Feral Fixers brought in 34 more cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic today to be fixed. 33 of these cats were 'friendly ferals' (the great majority were kittens) while one lone fellow was a feral.

Super-volunteer Charli helped me pick up the cats from Tammy's this morning and bring them to PAWS (Thanks Charli!) while I picked them up from PAWS this evening and brought them back to Tammy's for recovery and redistribution. Once again, super-volunteer Sue loaned us the use of her van so that I could handle such a large load on the return trip (Thanks Sue!). And, as always, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's this morning and this evening helping out with everything (Thanks Judy!).

All went well with our cats, but there is something worth mentioning about the lone feral, Mystery, a big old Tom, that we brought in today. Tammy had asked the PAWS people to look at Mystery's mouth - it seemed swollen and inflamed. This is tough to do with a feral, of course, but once the cat is anaesthetized, you can do a detailed examination. It seems that one or more of his teeth / gums were infected, especially one incisor. The Vet techs at PAWS said that even when the cat was fully under, he still reacted when you just touched his cheek in the inflamed area - he must have been in intense pain, poor fellow. The rock-stars at PAWS pulled that tooth, cleaned up some other dental issues he had and gave him a shot of Convenia. With any luck, Mystery will be just fine now and in much better spirits. Thanks PAWS!

Hopefully this will be the last load of Feral Fixers cats to be fixed this year. We had originally planned to stop on December 1st, but there were just too many last minute emergencies we had to deal with. The plan now is to take off the rest of December, January and February and start up again in March of 2013.

With todays 34 cats, Feral Fixers wound up fixing 74 cats this month. Our total for 2012 was 1,225 cats - by far the most we've ever done in one year (our previous record was 1,024, set last year). And since day one, Feral Fixers has had 4,730 cats fixed.

Next up is our event at Pet Supplies Plus (this coming Saturday) and then final planning for Frosty Claws - January 20th, 2013 - save the date!

Happy Holidays everyone!