Giving Assistant makes it easy to donate to Feral Fixers NFP! Simply shop online, earn cash back, and donate as much as 30% of your purchase price—Giving Assistant facilitates the whole process. Now, you can help change the world for free while saving money at over 1800 popular online retailers like Lowes, Target, and Macy's!
Shopping for Feral Fixers on Amazon
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Thursday, March 14, 2019
As noted in our Want to Help? webpage, you can purchase items for Feral Fixers by buying them on Amazon.com. And you can make your Amazon donations go even further by purchasing them on the smile.amazon.com website. Full details on how to access this site and how to maximize your donation are found on the Want to Help? webpage.
And, as noted on that webpage, we would love to thank you for your Amazon donation! Simply forward your Amazon order confirmation e-mail to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
and we will send you an acknowledgement and receipt which you can attach to your Amazon invoice as proof of your donation for tax purposes. This will also save us a lot of time!
Thank you for caring about the cats!
El Famous Burrito Fundraiser reminder!
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Monday, March 11, 2019
This is a reminder that the El Famous Burrito Fundraiser (located at 256 W Roosevelt Rd in Lombard) is coming soon - March 16th! Pre-register and then come and eat any time that day (10:30am to 11pm) and El Famous Burrito will donate 20% of your purchase price to Feral Fixers! We held this event last year and it was very popular!
Please preregister for your meal here so we have an idea of how many people are coming and don't forget to mention Feral Fixers when you are seated and paying for your meal. We'll see you there!
(Note that El Famous is open that day from 10:30am to 11:00pm and will honor Feral Fixers directed purchases for any time during that day. The newsletter we recently sent out had the incorrect times as does the PreRegistration site.)
March 9th Adoption Event
The Feral Blog
Written by Sue Lee
Monday, March 11, 2019
Fortunately, the rain held off during set-up and for the first couple of hours of our adoption event on Saturday, 3/9, at the Pet Supplies Plus in Naperville. The showers began in the early afternoon, so packing up the van was a rather wet experience.
The van looked especially sharp sporting the new "Feral Fixers Adoptions" magnets made by Marilyn's PrintWise company. Thanks, Marilyn!
4 kittens (Keogh, Cowboy & Corazon, Poppy) and 3 adult cats (Aviva, Jasper, Missy) were the stars of our show. Everyone did very well, especially our big boy, Jasper, who greeted everyone that stopped by.
It was a rather slow day in terms of foot traffic, but we did hand out a few cards and accepted an application which resulted in a subsequent adoption.
Cowboy was adopted on Sunday by a terrific couple from Romeoville who completed an application at the event. They had recently lost their last cat and were looking for a companion for their 9 yr old Golden Lab.
Many thanks to Pet Supplies Plus for hosting the event and for the generous donations of food, treats and toys.
3 additional adoptions occurred since our last event two weeks ago:
Irish was adopted by a nice young man in Downers Grove, who had prior cat experience but was looking for a buddy of his own. Word is that Irish is settling in nicely :-)
Constance & Cotton were adopted by a great gal in Oswego who had recently lost her last of two cats. The girls look to be very happy in their new home based on the photos she sent :-)
Many thanks to the volunteers and fosters who made this event a success (Sara, Steve, Bernie, Candy, Laura B, Diane, Cheri). We are an experienced and efficient team! Special thanks to Sara, Steve, Bernie and Candy for enduring the rain while loading the van at the end of the event - I hope you are dried out by now. Most of the supplies are!
Many thanks also for all of the other valuable contributions to this event - to Candy for the excellent photography & videography during the event; to Connie, Stephanie and Ted for promoting the event on our Facebook page and web site; to Steve for the professional-looking cage cards; to Debbie and Mike for the on-going updates to the Adoptable Cats & Kittens board and binder; to Sara for helping with adoption counseling and the laundry; to Steve for coordinating our lunch run and donating the proceeds to Feral Fixers.
We have 1 more adoption event scheduled for March:
Saturday, 3/23, at the PetSmart at 63 Rice Lake Square in Wheaton, from 11am-3pm - confirmed with Jessica at PetSmart
I am also working to schedule 1 event in April, likely Saturday, 4/13 - venue TBD. Please stay tuned for details.
Thanks,
Sue
March? It Sure Doesn’t Seem Like March!
From The President
Written by Tammy McAuley
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
While we haven’t been trapping, we have still been plenty busy.
Frosty Claws was great! We had 186 people in attendance, would have been more except for the heavy snowfall the day before. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time, socializing and enjoying the raffles and food. Many thanks to our donors and to our volunteers who make things run so smoothly!
When Are We Going To Get A Building?
We’re in the middle of our “Fund Our Ferals Future” fundraiser. Our goal is to match $12,500 – an aggressive goal, to be sure. In addition to the $2,566 in donations that have been sent thru the Giving Grid, we have received another $3,300, bringing us close to the halfway point - $5,866. This fundraiser ends on March 16th, so we only have a short time to raise the additional funds! Our El Famous fundraiser on March 16th will raise donations for this too! 20% of your restaurant bill will be donated!
We are still looking for the right location. We are a small group of people that already were overburdened with the rest of our Feral Fixers’ responsibilities. We have found several locations that we were willing to explore but encountered zoning issues with the village or problems with the building. As we continue to search we learn more about what we really need, what we can do, so the time is not wasted. The money donated is held separate from operating funds for Feral Fixers. The more those funds continue to grow, the more quickly we will be able to react when we find that ideal place. I asked the director of an area rescue about the planning of their new building. 25 years ago, they received a bequest of a building and started thinking about expansion then. About 15 years ago they bought the house next door and then about 5 years ago they bought an additional house next to that. They now are finalizing the building design plans for the new construction, this step alone take an incredible amount of time, the actual construction and move in will take time, so they may be, what? 2 – 3 years out? Still.
In order to move forward we also need specific volunteers. Feral Cat Care - to help with the cats before and after surgery – feeding, changing the newspaper in their traps, noting any health issues, sweeping the floor! You have to be calm, low-voiced, not easily rattled and totally dependable - there may be no one else available to do those duties that day. We will need at least one volunteer to help with the duties of caring for a building – there’s a lot of care that is needed with a building – exterior and interior - changing light bulbs for instance! We can’t just move in and expect to add additional duties to the volunteers we currently have, we need to develop people in advance. Training people in how to care for cats in my garage can begin as soon as we start trapping again.
In addition to some wonderful monetary donations, we have pledges for retrofitting plumbing if we need it, legal help, washing machine, plus! Just takes that all-important RIGHT place to be found.
Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
Hopefully many of you are done with taxes for the year and have a good outcome! One way to increase deductions is to make Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs). Individuals can donate directly from a traditional or Roth IRA to qualifying charities. To shorten the explanation, your yearly required minimum distribution from an IRA can be donated directly to a charity without including the distribution in income, hopefully reducing taxes. Here’s a link for information – not an endorsement! And here’s a link to the IRS regarding donations.
Kitten Shower
Hopefully a lot of you have received your Kitten Shower invite! We will be working feverishly to get that ready – April 7th is just a month away! If you would like to donate to our Silent Auction, please contact me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 630-881-3977. Deadline for donations is 3/31 to have hope of making it into the event – remember, new, hand-made, vintage – something your sister would welcome as a gift! If you would like to bake, and participate in the food side of things, please contact Sue Zorn 630-661-8509. Register thru PayPal or mail by 4/2. Looking forward to seeing you all there!
DuPage Human Race
The DuPage Human Race will take place on Saturday, April 27th 9AM. There are so many participants, be sure to get there early. Receipt of a race logo shirt is guaranteed for first 1,700 registrants, registration fee is $40 for runners, $35 for walkers up until March 31st when the fee goes up. Our goal is to raise $600. Please click on the links to register or to donate on behalf of your favorite runner! There are several ways you can participate and help Feral Fixers. You can sign up to be a runner by clicking here. Or, you can directly donate by clicking here. Or you can set up your own associated fundraiser by clicking here. More information about the race itself and all the associated activities can be found here. We had a great group of participants last year!
Amazon Smile
One of the ways to support Feral Fixers is to make Amazon Smile purchases. .5% seems a tiny amount but when combined with hundreds of other purchases it can really mount up. Our latest quarterly distribution was for $236.99! Since we became a designated charity we have received a total of over $2,000 with 207 people making purchases. Our very first disbursement check in August of 2014 was for less than $50. We have had 500% growth! Make sure you pick Feral Fixers as your designated charity before you make any purchases.
Happy Birthday!
If you are a Facebook person, not everyone is :), there is a new way to raise funds for Feral Fixers – Birthday fundraisers! Set a goal and ask for donations around your birthday – one way to do good, limit possessions and make your friends and family feel good too! Check out our Facebook before another year passes by!
Spay/Neuters Since December
We really had to call a complete halt to TNR since November. We’ve done 2 friendlies in January and one friendly in February, which brings us to 3 for 2019 and 10,974 since our beginning. Our first TNR trip is in March for some ferals in garages – they will be able to return to the garages after surgery so will not have health consequences – it is still FREEZING out there! We will have no choice but to get back to speed soon after that. We ask for your help so that we do the majority of our TNR towards the beginning of the year so that we are not so exhausted in the Fall! This next trip will include our 11,000th cat!!! Yee-ha!
Thank Goodness its December! Oh, My Its December!
From The President
Written by Tammy McAuley
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Are you sure this is a good idea?
As you can imagine, as the calendar rolls by, conflicting emotions are produced. Here it is already December and we have so much more to do! December, we can take a little break! While we cease neutering ferals because of the cold, etc., there is the rush to neuter all the kittens still on hand - which we have done! December is the time for our Holiday Card, our print newsletter, preparing for Frosty Claws, catching up on all the things there has not been time for all year, increased adoptions, more calls about ferals that are sick or injured and need intervention, other than s/n.
2018 has been a really tough year, fewer volunteers, movement in key positions in the organization, we're all getting older and that has new responsibilities and time pressures for each of us. We have been unable to find the right location for our building as of yet, unexpected roadblocks, and again, time constraints as we still have all the original responsibilities to manage.
Load 'em up!
2018 has been a great year, we neutered 654 cats, the overlap between caretakers is resulting in colonies being neutered more completely, we don't have to go to Chicago for all our s/n - DuPage County Animal Services has stepped up in a vital way, ADOPT Pet Shelter has done a huge number of surgeries for us. Residents are much more willing to shoulder the responsibility of fostering kittens and adults themselves, working with us to get them adopted. DuPage County Animal Services will schedule appointments with caretakers to neuter ferals, release them back to caretakers. Feral Fixers is being acknowledged and respected for our work, more and more.
Donation of a "new to us" vehicle, which has enabled us to use fewer vehicles to make a trip for s/n or to increase the number of clinic trips in one day. Rescue Bank, a nation-wide organization, has been helpful with food donations as well as connecting with vendors for other supplies that are a huge benefit.
We've ended the year with several trips in December for s/n. On 12/6 we sent 17 friendlies to ADOPT, 8 males and 9 females. On 12/12, a friendly male popped up, no other solution, ADOPT squeezed him in at the last minute. On 12/13, we sent 9 cats to ADOPT. 4 ferals - two that had been held onto in hopes they were going to be friendly, a cat that was allowed in/out, a mom cat that was finally ready for spay, 5 friendlies - the last of the kittens! Of those, 6 were female and 3 were male. This brings us to 27 for December, 654 for 2018 and 10,971 since our beginning in 2007! Many thanks to Debbie, Dedra and Charli for transporting!
Join us at Frosty Claws!
Traps in the snow...
We are working on Frosty Claws – our 11th annual – join us on January 20th at the Villa Park VFW, 39 E St. Charles Rd, Villa Park, from 12 noon to 4PM. Huge number of cat-friendly people, lots of fun, lots of food, a great time is had by all! We will have Silent Auction, door prize raffle, stick raffle, our boutique - great stuff! Many people love to participate by donating gifts – please keep in mind that it should be items that are new, collectible, handmade – we’ve had an antique toboggan, wall hangings, a Lake Michigan sailboat trip, Chicago Blackhawks tickets, cat shelters, quilts, you name it! Can’t re-gift to family members? Gift cards that you cannot use? Make handmade prize-winning pottery? We’ve received some surprising things that our attendees have loved! Please contact Tammy at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 630-881-3977 about donations. Still wanting to bake after the holidays? Please contact Sue at 630-661-8509 if you would like to share your special recipes with an appreciative crowd!
If you would like to volunteer for Frosty Claws, help set-up, transport, help during the event, clean-up at the end of the day, please contact Tammy 630-881-3977. Many hands make light work!
Thank you all for all the gifts we have received in 2018 and wish you a
As noted in our 
This is a reminder that the El Famous Burrito Fundraiser (located at 256 W Roosevelt Rd in Lombard) is coming soon - March 16th! Pre-register and then come and eat any time that day (10:30am to 11pm) and El Famous Burrito will donate 20% of your purchase price to Feral Fixers! We held this event last year and it was very popular!
Fortunately, the rain held off during set-up and for the first couple of hours of our adoption event on Saturday, 3/9, at the Pet Supplies Plus in Naperville. The showers began in the early afternoon, so packing up the van was a rather wet experience.
While we haven’t been trapping, we have still been plenty busy.
Feed Entries