Danny moved to Humboldt Park decades ago and started feeding the cats outside. Currently he is feeding at least 25+ cats and kittens, inside and outside.

I  met Danny a few weeks ago when Tree House referred a call to me from another woman named Tonya who was looking for help with a mama calico cat and her kittens born in her yard.

I called Tonya and learned this was the calico cat’s second litter within the past six months. Tonya adopted her previous litter into her own home, and had them vetted at Treehouse. My friend Heather and I went to talk to Tonya and walked around her block with her. We walked door to door, and found Danny immediately. He had cat houses and feeding stations on his property.

Danny was completely overwhelmed with feeding the cats. He told us there were about 15 friendly cats that he has brought inside with him, and he feeds another 10+ outdoor cats as well. Currently, there is also the calico cat family, another pregnant cat outside his house, and most likely other pregnant cats in his house. I have also met another neighbor directly across the street who feeds another colony of at least 3+ cats.

Danny talked about growing up poor in Louisiana, and how he is currently caring for his 92 year old mother and her 80 year old partner at his place. His mother is in a wheelchair and has cancer. In addition, he was trying to keep up with the care of the cats. He should be retired, but he keeps working as a handyman to keep up with the expenses for the cats. During our conversation, he pulled out antibiotics that he was trying to give them from the vet. He was almost in tears during this conversation.

Danny was totally on board with getting the cats spayed/neutered, and TNR. He said he was offered help throughout the years, but no one would follow through.

We made plans to meet the following day to start trapping. When Heather, Tonya and I showed up, he was again almost in tears. He said he did not expect us to show up, because people have always promised him help before without following through.

I told him that when I say I’m coming over, I’m coming over.

We brought feral cat shelters and set up traps in his backyard.

By the next day, we had five cats in traps.

Four were clearly feral, all Siamese, and siblings. Meet Little Mama, Winky, Simono, and Princess. Two males, and two females. They had some medical conditions, including severe dental disease,  underweight, diarrhea, inflamed intestines, alopecia, distended abdomen, ropey intestines, and conjunctivitis.

Can you tell they’re siblings or what?

We also trapped Rudy. Rudy had to be kept overnight because he needed additional care. He was treated for tapeworms, and obviously had some conjunctivitis going on. Danny recovered all of the cats on his own. We resumed trapping and got five more cats.

Meet Fuzzy, Jake, Lil Fuzzy, and Lola. All of them also had variations of tapeworm, dental disease, and intestinal disorders. Ss far we have been charged $40 for various worm medications, and have been advised to do $20 fecal tests/per cat to determine which parasites they have.

Jake’s tongue is sticking out because of the dental disease. A few of the other cats look like that as well.

In addition, we brought in Sammy.

Sammy didn’t make it. He died under anesthesia, and one of Danny’s other cats almost died as well. That cat was brought back to life with CPR.

Danny broke down with the news of Sammy’s death. I don’t even have a photo of Sammy to share with you, otherwise normally I write separate obituaries for cats. But I brought Danny to Treehouse’s clinic so that they could explain to him what happened. He was very upset. Very, very upset. He made arrangements to get Sammy’s ashes from them for $75+.

Unfortunately Danny is now not as trusting of this process. This is the second cat that has died under Treehouse’s care since December that I know of. I have never had cats die before during their spay/neuter surgeries in over twelve years of TNR. Also, the ear tips done now all month there are very bloody for multiple cats in multiple colonies. The sheets covering the traps are coming back sprayed with blood. It is concerning, because normally, I’ve never seen blood on the ear tips.

Along with the TNR, I’ve been working with Danny to provide a safe environment for the cats. His first floor apartment, where he stays with his mother, is fine. Rudy, the orange cat, has full reign of the house.

The rest of the cats are kept sequestered in various rooms, including his back porch. The back porch is filled with a lot of stuff, including full litter boxes and lots of cat food lying everywhere. There are at least five cats living there. I am hoping Danny will eventually help us clean up back there.

The garage where all of the siamese cats hang out also needs cleaning. We have provided feral bins to put in there.

Danny has currently shut down on us, although I remain hopeful he will continue working with us in the future, despite all obstacles. He knows where the calico mama cat and her kittens are. We’ve talked about bringing in the kittens for adoption. I brought him additional feral cat shelters, a feeding station, and a donation of almost 300 cans of wet food. He understands we’re trying to help him help the cats. If you are interested in helping, please,

email:

[email protected]

call:

773-609-2287

donate:

[email protected]

Thank you!

We’re still not totally sure how many cats and kittens are within the Creole Colony and Danny’s house. Currently Heather and I have counted up to 43 felines that we know about.

But we’ve made a lot of progress the last two weeks. Six more adult cats were spayed/neutered, and ten additional kittens were pulled from the site. Before that we TNR’d 14 adults and admitted five kittens into Tree House. There are still a few more that we know about but have never seen. I don’t doubt there are even still more that he never told us about.

Last time I wrote about this hoarder situation, Danny was asking us to bring in three sick cats to the clinic. When Heather went to pick them up, he gave her two cats, Blackie and Big Yellow.

They turned out not be sick at all. They had fleas, ear mites, and some dental disease, but overall they looked great and even tested negative for FIV/FeLV.

In fact, they were healthy enough to be neutered, but this had to be scheduled at another time. When Heather brought the cats back to Danny he was fine in paying the $95 exam fee and agreed to have the cats neutered the following week. Then he admitted that there were four kittens in his kitchen, about a month old. He hid that from us previously.

He also said he was going to “steal four cats from a bad situation,” and that we could bring them in for spay/neuter surgeries once he got them. We had no idea what that meant. Heather pleaded with him not to do that.

But Heather made six s/n appointments for the following week in preparation just in case. We were really hoping he would not “steal” any more cats. Danny obviously doesn’t need more cats.

The next week he did indeed have six cats ready in traps and carriers ready for our friend Tanya to pick up. Blackie, Yellow, and four cats that he did not steal. Now he admitted these four cats actually were already in his house, he just never told us about them. It is ironic that Danny keeps accusing us of deceiving him, when he is the one who consistently lies, telling us each different stories.

All six adult cats received full TNR packages, including Blackie and Yellow.

And the four “new” cats, including Mone.

Little Princess.

Sonny Boy.

And Yellow.

He also relinquished the four kittens from the kitchen. They were admitted to Tree House.

Unfortunately they also tested positive for ringworm, so the shelter is currently (and understandably) unable to admit the other six kittens from the back porch because they are from the same house. This was a kick in the teeth for us because the longer Danny holds onto a cat, the less likely he will relinquish them. We did not want him to bond with the kittens.

Heather worked really hard and managed to find a foster for these six kittens. They will be tested for ringworm, although we are crossing our fingers that they will test negative. The process takes weeks.

Tonight Heather and I went to Danny’s house to pick them up. They are absolutely gorgeous.

Sadly our conversation with Danny was once again very disturbing. The cat that was born in the back porch and lived there his entire life is sick. Danny brought him to his vet and he is staying there overnight.

Danny also talked about the cats that have died under his care. It seems like he sometimes brings to the vet, but sometimes he doesn’t. He definitely loves them, but he is delusional about the care that he gives them.

I don’t doubt he loves the cats, because he is always talking about protecting them. And frankly they are all he has. Whenever he talks about anything else in his life that doesn’t have to do with the animals, it is clear he is extremely angry, stressed out and exhausted. He talked about moving away with his cats because it is so difficult to care for his sick mother. She needs full time care, and he is getting very little help with that. They argue constantly. There is another elderly man that lives there as well that he cares for. This man’s family needs to step in. Danny’s family needs to step in.

Danny does favors constantly for people on his block, and they take advantage of him. At the same time, he is letting them. He is not caring for himself properly, and as a result, has become extremely bitter. It is very difficult to discuss these things with him, but it is clear he wants to talk. He is letting it out on us, although I assume if we were to suggest any sort of therapy he would refuse. So we just listen, make suggestions if we can, and try to move forward. We’re also struggling with our own emotions during these conversations because our focus is on the animals. It is heartbreaking to hear about how they die under his care.

At this point it’s also clear how much he trusts Heather during these conversations. He looks at her mostly. I am more of the enforcer – I ask specific questions to peel back the layers of his story to get to the truth. He knows that, but he is also answering me, and we take it with a grain of salt. He chooses to forget some of the truth. He was horrified by the cardboard carrier box we brought for the kittens. He does not want them to go into any sort of “cage,” so we led him to believe that the kittens will be free to roam in Heather’s house. It’s the only way to get him to comply.

In the midst of this conversation, he also mentioned he knew where the outdoor mama calico cat keeps her kittens. They are now weaned. We are hoping to also get them admitted to a shelter, and to TNR the mama cat.

We also made appointments for the two remaining mama cats indoors with him to be spayed next week. We are hoping that the sick back porch cat will be well enough to be neutered as well. But we are also assuming that there may be more “surprises” and more cats to be fixed. We are taking it week by week for now.