So Far...
So far, this year, we have neutered almost 250 cats. There were more females than males, from our database I show at least 140 were females. Multiply that by 4 potential kittens (and the litters so far have been 5 or 6 kittens) and you have 520 kittens prevented. WOW! And that is not including subsequent births by the end of the year by the kittens born at the beginning of the year! And so on, and so on.
No wonder that DuPage County still is not overrun with kittens. In fact they are doing specials on older cats and hopefully they will find a home, even during “kitten season!
Instead of 10 calls a day, we are down to two to three. We’re keeping our head above water so far and are able to address those situations that we are contacted about. We may never be able to go back to those we didn’t call back last year, hopefully they have not lost hope and will contact us again. We have found that locations never go away forever, we always hear from people again if all of the cats were not neutered. What is very cool is that we will get one or two calls from people who are within a block or two of each other and then we are able to work with them both at the same time. People really are paying attention!
Shelters Stepping Up
Due to the shortage of kittens up to now, we have been able to get more of our kittens into shelters this year than ever before. This means that the shelters handle the adoptions and in some cases, they are taking them before the kittens have been vetted, which frees us up to continue to TNR. It is the fostering and maintenance of the kittens that costs us time that could be used to reduce the numbers even more. In previous years we have been tearing our hair out by this time, swamped beyond belief. We are just about to hit deep water now, so hopefully the shelters will be able to continue to help us – acting as our sandbags against the tide of kittens!!! They’ve been taking our formerly feral adults, too, and those cats are ever so grateful!
You Make So Much Possible
Remember Monte? He had the worst case of ringworm I had ever seen. Well he had weekly lyme dips at the vet for two months (have you ever smelled that stuff? I couldn’t do it at home, besides he looked like he couldn’t stand himself when he came back smelling of it and I wanted him to LIKE me), and now his coat is completely filled in. He’s beautiful and was so tolerant of going into the carrier, even tho he knew what was on the other end. Another cat I was holding got just a bit on one ear and I was able to treat it topically.
It’s very hard to say no when a cat is in need. We’ve had several cats who were 10 years and above that were given up by their families. No vet care for years, needing dentals but still wonderful, viable cats. They, of course, need time to chill out and get a better outlook on life. Because of you, our donors, our support, we are able to get that vet care for them and get them on the road to better homes that will be there for the rest of their lives.
Coming Up
Come see us at BloomingFest in West Chicago on May 19th. We’ve never attended this event before, looking forward to it! There is a large Hispanic population in West Chicago. If you speak Spanish and would like to hang out with us that day and answer questions for us, it would be tremendous help! We can usually get by, but forming complete sentences and being sure of communicating would be ideal!
Our next Sweet Tomatoes is on May 22nd – Hope to see you there!
Our matching funds donor is at it again – look for details in next month’s newsletter!
Wishes
I’ve updated our Wish List with Walmart – enter Feral Fixers for first and last name, May 2012 and Illinois to get to our list. Several people made donations – its really great to have boxes of cat litter show up at your door – no driving to the store, wheeling the cart thru the store with the heavy cat litter, loading it into your car, unloading it from your car…it was worth so much more than a donation of cat litter, it was a donation relieving me of my time and effort that would have been involved. Priceless! We also got garbage bags and litter boxes and toys! All of these are ongoing needs and very much appreciated!
Hope to see you in West Chicago!