Sometimes I feel a little like George Bailey. People who I see on almost a daily basis have recently seen me exhausted, short-tempered, making mistakes, muttering “I hate cats” with greater frequency. “I hate cats” is an ironic way I let off steam as I stand in my garage, surrounded by 20 or so of the little darlings, snug in their traps, while I know that each one has to be fed, or new newspapers put in, or labeled and readied for transport the next morning. It can really be overwhelming, especially as I seem to be able to see the big picture – knowing that we’ve only just begun this fight and that there will be many more groups of 20 or so cats in my garage, for months and perhaps years to come. Bailing out the Titanic with a teacup! Our volunteers are a tremendous help at these times, even more so when they let me vent! “I hate cats” acknowledges the stress we all feel at times. But we are committed to this endeavor and we will persevere!!!

What I would love to see is our own feral cat version of It’s A Wonderful Life. To KNOW what would have happened had we not been here to take up this cause. As Ted has said in his blog, we are waiting for those year end numbers. But it may really take until next year’s end before we can see a difference.

I have an unusual request:

If we have changed the lives of your cats, your life or your community, could you write us a note, letting us know how we did that, what would have happened otherwise? I’m not sure what we will do with the information, if there are enough stories, perhaps we can have them at Frosty Claws? You can be anonymous if you need to be, although we would love to know. And, of course, if there is something we could have done differently, I’m opening the door to that input, too. You can handwrite to our P.O. Box, or you can use This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I’m not fishing for compliments here, I think this feedback will be very helpful to us and would help us to know where to focus in 2010.

There are so many people to thank as the year draws to a close. From the people who drive hundreds of miles in a year for us with their smelly, sometimes noisy cargo, to then wait at the clinic for hours for our cats to be called. The people who assist caretakers in trapping, schlepping cats to and from my garage. The people who help at events, standing in the blazing sun, the unexpected winds and the cold and rain at times. The people who attend our fundraisers, shop at Jewel, speak so highly of us and pass on our information. The people who foster our cats and kittens, sometimes insisting on paying for food and vet costs themselves. The people who coordinate food donations for us, save literally tons of newspapers for us and collect old towels for us. The people who take our garbage home to throw out for us – all those newspapers have to go somewhere! The organizations who invite us to their events and offer our information all the time. The veterinarians who work so hard to help the cats that we bring them. The villages who are taking notice of our efforts and are willing to make the step toward changing ordinances.

We say “thank you” a lot. It’s very important to say thank you, it shows that you appreciate the value of what has been given and I want to assure each and every one of you reading this, that we are immensely appreciative of all of the gifts we have been given this past year and we do know the value, and that we could not have achieved so much without YOU!

May this Holiday Season be everything you can imagine and may 2010 be filled with all the good and positive things you could ever hope for!

Thank you!

Tammy McAuley President, Feral Fixers, NFP

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