Practicing and promoting Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in DuPage County, Illinois
We're a 501c3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and practicing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in DuPage County, Illinois. We believe that TNR is the only effective, humane and long-term solution to the problem of cat overpopulation.
|
|
Hello friends and supporters of Feral Fixers!
Welcome to our annual Newsletter - another jam-packed issue sharing with you all the goings-on at Feral Fixers!
|
|
Due to the restrictions in place because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no Frosty Claws event again this year. We miss you all and truly regret this – but you can learn about other ways you can help Feral Fixers
throughout this Newsletter.
Because of the help you have given us, as of this newsletter we have had 13,230 cats spay/neutered since we incorporated in September of 2007. We have also found homes for thousands of friendly cats; over 2,400 by our Adoption process alone as well as all the friendlies we have given to other rescues for their Adoption efforts. We will continue with our efforts until the problem of cat overpopulation in DuPage County is solved and every cat has a loving home. Thank you again for caring about the cats.
(note: you can see a full-size version of many of the pictures in this email simply by clicking on them)
|
|
Letter from the President
You Helped Us Make a Difference!
In 2021 we neutered 765 cats with 333 adoptions of cats and kittens. We could not have done this without the support of our volunteers and donors. While it has been a struggle coping with all that the pandemic has created, we continue to hope that each year will result in continued progress towards every cat being healthy and having a home if they want one. We are always filled with gratitude that so many help us in our attempt to achieve our goals.
We reached our goal of $35,000 with our Black Cat Giving Tuesday Fundraiser! Thank you for the alumni updates! It was clear that you guys were sharing our fundraiser and we appreciate it so much! Our third quarter Amazon Smile donations for the period of 7/1/21 to 9/30/21 was $538.32 – that means that our supporters spent over $107,000 and designated Feral Fixers as their charity! We were the recipients of a DuPage Foundation Community Needs Grant in the amount of $7,000 to support the additional medical care that goes beyond spay/neuter for the cats in our care. We are grateful for the support of our donors which made all this possible!
The Current State of Rescue and Feral Fixers
I've been looking for something in print that could express what the world of Rescue is going thru right now and this paints an overall picture. Feral Fixers is overwhelmed. We need more volunteers for trapping, fostering, coordinating volunteers/fostering/adoption, building maintenance, you name it. So many lives are in flux, our current volunteers have had major life changes, people want to volunteer but with so many changes are finding it difficult to do more than care for themselves and family. The opening paragraph of this article says so much: "We’re in the midst of the phenomenon known as the 2021 Great Resignation, with millions of Americans quitting their jobs after rethinking their priorities during the coronavirus pandemic. While it has affected many industries, animal sheltering has been hit particularly hard." Most area rescues are still under reduced hours or by appointment only.
The ability to get vet appointments for everyday health care for animals is restricted, surgery dates – whether for dental or spay/neuter are harder to come by, and so on. This makes it even more important to spay/neuter every cat we can get our hands on! We'll be having a workshop on trapping in March, more details soon. The kittens will be coming, think about fostering for us this year! If you have the skills, please consider joining us as a foster coordinator, it is a lot to manage, help us continue our efforts, we need help!
Looking Forward in 2022
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.
We will continue our relationship with our area spay/neuter resources - DuPage County Animal Services (575 s/n surgeries in 2021, ADOPT Pet Shelter (184 s/n surgeries in 2021) and Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital (6 s/n surgeries in 2021). If we continue at the same pace, it is possible that we will get to 14,000 cats neutered by the end of 2022. Wow!
Looks like costs will continue to go up in 2022 for supplies, medical care, everything. We hope you can continue to support Feral Fixers in our efforts to improve the lives of cats in DuPage County!
Happy New Year!
|
|
A “Jarring” Experience…
Motts, one of our recently relocated Working Cats, let curiosity get the better of him and got a jar stuck on his head. It took 4 days to get him to go into a trap, when he finally did, off he went to Glen Ellyn Animal Hospital to be sedated and the jar rim removed. Incredible that he received no cuts as a result of this calamity! He's back home and doing well.
|
|
How many cats? 13,230 (and counting)!
Feral Fixers was founded in September of 2007. Since that time, we have spayed/neutered 13,230 cats!
If you visit our website (www.feralfixers.org) and scroll down the page, you will see a box on the left-hand side entitled “How Many Cats?” showing the total number of cats we have had fixed to date. If you click on that line item, you will then see the Feral Fixers 'Statistics' page where you can see our progress, month-by-month, since we've started work. Or, you can just click on the calculator 😊.
|
|
Winter Cat Care
As the recent weather has reminded us, winter is here! And feral cats need extra care to help protect them in these conditions. There are several websites that contain excellent information about how to help the feral cats make it through the weather.
Some of our favorites are:
Why Shelters? While cats are often great about finding shelter on their own, this can lead them to places that might be dangerous for them (warm car engines) or areas where the property owners don’t want them (basements, boiler rooms. Other times, there’s just no sufficient option for them. These are all reasons providing an insulated shelter (if you have the property ownership or permission) is a great idea for community cats in cold climate.
Why Food and Water? Feeding a measured amount of food is a key to responsibly managing feral cat colonies and this doesn’t change in the winter! What does change is that everything freezes quickly!
Yes, everything can freeze quickly. In addition to the websites mentioned above, TorontoStreetCats has an excellent article about how you can make a Do-It-Yourself Water Bowl Warmer for your outdoor furry friends. If you are unable to run electricity out to your feeding station for an electric bowl warmer, this DIY project might be just the ticket.
Another way to keep water from freezing overnight in winter is to copy an old trick used by horse owners to keep buckets of water out in the pasture from freezing. Take an old black tire (that's off its rim) and fill it with rocks. Then tightly wedge a large bucket in the tire's hole and fill with water. During the day, the tire absorbs sunlight and heats the rocks stuffed inside. The rocks in turn radiate heat and keep the water from freezing overnight. You can learn more about this and other ways to keep water from freezing at night from the Neighborhood Cats website.
|
|
Help Feral Fixers
There are several ways you can help Feral Fixers:
You can BUY SOMETHING!
- You can benefit Feral Fixers by purchasing apparel and accessories from Animal Hearted and with our logo at Cafe Press - a percentage of these purchases is sent to Feral Fixers.
- You can purchase items on our Wish List from Amazon (Amazon Smile is better - then you help us in two ways!) and have them directly delivered to Feral Fixers.
- You can also purchase pet supplies at discounted price from Kuranda and scratching pads and cat toys from Imperial Cat and have them sent directly Feral Fixers. Or you can purchase Cat Litter from Cat’s Pride and nominate us to receive free litter.
- You can shop at Amazon Smile and a portion of the proceeds purchased will be donated to Feral Fixers.
- You can purchase and donate needed supplies to us from wherever it is convenient for you to shop (a current list of supplies needed can be found on our website).
The latest and most complete instructions on how to help Feral Fixers through your shopping can be found on our website.
You can SPONSOR one of our Adoptable cats on Petfinder! To see a list and pictures/video of our cats currently up for adoption, visit our website – click on the WANT TO ADOPT link at the top. To sponsor a cat, click on the cat’s picture and then on the SPONSOR link on the right-side of the page.
|
|
You can DONATE to us directly via PayPal or via a Credit Card. To do either, click on the DONATE link at the top of our website. This will take you to the PayPal site where you can donate either via your PayPal account or via a Credit Card (no PayPal account needed). And, did you know that you can set up Monthly donations via PayPal? These are absolutely wonderful for us, giving us a steady, can-count-on-it stream of income, more important than ever now to help take care of our monthly building expenses. To do so, just check the Make this a monthly donation box in the PayPal page -you can cancel it at any time.
You can also click on the QR Code here on our Feral Fixers Mascot to go directly to our PayPal Donation page.
|
|
|
Switched jobs or your employer has had Human Resources changes? Check to see if there is a Matching Funds Program! Some companies have started doubling the original employee donation! A very large number of companies already have a matching funds option and more are being added all the time.
More information about how you can help Feral Fixers by participating in any of these programs can be found on our website; www.feralfixers.org - Thank you!
|
|
Have you seen our Adoptables?
We reached a new record in 2021 for total adoptions - 332! This was even higher than the record of 318 set in 2020. This brings us to a total of 2,438 adoptions since 2013!
2021 was also a record year in our foster program as we brought on 24 new foster families to handle our larger volume of adoptable kittens. To further increase our capacity, we initiated a volunteer program in our building with 14 shifts of volunteers to care for adoptable cats & kittens awaiting foster care.
All of this was accomplished through the excellent teamwork of an outstanding group of volunteers and fosters driven by the love of our cats & kittens. A huge thank you and congratulations to all!
The volume never seems to slow down, however, so we are always in search of dedicated volunteers and fosters as well as an associate Foster Coordinator to help bring new fosters on board.
Noteworthy among our 2021 adoptees are:
- Matilda, who was rescued as a kitten in 2019. She had her own mind, but through the devotion of her foster family, she turned the corner. She was adopted in Jan 2021 as an office cat where she is flourishing alongside her lookalike male tuxedo companion.
- Bella Luna, who waited 5 years at Jeff's Cat Stop, before finding her forever home with a gal in Lisle. She is now the sole cat and queen of her house, a position she appreciates.
- Cerena, who was happy as the princess of her adopter's retail shop until COVID forced closure of the shop. She spent a couple of months in foster care and was then adopted by the couple who owns a horse-riding school in Maple Park, where we have relocated a number of feral cats.
While there is much to celebrate, there are still some cats & kittens who have been waiting a long time for their forever home. Black cats, in particular, seem to be overlooked.
|
|
Spotlight: Fancy & Farrah
Fancy is a beautifully soft, swirl-patterned black and brown tabby 1.5 year old female. She is very sweet, but also quite shy. Fancy loves chin scratches and head rubs, but is often too nervous to ask for them on her own. She's just started getting brave enough to jump up on the couch or into bed with her foster parents, but usually needs to be invited to actually do it!
Farrah is a spunky and loving, striped black and brown tabby 1.5 year old female. She is very playful, and especially likes carrying her spring toy all over the house. Farrah is shy with new people, and can take a while to build up trust, but is very affectionate once she does. She loves attention and cuddles and has become her foster mom's constant little shadow.
Fancy loves to spend the day sleeping on her foster mom's office chair, while her sister, Farrah, lounges close by. In the evening, the two of them chase each other around and steal each other's toys. Fancy is not as confident as Farrah, but gains a lot of bravery from tagging along with her.
The right family for this bonded pair will be a quiet, patient household with adults only or older children, who will welcome both her and her sister together, and give them lots of time and love while they settle into their new home.
|
|
Spotlight: Roscoe
Roscoe (aka Ralphie to his foster family) is a sleek 8-month-old black & white tuxedo boy. This wonderful boy is a true character, who will constantly make you laugh. Roscoe gets into everything - closets, dryer, stuck in the bathroom and more! Luckily, he is a talker and you will hear him calling for help!
Roscoe is a toy hoarder and loves to capture anything he can easily carry - pencils, pens, plastic silverware, potato chips, paper clips and much more! He is also very protective of his dinner and will not allow another kitty to infringe on his bowl. However, if they are willing, he will be happy to sample their food!
Roscoe will take a little time to get comfortable in a new environment, but once he does, he is quite the lover and enjoys lots of lap time for sitting or sleeping. Roscoe needs a mellow kitty buddy, as he doesn’t like to be alone. Adutls only or children 13 and above are best.
Roscoe is truly a hilarious and lovable little boy :-)
Adoption events are held one to two times a month at our building and you will find us at Petsmart roughly every two to three months. Adoption applications can be filled out in advance by emailing gotfriendlies@feralfixers.org.
|
|
Welcome to the For the Love of Cats - 2022 Raffle
In lieu of Frosty Claws and our Silent Auction, we are holding an online Raffle event this year.
Tickets are $5 each - you can purchase multiple tickets for each item. Tickets can be purchased online at our website or by sending a check to Feral Fixers, PO Box 1416, Lombard, IL 60148 (we must receive your order by March 27th). If you purchase tickets by check, please CLEARLY INDICATE what items you are purchasing tickets for, how many tickets for each item you are purchasing and contact information (email address AND phone number) so that we may contact you if you are a lucky winner.
Items will be delivered to your home free of charge but must be within 50 miles of Lombard, IL.
Full rules of the raffle are posted on our website. Below are just a couple of items that are up for Raffle. There are ten items/packages in all.
|
|
 |
Coffee to Go
Brew it up for home or on-the-go! Plush to hug and activities to do!
|
|
|
|
Cats Can Decorate
Quilted Wall Hanging
A Christmasy theme, showing cats in the act of decorating!
(Handcrafted by JoEllen)
|
|
|
|
Patty
In January of 2021, Patty, one of my three Feral Fixers foster kittens, was diagnosed with wet/effusive FIP. It was devastating news to hear since I had lost four out of five of one of my litters to FIP a few years prior and everything I’d ever read when researching it had said it was fatal. Patty’s belly was huge and I could feel every bone in her spine and hips. I had been syringe-feeding her at the time of the diagnosis since, once I noticed a big belly, I separated her from her sisters to monitor her food intake and noticed she wasn’t eating on her own. But once we got the official diagnosis, I was heartbroken. All I pictured was watching her deteriorate each day with an inevitable fate of death. I couldn’t bear it and Tammy didn’t want me to have to go through that either so we scheduled a euthanasia appointment for a couple of days later.
|
|
When I was holding Patty in my arms the night before her appointment, something was telling me that it wasn’t her time to go yet and I was drawn to my computer. I started Googling and researching and I can’t even remember what I was entering into the search bar but somehow I found out about a Facebook group called FIP Fighters. They were helping to clinically cure cats from FIP through a treatment called GS-441524. I answered the few questions required to join and waited to be accepted into the group. The next morning, I had a message from one of the Administrators in my Facebook Messenger app. He told me about the three brands of treatment their group recommended, the dosages, the cost, and the frequent bloodwork required during treatment. I emailed Tammy and asked to cancel Patty’s euthanasia appointment and see if she’d approve of me trying this treatment if I bought the meds and Feral Fixers paid for the supplies, supplements, and monthly bloodwork. She said she was willing to give it a shot! Yes, we were putting our trust in this unknown drug from China, which was not approved for use by veterinarians in the U.S., but we really had nothing to lose. |
|
I ordered the cheapest of the three medicines, gathered the required needles and syringes, and watched videos on how to give an injection. I also scoured through the FIP Fighters Facebook group, looking for posts with tips on how to give injections and helpful supplements to give during treatment, etc. I was terrified and dreading that first needle poke, knowing that I had so many more to go after that one. The protocol for treatment is 84 days of injections, administered at the same time every day, with monthly bloodwork to see if improvements are being made, followed by 84 days of observation. If there is no relapse during the observation period, the cat is considered “clinically cured” of FIP.
I was about to venture into a six-month commitment to try to cure Patty but I was ready. I focused on the success stories shared by fellow FIP Fighters. I became obsessed with the Facebook group, tears constantly running down my cheeks as I read posts throughout the day. Sometimes tears of hope and joy when someone shared a success story and sometimes tears of sadness when someone shared their loss. But the very special thing about this Facebook group was that everyone was so supportive and helpful. That, alone, inspired me since it is so hard to find these days. And it was an international group. I really felt like I had found “my people”. I was determined that Patty would be a success story and we could share her journey with others and let people know there IS hope after an FIP diagnosis.
|
|
After two weeks’ of injections, Patty’s distended belly had finally noticeably subsided and she was eating on her own. I syringe-fed her for quite a while, even supplemented her with it once she started eating little bits of food. Each day, I also gave her Pet-Tinic for her anemia, an injection of B12, and milk thistle for liver support since GS-441524 is hard on the liver. (The Administrators of the Facebook group recommend liver support in conjunction with the treatment.) I shared each bloodwork report with my Admin to get his comments/suggestions. Patty finished her 84 days of injections in April and was given clearance to enter the observation period. She finished her 84 days of observation in July without any incident of relapse and is now considered “clinically cured”. She took the injections like a champ and I am so proud of her. I’ve read many stories about cats who would really fight them so I felt very fortunate to have such a good patient. And a positive side effect of this whole experience is that I felt proud of myself and became more confident in my capabilities to treat cats in the future.
-Erika (Patty’s Foster)
Postscript: Patty’s two sisters were adopted together in June and have shown no signs of FIP. Patty still lives with me. I didn’t get into any of the technical details of FIP but the veterinarian who published studies on this treatment is Dr. Pedersen from UC Davis.
|
|
Below are 3 pictures of Patty as she is today. |
|
The Atlantic Magazine, in their May, 2020 issue published an article entitled “A Much-Hyped COVID-19 Drug Is Almost Identical to a Black-Market Cat Cure” by Sarah Zhang. The subheading of this article reads “Cat owners are resorting to China’s underground marketplace to buy antivirals for a feline coronavirus.”
Some quotes from the article:
“When Robin Kintz’s two kittens, Fiona and Henry, contracted a fatal cat disease last year, she began hearing of a black-market drug from China. The use of the drug, known as GS-441524, is based on legitimate research from UC Davis, but the ways to get it seemed much less so. “It was, ‘If you want to save your cat, send me thousands of dollars, and I’ll DHL you some unmarked vials,’” she says. And she did. Kintz transferred the thousands of dollars, got the unmarked vials from China, and then injected the clear liquid into her dying cats every day for months.
The first remarkable thing, given the nature of the transaction, is that Kintz says the vials actually worked. Henry lived for almost another year, and Fiona made a full recovery. She’s still scampering around today, fluffy and alive—a miracle considering that vets had long thought her disease, feline infectious peritonitis, to be incurable and 100 percent fatal. Kintz now runs a 22,000-member Facebook group that helps cat owners using GS-441524. Thousands of cats have reportedly been cured of FIP.
The second remarkable thing is that GS-441524 is almost identical to a much buzzed-about human drug: remdesivir, the antiviral currently our best hope for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Although early data suggest that the drug shortens recovery time at best, Anthony Fauci has touted remdesivir from the White House. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized it for emergency use. And Gilead Sciences, the company that makes remdesivir, is donating 1.5 million doses of the drug amidst the pandemic.”
“FIP is also caused by a coronavirus—not the same one that causes COVID-19, but one that specializes in infecting cats. (Although humans may be able to pass COVID-19 to cats in rare cases, humans cannot get FIP from cats.) In most cats, this feline coronavirus, or FCoV, causes mild diarrhea or no symptoms at all. But in a small minority of cases, the virus infects white blood cells, and the immune system goes haywire into full-blown FIP. The disease comes in two forms, both fatal: wet, in which the cat’s chest or belly swells with fluid, or dry, in which there is no fluid but the cat is still feverish and sick. Eventually, it dies. For decades, vets have had little to offer but euthanasia.
Then GS-441524 came along. Small trials at UC Davis published in 2018 and 2019 suggested that cats were not just having their life prolonged by days or weeks, but were seemingly cured. “It really was a game changer,” says Drew Weigner, a veterinarian and the president of the Winn Feline Foundation, which funded some of the UC Davis research. “Three years ago, we told patients, ‘Your cat is going to die.’ Now we can tell them something else. It’s quite a story.”
The entire article is fascinating and is well worth your time in reading.
|
|
2022-2023 Holiday Card Photo Contest!
As many of you know, each year Feral Fixers sends out a Holiday Greeting card to everyone on our mailing list.
Beginning with the 2012 card, the picture on the card was chosen from entries made by you, our friends and supporters. While there is no monetary prize awarded for the winning entry, the winning photographer will be credited on the Holiday Card.
And so, we would like to recognize Sue's winning picture of "Johnny" for this year's holiday card.
We encourage you to submit your own photos of outdoor cats in winter. The picture should definitely say "winter" and "outdoor cat". A shelter would be nice but is certainly not required. We can accept pictures in nearly any format as long as the resolution is acceptable.
Thank you Sue. This picture of Johnny truly says "winter" and "outdoor cat(s)"!
The deadline for entering is April 15, 2022.
|
|
Calendar of upcoming events
Now through March 27, 2022 – For the Love of Cats – 2022 Raffle! – In lieu of our annual Frosty Claws event, we are holding the For the Love of Cats Raffle. Details and photos are elsewhere in this Newsletter.
Now through April 15, 2022 - Holiday Card Contest! - Is it finally Winter? It IS snowing! Keep an eye on your ferals and catch them in a pose for the next Holiday Card! Ear tips and snow must be visible! More details are shown elsewhere in this Newsletter. To view a complete list of rules and all our past winners, please visit this link.
March 5th, 2022 - PetSmart Adoption Event! - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at the PetSmart located at 63 Rice Lake Square in Wheaton from 11am to 3pm. This is part of the next PetSmart National Adoption Week. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, March 4th) at gotfriendlies@feralfixers.org. You can see all our adoptable cats by clicking here.
|
|
Sign up for our Mailing List!
If someone has forwarded this you and you're not on our regular Email List, we invite you to SIGN UP and receive regular newsletters and notices from us.
All you have to do is click here, enter your email address and then fill out the very brief form presented to you. That way you'll be one of the first to be "In The Know" about all the goings on at Feral Fixers - thank you!
|
|
Check us out on the Web
Please visit our website at www.feralfixers.org. There you can donate to us (via PayPal or credit card), find out about all the ways you can help Feral Fixers, visit our store, read the latest news, and learn more about feral cats. You can see our list of Adoptable cats, follow the ‘running total’ of how many cats we’ve had spayed/neutered, see the current list of Upcoming Events, check out past years Archived articles, read about our Friends and Partners, sign up for our mailing list and much, much more!
We also have very active Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. From these pages, you can get the latest information about what we are doing - often before it shows up on the blog! Links for all these pages are on our website home page. And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook and the good karma will surely flow your way- Thank you!
|
|
What is Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)?
TNR is a full management plan in which stray and feral cats already living outdoors in cities, towns, and rural areas are humanely trapped, evaluated, vaccinated, and sterilized by veterinarians.
When space is available, adoptable cats and kittens are transferred to sheltering organizations to be adopted into good homes. Healthy adult cats unsocialized to humans are returned to their familiar habitat under the lifelong care of their original caretakers.
(note: you can see a full-size version of many of the pictures in this email simply by clicking on them)
|
|
Feral Fixers, NFP, is a certified 501c3 corporation - EIN Number 13-4364615 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
