Mooksie showed up at his colony with a severely swollen and crumpled right ear a few weeks ago.

He is part of a group of feral cat colonies totaling 30-40 TNR’d cats that Jennie K. cares for in the West Humboldt Park area of Chicago. I bring cat and dog food to Jennie when I have it, because along with the colony cats, she also cares for 11 rescue cats and one dog in her home. Jennie lives on a fixed income and is on disability. She can hardly keep up with feeding, let alone vet care!

My rescue friend Erica was able to trap Mooksie with Jennie’s help, and rushed him to our amazing vets at Elmhurst Animal Care Center. There they determined he had an ear hematoma that required surgery.

Hematomas are extremely painful initially for the cat, and are caused by trauma to the ear. They quickly can become infected and require extensive surgery. They do not heal on their own.

Mooksie went under anesthesia and the vet drained his ear. They used dissolvable sutures with a small opening left in it so that the ear could continue to drain on its own. We asked for dissolvable sutures so that we would not have to re-trap him for removal later. Mooksie required a catheter during surgery, antibiotics (convenia) for the infection, full ear cleaning and oti-pack ear cleaning solution, and intravenous fluids. He was also required to be hospitalized in intensive care.

His total vet bill came out to $531.30 We did not realize how extensive and expensive ear hematomas can be! Ear problems are pretty common for colony cats. If you’d like to make a donation to help cover his care and to continue to feed his colony, you can do so at the donate link at the top of this page, or through PayPal at [email protected]

I returned Mooksie back to Jennie and his colony after a few days of observation and rest. His ear will be permanently folded over, but it looked really good and completely healed.

I took the opportunity to also bring more cat and dog food to Jennie. I made sure Mooksie helped!

He was VERY happy to be returned to his colony, and so was his bonded friend, Bootsie! She came right out to greet him at their feeding station. It was as if she was waiting for him! Jennie said she seemed to be frantic all week missing him. She thinks they are litter mates as they look exactly alike.

Then they started chasing each other.

The cats all live in this abandoned building and are fed by Jennie daily.

They easily access the building through this broken window.

See?

A big thanks to Erica and Jim for trapping and transporting Mooksie, to Jennie for caring for this colony, to our vets for healing these cats, and to all of you who continue to donate towards their care! This couldn’t be done without all of you.

Mama, a cat from Kristina’s colony, had an infection in her mouth this winter. She was eating only with one side of her mouth and had fluids coming out.

Kristina tried giving her antibiotics which seemed to help, but then last week Mama became lethargic and stopped eating.

She was so weak that Kristina was able to scoop her up into a cat carrier and took her straight to our amazing vets at Elmhurst Animal Care Center.

Mama was thin, dehydrated and anemic. They noted she had “severe dental disease, with near-universal root exposure. Large amount of foul-smelling exudate packed around teeth.” They also found a “pink, fleshy, moveable mass under right side of her tongue.”

They gave her a dental and pulled TEN teeth. She was given antibiotics, pain meds and fluids.

We are currently waiting for biopsy results for the mass under her tongue. Mama’s vet bill so far is $246.00 We are always committed to giving every colony cat full medical care as needed. If you’d like to make a donation towards Mama’s care, you can do so with your credit card at the PayPal donation link at the top right of this page to [email protected]

After her vet visit, Kristina took Mama home to recover from her dental. She is now inside and can roam in her basement, because she is used to waiting by Kristina’s basement door for food.

Mama continued to refuse to eat. I went to go visit with a variety of cat food to try, as well as Gerber chicken baby food. I couldn’t get a good photo of Mama because she is feral and ran from me, but after I left Kristina told me that Mama ate the baby food!

Kristina cares for about five TNR’d cats in her yard, and two other colonies a few blocks away. Mama was TNR’d nine years ago, so she’s led a good long life so far.

Mama and the other cats live in this amazing outdoor cat house in their yard, next to their garage. I gave Kristina a wood shelter years ago, and Kristina’s boyfriend Matt built it up into this much bigger space, encased with a tarp for warmth.

The inside of this shelter is insulated.

With heating lamps.

The black cat in these photos is Mama’s colony friend, Spot. He made sure to show me all around their yard.

We don’t know what to expect yet with Mama, but we are hoping for the best. She will get the best care we can provide. Please send healing thoughts her way!

Norman Edwards was trapped in a large TNR project in the Dunning area of Chicago in January. He was taken to a low cost clinic for the basic TNR services for a feral cat, but he’s friendly.

So Kim V. agreed to foster him in her home. He is quite the handsome long-haired black cat. Norman acted pretty friendly, but hesitant about his surroundings. We’re not sure if he ever was a fully indoor pet cat. PAWS Chicago agreed to take a look at him for admission into their adoption program.

During his exam there, it was noted that he had a possible wound and missing fur on his back, near his tail. And that he badly needed a dental. PAWS offered to do his dental at no charge to us, but there was a wait time of over a month because their shelter is currently backed up.

Kim decided not to wait because she didn’t want to keep Norman longer in a cage than was necessary, and it did seem like he was in pain. As I said, he was friendly, but wasn’t quite coming out of his shell.

Kim took him to our wonderful vets at Elmhurst Animal Care Center. They noted that he was missing several upper and lower incisors. His mouth must have really been bothering him! They gave him a full dental.

As for the wound on his back, they thought it may be from scratching from fleas, and possible infection. Norman went home with antibiotics to help clear it up.

Kim said that a day or two after this visit, Norman was acting like a new cat. He HATES being given Clavamox, but his energy level and activity is now through the roof. He plays with other cats and wants to be pet and handled. His new intake appointment at PAWS is now on March 17th after his antibiotic treatment is done.

His total vet bill was $105.40, which Kim took care of herself. If you’d like to make a donation towards his care for me to repay her, you can do so at the PayPal donation button at the top right of this page.

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]