Today we brought 38 more cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. 29 of the cats were ferals while the other 9 were friendly ferals.

Once again, we are indebted to super-volunteer Sue for again loaning her van to us - thanks Sue! We were able to cram all 38 cats into just this one vehicle. I guess my wasted-hours as a youth playing Tetris has finally given me some benefits :)

There were no problems with any of the cats, and none of them had been spayed/neutered before, so all 38 cats were done. This brings our December total to 82 cats, our yearly total to 1,022 cats and our overall total to 3,503 cats.

1,022 cats in a single year is another new record for us - breaking last year's record of 1,002. There are a lot of people to thank for this - it certainly was a collaborative effort - and I'm going to let Tammy take care of that in her January Letter from the President.

But I do want to say thank you now to those of you who actively contributed their time and/or donations towards our work. Our reach in DuPage County continues to grow - so many people know about us now. We have several municipalities onboard with our program and, as Tammy as said before, we really have become the 'go-to' team for all things TNR in DuPage County. I also want to say thank you to PAWS - these people are awesome. Their willingness to take on any numbers of cats we throw at them, their competence and their friendly attitude all make a tough job much, much easier.

We plan on taking a break from TNR activities until sometime in mid-February. It's just getting too cold to trap these cats and, after surgery, to put them back outside. Plus, we simply need a break. Anyone who has been at Tammy's house helping to get cats ready or anyone who has done transport knows how much work goes into making our group so successful. We definitely need to recharge our batteries!

Thanks everyone - 1,022 - Wow!!!