We didn’t set out to break records at the beginning of March, but that is certainly what we have done!

In February, I counted up all the “outstanding” cats that we had on our books. Some new colonies, some from last year, many that had not been TNR’d due to weather, etc. When that number came out to be over 100 cats, we approached PAWS for more slots. They were extremely accommodating and offered us several dates where we could bring in 20+ cats at a time.

Well, in March I had a vacation from my “real” job. That meant that we could do even more cats than normal, without those hours missing from every day!

Usually you say thank you at the end of a piece, but I would like to thank everyone now – please forgive me if I miss anyone!

THANK YOU!!!!

• to all the caretakers who trapped their own cats, who transported their cats to us, who care for these cats every day, day in and day out, and have taken responsibility for limiting future litters!

• to all our donors who make it possible to TNR those cats whose caretakers can only afford food but want to do the responsible thing by getting them neutered and vaccinated!

• to everyone who transported for us, to PAWS and to and from the caretakers: Ted, Jennifer, Amy, Mary, Mary, Becky, Kim, Diane, Chloe. Your help is priceless!

• to those who trapped when the caretakers could not – Mary, Diane and MJ. So many cats, so little time!

• to Sue, who loans us her van when we have a big load of cats – this saves us so much time and effort!

• a special mention for someone who has started a crusade to get us enough newspaper – Laura!

• to Leo, who helps me transfer cats, repairs our traps and puts up with all of the traffic that this process requires!

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Read more about what our President, Tammy McAuley, has to say about 'March Madness' at feral fixers here.

Interested in helping Feral Fixers?  We are looking for a 'few good volunteers'! Specifically, we're looking for someone to help us transport cats to and from PAWS (the Spay/Neuter clinic we use) in Chicago.  We need transport both in the morning and the afternoon.  If you're interested in helping, call us at (630) 881-FXRS (3977) or
email us at info@feralfixers.org.

In the March e-Newsletter, we told you how HSBC now gives matching donations to Feral Fixers.  Matching donations are a wonderful way to make your giving go even further and we were very happy to find that Cantigny also gives a matching donation.  Thanks to the time put in by Feral Fixers volunteer Rich, Feral Fixers recently received a check from Cantigny - thanks Rich and thanks Cantigny!

Feral Fixers was founded and incorporated in late September, 2007.  In our first fiscal year (through September, 2008) Feral Fixers had 476 cats spay/neutered.  So far in our second fiscal year, Feral Fixers has had 306 more cats spay/neutered, including 123 in March.

Feral Fixers offers its TNR services to all colony caretakers, without charge.  While we ask for donations from colony caretakers, we recognize that for some of them, any additional cost is just too much.  Therefore we rely on donations from other individuals to make up the difference and allow us to continue our work.  These donations allow us to spay/neuter additional cats, keep a 'bank' of traps and trap dividers we loan out for free, hold workshops and provide other educational benefits.  You can help us continue our work by clicking on the Donate button, below.  This will take you to the PayPal website where you can donate to Feral Fixers via PayPal or Credit card.  Feral Fixers is a registered 501c3 charitable organization and any donation is deductible to the fullest amount allowed by law.  Any amount you care to donate is gratefully received.

Are you one of those people who have several favorite websites that you visit all the time, looking to see if anything has been updated?  Do you wish that your computer would just tell you when something new has been added to one of your favorite sites?  Well then, I have good news for you; RSS is an internet feature which does just that!  If you 'subscribe' to a website which has an RSS feed, you will be notified automatically when new content is added to a website that you follow.  And, to see this new content, all you have to do is to click on the notice and the story will be displayed for you - you don't even have to visit the site.

If you're like me and you have several sites you want to follow, such a feature is both a time-saver and ensures that you check all your favorite websites all the time so you don't miss anything.  Any Internet browser you use these days (Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) has the ability to accept RSS feeds - and these are all free to use.  In addition, if you use a program like FeedDemon, it will not only follow all of these sites for you, but will also find stories for you based on key words.  For instance, you can set up a 'Watch' for something like 'feral cats' and when a story appears on the Internet with that phrase in it, it will be automatically catalogued for you - you don't have to search for it.

RSS is a great feature and the Feral Fixers website has an RSS feed for you.  All you have to do to subscribe to the feed is to click on the RSS button at the bottom, left of the website to add the Feral Fixers website to your RSS reader.  This way, whenever we post a new story on our website, you'll be automatically notified.  Give it a try - I think you'll really like it!

Visit our website at www.feralfixers.org.  There you can donate to us (via PayPal or Credit card), visit our store, read the latest news, and learn more about Feral cats.  If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you can also sign up to be on our mailing list so you don't miss a thing!