End Of Summer?
This may be the unofficial end of Summer but definitely not the end of Kitten Season! Cats can have 3 litters a year and we are into the 3rd surge now. We took in two new mom & babies this past week. One mom comes from a hoarding situation that we are so close to finalizing but one more litter was born – 6 brown tabby kittens, almost identical, just 5 days old. This was the location that we had pulled 35 kittens from previously, we’ve neutered 25 adults so far. That would bring the total to 67 cats from one location, SO FAR. The second mom gave birth in the training tower at the local fire department. The three kittens were discovered in a bucket of wood shavings and chips, kept on hand for starting the blazes. Mom is Ember, kittens are Sparky, Smokey & Sarge. Many thanks to the Lombard Fire Department!
8/31 DCAS – 10 friendlies, 5 ferals, 6 females, 9 males. Included were two older kittens previously neutered that needed eartips – they refused to be friendly and would need to be relocated = eartips. Also in this trip was a female that we waited for two weeks to give birth, she was huge, we knew she had health issues but no clear symptoms. She did finally give birth but most of the kittens did not survive. Her health was stable enough to send for spay and find out more about what was going on. Turns out that she had severe feline asthma (not easy to diagnose in a feral unless they are sedated) with expanded aveoli (air sacs in lungs) that could burst and develop into pneumothorax without daily asthma treatment, which was just not possible, too feral, she was humanely euthanized. We look at the future health of the cats we encounter and do our best to ensure they have good, healthy lives going forward.
9/1 – ADOPT – 1 friendly, 1 feral, 1 male, 1 female. The female was a mom from a mom & babies family. She has decided she loves humans but not other cats. Fatima will be coming to the building to have a room of her own until she is adopted so that our foster can continue to care for other cats. You may have heard that we can tell adopters so much about the cats we have on hand – we do our best to find the right homes for them – not all cats are the same!
We are far from done – our last s/n trip to DCAS is the end of October and we continue with ADOPT appointments until end of November-ish with ferals, depending on weather and into December with friendlies on hand. The kittens we just received will be old enough for s/n about the first week of December. Then we will take a break from s/n. The plan, the hope, is for no cats processed from December 17th to at least January 21st. We’ve been going full tilt since March. I’m hoping for lots of snow into April, preventing us from neutering ferals!
August total: 110, September total: 2, year-to-date: 583, since beginning: 14,535.
 |
 |
|
| Happy Family! | Mom and Kittens waiting for dinner. |
 |
| Great place to hide your kittens! |
Can You, Should You, Adopt An Unneutered Cat?
United Spay Alliance Mission Statement
PetSmart has recently begun allowing unneutered animals to be adopted from their stores. United Spay Alliance seems to be making a statement about their own views regarding this policy change without including specifics of what others are doing. It is really tough out there, getting spay/neuter appointments and the pet industry is reliant on adoptions continuing – a pause in adoptions can impact everything from food production, supplies, employment – have to have traffic into the stores = adoption events and cats housed in the stores bring those customers in to buy, buy, buy while they adopt. This is not a black and white issue, complicated by the circumstances we all find ourselves in, but Feral Fixers will continue to only offer for adoption those cats that are already neutered and vaccinated. Adopters need to be fully informed about the adoption process and how it can affect your new family member.
Illinois law requires the s/n of an adopted animal within 14 days post adoption which still requires veterinary documentation about why s/n has not taken place.
(225 ILCS 605/3.3)
Sec. 3.3. Adoption of dogs and cats.
(a) An animal shelter or animal control facility shall not adopt out any dog or adopt out or return to field any cat unless it has been sterilized and microchipped. However, an animal shelter or animal control facility may adopt out a dog or cat that has not been sterilized and microchipped if the adopting owner has executed a written agreement to have sterilizing and microchipping procedures performed within 14 days after a licensed veterinarian certifies the dog or cat is healthy enough for sterilizing and microchipping procedures and a licensed veterinarian has certified that the dog or cat is too sick or injured to be sterilized or it would be detrimental to the health of the dog or cat to be sterilized or microchipped at the time of the adoption.
(b) An animal shelter or animal control facility may adopt out any dog or cat that is not free of disease, injury, or abnormality if the disease, injury, or abnormality is disclosed in writing to the adopter, and the animal shelter or animal control facility allows the adopter to return the animal to the animal shelter or animal control facility.
(c) The requirements of subsections (a) and (b) of this Section do not apply to adoptions subject to Section 11 of the Animal Control Act.
(Source: P.A. 101-295, eff. 8-9-19; 102-558, eff. 8-20-21.)
PetSmart’s stance is that this change will result in saving more pets.
Feral Cats Do Not Require Second Rabies Vaccination
We are often contacted about the whether it is necessary to re-trap and re-vaccinate feral cats. This is not necessary. Here is the law in Cook County. In the over 14,000 cats we have neutered and vaccinated, the only re-vaccination has been for cats that have become adoptable, needing to comply with the laws for owned pets. Some caretakers feel the need to re-vaccinate and do so – hopefully other health issues are discovered at the same time, making it worthwhile, but in general not advisable to put the ferals thru re-trapping for the purpose of additional vaccines.
Feral Fixers 2023 Raffle
The Feral Fixers 2023 Raffle deadline is midnight 9/15. You can purchase tickets online or mail-in but the deadline is September 15th no matter the method of submission. Drawing 9/20. Thank you to everyone participating, wish you could all win!
15th Anniversary Event
The 15th Anniversary Event is on October 1st, at the Double Tree Suites by Hilton at 2111 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove. And, showing how short of time we are, we will be almost into our 16th year at that point – official date of Feral Fixers’ creation is October 8th, 2007. We will also be over our 14,000th cat and well on our way towards 15,000! Event will be 12:30 – 4pm , with a Deli Board buffet from 1pm to 3pm, catered by Double Tree. Sign up by 9/25/23 – registration in advance, please. Hope to see you there!
Adoption Events 9/9 & 9/23
Depending on how adoptions progress we could have 20+ kittens at each event!
- Saturday, 9/9, 11am to 3pm at the Downers Grove PetsMart in Finley Square Mall.
- Saturday, 9/23, 11am to 3pm at our building, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard.
Pre-approved adopters have priority! Check out our Petfinder page but remember, all may not be listed!