Mama Skipper is a colony cat that was TNR’d by Heather a few years ago. She was trapped by a Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) Officer last week.

Since Skipper was microchipped to Heather, we were able to pick her up from CACC.

The situation is confusing, and it usually is, because really, there is no set process in Chicago for these cats. I have found every situation to be different throughout the years. In this case, CACC does need to respond to people’s calls about outside animals, but they are supposed to leave ear tipped colony cats outside. Last week it was very cold, so perhaps the officer did not want to leave her. Also, she may have shown signs of friendliness, and since more and more ear tipped cats are now being adopted into indoor homes, the officer could have thought she was lost outside. But, once inside CACC, it is up to whomever the cat is microchipped to get that cat out of CACC.

*(As a side note, I need to make sure the contact information for any of the colony cats originally chipped to me is changed to the people around here that I know who have adopted them, let them in/out of their homes, etc. These are no longer colony cats that can just be put back outside, they are pet cats that should be vetted and cared for by that person now for the lifetime of that cat.)

The other explanation given by CACC is that the cats need to be brought in regardless so they could make sure that the cats are updated on their rabies shots. But, part of the TNR package for colony cats is a rabies shot (good for three years), so chances are most ear tipped cats are updated. Also, in this case, CACC did not give her a rabies vaccination. They gave her a distemper vaccination.

So, Skipper needs some additional vetting to be ready for adoption, including the rabies shot, Revolution, and a snap test for FIV/FeLV.

Skipper has been in Melissa’s foster room for over a week now, and is healthy and doing well. She started to explore, and in true cat form, loves boxes.

She is still pretty shy and needs someone to spend more time with her, so another foster is lined up. Heather went back to Skipper’s territory and found that the home she hung out at has since been torn down. So she’s pretty lucky girl to be inside – she’s out of the cold, her outdoor colony home is gone, and the microchip saved her life at CACC.

My friend Kholood told me about a cat her family has been feeding for the past few weeks. They provided him food, water, shelter, and a heater in their garage.

Early this morning I went over there with a trap. I didn’t see him at first, because he blended right in. He’s a true snow cat! But I definitely heard him. He screamed at us almost the entire time.

He ran around in circles, begging for the food. At one point he even followed Kholood into the house. Obviously, this cat is friendly, but he wouldn’t sit still with us. We set the trap and left. A few minutes later, he was trapped. He kept screaming in there as well.

We brought him straight to Tree House’s clinic. This is the first time Kholood has ever trapped a cat, and she had a lot of questions for Angela, who works at Tree House. Angela is a rock star – she’s straightforward, compassionate, and knows her stuff. We were happy to learn that Kholood’s address falls into their Petsmart TNR grant, so that most of the services are free. But because this cat is most likely friendly, and Kholood is willing to foster, they discussed all the options for him. Today he will get neutered, vaccinated, flea treatment, a slight ear tip just in case he ends up outside again, and tested for FIV and FeLV since he might eventually be adopted indoors permanently. Kholood named him Lunar.

We got Lunar just in time. Angela pointed out that the tips of ears were black, which, in these frigid temperatures, means the start of frost bite.

Any animal that has this should be brought indoors. Most feral cats have survived winters and build up a fur winter coat to help keep them warm, but Lunar is most likely dumped outside and not used to fending for himself.

Also, his looks are pretty rare for a true outdoor cat. He’s snow white, with one green eye, and one blue eye.

Fingers crossed that all goes well for him today. After leaving him at the clinic, I drove Kholood home and was dropping her off into her alley entrance. Her neighbor all of sudden pulled out of her garage space and ran right into my car! What’s that saying again? No good deed…? Luckily, no one was hurt, and I can still drive my car for now. Hopefully when Kholood picks up Lunar tonight their ride home will be uneventful and safe.

Last night we picked up a colony cat from Chicago Animal Care and Control. She is a TNR’d colony cat microchipped to my friend Heather W, who has done a lot of TNR south of my area.

Heather got the call from Tree House on January 6th that her colony cat, Mama Skipper, was at CACC.

Heather TNR’d Mama Skipper a few years. She also trapped her kittens at the time, which were admitted to Tree House. Mama cats outside don’t do very well – they spend all of their time and energy being pregnant and caring for the kittens. Usually mama cats always look the most disheveled and skinny in the colonies. TNR stops the breeding cycle and the cats flourish. You can see that Skipper looks pretty scared here in CACC, but healthy.

Someone in Heather’s neighborhood called CACC about cats. An Animal Control Officer – ACO, came out and ended up trapping Mama Skipper on January 4th. She’s pretty visible because she likes to hang out on people’s porches.

ACO’s are not supposed to trap ear tipped cats, but it is being done at times. Per the paperwork, there looked like there was some confusion as to whether they thought she was ear tipped, or had frostbite.

We were kind of confused at first also. It looks like both of her ears were tipped.

This is her left ear, which is always the ear that is tipped for identification that the cat was TNR’d. And this is her right ear, which looks damaged from first bite, probably from last winter because it was healed. Here’s the view of her ears from the top. Her damaged right ear looks even smaller than her tipped left ear.

The pick-up at CACC went very smoothly. Tree House had put a hold on the cat, and we showed up with a trap. The ACO went in back and got Skipper for us. There were a few people there looking to adopt, which was great to see. But the adoption room only had three cats. Later we learned from the CACC Cat Transfer Team that the facility currently only has 12 cats. Normally CACC is overloaded, but it is freezing outside, so perhaps less cats are coming in.

The weather is definitely concerning this week. We are at below freezing temps, and there was a quite a bit of snow since Mama Skipper was picked up. Our friend Melissa agreed to keep Mama in her bathroom for a few days and let her rest. She definitely has a thick feral fur coat to brave the cold, and Heather has an outdoor cat shelter for her outside, but she wanted to also make sure Mama did not catch an upper respiratory infection – URI, which is common at CACC.

Also, Mama is showing to be somewhat friendly, which makes sense since she was picked up. She was so calm, from CACC, to the trap, to Melissa’s bathroom. Perhaps the neighbor that called thought she was a lost pet. Who knows? We are trying to find out which neighbor called. In the meantime, please let us know if you’re interested in fostering her to see if she belongs indoors.

The purrfect playlist for your holiday gathering is brought to you by my wonderfully talented friends, Scratch Trax.

Seriously, click on this link and listen.

Hark! The herald angels sing! I could hear him through the window.

Stay inside, cat.

Check out this story of Comfort Dogs at the airport this week. I’m leaving for work soon – wish these dogs were still there today!

Here’s the story from Huffington Post: