Kitten “Season”

This resulted in an additional plea on Facebook for kitten food – that plea resulted in 17 cases of Fancy Feast canned kitten food, 5 24 packs of Fancy Feast kitten canned, 16 bags of Iams kitten dry, 3 cases of adult pate, 1 case of Buffalo Wilderness kitten and a very cool scratcher! A kitten in our care receives 2 cans of Fancy Feast and whatever dry they will chomp on throughout the day. We are so grateful for the food donations and the monetary donations that keep these kittens well fed and healthy. Amazing that this is just the start of the year, please keep those donations coming!

We are trying to trap as many cats as we have slots for – time to ask for newspapers again! We have a donation bin at the front of our building – please place in paper grocery bags if you can, it can get really windy and we don’t want to spread them around the neighborhood!

Feral Fixers Named 2026 Animal Welfare Partner of the Year

On May 15th, DuPage Animal Friends named Feral Fixers their 2026 Animal Partner of the Year! What a difference compared to when TNR first began, and it was a struggle for acceptance that TNR was one of the best tools to reducing overpopulation and euthanasia! We are so grateful that we can now work together for the benefit of the cats! I put together a short video for the award which you can view here, and you can view a photo album of the event here.

Another Reason for Spay/Neuter - TNR

Not that you really need another reason but finding out that rodenticides can impact newborn kittens in this way is a real eye opener. This study of found kittens and their toxicology reports – we often intake kittens that ultimately do not do well and have no idea why they fail. So glad this study was done. Low levels of poison do not kill immediately and not always the animal that eats the poison directly but to find that it affects kittens born later and weeks into their new lives…very disturbing. Not all the kittens in the study died but required huge amounts of supportive care. The study was funded by the Orphan Kitten

How Many Times Do You Buy New Food?

Study has found that cats can have a 5-day limit on interest in a food flavor/brand. Simply introducing the scent of a different food can restimulate interest in first food. So many cat parents constantly change their cat food as intake slows dramatically and repeatedly. Who knew? Hesitate to share this as Feral Fixers is the recipient of donated food that “my cat loved this food and now won’t eat it”!

TNR Working - Colony Numbers Stabilizing

Studies are showing colony volumes are stabilizing and, in many cases, dwindling. Yay!!!

Spread Of Hantavirus Thru Pets Highly Unlikely

Concern over the spread of viruses via our pets is new, this article explains that the new Hantavirus has very low rate of infection between humans and as a result an even lower incidence between pets and people. Something to think about but doesn’t seem to be a big worry at this time!

253 Already So Far This Year!

We will be off the week of 6/4 and 6/18. Can’t wait to see how many we achieve this coming week!

• 5/14 – DCAS – 5 friendly, 14 feral, 2 already chipped, 12 male, 7 female. DCAS performed an entropion surgery on one of the ferals, he looks so much better!
• 5/21 – DCAS – 1 feral male – nope he was not pregnant!
• 5/26 – DCAS – 1 male feral with a severe facial wound.
• 5/28 – DCAS – 3 friendly, 21 feral, 12 female, 12 male. 

May total 70, 2026 total 253, 16,798 since 2007!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Just What Have We Been Doing?

The face of volunteerism has changed. More than half of our volunteers are well over 50 years old. My history is different from what many people are experiencing these days. I started volunteering in my late twenties, no kids, full time job. Twenty years later, still no kids, “retired”, I’m President of Feral Fixers, learning so much on that journey and making connections all along the way.

We are all overworked – doing multiple tasks any given day, any given week. It would help so much to have more fosters, more trappers, TNR volunteers & CiT caregivers, transporters, cleaners of crates, traps and carriers. Each one of those needs? We have people who not only trap but also foster and transport. People who clean and maintain inventory at the building – keeping in-kind donations under control. People who coordinate other volunteers, trying to valiantly keep shifts covered but ultimately ending up covering those animal care duties themselves when volunteers cannot make it in to do their shift.

We are no different from most organizations in our area. What has changed is the ability of people to volunteer consistently and responsibly and there are many societal causes. But it is the strength of an individual that we need to contribute what is so very valuable to the goal of reducing cat overpopulation and euthanasia.

The offers of limited hours on specific days may not fit our needs, but perhaps those hours do not have to be at the building, maybe it takes another form – soliciting donations for fundraisers, creating and manning fundraisers, networking in municipalities to increase endorsement of TNR, just a few examples. Those things are already being done by people who are doing several other things, take a load off our shoulders for specific activities. Bear in mind that you cannot just walk in and take over a task – we need to get to know you and your abilities, be sure you are going to stick and we can rely on you. And sometimes you need to be a bit pushier – about one in 10 volunteers is a keeper, we get discouraged spending the time we don’t have on an investment that is not going to work out.

Trying not to be negative, just express how much we need so many more volunteers to continue doing what we do!

208 Already So Far This Year!

We will be off the week of 5/21, resuming 5/28. Can’t wait to see how many we achieve this coming week!

• 04/14 – DCAS – 1 male feral
• 04/16 – DCAS – 2 males, 1 friendly, 1 feral, both with wounds on rump/tail.
• 04/20 – DCAS – 2 male ferals.
• 04/23 – DCAS – 3 friendly, 26 feral, 12 female, 17 male.
• 04/30 – DCAS – 5 friendly, 18 feral, 7 female, 16 male.
• 05/07 – DCAS – 6 friendly, 19 feral, 12 female, 13 male.

Our April total is 115, May total 25, 2026 total 208, 16,753 since 2007!

Getting ready for the 4/23 trip to DCAS...

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Photo Contest

Trapping As Hard As We Can!

We’re taking the week of the 16th off and it is supposed to rain so Yay! Not wasting slots. You’ll see the numbers below and we benefitted so many cats with pyometra, hernias, injuries – far beyond simple spay/neuter!

• 04/02 – DCAS – 4 friendlies, 27 ferals, 12 females, 19 males, one pyometra, one hernia.
• 04/09 – DCAS – 29 ferals, 11 females (one already spayed + 2 pyometra), 18 males (one already neutered).

Our April total is 58, 2026 total 126, 16,671 since 2007!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Still No Adoptions Scheduled Right Now

Still early in the season and while we have kittens and adults on hand and adopters should fill out adoption applications, but we don’t have Adoption Events scheduled for now. Please submit an application and perhaps a connection can be made without an Event – a meeting at our building can always be arranged. Please check our Adoptables Page for updates.

Is it AI?