I was fortunate enough to spend the last several days in Luxembourg attending and presenting at a conference. I love Europe, especially "old Europe" during the holidays. All the holiday lights, everyone is in a good mood and I was able to get some Christmas shopping done!

While I was gone, other volunteers brought in a total of 17 cats to the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic to be fixed. On the 2nd, super-volunteer Jennifer drove eight cats to PAWS while super-volunteer Judy picked them up and on the 6th, super-volunteer Mary transported nine cats both ways; to PAWS and from PAWS. Thank you Jennifer, Judy and Mary!

This past Tuesday, super-volunteer Judy brought in 8 cats to be spayed/neutered, but PAWS was unable to get to them that day. They've been very, very busy with their December Adopt-a-thon. Super-volunteer Jennifer brought in 5 more cats on Wednesday and I was able to pick up the whole batch Wednesday evening. Thank you Judy and Jennifer!

The ride down to PAWS on Wednesday evening was brutal - it took me over 2&1/2 hours to get there. Normally the ride is long, but we're talking 'only' an hour or so. The snow plus rush hour made that Wednesday drive very long indeed. Sue Robinson, the Community Outreach Manager for PAWS, kept the clinic open for me, even though I was late, late, late. Thank you Sue!

These 30 cats in all for December bring us up to 860 for this year and 1,471 overall since we've started our work. Again, we thank all of our volunteers and especially PAWS for everything they do - we couldn't do the work we do without all of you - Thank You!

(You can click on the picture thumbnail to see a larger view of the picture. This is one of the many outdoor food shops that were in the Place D'Arms Christmas Mart - very festive indeed!)