Reese, FIV+ Cat from Avondale, is Now Vetted and Ready for Adoption!

Reese is a former stray cat now fully vetted and available for adoption. He is FIV+ and recovered from illness and bite wounds. He is a total lover and enjoying the indoors. Just look at those cheeks!

Reese was trapped in Avondale along with a whole bunch of other colony cats at once. After his TNR surgery, it was clear that he was sick and exhausted. He slept all of the time, was really dirty and stinky, and absolutely ravenous. He would literally wake up to eat, and then go right back to sleep. He is a stray cat, not a feral used to living on the streets. He also seemed to know we were trying to help him and felt safe enough to finally rest after trying to survive outside.

He was vetted at Roscoe Village Animal Hospital where he was treated for URI and bite wounds.

Kim took him into her home ever since. A week after that he had to go back to the vet because he had blood in his stool. He also wasn’t always using the litter box. His fecal test came back clean, and it hasn’t happened since. They did a urine analysis, and also figured out he was underweight and dehydrated, so he was most likely straining due to that. They administered fluids.

His total vetting so far is $446. If you’d like to make a donation towards his care please click on the Paypal donate button at the top of this page. He was a great patient throughout, and even seemed to enjoy the extra attention. He ate all of the treats given to him during the entire exam, it was hilarious.

Once back in Kim’s house it was very clear he was enjoying the indoor life and feeling better. He was absolutely filthy and stinky. He started grooming himself again.

Look at his poor, sore paws! They were really rough from the streets.

Kim has been using these wipes to help clean him.

He’s looking better and better, gaining weight, and has a more normal sleep schedule now. Kim now has multiple litter boxes for him and figured out which litter he prefers. No more accidents.

He loves to pose.

He loves all of the attention and now answers back when you talk to him.

Please contact us at 773-609-2287 or [email protected] if you’d like to meet and adopt him!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Saving Simon, the Sick Kitten, Off the Street

Say that five times fast! A woman named Margie called from another location in Avondale about a very sick kitten she found in front of her house, by himself right in her front yard.

It was supposed to start raining with tornado warnings really soon so Joann went straight to her house to pick up the kitten and took him to her vet at Animal Medical Center. He enjoyed a meal while they examined him. He was really hungry.

Simon is about seven weeks old. He is very sick and was treated for URI, ear mites, fleas and possible other parasites. He’s totally snotty and sneezy. Despite all of that and his crazy day, he is friendly love bug and wants to be held.

Our friend Elissa, owner of Rockstar Pets, is now fostering him. Thank you, Elissa, you are a true rock star! She’s fostered for us before.

She already sent us an update. He’s busy gorging himself on wet food and kitten milk.

Within just a few hours today, we were able to change Simon’s life around. Joann got the call at 9am, he was vetted by noon, and in Elissa’s home a few hours later. His outcome could have been very different had he stayed alone outside, too sick and too friendly to be safe. Now he’s cared for and dry in a foster home and will hopefully be ready for adoption in a few weeks.

Simon’s vet costs so far are $278.13 If you’d like to make a donation towards his care and all of the other cats we’ve vetted this month, you can do so through the PayPal donation button at the top of this page, or through PayPal to [email protected]

Our total vet bills this month for Big Daddy, Puffy, Reese, Ziggy, and now Simon, is $1,984.13, and the month isn’t over yet.

Along with Simon, we have six other creamsicle kittens – Bert, Ernie, Bosco, Rascal, Oscar and Phoenix – and Reese, an FIV+ adult male cat, in foster homes.

If you are interested in fostering Simon or fostering other friendly cats and kittens from our TNR projects, please call 773-609-2287 or email [email protected]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

RIP Big Daddy, the Colony Cat Named in Honor of the Avondale TNR Project

When I first started talking to Kim a few months ago about all of the cats she was seeing in her colony and neighborhood of Avondale, I was determined to help her mostly because of a cat named Big Daddy. Her Big Daddy Colony is named after him to honor his memory.

Big Daddy was a colony cat that kept coming back to her yard the past two years, looking worse each time. He evaded all of her trapping efforts, and in the meantime she TNR’d 22 other cats.

Big Daddy would only come to visit Kim’s yard to feed sporadically. He was clearly sick, but still surviving.

Some of the following photos may be upsetting to see.

Joann helped Kim trap at the end of May and they trapped a lot of cats. In the meantime, they also trapped Big Daddy. We think that at this point he was so sick that he went into the trap because he knew he needed to. Big Daddy was dying.

Despite all of that they could not get near him. He was only safe to handle once he was in the trap. Kim took him straight to Roscoe Village Animal Hospital. They have been amazing. They are close to us, open seven days a week, will treat cats in traps, and we can normally get an appointment the day we call. This is all invaluable to us colony cat caregivers providing care for feral cats in traps. The low-cost clinics can only do so much. These colony cats need full service vet care.

But this vet care is expensive. Big Daddy’s total vet bill was $341. If you’d like to make a donation towards his care, you can do so through the Paypal donation link at the top of this page, or directly through paypal.com with [email protected]

Big Daddy had to be sedated for an exam because even though he was weak, he was still feral.

He was first tested for FIV/FeLV and tested negative. We were all very surprised. They then thought he may have been coming down with pneumonia. He was underweight and very sick. A few days before he allowed himself to be trapped, Kim found him in her garden defecating on himself, but not allowing her to come near him. His body seemed to be shutting down. Any treatment would involve more tests, and most likely extensive recovery in a crate indoors. That would be very stressful for him, and the outcome was completely unknown and could not be guaranteed. They decided to humanely euthanize him instead.

RIP, Big Daddy. You were loved. We are so thankful to Kim for caring for you while you visited her garden, and letting her help you in the end. You deserved a dignified death at the end of your hard life.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Sick and Injured Avondale Cat Now Vetted and in Foster Home

Reese is one of the 17 cats and kittens trapped so far and from the Avondale TNR Project. Six kittens are in foster care, and most of the adults were TNR’d. There are many more cats outside there.

Reese was pretty relaxed outside.

When Reese came back from the clinic he slept in the trap the entire time. It was weird – we were concerned, but as soon as we woke him up, he would scarf down food. And then go back to sleep again. Not only is that a friendly behavior, but it seemed excessive. Kim agreed to keep an eye on him for a few extra days in the trap.

If he wasn’t sleeping, he was just relaxing.

Then Kim saw this on his back.

I brought Reese to a full service vet with another cat from my area I trapped that also needed medical care.

They determined that it was a skin plaque. Since it was intact and we weren’t sure yet if he was going back outside, it wasn’t a cause for concern.

But they found a bite wound on his left front leg, and he also had an URI, upper respiratory infection. He was treated with antibiotics. He also tested FIV+.

Reese is currently being fostered inside by Kim. Please let us know if you’d like to meet him!