This past Thursday, Feral Fixers sent in six cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. Feral Fixers President Tammy summarizes the day's events:
On Thursday, 4/21/16, Feral Fixers sent just 6 cats to PAWS. One friendly and five ferals. Debbie transported the cats in the AM and Dedra picked them up in the PM. Of the six, 3 were males and 3 were females - one of which was an already spayed feral. So for this trip the net number was 5, the total for April is 39, for the year 193 and since our start 8,628. This probably sounds like a light trip and it was. At this point in previous years we have usually been sending in the dozens of kittens that we had on hand - not the case this year - yea! We've been really busy getting that last cat in a colony and, especially this week, trying to get the mom to kittens that had been located in high danger areas. Why do mom cats pick the movable dock plate to have their kittens under? Or the wood pile in a yard with several dogs? Still trying to get the woodpile mom - we don't think she has successfully raised a litter of kittens all the way - her last litter was rescued from a sewer according to the neighbors and as a result she may be used to not following thru. Hoping the need to nurse will motivate her to go into the trap, so far all the tricks (and we use them all!) have not worked.
In a conversation with DuPage Animal Care & Control, I learned that they have only 20 kittens in foster (knock on wood) and that with the reduction in volume coming in, are now able to put 8 - 12 year old cats up for adoption, who would definitely been at risk previously!
Many thanks to all our donors and volunteers who keep us going!!!
And, some "Numbers Housekeeping" - This year, we have also had several (eight so far) cats spayed/neutered by our friends at the Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital - cats not previously reported in our totals; One on January 23rd, one on February 1st, one on February 15th, one on February 18th, one on February 24th, one on March 30th and two on April 4th. The cats spayed/neutered on February 24th and March 30th were ferals - the other six were "friendly ferals". This brings our January totals up to 26, our February totals up to 31, our March totals up to 103, our April totals (so far) up to 41, our total for 2016 up to 201 and our grand total, since starting work in late 2007, up to 8,636.