Today Feral Fixers brought in 20 cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic. I picked up the cats from Tammy's this morning and brought them to PAWS while super-volunteer Charli and Tammy picked them up from PAWS early this evening and brought them back to Tammy's for recovery and redistribution (Thanks Charli!). And, as always, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's both in the morning and the evening to help out with all of the myriad tasks necessary to make this all happen. Thanks Judy! 19 of these cats were ferals, with the remaining cat being a 'friendly feral'. 10 of the cats were male and 10 were female.

Included in this batch was our 5,000th cat - Meadow. Meadow was one of 32 cats caught in a barn on a very cold and windy day. The rest of the crew has been spayed/neutered and returned to the barn. While trapping the other cats, FF found Meadow's babies, but had trouble catching Meadow. Super-volunteer Judy rigged up a drop trap and put the babies inside as bait and was able to trap Meadow this way. Judy then kept Meadow and her babies in a crate for six weeks. Mom/Meadow was great, taking care of her kittens, and now it is time for her to get spayed and then rejoin her compatriots in the barn. The babies were sent to a vet who has found homes for two of them and is working on finding a home for the third one. Thank you Judy - well done!

With these 20 cats, Feral Fixers has processed 46 cats for May, 277 cats for the year and 5,010 overall since our inception!

5,000 cats! That's 5 large, 5K, lots and lots of cats by any definition...

There are so many people to thank for an accomplishment like this that I hesitate to even try, for fear of leaving anyone out, but here goes. First of all, thank you to the super-volunteers of Feral Fixers - you are the backbone of this organization! Thank you to all of the colony caretakers and those who got involved just because they wanted to make a difference. Thank you to all of our fosters who socialize the kittens and semi-tame cats we find and also give the truly tame cats we find a temporary home until we can find a permanent one. Thank you to our partner organizations who take the friendlies we find and put them up for adoption. A special Thank You to PAWS - without their incredible team and focus on high-volume spay/neuter, we would be nowhere near 5,000 cats at this point. And finally, thank you to Tammy - she makes everything go!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - WE COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

(Picture thumbnail is of Meadow, getting her ear-tip in preparation for surgery. Click on the thumbnail for a full-size version of the picture. And click here to see all of the photos from today's activities at PAWS)