From our President, Tammy...

On Thursday we sent in 7 cats, 6 ferals and one friendly, to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic. Jennifer transported in the morning and Jodie picked the cats up.

Of the ferals, 5 were female.

One of the females had an injured tail that we knew about. What we hadn't known about was that she had a mammary gland abscess that had ruptured. Ardent had her kittens behind a 3 foot fence, all we can assume is that she snagged herself on the fence on one of her trips over, causing the abscess.

PAWS amputated the tail, cleaned out the abscess and stitched her up, giving her a shot of antibiotics and making sure we would hold onto her for at least 10 days after surgery to ensure her recovery.

This is a big surgery and they wanted to be sure we kept her warm during transit and recovery. Jodie didn't get out of PAWS until 6:45 PM and kept the heat on high the whole way home in order to make sure Ardent stayed warm. That's a lot of invasive surgery for an animal that's about 7 pounds in all, and just like us, they have trouble maintaining body heat afterwards.

Ardent is safe in Judy's garage for recovery, covered with an electric blanket to keep off any chill.

Many thanks to PAWS staff and Dr. Von Waldau for taking the extra time and care for this cat and all the animals they are so invested in!

Thanks Jennifer! Thanks Jodie!

With these 7 cats, Feral Fixers has now processed 49 cats for the month, 217 for the year and 3,722 overall.