We Did Some Surgeries!

On 4/27 we took advantage of PAWS experimenting with following Coronavirus/Social Distancing protocols and sent 3 ferals in, 1 female and 2 males.  It went very well!

On 5/7 we sent another 7 ferals to PAWS, 5 females and 2 males.

Also on 5/7 we sent a male feral with an injured paw to GEAH, so swollen it looked like a club instead of a paw.  The paw was treated and he was neutered and vaccinated.  His caretakers are keeping him in a crate and he's being a very calm boy, he's already gone back for a bandage change – you can't do that with many ferals, of course he has to be sedated every time.  Toffee probably will NOT end up living inside but should have a great life as a feral.

That brings us to 11 in April, 8 in May, 38 for the year and 11,723 since our beginning.

With adequate social distancing, we will be starting to do more ferals on 5/14.  Initially, we'll be working on the cats that are already known to us.  We'll see how this goes!

We know of many litters already born out there, wish us luck in nabbing the kittens!

Petey Update

Astoundingly, Petey has done okay!  We went from his having to be force-fed to gradually being able to eat from a very low dish with the cone on, a second surgery when his eye abscessed, to stitch removal.  When he could not groom himself and was itching all over, I could actually groom him!  Two days after cone removal he was back in attack mode at the slightest provocation.  No gratitude whatsoever!  He is now at a relocation site and doing well!  Still in the cage for acclimation, he's faking it and rubbing up against the wire, like "Oh yeah, they were wrong, you can trust me, you can pet me."  They were warned not to trust him, it will be interesting to see how he is when not confined in a 48" crate!

You can see more of Petey, including a Video of him at the Morton Ave Ferel (sp) Cat Colony Facebook Page.

Ever Done A Re-Hab?

We knew we had a lot of work to do when we pursued purchasing our new building.  One project is the removal of the vault.  Yes, a vault with a 5" thick vault door in a metal frame, cement ceiling and cement block walls.  We have absolutely no idea what prior tenant needed a vault for.  This is the space where our laundry/storage is going, the vault needs to go.  You can see the pictures, the vault takes up half of the space and it is a safety risk.  Who would have thought that would cost us $6,700?  In this space we will be installing a sink that we can wash traps and crates in, another small wash tub for smaller items, a commercial washer that we can disinfect carriers in, clothes washer and dryer.  We intend to start out as we intend to proceed.  Stopping work to make adjustments later is much more expensive in the long run and, we would have to stop what we're doing!  What we are planning should require no adjustment for the next decade or more (crossing our fingers here!).  The cement floor is already being cut for the plumbing and the gas lines, the appliances and sinks are on order.  We're all tired of the coronavirus but it has even impacted our plans.  We were not going to plunge into this work until July or later, but with the contractors available now and looking for work, we needed to do this now.  We've looked at our budget and these costs coming sooner than expected will make things tight.  Everyone is asking for donations right now and we never want to be excessive in our asking, but the reality is that we thought we had two more months before this expense.  If you can donate towards the $6,700 demolition of the vault (not any of the other costs associated with this area of the building) Feral Fixers would be grateful in the extreme!

DuPage Giving Days

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our DuPage Giving Days!  This ends on 5/14, we're just days away!  Please help us get to our matching funds goal! Until we can have an in-person event, this is the only way we can fundraise!  The kittens are coming, trapping is resuming, giving us more of a financial cushion for our ongoing expenses will make all the difference in the world!  FYI, a gallon of fenbendazole (dewormer and yes we go thru at least a gallon a year), costs us $400.  Yikes!  And we use a minimum of 3 different dewormers depending on what the kittens and adults need treatment for – the intestinal parasites are getting more resistant, treatments are given for a longer duration than they used to be in order to knock these critters out for good.  Those behind-the-scenes expenses add up!  Please donate before 5/14 to help us out!

(You can see a larger version of any of the pictures by clicking on the picture thumbnails)