Building the TNR Team

Nothing gets me more inspired about animal rescue than talking to other people and hearing their stories.

The other day I met Joann and Terri for the first time in person over lunch. Joann lives near me, somehow found this site and has been offering to help with TNR. She’s done TNR in other neighborhoods, and other forms of animal rescue, mostly cats. When she worked downtown in the nineties she would take kittens from a homeless woman named Bonnie that she would always see with a different kitten. In all, Joann estimates she took about 50 cats/kittens from Bonnie and adopted them out. This homeless woman acquired these cats through ads in the paper. Joann even confronted one of the previous “owners” of one of these kittens. Eventually she also got help for Bonnie through social services. Joann also worked with other people helping a hoarder home. But before the hoarder home cats were adopted out, they first took in other cats that were left behind nearby in Cabrini-Green when it was demolished in 1995. The hoarder home cats were on one floor, and the Cabrini-Green cats were on the second floor. All eventually were vetted and adopted out. Her stories amazed me.

Terri lives near the Armando Colony and has been doing TNR there for seven years. She talked about a boat left parked year-round next door to her that every year a litter would be born in until she started TNR. She would “go fishing” for the kittens in the boat and adopt them out. It sounds like her colony is all fixed now, but there are a few newcomers that I offered to help with.

The best part was seeing Terri’s car. Can you tell she has a cat colony in her garage or what?