On Tuesday, we did five cats, all ferals. Super-volunteer Charli picked up the cats from Tammy's house in the morning and brought them to PAWS (Thanks Charli!) while Tammy picked up the cats from PAWS in the afternoon and brought them back to her house for recovery and distribution.
And today, we brought in 23 cats to PAWS. 12 of them were ferals while the other 11 were "friendly ferals". I did the trip both ways; picking up the cats from Tammy's in the morning and bringing them to PAWS and then picking them up from PAWS in the evening and bringing them back to Tammy's for recovery and distribution.
And, as always, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's both days, both in the morning and afternoon, helping out with all of the tasks necessary to make these trips possible. Thanks Judy!
Tammy told me that the Tuesday trips were uneventful, but that was not the case today. One of our ferals developed complications during surgery and began hemorrhaging. The chief veterinarian at PAWS, Dr. Jessica Von Waldau, took charge and 'did her thing' to fix the cat up. However, it was very slow to recover from the surgery and anaesthesia and I had to wait at PAWS until about 7:15pm for this cats body temperature to raise to a point where the PAWS vet techs felt comfortable in releasing it. The cat is now doing fine, but may have used up one of its nine lives... All in a days work for the rock-stars at PAWS.
With these 28 cats, Feral Fixers has processed 74 cats for May, 305 cats for the year (over 300 already!) and 5,038 overall.
5,000 cats!
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Thursday, May 16, 2013
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)
Eight more today
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Feral Fixers brought in nine more cats today to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. Eight of the cats were ferals with the remaining cat being a "friendly feral". I picked up the cats from Tammy's house and brought them to PAWS (yes, Tammy's house is slowly returning to normal) while super-volunteer Charli picked them up from PAWS and brought them back to Tammy's for recovery. Thanks Charli! And, as always, super-volunteer Judy was at Tammy's today helping out with all of the necessary myriad tasks - Thanks Judy!
Details about today's run from Tammy:
"Our friendly, Arianna, was previously spayed. So we had 8 ferals. 1 male and 7 females. Kreskin got a Convenia shot for his foot injury, we'll hold onto him until Monday maybe so that he has that extra time to heal. One of the females is still very wide-eyed but just may be friendly enough to go to a rescue for taming, we'll keep our fingers crossed. It is strange having the cats back in my garage again.
The eight cats being fixed today brings us to a total of 26 for the month, 257 for the year and 4,990 overall. Next week we should break the 5,000 mark!
April News...
From The President
Written by Tammy McAuley
Monday, April 15, 2013
The False Information That Won’t Die
Recently, the Smithsonian printed misleading and false information about feral predation on birds – so false that the author of the article was terminated. But, just like when a disclaimer gets printed on page 32, the original information is circulated again and again. This article in the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine is the latest instance of copycat journalistic laziness. What is interesting is that their headquarters is right in Schaumburg – not even a long-distance phone call! The contact information is available in the banner above the article – follow “contact us” and feel free to comment on what was supposed to be an impartial pro/con article on feral cats. Shame on R. Scott Nolen and shame on his editors for repeating the same old drivel! No wonder vets are scared to have ferals in their practices when a resource that states “We Are Veterinary Medicine” claims that ferals are responsible for millions of bird and wildlife death. Please take the time to read the article and make your feelings known. If we can’t influence the “locals”.....
Children Are Our Future
I would like to single out one of our donors – Nora is the daughter of one of our long-time fosters. She loves cats so much! She supports Feral Fixers by doing impromptu fundraisers, the latest of which was in honor of her birthday. Nora donated $131 of her birthday money to Feral Fixers! Thank you, Nora!
Busy, As Always!
We have a few events going on currently and more coming up!
We’d like to thank our friends at Stella & Chewy’s for their offer to make a donation from all the sales in the month of April at Natural Pet Market in Wheaton. Natural Pet Market is a great place to stop in and learn a lot about food options that aren’t on the shelves of some of the other pet food vendors! No coupon necessary, its automatic with purchase!
Our Feral Fixers’ Bazaar “Shop 4 Strays” is imminent! Where else can you shop such a variety of home party vendors, the Feral Fixers Boutique AND our fabulous Bake Sale at one time! Nowhere else! As always, Feral Fixers volunteers will be on hand to answer questions, so come, hang out, have some coffee & shop!
Our Petco Foundation “Life Is Better Together” fundraiser is still going til April 29th. Emphasis on “fundraiser” - you vote with your donation. We have a team of animals, under VIEW PHOTOS, enter Feral Fixers and all the options appear! We have some really cuties! They all have a story, check them out and vote! We need to raise $1500 by the 29th or all of the money we have raised goes into a big pool, and we would only receive it if picked in a drawing. So pass the information on to your friends and family!
Keeping Pace With Last Year
We are, at this writing, one shy of the total number of cats neutered at the end of April last year. I expected us to be slowing down, but people really do not want their ferals to have kittens! This is great news! We are crossing our fingers as usually the shelters are awash in kittens by now and that is not the case yet! Yea!!!
I have to tell you about a recent trapping experience. I rarely GET to go out trapping myself anymore, there’s just too much to do! But, for this location, there wasn’t anyone who could go this far, in this direction. Sue was stopping at a barn to leave food for the cats and was concerned about how many kittens would be born if they did not get TNR’d. She was sure there were 17 cats, she had counted that many. So, I brought 18 traps with and made contingency plans for someone to come later and take filled traps away and bring more empties, just in case. We trapped 14 cats before we called it an afternoon – it was time to address the peeping of kittens that I had heard off and on. By then (super volunteer) Judy had arrived with the drop trap that she had been sure would be needed. She and (super volunteer) Ted had been on a project even further out in the boonies and I had asked that they stop and check on the situation on their way back. We were pretty certain which was the mother of the kittens, having seen her jumping out of the trough in which 3 kittens were screaming, barely a day old in the small amount of straw they were laying in, soooo cold. We set up the drop trap, put the kittens in a bowl with “their” straw, warmed them in the car periodically and finally! got the mom! That was definitely enough for that day. The next day, Judy and I came back with the drop trap and with Sue’s help, got 8 more cats before the remaining cats would no longer come out of hiding to check on what was going on. We knew there were more. Over the next 5 days, Sue trapped the remaining 9 cats. Yes, 14 + 1 + 8 + 9 = 32 cats & 3 kittens. Mom had a rocky start, but is doing well with the kittens now. And we have a new trapper in Sue who has gotten the TNR bug and is willing to help with locations in her area! With 14 adult females, you do the math, there could have been 50 – 60 kittens born there this Spring! Great job, Sue!
As always, we thank everyone who donate their time and money to making Feral Fixers a success!
Catlandia
Audios / Visuals of the Week
Written by TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsKatt
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
I'm passing this along from our friends in San Francisco...
If you’re a fan of the TV show Portlandia and you’re a TNR advocate, here's a spoof video Catlandia, from the San Francisco SPCA that you're sure to enjoy!
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