Every Day Brings New Cats, New Challenges
I'm going to describe just part of today, Saturday September 4th. At the beginning of the day I responded to emails, restricting it to an hour or so – sometimes, with phone calls that can turn into four hours. Then, headed off to the restaurant supply store to see what I could find in the way of metal buffet pans – hadn't tried there before and they make great litter boxes. Then to the post office to check the mail and then to the building. Kittens in the TNR room needed meds, upgraded a cat named Landon to a big litter (buffet) pan – he was struggling with a regular litter box, perching so carefully, moved an injured kitty from a transfer into a crate, started washing transfer traps (all were used) and got a call. Girl had found a kitten, bad eye, wound on shoulder, so bad, no answers anywhere she called and it was after 12 so County was closed. I told her to bring it over. We do not share horrible pictures and this would have been something extreme – I will describe it tho. I managed to get in touch with Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital and was able to take the kitten over there. I rinsed her before I left and thought I had gotten everything off of her. Turns out that Valley Girl had a bot in her eye – had never encountered one in the eye before and a bot in her shoulder that had been there so long that it was almost mature. At the vet, while waiting, with the warmth of the water and the towel wrapped around her, a nickel sized mass of something hatched out – maybe maggots, maybe something smaller. I've dealt with some horrible injuries but this almost put me over the top. The easy thing would have been to euthanize her, but my feeling was that we should try. The vet removed the bots, rinsed off the wigglies, gave a Convenia shot and sent me home with 2 different eye medications and kitten Revolution. So far, she is set up in a crate with a heating pad, got a couple drops of Revolution, packed the bot wound with Neosporin, did both medications in the eye, fed KMR mixed with Wellness – she's only 5 weeks old at the most, did I say that? We'll go thru all this again in a couple hours, maybe more food earlier than that, twice a day going forward at least. The eye meds are not to save the eye, it is probably destroyed but to hold infection at bay for a future eye removal if she makes it thru this. FYI – eye enucleations are $300+ even for us.
Including pictures of Ralphie, he's a 9 year old brown tabby that we had neutered in 2016 at a trailer park that is being torn down, there was nowhere else for him to go and we couldn't say no. He's 11.5 lbs and so affectionate! He had initial blood tests and if they are good, he is scheduled for a dental on Tuesday when he will have his upper canines removed at a minimum – cost $300+ not sure how many more might have to come out. A volunteer is really attracted to him and may adopt him, we will see what next week brings.
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Ralphie says Hey! |
Ralphie now has a large metal litter box! |
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| Ralphie demonstrating proper technique to accept head-scratches... |
I mentioned Landon – he is also 9 years old – that is what the vet aged him when we sent him for neuter to find out he was already neutered and not chipped and she found that he needed 3+ teeth removed. He is an absolutely lovely black/white boy who loves to talk, he did get all other services and does now have an eartip. Haven't had the time to try for an appointment for him yet.
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| A Volunteer commented that his mom cut his hair - bowl cut! |
This is the long way of saying that we need your contributions to our As If They Were Our Own Giving Grid fundraiser. We don't spend funds frivolously, we do as much as we can ourselves but we absolutely have to have vet care for these cats. Just these three cats will amount to +/- $1,200. Which would you choose not to care for and give a chance?
We did receive a pledge for $500 more to be matched which brings our goal to $8,100. That is a big number and we are hoping our donors can step up once again as they have in the past. There are just 8 more days left in our fundraiser, we're currently almost halfway there. Please donate and please share our mission with your friends and family. You will make a difference for so many cats!
Labor Day Already!
This year is whizzing by!
On August 26th we sent 23 cats to DCAS. Would have been 24 but once again, Blessed Event! 4 kittens, brown tabbies and gray tabbies. Of the 23, 7 were feral and 16 were friendly, 14 females and 9 males.
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Here is mom & babies in their feral cat den, awaiting a trip to their new foster. |
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| Ready to head out! |
On September 2nd we sent 21 cats to DCAS, 13 feral and 8 friendlies of which Landon was already neutered, so 7 females and 13 males were neutered.
This brings us to 53 for August, 20 for September so far, 495 for 2021 and 12,944 since our beginning in 2007.
New Law Can Affect Fostering
Time for public comment has passed but you can still contact your State representatives regarding amendments proposed to the Illinois’ Animal Welfare Act regulations which could make fostering too costly for shelters and burdensome to foster care homes. The Department of Agriculture should make these adjustments to the proposed rule changes to the administrative code [25.1.40]:
* Section 2 requires foster homes to register with their county of residence. However, the local animal shelter owns the dog or cat until adoption occurs. Therefore, registration should be in the county where the shelter is located.
* Section 3 requires Daily Exercise Logs. It is hard enough to find foster homes for dogs and cats but expecting foster homes to keep a daily log of exercise for each dog, cat, puppy, or kitten would be extremely difficult. It would also be problematic for shelters to keep a daily exercise log for cats and kittens and would require more staffing on the part of the animal shelter, resulting in a cost to taxpayers.
* Section 4 would require fosters to have a working relationship with a veterinarian. The foster should work with the shelter’s veterinarian -- not their personal vet. This section could force volunteers to take their foster dogs and cats to their personal veterinarian, which would add additional expenses that would have to be paid by the animal shelter and would be costly to taxpayers.
From Best Friends - Great news! On Friday, August 27, Governor Pritzker signed House Bill 1711 into law, making Illinois the fifth state to enact a humane pet sales law statewide.
Now, instead of supporting the inhumane practices of commercial breeding facilities (aka puppy and kitten mills), pet shops that wish to continue selling cats and dogs will need to source them from animal shelters or rescue groups.
The new law takes effect 180 days after signing, so mark your calendars to celebrate a more humane state on February 23, 2022!
Next Adoption Event
Our next adoption event at the building will be on Saturday, 9/11. Right now, as I write this, 9 of the 20 cats posted on our Petfinder are currently black. We have more black kittens that are awaiting surgery and fostering. The adopters of black cats give us rave reviews, they love them so much! Maybe it's on its way to becoming a status symbol, "I adopted a Feral Fixers black cat!" Say it proud! Fill out an adoption application in advance and come visit the cats on Saturday! Will Clifford be there?
Our Working Cats Program Is Doing Great!
We've gained more publicity for our relocation program and our coordinator is VERY busy. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be considered. Once the weather turns cold it is the program is suspended until Spring. We don't need any more cats to relocate, they happen often enough – we had quite the backlog for awhile, but we will always appreciate more inquiries to take cats.
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| One of our Working Cats doing his job |
Amazon Smile Quarterly Report
We received our quarterly donation from Amazon Smile, covering April 1, 2021 to June 3, 2021 - $518.73! We receive .5% of what our donors spend which means that you all spent over $103,000 and designated Feral Fixers on each purchase! Thank you for sharing our info and selecting us as your charity. Yay!