This past Wednesday, Feral Fixers brought in 31 more cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. 21 of these cats were true ferals while 10 were 'friendly ferals'.
I picked up the cats from Tammy's in the morning and drove them in to PAWS and then picked them up in the afternoon from PAWS and drove them back to Tammy's for recovery and redistribution. One of the friendly ferals, a kitten "Majong", scared the heck out of me. Before I load up the cats, I check each one of them; I check the ferals to be sure they've been ear-tipped, ensure that the trap is locked and ensure that the proper towel has been placed on the trap. For the friendly ferals, I check to make sure that a blanket or towel is inside the carrier for the cats comfort and check the front door of the carrier to be sure it is locked. As I looked into Majohng's carrier, I noticed he wasn't moving, his head was down and buried into the towel and that his body was twisted up into a funny position. I gently shook the carrier and then tapped on the top - nothing - he wasn't moving. I was immediately concerned that he had some reaction to the drugs and might be in real trouble - perhaps even dead. I went hurrying back to the operating room where a couple of the techs were still there and said "help!". Nicole took one look inside the carrier and quickly opened the door and pulled Majong out. He immediately woke up and looked around as if to say "Hey, what's the problem?" They gave him a little food, just to be sure he was OK - and he instantly chowed it down. It sure got my heart started, that was for sure...
Once again, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's in the morning, helping to get the cat's ready for transport (thanks Judy!) and super-volunteer Sue was at Tammy's in the evening, helping to unload the cats and take care of them (thanks Sue!) And, we also have to thank Sue for, once again, loaning us her van so that we could take such a large load of cats (thanks again Sue!)
With these 31 cats, we've now fixed 101 for the month of September, 677 for the year and 3,158 overall.