The Feral Blog

Grateful Hearts, Busy Lives, and One Unneutered Tom’s Superpower

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Too Much Going On?

Today I was told that the timing of this fundraiser could not have been more wrong. People are just too busy to participate for one thing.

Please know that every donation is greatly appreciated and we are fully aware of the stresses that may be affecting donations.

We have Mooshie’s story and now have added Griswold’s tale. We do our best to be positive and only tell about positive outcomes – not always easy.

2026 may be an even tougher year – more cats needing help in many different ways. “As If They Were Our Own” helps us prepare for that which may be coming.

Right now, we’re at 39% of our goal. There is usually a last-minute rush of donations and we’re hoping that is the case once again.

Know that we are very thankful for our donors and will be diligent and responsible in our use of donated funds as always.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Griswold is a prime example of the additional care we provide for ferals when we can. Here's Griswold, resting comfortably after having is rear foot treated on Monday. He's in a crate in the TNR room, relaxing in a transfer trap. He'll go for a re-check of his paw this coming Monday. He was TNR'd back in July and definitely had an encounter with something. Once it is healed enough, he will return to his location. He seems very appreciative of the care!

 

Top of Paw
Top of Griswold's paw, no idea what caused the split.
Bottom of Paw
Underside of Griswold's paw.

 

Join Us at Chipotle!

On Thursday, December 18th 4-8PM, join us at Chipotle, 1556 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove to raise funds for Feral Fixers and enjoy some great food! New stores have opened in the mall, it will be 7 days to Christmas – shopping opportunity? 25% of sales will benefit the felines of Feral Fixers! Details, including how you can order online, and an Event Flyer can be found in our Event Calendar.

Time to Decorate? Lynch Creek has wreaths, trees, Amaryllis, garland, for your home and to send as gifts! 10% of your purchase can benefit Feral Fixers! Deadline is December 14th, but some items are already sold out. Send a centerpiece or even a Salmon gift box! Shop from home and benefit Feral Fixers!!!

Working Cats

Working Cats has been very busy! Cats do not know municipal borders. We help area towns with their overabundance of feral cats in their facilities by relocating those cats so that they do not have to be euthanized. Aurora Animal Control was kind enough to show their appreciation for our efforts!

 

More Friendlies Scheduled

We still have kittens in foster that have not been neutered yet – August and September births. There will be more posts regarding our spay/neuter numbers of those kittens. We will resume TNR-ing in late February/March.

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Adoption Events

Sunday, December 7 • 1-4pm at Feral Fixers, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard, IL. We will have so many of our wonderful fosters on hand, check out our Adoptables list, they may be available on this day to meet and greet along with our foster families are on hand to share the cats’ personal info, allowing you a fuller picture of our cats/kittens. Click on our Adoptables link, start application in advance! Additionally, meetings can be scheduled at our building for those not in attendance!

Saturday, December 13 • 11am-3pm -– Still time before the holidays - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at our building (330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard, IL) from 1pm to 4pm. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, December 12) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can see all of our adoptable cats by clicking on the Want to Adopt? link at the top of our website.

What About the Males?

There are some caretakers that concentrate on getting the females fixed – understandable. They make the males a lower priority. Saw a recent post tho about just how many females can be impregnated by one male. Cats can wander an 8 square block territory. We’ve encountered multiple colonies of 20+ cats that were within such an area. So, picture two colonies of 20 cats with a 50-50 ratio to male/female. Yes, getting a total of 20 females spayed is a huge impact. But those same 20 males have an unlimited ability to create kittens. And if they do not have females in their area, they will then wander on until they find new colonies with fertile females. For example, in one year, one male could contribute to create hundreds of kittens, and within a year, those female kittens could create hundreds more. Yikes! Easy to concentrate on the females as there they are, right in front of you but do not delay in neutering the boys – they can be an even larger contributor to overpopulation! Spay/neuter first thing come Spring!!!

Fundraiser Launch: 'As If They Were Our Own' – November Updates, Adoptions & Ways to Help!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Fundraising Time! As If They Were Our Own!

Believe it or not, there hasn’t been time for fundraising! We’re going to catch up!

We usually have several fundraisers each year and we will be kicking off “As If They Were Our Own.” Mooshie is our spokescat – one of the many we have helped far beyond spay/neuter

We may have just encountered cats or neutered them 13+ years ago, we always try to make the best decisions for these cats, providing the right answers for each individual cat as if they were our own. We help so many cats and learn so much from them!

This fundraiser is meant to provide care beyond spay/neuter – testing, injuries, geriatric care, you name it! Our monthly bill can average $3,000. Your donations could help us cover a good portion of the year and would be an immense help! We have received $25,000 in pledges that we hope you can match to bring us to a total of $50,000! Vaccinations, antibiotics, wound care, so much that we do beyond just spay/neuter.

This fundraiser will run thru November 27th, and we hope to provide care for many ferals and strays of DuPage County! Please help us help them if you can!

Already November!

  • 10/25 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 5 male, 5 female.
  • 10/25 – DCAS – 10 ferals, 7 male, 3 female.
  • 10/30 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 4 male, 6 female.
  • 10/30 – DCAS – 1 friendly, 23 ferals, 12 males, 12 females.
  • 11/3 – DCAS – 1 friendly, 1 feral, 2 males.
  • 11/6 – DCAS – 14 friendlies, 4 ferals, 11 males, 7 females.

Total: October total 163, November total 20, year-to-date 776, since 2007 16,510!

 

24 Cats, ready to go
24 cats for 10/30 + cages of kittens and cats waiting for relocation - room is always in flux.
Loading up cats
Photo partially thru loading, more friendlies added after.

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Adoption Event

Sunday, 11/9 1-4pm at Feral Fixers, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard. We have over 20 of our fosters scheduled to appear, check out our Adoptables list on our home page, they may be available on this day to meet and greet. Many of our foster families are on hand to share the cats’ personal info, allowing you a fuller picture of our cats/kittens. Check our Adoptables link, fill out an adoption application in advance! Remember meetings can be scheduled at our building for those not in attendance!

We Have Stopped Trapping for the Year

We will have a couple more trips of adoptable kittens before the end of the year, but we have to stop trapping. We hit the ground running at the end of January with cats in barns that had enough shelter for protection, hoping to get ahead of kittens. We are exhausted, so much of our other responsibilities must be taken care of, our personal lives are suffering.

It can be incredibly stressful to say ‘no’ to people. We offer suggestions on caring for the cats until we are back at it – end of February? Caretakers can certainly trap on their own, using local spay/neuter but most clinics are aware that unless the cats have really good shelter, TNR can have a negative effect on the cats when it is cold – shaved bellies and vaccinations lower their resistance.

Think about how you can help – we still need fosters, we need fundraisers, think if you can fit trapping and transporting into your lives in 2026. Yep, already time to talk about 2026. We plan to continue, we still need your help to do so.

Cat Litter Is a Constant Need

It’s the end of Kitten Season (we hope) and we’ve had a surge in parasites in kittens coming in from the outside. Total giardia and coccidia explosion! We have gone thru more than usual cat litter this year due to a higher number of kittens in our care and we are nearing the end of our stockpile. We are recipients of “Litter For Good” thru Cat’s Pride and we appreciate everyone who has designated Feral Fixers to receive points towards litter donation. Cat’s Pride has been very generous with clay litter for our kittens! Please share with your friends and family as this is a need that is constant!

Kittens need cat litter! Chimi, Churu & Nacho.

Decorating For the Holidays?

Lynch Creek has wreaths, trees, Amaryllis, garland, for your home and to send as gifts! 10% of your purchase can benefit Feral Fixers! Deadline is December 14th but shop early as some items are already sold out. Shop from the comfort of your home and benefit Feral Fixers!!!

Feral Fixers' October Cat Update

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Black Cats at No Increased Danger at This Time

Many studies have been done to show that black cats are at no greater danger around Halloween compared to other times of year. Black cats are a joy to adopt!

Cat Surge in Cyprus

Cyprus is experiencing a huge surge in their cat population – calculated to be more than one cat per resident of the island, spay/neuter attempts are not meeting the needs to limit the growing numbers. This is what can happen in a land locked area.

More Than Halfway Thru October!

  • 10/1 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 6 female, 4 male
  • 10/2 – DCAS – 21 ferals, 10 friendlies, 20 females, 11 males. 1 female had been microchipped in North Carolina without being spayed – we found her people
  • 10/3 – DCAS – 1 friendly, 1 feral, 2 female.
  • 10/9 – ADOPT – 8 friendlies, 4 female, 4 male
  • 10/9 – DCAS – 22 ferals, 9 friendlies, 16 female, 15 male. One female received a flank spay due to inflamed mammary glands – may have been the first in over 16,000 surgeries!
  • 10/16 – ADOPT – 10 friendlies, 8 female, 2 male.
  • 10/16 – DCAS – 17 ferals, 10 female, 7 male.

Total: October 109, year-to-date 702, since 2007 16,436!

Ferals from 10/2/2025.

ADOPT friendlies from 10/9/2025.

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Adoption Event

Saturday, 10/18 11-3pm at PetSmart, Finley Square Shopping Center, 1550 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove, IL. The atmosphere is always upbeat during the PetSmart adoption events. Many of our fosters try to attend the adoption events so that you can get a full picture of the cats/kittens. Check out our Adoptables link on our Home page. Fill out an adoption application in advance, meetings can be scheduled at our building for those not in attendance!

Last S/N Trip Is October 30th

We will most likely have adoptables on hand, a situation where we absolutely need to neuter an adult, but October 30th is our end date for ferals. We did too much at the end of last year, beginning of this year and we completely wore ourselves out! We would so much like to s/n as much as possible by 10/30 in order to lighten the load come Spring – always our goal! We have limited ourselves to only doing cats in DuPage as much as we can – saying “No” is one of the hardest parts of TNR. If you do not get to us by 10/30, plan on caring for the cats until the end of February, depending on the weather. Make shelters, buy straw, and keep the cats healthy. Do the best you can to care for them.

Apache Halloween – Just Two More Dates!

They’re doing it again! Always a fun display, donations benefitting Feral Fixers! Stop at the Apache Halloween display on the following dates: October 25, 31. (Dusk - 10pm) Weather Permitting. Address: 2301 Apache Ln, Woodridge, IL 60517.

From The President

It's 2025!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

2025 – Already Here!

2024 has been a very long year, hasn’t it? Yet it seems to have been over in the blink of an eye!

The volunteers, donors, caretakers, fosters, all playing a part in Feral Fixers accomplishing 854 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. We have adopted approximately 342 cats and kittens to wonderful homes with the help of our adoption, foster and animal care volunteers and there are two days left in the year as I write this. We have assisted many sick and injured cats. We’ve done so much that is positive and will have long-lasting effects for both cats and humans.

We have to mention the challenges of the year – spay/neuter clinics shut down for reconstruction or permanently, veterinarians leaving the work force, all reducing the number of available surgery slots we could obtain. Pet owners faced housing and financial issues, resulting in more cats being outside and intact. Every shelter is full – we keep saying that and it does not improve.

Judging by the number of phone calls we have received and the locations we just could not get to, 2025 may be an even busier year. We resume trapping when the overnight temperatures are above 30 degrees consistently – that date is anyone’s guess in Chicagoland these days. We have to take the situations on a case- by-case basis. More people are bringing cats into their homes and arranging s/n themselves and we applaud them!

Through it all, our donors have helped so much. While fundraising takes time and there has not been near enough of that this year, we have been able to keep the lights on, the cats fed, the litter boxes scooped and spay/neuter to the capacity of the surgeries available to us.

We are hoping that increased capacity for surgery will increase our yearly s/n numbers in 2025 – the only way we are going to get ahead. We are hoping that more people will be able to volunteer, foster and adopt!

Even though this is hard work, we have to remember the impact we have had, how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering that has been alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been made so far!

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 17 years! Remember –

As Many As Possible

As Soon As Possible

It's 2024, finally...

Written by: Tammy McAuley

2023 – What A Year

Together, volunteers, donors, caretakers, everyone involved with Feral Fixers, we have accomplished 926 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. With the help of our dedicated adoption and foster and animal care volunteers, we have found homes for 360 cats and kittens. In just this year, you can see the impact as we reduced the volume of cats outdoors, we reduced the overpopulation crisis from every direction, helping felines and humans alike.

The challenges have been immense. 

Kitten numbers have increased dramatically –societal changes may be the biggest impact: lack of vet access, money, movement of our population – combining households, isolation and hoarding, etc. People are actually paying more attention to the cats outside and are discovering the pregnant cat, the litter of kittens much more readily than in the past which results in overall increased volume that we are contacted about. Every shelter is full. Everyone is doing their best to save every cat they can. Adults and kittens are becoming friendly at an increased pace. Years ago, a feral was a feral was a feral. Not anymore. Kittens sometimes are friendly from the time they are trapped, adults will have a complete turnaround to being friendly. National organizations are seeing this and the only advice they can offer is that even if a cat is friendly, put it back outside – there just aren’t enough homes.

Volunteers. The data can be looked at in many different ways, but finding information that DuPage County ranked 2nd in 102 Illinois Counties of charities per square mile illustrates why it is so difficult finding and maintaining volunteers. No one seems to have as much time as we used to. There are so many choices of where to spend that valuable volunteer time. Our lives can change in an instant and our personal responsibilities must take priority. Feral Fixers has wonderful volunteers, and we treasure them every day. We need more, the volunteer staff is not a constant and can change quickly. From trapping to transport, fostering and shifts of cat care at the building, cleaning – oh my, the cleaning! We do need volunteers who can snuggle kittens just as much as we need those who can sweep floors and do laundry. Social people who can interact with adopters on adoption days, help with events, host events! Everyone has their own strengths and abilities, please share them with us!

Need everywhere. We can average five calls a day for help.

*Discovered kittens under the shed, come help. *My mother let a pregnant cat into her house, come trap and take the kittens. *My cat has lost its mind and is attacking me, help. *I have 15 cats in and around my house (usually results in 60+ cats). *I live outside your area, but I can bring the cats to you. *Been feeding a cat for 2 years, not neutered, now he’s injured from fighting, come help. On social media, you may often see “call Feral Fixers, they will help you” and we do help so many!

With all these challenges we must remember the impact we have had, can you imagine how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering we have alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been accomplished! 

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 16+ years!

With Your Help

Written by: Tammy McAuley

731 spay/neuters of cats and kittens. We brought in +/- 320 friendly cats & kittens. Some of these were previously neutered adults who decided to become friendly after being neutered. There have been approximately 300 adoptions, but still have 33 officially posted for adoption and many more in foster homes. We have helped many cats with injuries and conditions from simple upper respiratory to congenital defects the cats were born with. We have provided food for caretakers. Removed feral cats from inside homes when there was no other way to get them out. Seen the change in cats who were completely feral transitioning into loving lap cats. Relocated cats that could no longer stay where they were due to overpopulation or change of circumstances. You have helped us do so much! So much goes on behind the scenes beyond our reports of spay/neuter trips and you are all part of caring for the stray and feral cats of DuPage County!

What Can We Expect In 2023?

We continue to face the unknown. Who could have expected that across the nation, we are short 15,000 veterinarians? Who could have expected that our nation could be short millions of spay/neuter surgeries? So many different factors are affecting daily lives, it will be interesting to see the impact on cats outdoors, how many kittens will be born to these unneutered females still roaming that no one was able to get to. Prices have gone up for cat food, cat litter, gasoline to take them to appointments & adoptions, and on and on. What can we do? We can continue to get as many spay/neuter appointments as we possibly can and to FILL those appointments, making caretakers aware that they must contact us as soon as a cat is consistent in attendance. It is the ONLY way to lower costs in the future. Once those kittens arrive, we will care for them, using resources for current day expenses, not for preventing even greater expenditures in the future – that is unsustainable and returns us to the past when feral cats were euthanized regularly.

Trapping will resume around the end of March, beginning of April. Keep an eye out for ferals in your area, talk to your neighbors, help us help you to care for those cats.

What Can You Do?

The Amazon Smile donation in November, which covered purchases made between July 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, came to $606.70. That means that our donors spent $121,340 in that time period and .5% was donated by Amazon Smile – Yay! Use AmazonSmile and designate Feral Fixers – could not be an easier way to raise funds!

Visit our wish lists at Amazon & Chewy – we always need food; canned food in particular goes fast when you are supporting so MANY kittens! Gift cards allow us to purchase what our greatest need at the time is – paper towels, bleach, laundry detergent, litter boxes – amazing the variety of things we purchase to keep going! 

Spread our information to coworkers, family, social media – we have donors across the country! Cats have a ripple effect, they don’t stay in one place and affect wider resources than those on their street, in their town, in their county – even in their state! New people are volunteering with us due to sharing information, but we need more volunteers, many more. Trappers, transporters, cleaners in the building, animal care in the building, fosters, event volunteers, the list goes on. You tell us what you want to do to help, and we try to make that fit for both of our benefits!

Frosty Claws in 2023 

We seem to be returning to some degree of normalcy. As a result, we will be holding our 2023 Frosty Claws on Sunday, January 15th from 12 noon to 4pm at the Villa Park VFW. We may have huge attendance that day because of skipping years, please be patient. This is an event for our caretakers, adopters, donors, to talk about cats and network with some fundraising and food. We are about to start assembling our Silent Auction and door prize items – we may not have as much “stuff” as in previous years – we will post items as they are created, as soon as we have a chance. We look forward to seeing everyone who can attend!