Remember a mention of a caretaker who initially would not accept charity, their colony grew, they stopped feeding, the colony became ill and finally we were able to TNR? Well. The last two females were finally trapped this week. It’s been a loooonnnnngggg process, but now all we have left is a few males. Yea!!!

Another positive, though problematic, is that a lot of the “ferals” done last year have become friendly and the caretaker is able to pick them up and pet them. We have taken two of the friendlies, one went for adoption, while the other developed a nervous habit of pulling out her fur. Our foster is working with her, besides this habit she is a loving, happy cat, so we cannot put her back outside, we just have to find the right solution for her so that she can find the right permanent home. We will take others from the colony as soon as we have space for them to transition. (Hint: that means more foster homes.)

We never give up. Even if we appear to have washed our hands of a situation, it remains on our books and if we can work with the people in the future, we will always try. We’ve been contacted a year or many years later when a situation has changed or there are new cats and we do our best to resolve things for the cats.

Can You Take This Cat?

I’ve said before, Feral Fixers often takes care of those cats that would fall thru the cracks.

A family brought us a cat that was obviously a stray, completely emaciated. She is a front paw declaw, no chip. I gave them no guarantees that she would survive, but she is currently in a foster home, gaining weight. We named her Sunny and it will take weeks for her to be completely healthy, but with the volume of cats out there, where was she going to go for this care?

We have Grand. While in his trap, he gave me the “look.” I scratched his head thru the trap and he meowed at me. He was covered in mats, big as my fist, there wasn’t time to shave him when he was neutered, so when nibbling away at the mats with a scissors wasn’t doing the job, we shaved him. We discovered at the same time that he had a pretty bad molar and sent him for a dental. At the same time he was tested and is FIV positive. Besides the bad mouth (typical in FIV+ cats), he’s a really tough, healthy guy. His name in his colony was Grandpa, they have been feeding him for over 9 years. It’s time for him to come inside. He is using the litterbox faithfully – what a strange concept! – although sometimes it just isn’t big enough and things go over the edge! Food is his very favorite thing. At mealtime he stands and kneads and meows and isn’t happy til he’s had at least two servings. Through this all, although he’s shy and contact is somewhat overwhelming, he has never done anything that could be interpreted as retaliatory or nasty. He is just the sweetest cat. He needs a foster home to continue to learn what being a friendly is all about and he needs a home that either has no other cats or has another FIV+ cat that he can be a buddy to. We’re two weeks in, so soon the male smell will be a lot less and he won’t offend noses! Please pass on this information to any and all you might think could help this guy, but we will be very picky about who gets the opportunity to care for him!

T-Bone joined a colony that is being fed by one of our volunteers. Obviously previously owned, no chip. He is one of the longest cats! He has been in my garage for 4 days, went for neuter today. He growls a lot but I think it has most to do with those hormones, so we are treating him as a friendly. He was very thin and had several enormous ticks which we removed. Just to be on the safe side, we are treating him with antibiotics. This is the treatment for any effects the ticks may have had, visit this website for further information: http://uk.merial.com/pet_owners/cats/ticks.asp, although this information is based in the UK, it applies here as well. Be careful in your selection of products to prevent ticks, here is info from HSUS: http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/flea_tick_OTC_pet_products.html

Friendlies All Over The Place

Due in large part to the economy, more and more friendlies are appearing outside. We knew this was going to happen, but didn’t everyone in Rescue hope it wouldn’t? It is very sad because these cats don’t find a Good Samaritan as quickly as the people who abandon them fantasize they will and they end up starving, sick and injured before they can be rescued. Some shelters have intervention programs for people who need to surrender their animals for financial reasons – they support them with medical care and food to keep them in the household. They try to arrange low or no-cost spay/neuter. And finally, if all else fails, they take them into their adoption program when they have room. But still, people are not finding these limited resources before the cat ends up outside.

We do our part, taking in, rehabilitating and trying to find a shelter to adopt those friendlies that we encounter. We can only do this with your continued generosity. We’ve been able to do dozens of cats this year so far with no likelihood of a donation from the caretaker and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be secure enough from the donations we receive to be able to do that. Food, garbage bags, paper plates, newspaper, and of course, money! Before the next litter, before the kittens already born turn feral, your donations go far beyond their dollar amount – they are priceless! And I will say again,

Thank you! We Can’t Do This Without You!!!

When we started Feral Fixers and I became president, I had no idea of the scope of responsibilities and experiences that would entail. Perhaps it is unique to my interpretation of the responsibilities and what I think should be done by the president of a TNR organization, but it is my job nonetheless.

All of my prior experience has come into play – working in office environments helps with data entry, record keeping. Being a letter carrier has increased my confidence in dealing with people – many in a crisis mode. Fundraising, coordinating a food drive, all have contributed to making Feral Fixers a success. Volunteering at a humane society has given me tons of experience in dealing with the day to day needs of the cats, and was the driving force to help reduce the cat population.

On the new list:

Being on-call. The phone rings all times of the day. It can be a desperate caretaker, a concerned neighbor, a police department or village representative asking for more information to implement TNR, people asking for referrals for vets or a TNR organization in their own town, out of our area. Requests for food, for relocation, what are they going to do?

Consoling the bereaved. You never know how that conversation is going to go. Some caretakers are devastated to hear that their feral has died. Others are past the grieving they did at the time the cat went missing and are relieved that it is not suffering somewhere. Others, of course, are upset if a cat was trapped and euthanized before they had a chance to do something about the situation.

Public speaking. I never considered that I would have to speak in front of a crowd. All we were going to do was TNR. Trap/neuter/return, what could be more simple? Wouldn’t everyone get it? Why would anyone have to be convinced? Radio interview? Oh, my.

Money management. We have no mortgage, no credit to pay off, but we do have an unknown number of ferals still out there, so we have to be prepared to handle the unexpected and keep a good balance on hand in our account, just in case. So, do we get the new t-shirts, caps, etc., to sell? Do we buy new traps, trap dividers? Will we get a donation of food or do we need to buy a skid at regular prices? How much kitten food are we going to have to lay in for the litters we can help? As we get requests to do cats for people who cannot donate, as long as the checking account does not dip below a number I have in my head, we can do it. And, to date, everyone’s generosity has kept us above that number!

So far, I’ve been up to the challenges, thank you for the opportunity to grow as a person and to help this cat overpopulation crisis!

On the radio

I recently did a phone interview for the College of DuPage. I didn’t have a chance to hear it air, please give us feedback on it, I’d like to know what others thought. It was as a result of speaking at the town council meeting in Wheaton, in regards to an increase in fines for feeding feral cats and dogs and wildlife. I and 5 others spoke during an open forum portion of the meeting. We were against the increase and asked that the whole ordinance be examined and removed. Then during the voting portion of the meeting the councilmen did not discuss, simply voted to pass the ordinance. Three different newspapers carried a report of the meeting, with a similar tone – the ordinance makes no sense. I am sure that we have not heard the last of this situation, there are too many people concerned about the possible outcome.

Upcoming events

Please look for us in the Memorial Day Parade in Wood Dale on May 31st. Mary Rosa will be in her versatile Jeep, waving to the crowd! In a repeat performance, look for her on July 3rd in Bensenville at their 4th of July Parade!

We will be at the Friends Fur-Ever Festival hosted by the DuPage County Animal Care and Control on June 12th. Stop by, ask questions, purchase some of our boutique items or make a donation! We always see great people at the DCACC events!

It’s not too soon to inform you about our Wet Your Whiskers Cataoke event on July 17th at the Elmhurst Public House in Villa Park. We will have food, silent auction, and lots of great singing! Make us perform for a donation!

Friendlies on the rise!

Last month I told you about Grand, Sunny and T-Bone.

Grand is the FIV+ 9 year old orange tabby. He was getting mighty frustrated with being in a cage, but he is now at Felines, Inc. in Chicago, where he will have a room to roam in, plenty of petting and attention and wonderful care until he finds his new home.

Sunny came to us as an emaciated stray, so thin I thought he was female. He had a lot of challenges, but was eating very well, was on antibiotics for a wound. Appeared to be gaining weight, but his foster family found that he had a blood disorder, was not making red blood cells and was failing. He was euthanized as the condition is incurable. But he had a loving family around him when it happened and it was the best answer for him.

T-Bone just would not eat. In desperation, I opened a can of veal tidbits. Almost no cats like veal, nor those tidbit morsels; they lick off the gravy and leave the rest. Well, he licked off all the gravy, I stirred it up again and he ate the morsels. The next meal, I gave him Fancy Feast beef morsels on a plate, he wouldn’t eat it. Again, in desperation, I put it in an empty, larger can. He ate every bit. The cat only considered it fit to eat if it was beef based, morsels and in a can!!! He went to Heartland Animal Shelter and is doing very well.

We had a cat, Nerdy, that, as a kitten, the caretaker’s grandsons would bring inside and watch TV holding her. As her hormones kicked in, she didn’t want to come inside any longer. She was just spayed and was doing her best to communicate to me that she wanted to be friendly – and would love to watch TV again! Scar boy was returned to his colony after neuter last May. He was recently trapped by a disgruntled neighbor, brought to County, returned to us. He was literally doing spins in the trap to tell me that he was friendly now. Maisey came from a colony that the elderly couple swore last year that they were taking her inside and spaying her. Well, she was trapped this year and is just the sweetest kitty. The elderly couple is under constant care and cannot care for her. They all went to PURRS of Naperville to be adopted.

We had two black cats, one with a skin condition, the other timid but loving. Along with some very bouncy kittens, they were taken in by the Buddy Foundation.

People ask us for cats to adopt. We don’t do adoptions ourselves. We rely on shelters to be specialists in this part of Rescue. Please visit the shelters that help us help the friendly ferals.

Hiatus

What a horrible word, isn’t it? People panic when they hear it! I am having shoulder surgery June 1st. As a result, we will not be doing any TNR for several weeks following. We will most likely start up again after July 4th, on a limited basis, until I have full use of my arm again. This is one reason we were pushing so hard to get as many cats as possible, this has been coming for awhile. We can still help by advising and educating others on how to trap and transport – we just can’t do everything for awhile. It will be very strange to take time off after 2 1/2 years (even in December we really didn’t stop everything).

“June is for Kittens” Fundraiser

We have proclaimed “June is for Kittens!” We currently have about 50 kittens that will soon be old enough to spay/neuter. Then they will be going on to shelters and vet offices that will adopt them out into loving homes. Kittens are expensive; our costs are $55 each for s/n, vaccinations, dewormer, microchips. This is where that bank balance comes into play! We are doing a Chip-In Fundraiser, like we did to raise funds for traps last year, to help us cover the costs of kittens that we take out of their colonies so that they can grow up as loving friendlies, in good homes. Most of the kittens are on target to be neutered at the end of June at PAWS, and while it is a hefty goal, our goal is to raise $2,750 to cover those costs. If you can contribute $55 for one “whole” kitten, great! If you can only donate $5, we promise to put it to good use! We TNR’d so many cats in February and March, these are the litters of the cats that we missed, but we are working very hard to capture the kittens and spay the moms so that this does not go on and on. We are making a huge difference and this will bring us that much closer to stopping cat overpopulation and euthanization. Previous years, we have been so strapped for volunteers and time, we couldn’t help the kittens as much as we wished. Now, with your help, we CAN.

Thank you for an amazing two and a half years!