Thank you to everyone who helped make our second annual Wet Your Whiskers - Cataoke fundraiser such a rousing success!
Thank you to everyone who bought tickets and attended the event!
Thank you to everyone who donated items to our Fill The Van!
Thank you to all the Feral Fixers Directors and Officers who worked so hard to plan this event and make it a success!
And finally, a special Thank You to the Elmhurst Public House who donated the room and who provided some very delicious appetizers!
(Picture thumbnail is of Feral Fixers President Tammy McAuley (foreground) and Event Coordinator Terri (background) - click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture. Click on our Photo Gallery link to see pictures from this event and others that we have been a part of.)
5+1 = Another new record
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
For today's TNR run to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic, Tammy had originally asked PAWS if we could bring in six cats - all from one litter (originally PAWS said they could only handle five from us today as they had already scheduled some other big loads to be done). This wish was granted. However, it turned out that the kittens we (I) brought in today was from another litter and there were only five of them.
I drove to Tammy's, picked them up, and then headed to PAWS. I had only been traveling a few minutes when Tammy called me to say that someone called her to tell her that she had just trapped one feral cat. Tammy agreed to pick up this cat and to get it TNR'd at the Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital - so we really did wind up doing six cats today. I picked up and dropped off the five kittens while Tammy picked up and dropped off the feral.
This brings us to a total of 137 cats we've done for August - the most we've ever done in a single month (our previous record was 125, done in March of 2009). We've now blown past 600 for the year (604 overall) and have done 2,083 cats since our inception.
Super-volunteer Jennifer drove them in while super-volunteer Mary picked them up and drove them back to Tammy's for recovery (Thanks Jennifer! Thanks Mary!).
The trip was a routine one, but it also marked a total of 131 cats that Feral Fixers had TNR'd this month - a new, monthly record for us!
We have now TNR'd 598 cats for this year and 2,077 overall.
Feral Fixers makes the Lombard Spectator
The Feral Blog
Written by Ted Semon
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Feral Fixers is prominently featured in the August 27th issue of the Lombard Spectator. A reporter from that paper came out and visited Tammy, taking some photographs which appear in the print version.
It looks like the reporter did her homework and she wrote a really fine article about us.
You can access the online version of the article here.
If you go to a newstand to pick up the paper, it will be the version with the "Gridiron 2010" cover - this is a several page 'outsert' wrapped around the paper. You'll note that the article about us is mentioned very prominently on the front page of the paper - up in the banner.
And, a slight correction to our numbers. I neglected to count "Rags" an Addison-cat we took to the local vet because he required some extensive surgery - and, of course, we had him neutered at the same time. So our monthly figures are up to 125, tying our record month (Thanks to super-volunteer Judy for catching this). With two more batches going to PAWS before the end of August, this will be our most active month ever - a great tribute to Tammy and all of the volunteers she has recruited.
Kitten Storm
From The President
Written by Tammy McAuley
Sunday, August 01, 2010
All the calls we get are about kittens…
Well, yeah. It’s what cats do in April and May that affect conditions in July and August. We have neutered, have on hand, know about, over 100 kittens since “kitten season” began. These are kittens that would have gone on to make more, died out in the wild, or been euthanized due to lack of adoptive homes, so we are doing a fantastic job with your help! This is the most extreme foray into fostering and taming that we have done to date, but there are always more kittens out there and will be for some time until we can make sure we neuter before the kittens arrive. Usually there are more adults than kittens but at this time of year, the few are becoming the majority and part of TNR is pulling friendlies out of the colony.
We average 3 new calls each day. Almost all with kittens and the colony can be just one cat or as many as 30. How do we keep ahead of that? When we ask for people to foster, transport and trap we are expressing a very real need. I hope that we have not asked too often already, or is there another way of asking? Our caretakers have really stepped up to the plate and many have fostered their own kittens and adults and then gone on to foster others when they found how fulfilling it is. To do a good job, a foster should not take on more than 6 kittens maximum and there are some colonies where we have found 3 times that many at once, so the caretaker could not support the whole kitten load.
We’ve had school employees fostering for us – they will soon have to go back to work. We’ve had people who are unemployed fostering for us – we hope they will be able to go back to work soon! They’ve all done a fantastic job, fostering is the hardest part of Rescue. It takes a lot of time and patience, it takes seeing the big picture and knowing that they have to let these kittens go, so that the next litter can be taken from the outside and put on the path to their forever homes. It takes listening and paying attention and relaxing and knowing that all in all, kittens are durable. Fostering is feeding, socializing - kitten boot camp if you will, getting them ready to go into a cage at a PetsMart, Petco, vet’s office or shelter for adoption.
We have several adults and probably 30+ kittens right now that we could pull from the outside. But there is no where to go. If you know someone who can foster we would love the opportunity to talk to them. It is only with your help that we can make a difference!
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