The Feral Blog

Don’t Give Cow’s Milk to Cats — And Other Urgent Ways You Can Help This Summer

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Apologies To Norman Rockwell

For years I have blamed a Norman Rockwell style print of a cat drinking squirts of milk straight from the cow for influencing the public giving cow’s milk to their cats. The image started with a photographer in 1954, not with Norman Rockwell. Still, do not give cats cow’s milk. It can cause fatal damage when given long term. I bring this up because a caretaker contacted us after we TNR’d their cat, that he was not doing well. He was consistently given cow’s milk. He was recently euthanized due to kidney disease. This cat guide lists kidney damage as a long-term symptom.

Coffee Anyone?

Coffee For A Cause is a very simple fundraiser, you order coffee, Feral Fixers receives 33% of the purchase price of $24/bag. What is unique is that immediately upon your order being processed – the coffee is shipped! No waiting til the conclusion of the fundraising dates in order to receive your coffee! Gives you time to order more than once! Yeah, we’re promoting this as the temperatures are in the 90’s!

“As If They Were Our Own” Fundraiser

Feral Fixers does the best they can to treat all the cats that come into our hands “As If They Were Our Own.” It may start with spay/neuter but goes on to snap tests, dewormers, vaccinations, blood tests, and health care that can range from wounds, upper respiratory, and end-of-life care. So much that caretakers cannot provide for the cats they feed and care about.

We have a very generous donor who has agreed to not just match the funds raised but actually triple the match. This means if you donate $10, the donor will donate an additional $30. So, your donation of $10 actually becomes a $40 donation thanks to their generous support. Our goal is to raise an initial $15,000! If we do this, the donor will triple match this donation and donate $45,000 on top of the amount we raised making it possible that we could receive $60,000 from the 2026 "As If They Were Our Own" fundraiser. 

$60,000 can equal so many services beyond the basic spay/neuter surgery!

Please participate from 7/4 to 9/4 and help us take extra care of the cats in our area!

Amazing How the Weather Affects Trapping!

Our next s/n is 7/16!

6/25 – DCAS – 14 friendlies, 19 ferals, 18 females, 15 males.  Two males were in terrible condition with severe dental disease and abscessed wounds and were euthanized.

June total 66, 2026 total 319, 16,864 since 2007!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

America’s Veterinarian Shortage + Cat News You’ll Actually Want to Read

Written by: Tammy McAuley

National Veterinarian Shortage in the U.S.

The United States is facing a widespread veterinarian shortage that is affecting both pet owners and agricultural producers, with impacts expected to persist through the early 2030s.

Scale and Projections

  • The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) estimates the U.S. needs about 7,300 new veterinarians per year to replace retirees and meet demand, but schools are producing closer to 6,000 annually, creating a cumulative shortfall of roughly 14,600 veterinarians by 2030.
  • Some industry reports suggest the gap could be as high as 55,000 additional vets by 2030 to meet companion animal demand alone.
  • By 2030, the U.S. will need 10,000 more veterinarians just to meet demand, with 25,000 job postings in a single quarter in 2023.

Where It’s Hardest

  • Rural areas and food animal medicine are hit hardest, with many counties lacking a single vet or emergency clinic.
  • Emergency and specialty care is overburdened, leading to long wait times and temporary closures.
  • The USDA’s 2026 shortage map lists over 40 counties across multiple states as designated shortage areas.

Causes

  • Aging workforce: Many vets are nearing retirement, especially in large animal medicine.
  • Shift to corporate practices: Fewer small, independently owned clinics, making it harder to pass on low-cost practices.
  • High training costs: Veterinary school tuition has risen sharply, making entry harder.
  • Specialty shortages: Open positions for specialists exceed available candidates by up to four times.

Impacts

  • Pet owners: Longer wait times (48 hours vs. 12 in urban areas), higher emergency care costs (15–17% more), and clinic closures.
  • Agriculture: U.S. dairy farms lost $3.2B in 2022 due to delayed care; rural farm incomes drop 5–10%.
  • Public health: Delayed diagnosis increases zoonotic disease transmission risk by 32%.
  • Economic loss: Estimated $1.2B annually in lost productivity.

Solutions and Outlook

  • More veterinary schools: 20 new schools needed by 2030 to meet demand.
  • Incentives: USDA and VMLRP programs target vets to shortage areas.
  • Affordable care: Organizations like the Maryland SPCA and Baltimore Humane Society are stepping in to fill gaps.
  • Workforce retention: Addressing burnout and improving compensation to keep vets in the field.

In short, the U.S. veterinary shortage is a systemic, long-term issue driven by supply constraints, demand growth, and structural changes in the profession. Without significant expansion of training capacity and targeted recruitment, the gap will continue to widen.

Cat Butt Imprint Study — What It Was and What It Found

A viral “cat butt imprint study” was actually a science fair project conducted by 6th grader Kaeden Henry and his mother, Kerry Hyde, in 2021 to answer a common cat owner question: Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on? Upworthy.

How the Study Was Conducted

Hypothesis: Cats’ buttholes do not always make contact with every surface they sit on.

Method:

  1. Non-toxic lipstick was applied to the anuses of each cat.
  2. Cats were trained to follow commands (sit, lie down, jump up) and sit on a variety of surfaces — soft (pillows, couches) and hard (wooden tables, tile floors).
  3. After each sitting, the lipstick was wiped away with a baby wipe.
  4. The experiment lasted under 10 minutes per cat.

Participants: Long-haired, short-haired, and medium-haired cats (hairless cats were excluded due to potential contact with wipes).

Results

  • Long-haired and medium-haired cats: Their buttholes did not make contact with either soft or hard surfaces.
  • Short-haired cats: Their buttholes did not make contact with hard surfaces, but the study did not specify soft surfaces for them.
  • Conclusion: Cat buttholes do not touch every surface cats sit on — contact depends on the cat’s coat type and the surface’s texture.

Why It’s Not a “Real” Scientific Study

While the experiment followed the scientific method, it was not peer-reviewed and was presented as a fun, educational project rather than a formal research paper. It was designed to entertain and answer a quirky but relatable question for cat owners.

Takeaway

If you’re worried about cat butts touching your furniture or bedding, the study suggests that coat length and surface type matter. Long-haired cats are less likely to leave a visible mark, while short-haired cats may still leave marks on hard surfaces. For hygiene, regular cleaning of cat resting areas is still recommended.

Cats Came from the Desert but They Need Water!

Providing water for ferals can increase their quality of life so much! If you feed canned food, stir water into the food and it will make a huge difference. Be sure to clean outside water bowls frequently – even daily as a biofilm scum can form easily and do more harm than good!

Why Does My Cat’s Water Bowl Get Slimy? 3 Vet-Approved Reasons

How Much Water Does a Cat Need per Day?

286 Now Compared To 288 At the End of June 2025!

Our next s/n is 6/25!

  • 6/8 – DCAS – 1 feral male, injured rear foot and mats on his back. Very talkative. Under review at DCAS and may be adopted thru them. We’ll put him under feral, but…
  • 6/11 – DCAS – 13 friendlies, 19 ferals, 18 female, 14 male. Of those 13 friendlies, we have a lot of approved adoptions applications on hand. While we are working on having adoption events, we don’t seem to be keeping kittens in stock!

June total 33, 2026 total 286, 16,831 since 2007!

Picture name
Not enough room in TNR for carriers in addition to the traps so when done with surgery, the cats wait in the big room for pickup by fosters. We have many approved adoption applications on hand but it always helps to fill one out well in advance! In the mix is the lovely girl, Raggedy Ann, currently staying in Cats In Transition, who needs a special foster - she needs to be an only kitty - not sure what happened before she came to us, but other cats are not to be tolerated!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Kitten “Season” Surges, TNR Wins & Partner of the Year: Feral Fixers May 2026 Update

Written by: Tammy McAuley

Kitten “Season”

After all these years, there is no real “Kitten Season”, there are surges about 3 times a year. Last week the kittens were coming in batches of 11! Very productive moms out there!

This resulted in an additional plea on Facebook for kitten food – that plea resulted in 17 cases of Fancy Feast canned kitten food, 5 24 packs of Fancy Feast kitten canned, 16 bags of Iams kitten dry, 3 cases of adult pate, 1 case of Buffalo Wilderness kitten and a very cool scratcher! A kitten in our care receives 2 cans of Fancy Feast and whatever dry they will chomp on throughout the day. We are so grateful for the food donations and the monetary donations that keep these kittens well fed and healthy. Amazing that this is just the start of the year, please keep those donations coming!

We are trying to trap as many cats as we have slots for – time to ask for newspapers again! We have a donation bin at the front of our building – please place in paper grocery bags if you can, it can get really windy and we don’t want to spread them around the neighborhood!

Feral Fixers Named 2026 Animal Welfare Partner of the Year

On May 15th, DuPage Animal Friends named Feral Fixers their 2026 Animal Partner of the Year! What a difference compared to when TNR first began, and it was a struggle for acceptance that TNR was one of the best tools to reducing overpopulation and euthanasia! We are so grateful that we can now work together for the benefit of the cats! I put together a short video for the award which you can view here, and you can view a photo album of the event here.

Mary Schamber
Mary & Francie Schamber
Vice President Mary Schamber and volunteer Francie Schamber were kind enough to represent Feral Fixers at the Furever Friends Gala, receiving our award from Laura Flamion, DCAS operations manager and Brian Krajewski, director DuPage Animal Friends.

Another Reason for Spay/Neuter - TNR

Not that you really need another reason but finding out that rodenticides can impact newborn kittens in this way is a real eye opener. This study of found kittens and their toxicology reports – we often intake kittens that ultimately do not do well and have no idea why they fail. So glad this study was done. Low levels of poison do not kill immediately and not always the animal that eats the poison directly but to find that it affects kittens born later and weeks into their new lives…very disturbing. Not all the kittens in the study died but required huge amounts of supportive care. The study was funded by the Orphan Kitten

How Many Times Do You Buy New Food?

Study has found that cats can have a 5-day limit on interest in a food flavor/brand. Simply introducing the scent of a different food can restimulate interest in first food. So many cat parents constantly change their cat food as intake slows dramatically and repeatedly. Who knew? Hesitate to share this as Feral Fixers is the recipient of donated food that “my cat loved this food and now won’t eat it”!

TNR Working - Colony Numbers Stabilizing

Studies are showing colony volumes are stabilizing and, in many cases, dwindling. Yay!!!

Spread Of Hantavirus Thru Pets Highly Unlikely

Concern over the spread of viruses via our pets is new, this article explains that the new Hantavirus has very low rate of infection between humans and as a result an even lower incidence between pets and people. Something to think about but doesn’t seem to be a big worry at this time!

253 Already So Far This Year!

We will be off the week of 6/4 and 6/18. Can’t wait to see how many we achieve this coming week!

  • 5/14 – DCAS – 5 friendly, 14 feral, 2 already chipped, 12 male, 7 female. DCAS performed an entropion surgery on one of the ferals, he looks so much better!
  • 5/21 – DCAS – 1 feral male – nope he was not pregnant!
  • 5/26 – DCAS – 1 male feral with a severe facial wound.
  • 5/28 – DCAS – 3 friendly, 21 feral, 12 female, 12 male. 

May total 70, 2026 total 253, 16,798 since 2007!

Cats for 05 28 26 - this room is constantly changing!  New kittens, cats awaiting surgery, so much!

11 Kittens
One location, 11 kittens from 2 moms, received on 5/24. We put our sorting hats on and moved them into crates. Only 3 decided they preferred the outside life and were neutered on 5/28.
Tubby Tom
This is the cat that was neutered on 5/21 - definitely LOOKED pregnant, but no, a tubby tom at his Winter weight!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

From The President

2026 - Can You Believe it!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

We’re almost thru 2025 as this is written. The year zoomed by!

Volunteers, caretakers, fosters, donors contributed to the spay/neuter of 811 feral and stray cats and kittens. Once again, we have done over 300 adoptions this year with the help of our trappers, fosters, adoption and animal care volunteers with just 10 days to go til the end of the year as I write this. We’ve helped so many cats and humans with the care of cats. Long-lasting effects in the future of cats in the DuPage County area.

Another year where there were limited spay/neuter services, pet owners and feral caretakers impacted by financial and housing issues. This has resulted in increased volume of cats outside and intact, creating more kittens. All shelters in the area are full, constantly.

We started trapping in February at locations with barns and outbuildings and accomplished 117 by the end of March – very early start. The whole year had its ups and downs with surgery and volunteer availability. But this contributed to a total of 16,545 spay/neuters since our start in 2007. Amazing, isn’t it?

Weather is the great unknown, but we hope to hit the ground running once again by the end of February, there are many locations that we need to get back to. Cats move around and just when we think we have resolved an area – a call with 20 more cats from a “finished” location comes in. Feral Fixers is at the top of all the search engines and perhaps someday we can expand our coverage to more than firm DuPage County response. That would take more trappers and more animal care support across the board. Please consider learning to trap and working in your own neighborhood, making a lasting difference! So many cards this year have mentioned how they are not seeing kittens as a result of our efforts.

Each week of trapping can result in kittens or cats that can become adoptable, requiring additional care at the building and then fostering and then adoption. Injured cats needing additional care are held at the building for recovery. Cats that must be relocated are usually held at the building until that can be arranged. This all requires an increased number of volunteers so that we can meet the need.

Our donors have made a huge difference, supporting us with the funds that keep the cats healthy, fed, warm in the Winter, cool in the summer. Imagine the food bill this past year! Skids of cat litter!

We always hope for fewer cats to be trapped, unlimited spay/neuter capacity and the day the phone will stop ringing with more and more cats to be cared for. Please help us make 2026 that year!

Donors, volunteers, caretakers have been doing so much for the past 18 years, and we’ve done so much – 16,545 cats!  Just remember –

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

It's 2025!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

2025 – Already Here!

2024 has been a very long year, hasn’t it? Yet it seems to have been over in the blink of an eye!

The volunteers, donors, caretakers, fosters, all playing a part in Feral Fixers accomplishing 854 spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. We have adopted approximately 342 cats and kittens to wonderful homes with the help of our adoption, foster and animal care volunteers and there are two days left in the year as I write this. We have assisted many sick and injured cats. We’ve done so much that is positive and will have long-lasting effects for both cats and humans.

We have to mention the challenges of the year – spay/neuter clinics shut down for reconstruction or permanently, veterinarians leaving the work force, all reducing the number of available surgery slots we could obtain. Pet owners faced housing and financial issues, resulting in more cats being outside and intact. Every shelter is full – we keep saying that and it does not improve.

Judging by the number of phone calls we have received and the locations we just could not get to, 2025 may be an even busier year. We resume trapping when the overnight temperatures are above 30 degrees consistently – that date is anyone’s guess in Chicagoland these days. We have to take the situations on a case- by-case basis. More people are bringing cats into their homes and arranging s/n themselves and we applaud them!

Through it all, our donors have helped so much. While fundraising takes time and there has not been near enough of that this year, we have been able to keep the lights on, the cats fed, the litter boxes scooped and spay/neuter to the capacity of the surgeries available to us.

We are hoping that increased capacity for surgery will increase our yearly s/n numbers in 2025 – the only way we are going to get ahead. We are hoping that more people will be able to volunteer, foster and adopt!

Even though this is hard work, we have to remember the impact we have had, how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering that has been alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been made so far!

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 17 years! Remember –

As Many As Possible

As Soon As Possible

It's 2024, finally...

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!

Too much going on!

Written by: Tammy McAuley

There is so much to talk about, this is going to seem more like a blog. Please bear with me!

1,000th Cat!

When you start doing TNR, the emergency is right before you. There is this one cat, there is this one colony, there is this whole town overrun with cats! You don’t really see down the road to where this will lead you. Prior to our forming Feral Fixers, I helped about 200 cats. I thought that was a huge accomplishment over the course of 4 years and it was, huge. Now, in 22 months we have helped over 1,000 cats. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe that accomplishment.

It takes so many people to produce these results. It takes a good organization with good officers that know what they are doing - thank you to Ted, Kurt, Regina, Chris. It takes fabulous volunteers who transport, trap, foster, obtain donations, participate in events, offer equipment and lend their own experience to this endeavor. It takes caretakers who care about these animals and are willing to care for the ones in their own yard as well as spreading the word to their neighborhood and community. It takes vets who are willing to have a feral in their practice and to treat it.

Most of our “business” is thru word of mouth. We don’t advertise because we currently could not support that many calls. Please consider volunteering your resources to help us control the feral cat population and reduce the number of cats euthanized! As we say on the website, tell us what YOU can do!

I recently looked at a map of Bensenville, where we have a good relationship. I saw all the streets where we had been and I saw huge areas that we had not been to at all. I am looking forward to residents in those areas calling us for assistance, because I know there are cats there, they are everywhere! Shelters are already saying that they have not received as many requests to take kittens this year.

Please help us to keep up the pressure, to go on to the next 1,000! We need YOU to help us to do what we do!

The gift of Gordy

I wanted to talk about Gordy – remember Gordy with the munched on paws? He is about 10 months old now, totally healed, loves to play and able to jump up and down. His front paws look like a bad case of bunions, he has been to a specialist who says he will have a fine life as a couch potato – indicating that his activity level should not be expected to be that of other cats. The big ligaments that connect paws to leg were severed, but smaller tendons are doing the job. Gordy is a wonderful cat, very happy. Very bored. He would love to be able to run about an entire house (not possible in mine), get into all kinds of trouble and lay in a window sill watching the birds. While we do not do adoptions, I want to find a new life for Gordy and am looking for the special people who can make him a part of their adults-only family (most children would not be able to appreciate the restrictions that Gordy will have). They would need to be really special people to be considered. If you are those people, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., tell me about yourselves and why you would care for Gordy and make him a part of your family.

Summer of the BOT

No, Bot is not an acronym for some underground, nefarious organization. It is the name given to the larva of a fly that lays eggs, animals inhale the eggs, the eggs hatch in the lungs and then burrow to the surface of the skin, taking up residence there to form a grub that constantly munches on its host, producing a nasty liquid that oozes out as the grub spins in its hole. Livestock, wildlife and most importantly for us, feral cats can be affected. When it becomes noticeable, it at first appears to be an abscess. Then you see the center move...

As of this writing, I have heard of or experienced a total of 4 occurrences of these creatures in the past 3 weeks. One was in Lombard, another on a poultry farm way out there, the third was a kitten I got from a caretaker in Downers Grove, and the most recent was in unincorporated Lombard. At least two of these locations were close to heavily wooded areas.

Since I discovered the grub at 9 PM, my first response was to attempt to kill the grub. These guys are filled with toxins so you do not want to grab it and risk breaking it open. All of that nastiness could enter the cat’s bloodstream and kill it. Best to kill it and then remove it, usually requiring surgery by a vet. Vaseline is your best weapon. Cram the stuff into the hole around the grub so that it becomes coated in it and then suffocates. This is not immediate, the website said it might take overnight. But, yes, indeed, in the morning, there was the 3/4” grub protruding half out of its hole, dead as can be. Yea!!! The little guy had a couple smaller ones, dead also. It is possible for them to come all the way out on their own, these did not.

Vets can get really excited about bots, they don’t see them very often, but they did see them at vet school so they like to be able to use that experience! Usually the wounds are very clean due to the grubs constant munching, but antibiotics are still recommended.

A truly feral cat would not be easy to treat for this, probably would require sedation, so plan ahead. If you practice TNR, think of what you would do in this situation. Do you have trap dividers? Could you position the cat so that you could apply Vaseline, just for a start? Do you have a vet that you can call on to sedate and remove one of these? Do you have a space that you can hold a feral in order to treat with follow up care - meds in food? It’s all about the planning!

I was lucky. Harry is willing to be a tame kitty and once I was able to hold and treat him and he felt so much better, his care has been a breeze. I will tell you that it was a very panicky half hour while I called people for advice and looked online to figure out the best course of action. These grubs bring about a reaction of complete horror that such an organism even exists! Harry is doing very well and once his upper respiratory is over, should make a wonderful addition to someone’s household!

Soooo Busy – July Zipped By!

Our Wet Your Whiskers event on June 27th was a great success! Approximately 50 people attended and Marc Gunn was fabulous! What a great performer and a wonderful, generous person, too! We didn’t get a chance to announce the Silent Auction winners, so if anyone is wondering who the winners were:

Lynfred Winery - Roselle Mark Wallbruch
Lynfred Winery - Wheaton Regina Dryer
Lynfred Winery - Naperville Larry Clark
Lynfred Winery - Wheeling MJ Dachter
Hotel / Restaurant package Larry Clark
Case of Yellow Tale Rose Ted Semon
Cat Gift Basket Collette Walker
Drop Trap Tammy McAuley

We did not receive a winning bid for the pearls. We will be offering those at a future date, perhaps an online auction – please look for information in a future newsletter or announcement.

Many thanks to PearlParadise.com, Lynfred Winery, Westin Chicago Northwest, Shula’s American Steak House, Robert Kaminski, Regina Dreyer, and Gail Monick – Miscellany by Monick, for their donations to our Silent Auction!

Not one but two 4th of July parades!

In Villa Park:

Mimi, Melissa and Joseph Black, and Kim Giazzon participated in the Villa Park parade, blasting the Stray Cat Strut in Kim’s decorated Subaru wagon! Kate Switalski skated and took photos, amusing the crowd while passing out palm cards donated by the Davis family, owners of PrintWise in Elmhurst advertising Feral Fixers. Residents gave them an extremely warm reception!

In Bensenville:

Mary Rosa decorated her Jeep with a feral cat and Stars and Stripes theme! I walked the route passing out suckers and Feral Fixers info – many people telling me how many cats they had. Parade day is like Halloween in Bensenville, the kids are lined up with their bags to receive treats!

Thank you to everyone who responds to us with such a warm welcome!