Foot traffic pretty well aligned with the weather, with several folks stopping by in the morning and early afternoon, and not much activity in mid-afternoon.  3 adult cats (Otto, Robin & Rosie) and 2 teenagers (Corazon & Elijah) were the stars of our show.  Everyone took the event in stride and accepted petting and attention from our guests.

Several business cards were distributed and 2 potential adopters completed adoption applications.

• A gal from Rolling Meadows recently lost her 13 yr old cat to cancer and is looking for a new furry companion.  Robin caught her eye initially, but she also visited with all of our kitties.  Follow-up on her application is underway in anticipation of arranging some visits in the foster homes.  Her friend recently adopted a pair of kitties from Feral Fixers and recommended us, based on the good experience she had :-)
• A couple from Glendale Heights recently lost their Maine Coon mix male cat and is looking for another similar boy.  Currently our available Maine Coon mixes are all females, but follow-up is underway.

Thanks to PetSmart for hosting this event and for their generous donations of food and litter.

Thanks to the volunteers and fosters who made this event a success, namely Sara, Steve, Candy, Rita, Laura, Marilyn and Cheri/Skip.  Great teamwork and interaction!

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 and volunteer name tags; to Debbie and Mike for the on-going updates to the Adoptable Cats & Kittens board and binder; to Sara for helping with adoption counseling, the laundry and coordinating our lunch run.

There have been several adoptions since our last event in April.

• Echo was adopted by a young man and his partner in Chicago.  They also have a very calm and friendly Yorkie.  Based on recent photos, Echo and the Yorkie have become good friends.
• Olivia is an adorable 6 mo old kitten who was fostered in our Cat Depot (aka Jeff's garage).  She was adopted by a gal in Lombard who was looking for a companion for her 8 month old kitten girl.  Based on photos received, the girls are now BFFs!
• Dante was adopted by a young man in Elgin.  He also has a 3 yr old male cat as a companion for Dante.  This adopter is friends with Pennington's former adopter, and came to Feral Fixers based on their recommendation :-)
• Wooley is a ~1 yr old boy whom Cheri was fostering.  He was a bit shy, so he was taken as a Foster to Adopt by a young gal in Elgin who previously adopted Millie.  He is acclimating well in her apartment and he and Millie are becoming buddies.
• Missy was adopted by a couple in Roselle where she has 9 yr old female dog and a 15 yr old male cat to keep her company.  Per last update, she is settling in nicely.
• Elan was adopted by a gal in Downers Grove who has an 8 yr old female cat to keep Elan company.

We have 2 adoption events currently scheduled for June.  Please mark your calendars.  Our spring kittens are healthy and growing up quickly in their foster homes.  Some of them should be old enough to be spayed/neutered and ready for adoption starting with our events in later June and July.

• Saturday, 6/8, Shred for Rescues at Citadel Information Management, 827 Blackhawk Dr. in Westmont, 9am-1pm.
• Saturday, 6/22, Pet Supplies Plus, Naperville or Villa Park store - tbd, 11am-3pm - PSP National Adoption Day.

Thanks,

Sue

Even though the look and feel of the site has been completely modernized, you should find it very similar to the old site in terms of where everything is at and how you navigate around it. One of the major enhancements is that the site is now mobile-friendly - it will look good on your tablet and smartphone as well as on your PC or laptop.

So, we hope you like our new look - if you have any problems with it, please contact us at webmaster@feralfixers.org.

And thank you for caring about the cats - we couldn't do what we do without you!

Another project we took on was helping a resident of Hanover Park. You may have heard of the Cook County Ordinance. It allows feral cat caretakers to maintain their colonies, involving strict criteria and registering with one of the rescue organizations that will do so. Quite often, Hanover Park uses the criteria to harass the caretakers. This resident had done everything correctly but the rescue organization is no longer in existence and records are just about impossible to verify. She has since registered with another group and asked us for help in updating her cats. The TNR group that had neutered these cats 6 years ago had NOT eartipped, nor implanted chips. Patches went on the 13th for rabies vaccination, eartip and microchip. Charlie went on the 14th for rabies vaccination, eartip, microchip and a Convenia shot (touch of icky eyes). Now the caretaker has the paperwork for these two to present at her hearing today. Wishing her all the luck! In researching her situation, I found that there is state legislation halfway to being approved that would remove the necessity for a subsequent rabies vaccination after the initial one given at neutering for feral cats. YEA!!!! On a rough guess, there may be 6,000 ferals out there that have had just their initial rabies vaccination. Can you imagine re-trapping every feral? When SB0131 goes to vote, we will try to get the information out to you in order to inform and influence your representative!

Still, we managed to take 11 feral cats and 2 friendly cats to DCAS on 5/9, composed of 6 female and 7 male.  On 5/16 we sent 10 ferals to DCAS, one male was already neutered and one female was discovered to have a mass located in such away that there was no way to save her and was euthanized, she would have suffered greatly if we had not intervened.  Of the remaining 8, 6 were female and 2 were male.

This brings us to an additional 21 in these two trips, 33 for the month, 128 for the year and 11,099 since our start in 2007.

While we are doing TNR, we are also collecting moms & babies which we keep crated together until the kittens are old enough to be separated from their moms, we need nice, cool, quiet garages for this purpose so that the moms can be stress free and raise happy kittens!  So far this year we have brought in a whopping 11 moms and 41 kittens.  There is another family in my garage, going to foster tomorrow that will bring the total to 12 moms and 43 kittens.  One of our volunteers is trying for another set tonight that are housed in a boat in a garage – owner would like to take his boat out for use J.  In addition, we have 12? kittens who came in without their moms – I think I’m missing a set, and a group of 5 is supposed to come into foster tomorrow.  Ye gods!  And we’re just getting started!  Every day brings more, but we actually are seeing fewer than previous years, SO FAR.

Please Come Out And Support Us!

Tomorrow is our Chipotle event – 33% of your purchase goes to Feral Fixers between 4pm and 8pm.  Come eat some great food and after, walk over to 5 Below and get some great stuff – t-shirts, toys, Father’s Day gifts, they have a huge variety! and 10% goes to Feral Fixers!

Help us neuter all these kittens!!!!

Update On Cat Trips

37 cats in Tammy's garage!

On 5/2 we took 12 cats to DCAS, 8 female ferals and 4 male ferals, plus a male that had been neutered in 2017, just a few blocks away.  There was also a female that had 4 wk old kittens at a grade school – a staff member scooped up 4 of the kittens and whisked them off to County before we could get there, the mom was trapped – you do not release an unneutered cat once you have them, leaving a 5th kitten still out there alone til the mom was returned on Saturday.  We’re pretty sure the kitten is still there but the mom keeps getting back in the trap – we do dish up good food.  This is 12 for the month of May, bring us to 107 for the year and 11,078 since our start in 2007.

Look for these kittens at WSHS for adoption in 4 months - 1 day old here!

Next Few Weeks

We have a lot planned over the next few weeks:

• 5/20 to 5/26, shop at Five Below in Finley Square, Downers Grove – intersection of Finley and Butterfield with one of our flyers and Feral Fixers will receive 10% of your purchase price!  A whole week in which you can benefit the cats and further our spay/neuter efforts!!!
• On 5/22, stop in at Chipotle, also in Finley Square, between 4pm & 8pm and a whopping 33% of your bill goes to Feral Fixers – everyone really enjoyed their meals there last year!  Then go next door and get those toys, crafts and beach items that will keep the kids busy this summer at Five Below!
• Beginning 5/26 you can drop off garage sale items in Warrenville for our 6/1 Fantastic Garage Sale!  No electronics but just about anything else will be welcomed!  And shoppers, we have so much coming our way – you never know what you will find at a Feral Fixers Garage Sale!  We have another fundraiser coming up – As If They Were Our Own -  funds from the garage sale will be directed towards the medical bills that we have for the ferals that no one “owns” yet still require care for wounds, dentals, so much to maintain their quality of life
• The Shred4Rescues event is on June 8th – get motivated, go thru your files, come shred your stuff at this yearly event at Citadel Information Management in Westmont.  Visit with Feral Fixers and the other organizations benefitting from this great fundraiser!

Plenty to do, plenty of ways to benefit Feral Fixers!