What if due to overwhelming need, Feral Fixers had to suspend operations?
We receive +/- 5 phone calls a day about cats, cats with kittens, injured cats, owned cat surrender and on and on. When Googling, Feral Fixers comes up first on the list to contact. Calls come from Chicago, and up to 50 miles in any direction as people are so desperate for help and do not find out in advance that we take care of DuPage County. Just saying “no” can be overwhelming as many people do not do specific Googling for their own town/area. Every group is overwhelmed, County is under construction (limits their resources), no one can absorb the number of kittens being produced.
We juggle the surgeries for ferals (preventing further births) against the kittens on hand. If we do not get our fosters neutered, they cannot go on to adoption and there is no room to take more from the outside, resulting in putting off the outside kittens until they are old enough for s/n, resulting in them never being trapped and creating more kittens within 6 months.
The chain of events is: Trapping, taking in kittens if friendly enough, returning adults, kittens go to foster, kittens get s/n, kittens get adoptive homes, over and over and over. If we do not have enough volunteers for trapping, trapping does not happen. If trapping gets delayed, more kittens are produced in a short time. If caretakers do not want the cats back (or that location is no longer viable), we can work on relocation but that takes time away from trapping. Volunteers at the building are needed to make sure kittens are ready for foster. Fosters are needed (320+ adoptions last year), lack of fosters slows down the chain of events as well. Insufficient spay/neuter surgery slots slows down adoptions and preventing births in the ferals. Caretakers contacting us months too late to prevent growth of a colony.
This is not just venting. All of us volunteering for Feral Fixers are feeling an immense burden. We work very hard to limit the supply coming in (feral or friendly), the public cannot grasp the volume of what we do with very limited volunteers, and resources. Our donors are fabulous, unfortunately our needs go far beyond monetary concerns. Fundraising takes a huge amount of time, too. Additionally, bodies, space, time are needed or we will have to put a full stop to trapping as all we can do is limit incoming. If we put a full stop for even a few weeks, there will be continued, unlimited growth. No one else is doing what we do in DuPage County. We did not really stop over the winter in hopes that we would see a reduction in volume, that did not happen, we’re just even more tired.
Every organization is overwhelmed and desperate. I hear “you’re the only people that answered the phone.” There is a reason for that – there are too many phone calls! Some other TNR groups have basically aged out, 60 & 70 year olds cannot do what we did when we started at age 40 & 50. We need more volunteers for every facet of TNR & Rescue. Sometimes we cannot get back to people who want to volunteer – that takes time, too, unfortunately – we need people to come to events, be insistent, know what they can contribute in terms of hours and abilities.
Okay, I hope my rant is informative. Hope you will pass on to anyone who might be able to assist us in our efforts so that we do not have to suspend our work – even for a matter of weeks – before Winter comes with what has in the past been a natural suspension due to weather!
Thank you for reading!
Driscoll - while sedated with his tape collar - neutered and healthy now!
July Trips (so far)
7/2/24 – GEAH – 1 feral male. Feared broken leg but was severe abscess, now recovering with caretaker & will hopefully join his previously tamed brother inside.
7/11/24 – DCAS – 7 ferals, 22 friendlies, 16 females 13 mals. 21 kittens became available for adoption!
7/16/24 – ADOPT – 1 feral male. ADOPT had one open slot and we filled it!
7/19/24 – GEAH – 1 feral male. This cat had a chip, assumptions that he was also neutered were made, then we saw proof he had not been neutered so got him into GEAH right away instead of waiting a week for next trip. The vet who chipped him had tested him, apparently mis-read the SNAP, said he was FELV+ and that it was not advisable to neuter him as it would be “bad” for him. We all make mistakes. Cat is FIV+, in great health and will be returning to location as he prefers life outdoors.
7/21/24 – GEAH – 1 feral male. Driscoll had a 4” roll of packing tape around his neck. GEAH had some time so neutered him since he had to be sedated for removal of tape. Seemed in great health! WHAT A WEEK!
Total: 69 in July, 389 so far in this year, 15,269 since our start.
Saturday, 8/17, 11am – 3pm - Feral Fixers, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard. Also Black Cat Appreciation Day!
Saturday, 8/31, 11am – 3pm – PetSmart, Finley Square Shopping Center at 1550 Butterfield Rd in Downers Grove, IL
We have just 23 cats posted but many more on hand. Filling out an adoption application earlier than later makes a huge difference in finding the right cat for you! We have dozens of kittens who are or will soon be of age for spay/neuter and then be adoptable, but we are still experiencing a shortage of surgery slot availability.
Tidy rows of 15 fosters on 7/18/24. It can get really loud when they come back, waiting for foster pickup and they are HUNGRY!
We do not have room in TNR for 22 fosters in carriers so we hold them in our big room before and after surgery.
Those crates in TNR - kittens.
Happy Fourth!
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
Don’t Make Us Trap Your Cat!
Prepare and take caution this upcoming holiday weekend to prevent your cats from ending up outdoors. Cats can take on feral behavior in order to protect themselves from dangers that they never imagined in the safe confines of your home. Keep doors shut (if you have workmen coming on that additional day off from work, contain your cats!), provide a central location in your home that is buffered from the explosions, provide distracting noise and activities, here are tips. If you have not micro-chipped, do it ASAP! Cats can join nearby colonies, resulting in trapping a cat that is not eartipped but neutered, not acting friendly, wasting a surgery slot and how do we get it back home? Please, don’t call us to ask for help in trapping your fearful, now semi-feral acting cat, after it ends up outdoors! Prevention is 100%!
This chaos consists of the cats for two trips for s/n, kittens we are holding to tame, and a cat awaiting relocation.
6/28 - We're very thankful for our volunteers who transport and own SUVs!!!
6/20/24 – DCAS – 9 ferals, 14 friendlies, 7 females, 16 males. One feral male was euthanized due to a massive abscess from his left shoulder and down his leg, so glad he is no longer in pain.
6/25/24 – GEAH – one friendly female – on of our fostered kittens was developing a prolapsed anus and while she was spayed the vet performed a purse string procedure that tightens the sphincter, preventing further growth of the problem.
6/27/24 – DCAS – 4 ferals, 3 friendlies, 3 females, 4 males. One feral male had been in the colony for years, caretakers moving, future care in the neighborhood unlikely, they brought him in, luckily an injured paw was found and treated. One feral female had a severe case of pyometra, in foster being treated with additional long term antibiotics to make sure she is healed.
6/28/24 – ADOPT – 6 ferals, 4 friendlies, 6 females, 4 males. Four of the feral females were from a location we had last been at in 2012 – a neighbor contacted us as the colony was growing. We also caught 9 kittens at the same time and there are more kittens to trap.
7/1/24 – DCAS – 2 feral males. We could not fit in one cat over our limit on 6/28 and then another showed up on Sunday – DCAS was very generous and squeezed them in so that they would not have to wait until 7/11 – our next spay day.
That makes 65 cats in June, 2 in July, 322 year-to-date, 15,202 since 2007.
Hope the details we’ve been sharing are helpful in understanding the scope of what we do. Clearly we don’t just TNR, although that is the goal!
As Many as Possible As Soon as Possible
Upcoming Adoption Dates
Saturday, 7/20, 11am-3pm - PetSmart in Finley Square Shopping Center (1550 Butterfield Rd, Downers Grove, IL)
We have just 18 cats posted but many more are on hand. Filling out an adoption application earlier than later makes a huge difference in finding the right cat for you! We have dozens of kittens who are or will soon be of age for spay/neuter and then be adoptable, but we are still experiencing a shortage of surgery slot availability.
Don’t Forget -We’re the Charity of the Month in July at Lynfred
The winery is a non-tipping facility, but the staff will accept donations to the Charity of The Month – Feral Fixers for the month of July! They have new wines and the ones they have been known for for years! Check them out and benefit Feral Fixers!
275 So Far for The Year!
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
275 So Far for The Year!
6/6/24 – DCAS – 6 ferals, 3 males, 3 females. One male had 4 fractured canines and has received a dental to relieve the pain he must have been in. We just can’t return a feral without addressing medical needs – he was viable in every other way. This was a week that we had tried to take “off” – the cats had other plans.
6/13/24 – DCAS – 8 friendlies, 6 ferals, 10 males, 4 females. One female feral had lost her right rear foot in the last year. Despite that she was able to leap fences and have a litter of kittens in the last two months. A portion beyond the calcaneus remained – think of it as a human wrist – and was somewhat inflamed. During spay that remainder was removed and we will be holding onto her until completely healed and can be returned to her outside home – she is not friendly and we are trying to keep her stress to a minimum as she heals. Another feral cat was brought to us, recently neutered by another organization but with a front paw injury. Turns out a rear paw had a much more severe injury – treated – he is also being housed until healed and can be returned. We don’t want to keep these cats any longer than they need to be held!
Total: 20 cats in June, 275 year-to-date, 15,155 since our start.
The TNR room is always in use, cats coming in, cats going out, this is from 6/13/24.
As Many as Possible As Soon As Possible
Adoption Event Saturday, June 29th!
From 11am to 3pm, come visit some of our adoptable cats & kittens at our building, 330 Eisenhower Ln N, Lombard, IL. Please fill out an Adoption Questionnaire. As I write this there are only 10 felines posted but we have many more on hand. Frequently new families are matched up with the best feline for them before they can be posted. We have dozens and dozens of kittens that will soon be old enough for spay/neuter and then can be adopted. Please submit your application so that we can match you up when they are available!
We’re the Charity of The Month in July at Lynfred
Feral Fixers has a long history with Lynfred Winery of Roselle. They have often donated to our Silent Auctions, we’ve held fundraisers at the Winery and have previously been a designated charity, receiving customer’s tips for an entire month! The winery is a non-tipping facility; however, in the past winery patrons were leaving tips that employees just saved the money and used it for pizza parties. As more tips were accumulated, and more donation requests came in for local charities, the staff decided to donate the money. Lynfred general manager Andres Basso was so impressed with the idea that he decided he would buy them pizza often instead! Since then, the pizza parties have developed into full-blown quarterly staff appreciation parties. Local charities are hand-picked by the winery staff and cover many causes- many near and dear to them in their personal lives. The winery’s charity of the month program has brought joy and enthusiasm to the staff. Lynfred sales hostess Kim Henry said, “When someone hands me a tip, I am proud to tell them that all our tips are donated to a small, local charity! A certain pride comes with knowing we are making a difference.”
You can help Feral Fixers in July at Lynfred Roselle, Wheeling, or Highland Park, and leave a ‘tip’. Click on the link to see the wide range of charities Lynfred has assisted so far this year and those designated for the rest of 2024.
Cats In England Are Required to Be Microchipped!
Yes, microchips can be a blessing and a curse, but can you imagine if EVERY cat over 5 months old was required to be chipped? People can fail to update their info but in this data age, it is becoming easier and easier to find people once you have a starting point. What a reduction in animals staying in shelters this could mean here in the US!
Be Prepared – Adopt YOUR Black Cat
With the volume of kittens we encounter, we have found that coat colors seem to come in surges, no matter the area they are found! Our current surge is black and black & white. As of this writing we have 24 black and 22 black & white kittens on hand (more out there to be trapped). Behavior does seem to coincide with coat colors. Overall, black cats are less extreme in their behaviors, in my personal opinion they actually seem to try harder to fit in! Black Cat Appreciation Day is August 17th – we will have plenty of kittens ready for adoption – show YOUR appreciation!
Aren't we just adorable?
2023-2024 Letter From the President
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
2023 – What A Year
Together, volunteers, donors, caretakers, everyone involved with Feral Fixers, we have accomplished 926 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. With the help of our dedicated adoption and foster and animal care volunteers, we have found homes for 360 cats and kittens. In just this year, you can see the impact as we reduced the volume of cats outdoors, we reduced the overpopulation crisis from every direction, helping felines and humans alike.
The challenges have been immense.
Kitten numbers have increased dramatically –societal changes may be the biggest impact: lack of vet access, money, movement of our population – combining households, isolation and hoarding, etc. People are actually paying more attention to the cats outside and are discovering the pregnant cat, the litter of kittens much more readily than in the past which results in overall increased volume that we are contacted about. Every shelter is full. Everyone is doing their best to save every cat they can. Adults and kittens are becoming friendly at an increased pace. Years ago, a feral was a feral was a feral. Not anymore. Kittens sometimes are friendly from the time they are trapped, adults will have a complete turnaround to being friendly. National organizations are seeing this and the only advice they can offer is that even if a cat is friendly, put it back outside – there just aren’t enough homes.
Volunteers. The data can be looked at in many different ways, but finding information that DuPage County ranked 2nd in 102 Illinois Counties of charities per square mile illustrates why it is so difficult finding and maintaining volunteers. No one seems to have as much time as we used to. There are so many choices of where to spend that valuable volunteer time. Our lives can change in an instant and our personal responsibilities must take priority. Feral Fixers has wonderful volunteers, and we treasure them every day. We need more, the volunteer staff is not a constant and can change quickly. From trapping to transport, fostering and shifts of cat care at the building, cleaning – oh my, the cleaning! We do need volunteers who can snuggle kittens just as much as we need those who can sweep floors and do laundry. Social people who can interact with adopters on adoption days, help with events, host events! Everyone has their own strengths and abilities, please share them with us!
Need everywhere. We can average five calls a day for help.
*Discovered kittens under the shed, come help. *My mother let a pregnant cat into her house, come trap and take the kittens. *My cat has lost its mind and is attacking me, help. *I have 15 cats in and around my house (usually results in 60+ cats). *I live outside your area, but I can bring the cats to you. *Been feeding a cat for 2 years, not neutered, now he’s injured from fighting, come help. On social media, you may often see “call Feral Fixers, they will help you” and we do help so many!
With all these challenges we must remember the impact we have had, can you imagine how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering we have alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been accomplished!
You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 16+ years!
Letter From The President - With Your Help
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
731 spay/neuters of cats and kittens. We brought in +/- 320 friendly cats & kittens. Some of these were previously neutered adults who decided to become friendly after being neutered. There have been approximately 300 adoptions, but still have 33 officially posted for adoption and many more in foster homes. We have helped many cats with injuries and conditions from simple upper respiratory to congenital defects the cats were born with. We have provided food for caretakers. Removed feral cats from inside homes when there was no other way to get them out. Seen the change in cats who were completely feral transitioning into loving lap cats. Relocated cats that could no longer stay where they were due to overpopulation or change of circumstances. You have helped us do so much! So much goes on behind the scenes beyond our reports of spay/neuter trips and you are all part of caring for the stray and feral cats of DuPage County!
What Can We Expect In 2023?
We continue to face the unknown. Who could have expected that across the nation, we are short 15,000 veterinarians? Who could have expected that our nation could be short millions of spay/neuter surgeries? So many different factors are affecting daily lives, it will be interesting to see the impact on cats outdoors, how many kittens will be born to these unneutered females still roaming that no one was able to get to. Prices have gone up for cat food, cat litter, gasoline to take them to appointments & adoptions, and on and on. What can we do? We can continue to get as many spay/neuter appointments as we possibly can and to FILL those appointments, making caretakers aware that they must contact us as soon as a cat is consistent in attendance. It is the ONLY way to lower costs in the future. Once those kittens arrive, we will care for them, using resources for current day expenses, not for preventing even greater expenditures in the future – that is unsustainable and returns us to the past when feral cats were euthanized regularly.
Trapping will resume around the end of March, beginning of April. Keep an eye out for ferals in your area, talk to your neighbors, help us help you to care for those cats.
What Can You Do?
The Amazon Smile donation in November, which covered purchases made between July 1, 2022, and September 30, 2022, came to $606.70. That means that our donors spent $121,340 in that time period and .5% was donated by Amazon Smile – Yay! Use AmazonSmile and designate Feral Fixers – could not be an easier way to raise funds!
Visit our wish lists at Amazon & Chewy – we always need food; canned food in particular goes fast when you are supporting so MANY kittens! Gift cards allow us to purchase what our greatest need at the time is – paper towels, bleach, laundry detergent, litter boxes – amazing the variety of things we purchase to keep going!
Spread our information to coworkers, family, social media – we have donors across the country! Cats have a ripple effect, they don’t stay in one place and affect wider resources than those on their street, in their town, in their county – even in their state! New people are volunteering with us due to sharing information, but we need more volunteers, many more. Trappers, transporters, cleaners in the building, animal care in the building, fosters, event volunteers, the list goes on. You tell us what you want to do to help, and we try to make that fit for both of our benefits!
Frosty Claws in 2023
We seem to be returning to some degree of normalcy. As a result, we will be holding our 2023 Frosty Claws on Sunday, January 15th from 12 noon to 4pm at the Villa Park VFW. We may have huge attendance that day because of skipping years, please be patient. This is an event for our caretakers, adopters, donors, to talk about cats and network with some fundraising and food. We are about to start assembling our Silent Auction and door prize items – we may not have as much “stuff” as in previous years – we will post items as they are created, as soon as we have a chance. We look forward to seeing everyone who can attend!
The Kittyman Sea Shanty
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
Something to brighten your day...
What A Year!
Details
Written by Tammy McAuley
If nothing else has come of this year it has brought us all new appreciation for what we have, what we have lost and what we are able to do to make things better for ourselves and others.
We appreciate all the people who have continued to care about the cats. Many new caretakers had the time to resolve the cats around them. Extra time spent at home led to lots of new fosters and some foster failures as those families adopted their fosters, unable to part with them. People spending more time at home led to many more kittens being brought in and the longest "kitten season" we've ever experienced with the extended balmy weather. We formed tighter bonds with the area rescues as we all went thru the same challenges.
All those kittens took a toll on our fosters, our s/n transporters and Sue, our adoption counselor. There were individual kittens that actually received 40 – 50 inquiries EACH! But each of these kittens go to the best home possible for them as individuals and the alumni stories we receive validate the effort put into that goal. Please take the time to read the foster story included in this newsletter, we have some very impressive volunteers.
Thru it all we kept going as our physical interactions with people are limited and usually outdoors. A few fosters experienced COVID, most of us have been able to remain healthy.
Our ability to fundraise has been greatly impacted as cat people are much more social with other cat people than one might think and they greatly enjoy our in-person events!
A Few Notes About the Building
We try to wash and disinfect our traps before they go into Winter storage so they can be used immediately in the Spring. We were able to transport them all to the building, the railing spacing on the ramp made it very easy to get them into the building, the new washtub was able to hold 4 traps (3 large, 1 small) at once, so simple! And there was plenty of room for spraying with a blast of disinfectant, rinsing and shipping off to storage!
Fundraising
Just a few more days of our Black Cat Giving Tuesday Fundraiser. We hope the 2021 Feral Fixers Happy New Year! Raffle helps to replace our Frosty Claws event and provide something our donors will enjoy participating in.
For many reasons, I receive emails from a great many non-profits. That means that I see how they promote their organizations and ask for money. We do our very best to be different, low-volume and specific about our needs. I can't imagine how weary some of you must be, bombarded on a daily basis by every group for human, environmental, political and animal needs. I could say negative things about those other groups but would instead reaffirm that funds donated to Feral Fixers work to benefit the cats in this geographic area. Surgeries, medications, food, transportation, supplies, a building to house them in, it all goes towards the cats. The percentage of funds used for fundraising (administrative costs are often a high percentage of total costs) is minimal. We adapt ideas and make our asks as enjoyable as possible 😸. We will never be able to give up fundraising but promise to keep the annoyance to a minimum!
We have personal relationships with our donors and we appreciate them so much!
Happy Holidays!
We wish you a Wonderful Holiday and the Best Possible New Year!
Thank you all for your personal messages this year, they are greatly appreciated. Wish we could thank you all individually!