can be very hard to NOT do – the cats really need to make clear how willing they are. Fill out a volunteer application and let’s see what fits for you! Cleaning and clerical, petting and coordinating fundraisers, managing a building improvement and of course trapping and transport! Truthfully, we are so short of time that you need to be insistent that you want to volunteer – we need you but can’t always call you! Can you imagine? We look forward to exploring the ways you can make a difference for THE CATS! Cats Started LiteratureThe first novel written in English was called Beware The Cat by William Baldwin (1515-1563). Published in 1570 it includes cats as its main characters, set in Ireland and satirizes Catholicism. The cats were evil for the most part – was this the start of the prejudice against cats that have followed them thru history? Cats Can’t Read – But This Is Good!As noted in a previous blog post, mosquito control chemicals affect cats. A new Bill taking effect in Illinois in 2025 may help with keeping people aware of pesticide applications. Summaries of each bill provided herein are pulled from the Illinois General Assembly’s website (ilga.gov) as a resource for municipalities. Any grammatical or syntax errors have not been corrected; the text is shown as obtained from ilga.gov.
First Of 2025Got a call about a cat that was attacking its caretaker despite being very friendly for a long time. First off, he wasn’t neutered and turns out he had wound on his chest. Now neutered and very calm in a crate, we’re going to try relocating him as a Working Cat once a location can be figured out. We’re hoping now that he feels better and is not subject to the hormone overload, things will work out for him. 01/06 – DCAS – 1 feral male. Total: January and year to date - 1, since 2007 - 15,735. As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible Working Cat StudyMore and more TNR and cat-rescue operations are implementing a Working Cat program - a program to re-home feral cats that cannot be returned to their trapped location. Feral Fixers Working Cat program has been in operation for many years with great success. A study was done of one of the Working Cat programs in Florida.
Shown below are some of the items available for Silent Auction at the upcoming Frosty Claws!
Tidings of the Season!Tidings of the Season!We wish you all of the best at this time of year! Not everyone celebrates the same or even chooses to celebrate but this season still brings out so much that is positive and generous in all of us, and we would like to thank everyone who cares for cats, who helps to ensure their future of health and happiness through colony care, adoption, volunteering, and donating. Thank you all for the difference you have made this year and all the years! Black Cat Giving TuesdayFeral Fixers’ Black Cat Giving Tuesday Fundraiser continues! We are currently at 82% of our goal as I write this! Our campaign continues until midnight of 12/31/24, you still have a week to participate – it would be tremendous if we could reach our goal! This fundraiser has matching funds of $25,000! It is heartwarming to see the pictures and hear the stories that come with the donations. This one way in which we realize the impact we have on the lives of the cats and people we encounter. Megan is an example of your impact; she is such a happy kitten! Meeting our goal gives us the confidence that we can continue to spay and neuter hundreds of cats in the coming year. While we are focusing on black cats, please visit our adoptables and think about adopting a new family member. Our donors are making such a difference, please help us get to our goal! Upcoming Adoption Events
We have over 70 cats and kittens available for adoption! We have not finalized our list for Saturday, 12/28 but come visit! Get pre-approved, check out our posted felines and a meeting can be arranged upon application approval even if they will not be in attendance during an adoption event. Come see our cats and find the right fit for you! Application here. Change their lives and yours! Last Trip For 2024!We still have kittens in foster requiring s/n and there have been a few injured cats. We’ve relocated several Working Cats – they may go into nice warm barns and warehouses to bond with their new home. So much yet to do! Please join us for upcoming events and think about volunteering with us in the coming year. This is the time of year when we work very hard on adoptions and fundraising.
Total: December - 20, year to date - 854, since 2007 - 15,734. As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible Is It on Your Calendar? - Frosty Claws 2025Frosty Claws!! Sunday, January 19th, from 12 noon to 4PM, VFW Post 2801, 39 E St. Charles Rd, Villa Park. Join us for food, beverages, boutique, Silent Auction, door prizes, raffles and the company of fellow cat lovers! The Stick Raffle returns, and we will once again be accepting coin donations with our Coins for Cats! We welcome donations for our fundraisers, please contact Tammy (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to donate new or antique items. If you would gift it to a friend or family member, our attendees would love to bid on it! Hope to see you there! Mosquito Treatments Poison CatsYeah, its December, but it is always time to look into the impact you are having on animals and pollinators. Here are some snippets of info from these articles:
“Cats lack sufficient levels of a liver enzyme that helps detoxify pyrethroids and can thus develop what is called pyrethroid toxicosis. A good indicator of cat sensitivity to pyrethroids is the standard warning of keeping cats away from pyrethroid-treated dogs. I.e., if you dose your dog with a large amount of pyrethroids (to kill fleas, e.g.), cats that cuddle with the dog are at risk. If you’d like to see a video of rag doll cat with pyrethroid poisoning (you probably don’t), here’s a video.” Not just cats but monarch caterpillars, even weeks later, die due to the presence of insecticide dried onto milkweed leaves. The spray can kill honeybees, even if honeybees are inside their hives when the pyrethroids are spayed (workers bring small amounts back to the hive the following day if they land on treated plants or if they find small puddles of water to drink). Sublethal amounts of pyrethroids can change honeybee behavior and make workers smaller. Pyrethroids kill fireflies, which are most active in a yard in the late evening when mosquito-spraying franchises like to fog. I will not look at those mosquito treatment vans the same way ever again. Unfortunately, the municipal trucks also may be spraying adulticide pyrethrins. Something to think about as you await the return of green grass and warmer temperatures!
December updatesCat AllergiesFeral Fixers is NOT endorsing this product, but I just heard about it, have one volunteer who has started using and her son, who is terribly allergic, is able to interact with the former feral who has joined their household after a very brief use of the powder. At a time when the reason for most cat returns is ALLERGIES! this could make a difference in the lives of cats that may have their lives turned upside down due to human allergic responses to them. We won’t get anything if you try it, but please look this over if you have been fighting itchy eyes, sneezes, etc. This could be so cool! Outdoor Shelter Fact Sheet(If you have trouble reading all of the text on the picture above, just click on it to view the full-size picture on the Humane Society website.)
Black Cat Giving TuesdayFeral Fixers’ Black Cat Giving Tuesday Fundraiser continues! As I write this, we have achieved 31% of our goal! Our campaign continues until midnight of 12/31/24, so you have almost a month to participate – but please keep in mind that your donation encourages others to do so as well so please don’t wait until the last moment! This fundraiser has matching funds of $25,000! Of course, costs are rising, and currently spay/neuter packages are over $100/cat. Can you imagine funding the spay/neuter of almost 500 cats with just one fundraiser? We focus on publicity for our black cats at this time of year, please look at some of our wonderful representatives! Please share your photos and stories, join in and help us raise funds for the coming year! Upcoming Adoption Events
We have 27 cats and kittens scheduled to appear on Sunday! Come visit! Hope you have gotten pre-approved, but the applications can be used for a future meeting. Come see our cats and find the right fit for you! Application can be found here. Make a difference! We’re Not Done Yet!We still have kittens in foster requiring s/n and there have been a few injured cats. We’ve relocated several Working Cats – they may go into nice warm barns and warehouses to bond with their new home. So much yet to do! Please join us for Upcoming Events and think about volunteering with us in the coming year. This is the time of year when we work very hard on adoptions and fundraising.
Total: December - 16, year to date - 850, since 2007 - 15,730. As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible Put It on Your Calendar - Frosty Claws 2025We’re already getting RSVPs in the mail! Sunday, January 19th, from 12 noon to 4PM, VFW Post 2801, 39 E St. Charles Rd, Villa Park. Food, beverages, boutique, Silent Auction, door prizes, raffles and the company of fellow cat lovers! We welcome donations for our fundraisers, please contact Tammy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to donate new or antique items. If you would gift it to a friend or family member, our attendees would love to bid on it! Tickets are $15 via Early Bird Access or $20 at the door - hope to see you there! |
2024-2025 Letter From the President2025 – 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
2023-2024 Letter From the President2023 – What A YearTogether, 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!
Letter From The President - With Your Help731 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 ShantySomething to brighten your day...
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