Calling all Bakers!

Contact Sue - (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you can help - thank you!

Constant Movement

You can tell from the pictures we post that something is always happening at Feral Fixers! Yesterday we sent 20 cats for neuter plus a cat with a hernia for surgery (while we can touch her, she also swipes with conviction!), a Blessed Event greeted us in the AM, another mom from the same location gave birth a couple days ago, there are kittens that were old enough for surgery, another 5 that were under the weight minimum and we will continue to work with them – but a shelter may take them for us, there's a very friendly cat that we are trying to reach the people on the microchip – bad phone number/alternate number busy, and on and on.

This flow can only be sustained with continued adoptions. Adoptables are a consequence of TNR – many, many kittens and more and more adults who are adoptable are coming our way. We have an Adoption Event at the Danada PetSmart, 63 Rice Lake Square in Wheaton from 11am to 3pm on Saturday, 9/25. Check out our available cats on PetFinder. There are 37 cats and kittens posted right now, more are coming, please share with your friends and family to keep everyone moving!!!

Neutered 9/23, these kittens may be going to foster soon, we always need more fosters!

Litter For Good with Cat's Pride – Re-nominate us!

We appreciate everyone who has nominated us in the past for Cat's Pride Litter For Good litter donation program. Did you know that you have to re-nominate us every year? We were wondering why we hadn't gotten donations since last winter, inquired and that is the reason. They will be making a big donation to all those nominated in the next month or so, additional nominations will help us so much! You all know how expensive litter can be and we go thru so much for our adoptables and for the ferals we hold onto. Clumping is their specialty but they are able to donate clay for our kittens when we ask that it be part of the shipment which is very generous of them. Signing up will increase the number of emails you receive but when you consider the benefit to Feral Fixers, isn't it worth it? Please go to their website and fill out the nomination form. We can definitely use more free litter!

Puppy Mill Law

Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed the Humane Pet Store Bill (HB 1711) into law. The state’s 21 puppy-selling pet stores have 180 days from August 27, the date the bill was signed, to stop selling commercially raised puppies and kittens. This effectively closes out a profitable sales channel for puppy mills and will drive the Illinois pet market towards more humane sources like shelters, rescues and responsible breeders.

Declaw ban study

In 2018, the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia announced a ban on feline declawing. A new study conducted by the BC SPCA in collaboration with external researchers finds that a declaw ban does not lead to increased feline shelter intake or euthanasia. The argument has been that more cats would end up euthanized or in shelters if declawing was banned. A study of almost 75,000 cats and six years of data showed that there was no difference in surrender, decrease in number of cats entering the shelters and a decrease in euthanasia and a shorter time cats spent waiting to be adopted after the ban was put in place.

Following Our Posts?

Wanted to share the latest on our three cats mentioned in the last two blog posts.

Landon had his dental! He had 5 teeth removed, many were already missing. He's recovering but the anesthesia was very hard on him – he was loopy for most of the evening after the procedure – difficult to clear from the system of an 11-year old cat. He is at the building in his own room – we might try adding a very sweet female to his room and see how they get along, maybe one other cat will be acceptable. He just wants to sit on the human's laps.

Ralphie is in a foster-to-adopt situation – foster says she has to remember to keep her mouth closed when he is on her lap – BIG kisses from this guy!

Valley Girl has grown so much! She weighed 1/2 pound on 9/9/21 and is now 3 times that size! Still has a problem with depth perception so is still getting syringe feeding but soon she will be able to deal with a bowl of food. Her eye is not as scarey as it was so we are finally sharing a picture of her.

Organizations hesitate to disclose how much they have reached in donations for different fundraisers – "Look how much they raised! They don't need me to donate, they have enough." Unfortunately, that is very far from the truth. For the last two years, our cost for additional veterinary care has gone over $40,000 each year. Those rabies shots, Upper Respiratory care, wounds and so much more, add up month after month.

Our final total for "As If They Were Our Own" reached $8,310! That means our total with matching came to $16,410! Over one third of our yearly costs! Our donors are the greatest!!! Thank you all!!!

Valley Girl has gotten so big!

September Keeps On Rolling!

On 9/16 we sent 14 cats to DCAS, 5 ferals and 9 friendlies. Of those 8 were females and 6 were males.

9/23 20 cats went to DCAS, 13 ferals and 7 friendlies, with 15 females and 5 males. There would have been one more female but she presented us with a single kitten that morning. A large orange cat, this was totally unexpected. DCAS was also kind enough to repair a hernia on a kitten that had popped up! These two trips bring us to 69 so far for September, 544 for 2021 and 12,993 since our start. We've been so busy, but we will be commemorating our 13,000^th cat soon, stay tuned!

9/23 trip - 20 cats	Mom cat and her babies

(First steps in taming...)

(Click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a full-size version)