Our “hiatus” is over. With the unusual weather, there really wasn’t much of a break. With the 17 cats we sent in today, we will have done 118 cats so far this year. We were really driven by the early activities of the cats. And here, I really thought it had more to do with the angle of the sun instead of the temperature!
We’ve had several dedicated caretakers who have finally and completely tnr’d their colonies. Some have been working at getting that last difficult female for two years+! I hope it’s a trend that continues all year long!
So far I’ve only heard of one litter being born so far this Spring in all our phone calls, so I am definitely hoping there will be a reduction!
Ongoing Kitten Shortage! No lack of adults for us!
Whenever I get a chance to talk to a shelter, I ask how many kittens they have and what the age is of the youngest cat they have on hand. Repeatedly I am hearing that they have no one under 6 months old! How fabulous is that? This, more than anything shows that we are making a difference!
We are also making a difference in how many strays and friendlies we are getting. They keep knocking on our caretaker’s doors! I have to tell you about Monte. He is the sweetest cat, turning cartwheels in his trap. Of course he went in as a friendly. Unfortunately, that strange scabby stuff going on in his coat was not just the result of being attacked but actually ringworm (I’ve seen ringworm, this was just bizarre stuff, HUGE!). So, he’s staying with me, getting lyme dips and I have the first spot of ringworm since I was nine years old – long time! He’s a lanky boy, about a year old and his coat is already filling in but he’s terribly bored. It takes weeks!
This is an extreme case, one I probably would not hand off to a foster, even if there was one willing, but we have many more adults that need fostering, so please contact us!
What’s Happening?
As you can see from our banner, we will be doing a Flower Power Spring fundraiser. I can’t wait to see the flowers that I got last year make an appearance in a few weeks! The best part of this fundraiser is that everything is taken care of by the folks at Flower Power. You order from them, from anywhere in the country, designating us as the charity, we receive 50% of the total purchase and they ship directly to you at the best time for planting in your area! The only other thing they could do is come and plant them for you! Cut off is 4/27/12 for the Spring fundraiser.
Come see us at Sweet Tomatoes on the 20th! I try to be at every one and it is great to see our caretakers and donors and be able to say hello. Don’t forget to vote first and then come to dinner!
With the end of the year, we were looking at our Profit & Loss statement and seeing where the money goes. While it is a very small percentage, a portion of our monetary donations do go to purchasing supplies. We need to update our website Wish List, but did you know that Walmart does an online Wish List? It's very similar to a bridal or baby registry, you click on items you would like to receive and then people can access that list to see what you want. As an experiment, I’ve set up a Wish List for Feral Fixers. On the Walmart page you click on Registry->Wish List and enter “Feral" in the First Name field and "Fixers" in the Last Name field to get to our Wish List main page. On that page, you can click on "TAMMY MCAULEY" or "FERAL FIXERS NFP" to get to our specific wish list. Right now our list has cat litter, food, toys, garbage bags and electric heated throws. I’ve never done this before, it’s very interesting and I hope it’s a way that people can support us and know exactly how their money was spent – that is very important to some people. You can also print out the Wish List at the store kiosk – I haven’t done that yet, but it’s on the to-do list! The most frustrating part was that the 6” Great Value paper plates (best value for the $ I’ve found) cannot be purchased online. FYI, 1,024 cats neutered last year, average of 4 plates per cat = 4,096 paper plates!
Keep your fingers crossed! Toyota is donating cars to charitable organizations! 100 Cars for Good! Visit their website for a report on the 2011 contest. We’ve begun the application process, if we are selected, we will be one of 500 organizations picked to receive votes on Toyota’s Facebook page. We could win $1,000 or a new car! And, it’s so cool, they give you a video camera in order to produce a video about your organization! Voting begins May 9th, we will keep you posted as to whether we are selected and then we will have ONE DAY to receive votes, so sign up for Facebook now and at a minimum, “like” Feral Fixers and Toyota! No soda codes!!!
It was a Dream
Thank goodness it was just a dream! We’ve all had dreams where we were at work, right? Well, the cats must be getting to me, ‘cause now I’m dreaming about them. “Driving along, passengering, so I was able to look around. Come to an intersection, there’s a group of small houses, like one bedroom in size. You know, like those built right after World War I, all clustered together? So, I see 3 – 4 black cats pawing at a door and then I look wider and there’s black cats all over this group of houses, sitting on stoops, prowling in the grass. I ask the driver to stop, I’ve got to look into this! Go up to the house with the most cats. Lady who lives there is in a wheel chair, just able to throw the food out the door for the cats, no money, no hope of any help with the cats.”
So that’s my 60 Cats Dream – a distillation of the scenarios we run into, amped up just a bit. I can tell you, I was really paranoid for days, waiting for black cats to show up! We had just heard of a colony of 40 cats, perhaps my subconscious was telling me to be grateful there were only 40!
It is your donations that keep dreams and realities like these from becoming nightmares, because, due to your continued generosity, we can take care of a rare 40 (even 60) cat colony when it occurs.
We couldn’t do it without YOU!