Zombie Cat from the V Colony got her name from her feeders because according to them, she was always sick.

She definitely had chronic upper respiratory infections, but two years ago there were also other things wrong with her. She had sores behind her ears, and her fur looked like it was coming out, almost like molting.

It took months, but I was finally able to re-trap her, and ended up trapping a few new cats and another sick cat from this colony at the same time. During this process, Jim came out to help me. My TNR friend, Dave H, also came out to hep me. I tried a drop trap even for the first time. It was indeed quite a process, because the feeders would not stop feeding. But I finally re-trapped her the good old-fashioned way – at 3am with sardines in oil for bait in a Tru-catch trap because she was finally hungry enough to go in.

Zombie got a dental, and was treated for URI with three rounds of antibiotics. She was inside with me receiving multiple medications for almost two months. The entire time she acted feral. I was able to confine her in this ingenious feral cat recovery lounge that Dave made for this purpose. Zombie did well in there.

But I could tell confinement was stressful. She did not look like herself after awhile. I did not want to break her spirit. The vet said he did all he could for her so I let her go even though she was still congested, but still much better. She seemed to thrive outside again, always with the same grumpy look on her face. She was reunited with her friends – this colony is made up of 15 cats currently, all TNR’d and all most likely born in that yard. I was happy to see her grumpy face – it meant she was feral and didn’t want human contact, just maybe some food.

In fact, no matter how sick she was, Zombie loved food. She was always first in line for it, and the other cats complied. She was indeed an alpha female.

At the beginning of February I visited the V Colony with some journalists doing a story on feral cats and TNR. Zombie was sitting on the steps and let me touch her for the first time. I knew then something was very wrong with her then. You can see her in the video.

That was the last time I saw Zombie. By the time I got back with a carrier to get her to the vet, she was gone. I asked the feeders if they could let me look in their yard and trap. They refused. I did go back several times looking for her, but never saw her again.

Last week the feeder brought Zombie’s body to Tree House to be disposed of properly. They found her in their yard just like I thought they would. Her body was too decomposed to do a necropsy. I only know this because Tree House told me since they were also in contact with the feeder.

Zombie’s life and story taught me a lot. She showed me her resilience and will to survive, and I hope the vet care made her last year a little bit better. I will always think of her when I use the recovery lounge for another feral. I will always think of her when faced with adversity and resistance when trying to help a colony. I will always think of her because I still feel guilty I couldn’t help her ultimately. That I was prevented to help her hurts more, but it’s the reality sometimes of doing TNR. We do the best we can to help these animals. Perhaps Zombie died on her own terms regardless, and that was best for her. Maybe the vet care just prolonged the inevitable. I don’t know.

Rest in peace, Zombie, you no longer have to suffer being sick here anymore.

This week’s weather has been perfect for trapping.

So we decided to trap at two sites where TNR has been done already, but there were new cats coming around. It’s been pretty successful so far – seven cats were trapped and brought into the clinic for their TNR spay/neuter surgeries and vaccinations. I’ll be introducing the Amadeus Colony and Boonie Colony soon.

Remember Lunar, the frostbitten kitten we saved from the snow in December? He was adopted almost immediately by my friend Jonah, and has been doing very well ever since.

Jonah renamed him Wigwam, and he has full reign of his place. Wigwam is constantly by his side, and Jonah shares posts about him on Facebook regularly.

In fact, this photo is actually now Jonah’s Facebook profile picture. Real men love cats!

PAWS Chicago started a new community outreach program in Englewood last December to go door-to-door and help people help their pets.

I joined PAWS Chicago PAWS Outreach for Life last week for the first time and am still trying to wrap my head around what happened. It’s what I’ve been doing here and wanting in my own Humboldt Park neighborhood for years with TNR – going door-to-door and talking to neighbors face-to-face about the animals that they are seeing, and giving them the resources to help them. Being by myself mostly, my resources are obviously limited, but I do what I can with my neighbors’ support, your support, and utilizing the best of my own abilities, which is mostly TNR – Trap, Neuter, Return. When the neighbors have questions about caring for their indoor pets or other animal issues, I let them know the resources available elsewhere in the city.

PAWS Chicago is offering to help anyone with any pets in zip code 60621, Englewood, with whatever they need for their animals, and going directly to the source by visiting people’s homes. That includes spay/neuter services, additional vet care, animal behavior advice, transport, pet care supplies, working with landlords to help people keep their pets, TNR for outdoor colonies, admission for found strays and litters, on-site dog training classes, and more. They chose Englewood because it is currently Chicago’s most impoverished, underserved neighborhood, with a median annual income of around $11,000 per household. Additionally, there are very few local vet resources there. Last year I volunteered a few times with my friend George of Chicago TNR who does TNR and cat rescue all over Englewood and other south side neighborhoods utilizing PAWS’ Lurie Clinic. We saw a lot of outdoor cats there.

Laurie Maxwell runs the program for PAWS. She came from The Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, and modeled this after their own Pets for Life program in Chicago’s West Lawndale/Garfield Park area that has been running since 2011.

Laurie explained that instead of building a shelter and expecting people to come, they are bringing the shelter resources directly to them. It’s very ambitious and it seems to be working. So far over 95% or so of the people they talked to want these services and are working with PAWS to get them. That success rate was very obvious last week when we visited everyone.

I met up with Laurie and another volunteer named Dee at Kusanya Cafe and we hit the ground running. Laurie took us on follow-up visits to homes that she already has a relationship with, as well as visiting new homes.

The first stop was visiting two kittens that were spayed the previous week at PAWS Chicago’s Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic. Their owners had questions about kitten care, and had expressed concerns the week prior about litter box issues. So Laurie came prepared with litter box supplies, kitten food, and cat behavior advice.

The next stop was visiting a female pit bull named Precious that now had kennel cough after being at Chicago Animal Care and Control, CACC. Someone turned Precious into CACC as a stray, but the owners paid the fees and got her out. They could not afford the vet services for the cough, and there was alo something wrong with Precious’ skin. Laurie made arrangements to pick up the dog the following week for vet care, and provided dog food. In addition, while we were talking to Precious’ owner, a cat wandered into the room to check us out. When we found out the cat was not spayed yet, Laurie made arrangements to also pick up the cat and take her to their vet.

We visited a home with a pit bull family. The owner came out with a shoebox full of puppies. The puppies were only five days old.

The owner agreed to keep the puppies until they’re weaned, and then PAWS will admit them into their adoption program, and fix the adult dogs. This man touched my heart. He is raising his two daughters, nine and ten, by himself. He was so grateful and gracious while talking to Laurie.

In between, we knocked on doors, and found a home that neighbors told us about that was “filled with cats and dogs.” We managed to talk to the owner on the phone, but did not go inside because she wasn’t home yet. Laurie made arrangements to try again the following week.

We also saw at least eight cats outside in various places. This one was obviously friendly, and we found her owner. She agreed to have the cat picked up to be spayed the following week, in addition to her two dogs.

We visited another man who is caring for his English bull dog in the basement of his old apartment. He had to move to a new place and his new landlord does not allow pets. He visits his dog five times a day in the old place. Laurie also gave him supplies, and is working on getting his landlord to allow him to be together with his dog. We all took his dog out for a walk together, and it was clear they were family to each other.

One of our last stops was with a young man named Nick and his rambunctious six-month old pit bull. Laurie has been giving him on-site dog behavior lessons, and Nick showed us his progress. The dog was also spayed by PAWS. The other week Nick also found a chihuahua abandoned for three weeks in his stairwell. PAWS admitted that dog into their adoption pgroam.

Nick bought his pit bull from a breeder in Indiana. He tried to adopt another dog from an open intake shelter, but was turned down because he didn’t have a fence. So he bought a dog instead, from a breeder all too willing to give it to him. He said his friends also want to breed his dog, but he refuses now, and is an advocate for spay/neuter for all peoples’ pets. Perhaps now his friends will be calling PAWS as well.

There was so much more that happened within these few hours. I wish I had taken more photos but there was so much going on. I am planning on returning again to volunteer this Thursday. For a list of their events and volunteer opportunities, please visit the PAWS Chicago PAWS for Life Outreach page.

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?