Maxfield was trapped in Englewood this week and brought into PAWS Chicago’s clinic for their TNR package. They found a horrific wound on his neck.

Georgie from Chicago TNR and Cynthia trapped about a dozen cats in this particular alley so far. Maxfield was one of them, and the clinic discovered his injury while under anesthesia for his TNR surgery.

This was most likely caused by an abscess from a bite wound. Per his paperwork, there was crusted hair over the wound, so they cleaned it up.

Then he was given a shot of Convenia antibiotics to offset infection, and they recommended recovery for 7-10 days. PAWS Chicago performed this medical service free of charge. They are the only vet clinic in the Chicago area who offers this to colony cat caregivers and we are all so thankful to have this resource in the city.

I offered to recover Maxfield for George as soon as I saw his injury. Her foster room is currently occupied with a friendly cat from the same alley that she is trying to place into a rescue.

A few years ago my friend, Dave H., gave me a dog crate that attaches to a trap to safely recover feral cats that need to be confined for an extended period of time. Dave invented this set-up and we call it the feral cat recovery lounge. It’s become to be an invaluable resource for several cats I’ve recovered.

Once you attach the trap to the crate, you cover the whole set-up and allow the cat to freely move from one end to another. The food is kept in the trap so that it is easy to get the cat to re-enter the trap for transport later.

Maxfield settled right in. As soon as I attached the trap to the crate, he bolted into the crate. He decided to wedge himself next to the litter box, and hasn’t moved much since.

He hisses, growls, and bolts so far, all signs of feral behavior. He seems a bit congested, so I’ve been adding Lysine to his wet food. His appetite is good – he’s been eating the wet and dry food as soon as I leave. Because the outside temperature is pretty mild, I am keeping him in the garage with plenty of blankets and a heater to keep warm. The crate and trap are elevated off the floor with blocks of wood for circulation and so they are not just sitting on the cold croncrete floor. Nonetheless, we don’t want him too warm because we want him to keep his winter coat.

He’s doing well and I am hoping tonight he will explore the crate more. There is a second level just above his head where there’s a soft bed for him to sleep and recover.

I will keep all of you posted on his road to recovery within the next week. I’d like to thank George and Cynthia for saving his life, for PAWS’ providing his medical care, and for Jim’s help caring for him while I’m out of town for work.

Maxfield made a full recovery from his neck wound and checked out of my feral recovery lounge today.

I finally was able to get a decent photo of him when I transferred him back into the trap from the crate today. He was aggressive and growled the entire time, which means he’s feeling a lot better.

Just look at him! Look at that face! That glower! I love him and the feeling is not mutual. Feral as F**k. My favorite kind of cat, and why my TNR obsession started. Sometimes they still need our help, but we’ve failed them so much. They still deserve dignity, but we don’t deserve their gratitude in return.

He cleaned up his face and started grooming, which is also a good sign. His face was banged up and he was sniffling last week. He was getting bored in the crate as I found it trashed every morning. He would use the litterbox, but then shred the puppy pads and pull in any towels covering the trap and crate.  It was time for him to go back out.

George from Chicago TNR picked him up. She had five other cats in her Feral Mobile to return back to various sites.

These two cats were going back with Maxfield to their site in West Englewood. They are most likely siblings or offspring of Maxfield. Same glower. Same long hair. Same feral stare.

At least these guys weren’t wounded. We have no idea how Maxfield was injured, but I’m so thankful that George trapped him in time to treat it.

This handsome brown tabby boy from another site is pretty friendly, and George was bringing him back to a south side feeder who is willing to work with him for socialization, and possible placement into a no-kill shelter in the future.  This orange guy is very friendly and George is trying to get him into a foster home.

He’s friends with this other orange guy, who’s a bit more feral.

If anyone is interested in fostering these cats or other friendly cats from our TNR projects, please contact me at [email protected]

Godspeed, Maxfield, and all of you beautiful feral creatures!

Sometimes feral cats need a little bit of recovery time BEFORE surgery.

Such was the case with Sydney. PAWS Chicago said she was a bit too sick with a URI to get spayed. They gave her a shot of Convenia, an antibiotic, and said she needed some time to get better.

Sydney was initially trapped last week by Cynthia, a woman who does a lot of TNR on the south side. Cynthia currently has a house full of foster cats, and did not have anywhere else to put Sydney. Sydney’s feeder is unable to recover cats. My friend George from Chicago TNR always tries to help Cynthia, and reached out to me.

I was happy to set Sydney up in the ingenious feral cat recovery lounge donated by Dave H. I’ve had multiple cats stay in the lounge and it has made my life, and theirs of course, a lot easier. You can connect a trap to the crate, which gives feral cats a lot more room during an extended stay.

It also gave me the chance to observe Sydney a bit more to see if she was truly feral. She is about eight months old so we wanted to see how she would act. I gave her a bed and some toys.

Sydney acted feral the entire time. She did not play, and tried to hide from me every chance. When I was cleaning the crate, she would go into the trap, and vice versa. Here’s what it looks like inside the lounge, and how she tried to stay away from me. The wood in the middle is an elevated platform with a cat bed for her to sleep on. The litter box goes underneath it. The food goes in the trap so that the cat is trained to go into the trap. At this point she was also hissing and growling. She will be going to PAWS hopefully today for her TNR surgery. Her feeder is actually pretty attached to her, so perhaps she will warm up to him some more once she is spayed and returned to him.

I dropped her back off at George’s house yesterday. George greeted me with vegan chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. I’m always amazed at learning new things about my TNR friends. Today I learned she published a vegan cook book with her husband, David, called Veganopolis. And check out their blog! I need to order this book and try out some of the recipes.

Fingers crossed that Sydney’s surgery goes well, and she will be safely returned to her colony!

Maxfield discovered the upper “bedroom” level of his feral recovery lounge a day after I set him up in the crate.

He is recovering from a deep neck wound treated since last week. He’s supposed to be kept confined at least 7-10 days to make sure infection doesn’t set in. So far he’s doing great in the lounge, but still acting very feral. So, I can’t get a better photo of him than this. He’s a really beautiful long-haired grey and white cat.

All cats in the recovery lounge end up sleeping on the upper level, thank goodness. The litter box is on the lower level, and the attached trap has all of the food and water he needs.

Maxfield is still acting absolutely feral towards both me and Jim. He tries to bolt, strikes out aggressively, and growls and hisses at us the entire time. It’s pretty awesome. I absolutely adore feral cats like that as they are letting us know with certainty that they want to be free outdoors. They are why I started TNR in the first place – to stop the feline overpopulation crisis, and to let feral cats live their lives outside with dignity, caring for them when they want it, on their terms. I’m out of town for work this weekend and Jim is caring for Maxfield, making sure his crate is kept clean with fresh puppy pads and newspapers, the litter box is cleaned out, the dry cat food and water dishes are refreshed, and he gets all of the wet cat food with Lysine that he needs.

Maxfield has some diarrhea which seems induced by stress only so far, and a very good appetite. Hopefully he will be ready to be returned back to his colony site in West Englewood this week.

Edda is a 60-year old woman with limited income and means caring for up to 20 cats in the Hermosa neighborhood of Chicago, an area filled with cats. This is a very common scenario on the west side of Chicago and all over for people who feed cats.

My TNR friend Oleksandra told me about Edda when I asked her if she knew of any cat colony caregivers who needed extra cat food and supplies. Edda’s outdoor cats were all TNR’d by Oleksandra, Erica and Brianna a few years ago. Since then Oleksandra keeps in touch and helps Edda care for the cats, including additional vetting, since they live close, along with many other TNR’d colonies.

I met Edda this week with a delivery of cat food, an electric heated food/water bowl, and a bale of straw for her outdoor cat shelters. Thank you to all who have donated their extra supplies to us! This is an example of where they are distributed to.

Edda gave me a tour of the cats that she cares for. Every cat I saw was ear-tipped. I was impressed by that but not surprised because I know how thorough Oleksandra is when it comes to TNR.

I want to reiterate again that this is a common scene people run into with TNR. Caregivers and feeders do what they can with what they have for these cats. TNR is not just about helping the cats – it’s also about helping people and the community.

Edda has five cats living in the basement of her apartment building. I only saw one because they are semi-feral and go up into the rafters when they hear people.

This is the feeding station in her basement, with cat shelters in the back.

The cats can look out the door when it’s open. Edda does not want to let them out because she said there are people who live around there who abuse the cats. This is why she brought them in in the first place. Now she’s worried about finding them homes because she worries what will happen to them if she has to move. She said she is not well and has already refused going to the hospital because she worries about what will happen to the cats.

Another one of her TNR’d cats lives in the basement next door. He has to be kept separate because the other cats will fight with him.

She also cares for a cat across the alley. He is at the bottom of this photo by the cars. He has shelter inside that building, at the top of the stairs where the door is always open. Edda has permission to access to this building.

The stairs are extremely rickety to navigate for humans. Inside are multiple cat shelters for him and any other cats to use. There used to be another black cat here that got very sick. Oleksandra took him to the vet last year and he was treated for awhile, but ultimately had to be euthanized. There are several raccoons that also go there.

Here’s a wide view of this room, with the shelters towards the back.

Edda also feeds a dozen or so cats across the street that live in a woman’s yard. As soon as we started walking towards this house, we saw the colony running around outside.

Edda thinks this cat, Mario, is sick. Obviously I’ve never seen him before so I don’t have a comparison, but he did look disheveled. Otherwise, he moved quickly and has a very good appetite. I gave Edda antibiotics that I got as a donation (thanks, Melanie!) to try for him which might help any infection he may have. If he still looks sick after that, I offered to take him to the vet for her. 

The woman who lives there also feeds, and has outdoor cat shelters underneath the blue tarp. As soon as Edda started getting the food ready, the cats came out, jumping the fence towards her.

And waited impatiently, wondering who I was.

Mario was first in line. Seriously, look at him creep behind her! The other tabby on the left below only uses three of his legs. One of his back hind legs is held out in the air. He was like that when they trapped him and they’re not sure how closely the clinic looked at his leg when he was TNR’d. But he’s been like this now for three years there, so whatever injury he had would have healed by now, or it’s a birth defect. He can’t run very well, but he obviously knows how to survive. Nevertheless, I did tell Edda that we could take him to a vet as well for another look, but it should wait until warmer weather in case a procedure is needed with a long recovery time. It’s too cold to be putting a cat back and forth outside with unnecessary stress.

Still wondering who I am… the cats waited until we left to eat.

I’ll continue to try to keep in touch with Edda and help in any way I can. If you live in the Hermosa area and would like to help, please call 773-609-CATS (2287) or email [email protected]