These cats think they’re hiding from me.
Can you see Fleece? He’s from the Jose and the Pussycats Colony. After I TNR’d him he showed up again with a collar on. He must have gotten friendlier after his surgery.
This cat is “new,” not ear tipped, but also had a collar on. She thought I couldn’t see her anymore here. I’m hoping to locate her owner and make sure she is fixed and vaccinated.
Every year I go around the neighborhood and clean out the outdoor cat houses that I’ve put out for the colony cats. I can’t afford to build wood shelters for all the colonies, so I use Rubbermaid bins. They’re cost-effective, easy to transport, and most importantly, they keep the cats warm.
There’s no single “right” way to build cat shelters, but as I’m cleaning them out this year I realized I prefer the two-bin shelter with pink insulation in-between model. The insulation gets filthy and you have to replace it every year if the cat is sitting on it. That’s added expense to buy more insulation, and time to measure and cut it out again every year.
If the cat sits on the straw placed directly in the bin, you just throw the old straw out, hose down the bin, and add fresh straw.
Check out this photo of a cat house I’m currently cleaning. You can see the insulation in-between the bins is still as good as new, while the piece that was inside that the cats sat on is dirty, scratched up, and needs to be thrown out.
“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”
–Albert Schweitzer
This past weekend we hosted our annual party for our friends including food, drinks and performances in our Caffeinated Recordings studio downstairs. Everyone that comes to these parties contributes in some way and I’d like to thank all of them for making it even more fun every year.
This year I also wanted to highlight TNR and outdoor cat colony management and our friends’ generosity, interest and compassion really inspired me.
Lots of people saw the cats in my yard that night and were really interested in their cat houses and how they were cared for. For some reason the cats decided to stay late this year and show off. I’m thrilled that more and more people are learning about TNR and accepting that it is the most humane, effective way to care for the colony cats and ultimately reduce the outdoor cat population overall.
One Wing Low performed that night and it turned out that their drummer knew Erica, the TNR staff person at Tree House Humane Society, because she was currently fostering four kittens from a local TNR project. They had no idea they were going to end up at the same party!
People gave money online and in person, and brought supplies for the cats, including food, medicine and materials for the cat houses.
I’d like to thank our motley crew of musicians and artists for their donations, including, Mark from Cmn ineed ur hlp, Christy and John from Nonagon, Lisa, Bruno and Jovanka, Shepy/Jay, Liz, and Erica. Also, thank you Dorota, for your online donation! I’d like to meet you someday.
I’m embarrassed because I know I’m missing some people, but please give me a break or a private message to remind me – the party went on until 5am!
Mooha, the studio cat.
Kitty Farrell, the outdoor TNR’d cat from the Sprockets Colony that was injured, is now fully recovered from her hind leg amputation and out of her crate. She has access to a room in her caregiver’s home, and is learning how to walk on three legs.
She’s got her own YouTube channel that you can subscribe to.
Here is Kitty Farrell exploring her new world.
And here she is thoroughly enjoying just being a cat who was given a well deserved second chance.
When we let our indoor pet cats out to explore the garden, we put up a screened fence to keep them from leaving the yard.
But it doesn’t stop the outdoor colony cats from coming into my yard. Bouncy Bear and Dice line up like monorail cats.
We added another feral cat shelter to our yard yesterday. Now we have three wood shelters for the cat colony to choose from, and all three will have heating pads. The original cat house is to the right with the cat feeding station, and the new one is on the left, made from following Alley Cat Allies’s instructions. There is also a Feral Villa hidden behind plants in the middle. Can you see Dash and Dice checking everything out?
If you want to see examples of outdoor cat houses, or learn how to make one, there are two events today, 10/27, to choose from.
In Bridgeport, you can see cat houses made by artists on display for a new project called The Terraformer Advancement Towards Interspecific Communication, curated by Christopher Smith. This project is in a vacant lot south of 3216 S. Morgan, open today, 10/27, from 2-6pm.
In Uptown, if you want to learn how to make outdoor cat shelters, or purchase one, Tree House Humane Society is hosting their annual Winter Preparedness Fest from 1-4pm, at 1212 W. Carmen.
They will have community cat shelters for sale for $15 and $20. Here’s an example of their larger $20 Rubbermaid bin feral cat shelter. There is enough room for 2-3 cats in there.
You might even get lucky and see Al, their resident outdoor colony cat.
We’re still trying to talk to the main feeder who won’t cooperate with TNR for the Cell Phones Colony, but in the meantime we can move ahead and do it anyway without him. Unfortunately he also lets these cats in and out of his home but there’s not much we can do about that for now.
The auto repair shop next door is happy to let us trap in their lot. The cats are all over the cars there – check out the paw prints!
We saw a bunch of cats hanging out underneath the tarps there. It’s the perfect cover for them.
The lot owners agreed to feed daily there to entice the cats to stay and expect food. Once we’re ready, we will stop feeding for a day or two, set traps baited with canned fish, and see if we can get the remaining cats that still need to be fixed and vaccinated.
It was hard to see what was going on under the tarps. The cats had already been fed that day, but we put out some tuna in the alley to could get a closer look at some of them. It wasn’t quite clear if they were ear tipped or not, but they were definitely related.
Now that it’s colder it might be easier to trap there because there is less food being left out in the alleys. The main feeder doesn’t have his door open anymore and is staying inside. The cats are less visible when it’s cold and people don’t want to go outside to feed them. We’re going to try to use all of this to our advantage – my most successful TNR projects have been done in the winter months.
You can gain hands-on experience and learn how to TNR by volunteering.
Last spring I volunteered with Tree House Humane Society to help a woman caring for a colony of 29 cats in her yard, called the Luna Colony. She was an overwhelmed feeder who was elderly and living alone and could not TNR by herself. She had cats in and out of her home and the colony was bonded to her. They did not have adequate shelter and were spraying her yard. As a result, some of the cats were sick. She needed help with TNR as well as proper colony maintenance.
The cats were there as soon as we arrived.
We baited and set up Tru-Catch Traps in the alley, and then brought them inside the yard so as not to disturb the cats with too much activity first.
We found out a mother cat had just given birth minutes before we arrived. Luckily we trapped her first and put her newborn kitten in the trap with her. Tree House staff drove her straight to their vet clinic.
The rest of us stayed and continued trapping. This is why it’s great to tag-team on TNR. The mother cat was in crisis but only one person had to leave with her to handle it and we could continue as planned.
All 29 cats were trapped over a period of a few days. Some of the cats needed additional medical treatment and had to be recovered a few extra days. The last were returned to the yard 11 days after the project started.
After I returned these cats, some of the cats came to check me out and show off their new ear tips. They mostly hang out on the feeder’s back porch.
Which way is up?
Kitty corner.
Perched like pigeons.
In addition to TNR, volunteers added new outdoor cat shelters made out of Rubbermaid bins on and under the porch.
Since the porch is covered from rain and snow, they also added shelters made from styrofoam coolers stuffed with straw. The cats love them.
The feeder already had some sturdy shelters in the yard so the volunteers utilized those, just making sure they were now full of clean straw. They also cleaned the yard and added fresh mulch on bare patches.
The feeder gives the cats wet food on the back porch, but also keeps dry food in this covered feeding station so the cats can eat throughout the day.
Volunteers also added outdoor litter boxes and even scratching posts made of discarded tree trunks. Every time I volunteer I learn something new – I loved the idea of using these tree trunks!
With the help of volunteers doing TNR, this feline colony’s population is now under control and the cats are cared for. The feeder could not have done all of this without their help.
A friend told me that she successfully trapped a cat over the weekend, and Tree House’s BVDM Mac Lean Spay/Neuter Clinic informed her the cat was already microchipped and neutered last year. My friend lives a block from The Cell Phones Colony. This cat colony is much harder to TNR because of opposition from the main feeder and is an ongoing project.
Last year I joined Tree House staff in that alley and we managed to trap some cats because we had the cooperation from the staff of the auto lot next to the colony. But the colony mostly hangs out on the main feeder’s property. He is an elderly man who feeds diligently so we could not get all of the cats because they were not hungry enough to go in the humane Tru-Catch traps. At one point the man became enraged and threw out a trap. He would not listen to us or agree to TNR. His family that also lived there tried to talk to him, but would not go against his wishes.
There was another woman a few doors down who also fed the cats and disagreed with trapping and fixing them because she insisted we were not bringing the cats back. She wanted all of the cats there and for them to keep reproducing and catching the rats.
The project was at a standstill.
I’ve kept my eye on that alley ever since and when I was jogging through a month ago I saw what I thought was a dead kitten on the main feeder’s property.
You can’t tell from the photo, but there’s a wrought iron gate in the way. I threw a few stones to try to get the kitten’s attention, and it became obvious that he was sick. He was lethargic and did not react much to me.
The auto lot next door told me there were other sick kittens besides this one, and they agreed again to have traps on their property. I spoke to another relative that lived at the main feeder’s property and it was the same scenario as last year – she agreed the cats needed help, and told me they even found a dead kitten that morning. But it ultimately was up to him.
It was time to resume Trap-Neuter-Return there again regardless.
I brought some traps the next night with two other friends who are experienced trappers and caregivers of TNR’d feral cat colonies. One of them lives a few blocks away. When I picked her up, we drove through her alley and came across some of her colony cats.
When we went to The Cell Phones Colony and set up the traps, we were met with opposition from the same woman as last year, along with a few other men who were in a garage hanging out and playing cards.
At first, communication was impossible, as they accused us of being “cat killers.” They did not believe we were going to bring the cats back. When the woman threatened to call the police, I told her she should as their behavior toward us was alarming and I wanted the police there.
That gave her pause.
In the midst of this, we also trapped a cat with a trap we had already set up. The cat actually already had an ear tip, the universal sign that a cat has been TNR’d. We showed the people the ear tip, explained TNR again, and let the cat back out.
They were starting to “get” it.
We pushed even more and started showing them photos of our colony cats on our phones, and how we care for them. Being called a cat killer really hit a nerve with me and I think the people were starting to understand what we were trying to do.
Nevertheless, we decided to leave because there was so much commotion already. The woman told us she also fed the cats around 5pm daily and we said we would be back later that week at that time.
We went back to my friend’s alley and decided to try to TNR there instead. There are already 10 TNR’d cats there, so we accidentally trapped and released a half dozen, but we also trapped three intact cats.
My friend took all three to PAWS Chicago’s Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic to be TNR’d.
When they were ready to be returned after their surgeries, we took all three cats in the traps back to The Cell Phones Colony alley first to show the people there the cats with their brand new ear tips. We showed them the medical paperwork detailing their surgeries and vaccinations.
Now they were asking if we could come back and trap in their alley.
We returned all three cats back to their original alley. There was a bunch of kids hanging out there so we explained everything we were doing to them. We gave them fliers about TNR to give to their parents. One little girl, no more than four years old, told us about her new kitten that wasn’t eating. We asked her where it was and she took us into her home.
There is never a dull moment with this TNR project. TNR requires community effort and cooperation. If you can get your neighbors on board with TNR, it will be much easier to help the cats.
The little girl actually had two kittens. One had some sort of bulge on its side, so we convinced her mother that it needed medical attention. The other kitten was maybe three weeks old and they did not have anything to feed it. We went to Petco to buy some kitten formula for them.
Later that week we went back to The Cell Phones Colony alley to try to trap again. We saw some cats already TNR’d first.
Then we saw some of the cats hanging out on the main feeder’s property. Unfortunately we did not see the sick tabby kitten anymore.
This time the woman helped us! She did not feed the cats that day, and helped us bait the traps with their usual food, along with sardines in oil to try to entice them. What a turnaround!
But because we still do not have the cooperation of the elderly man who is their main feeder, we managed to trap just two intact cats, a male and female pair who were also fixed and vaccinated at PAWS Chicago.
Baby Chocobo
Moon Pope
The rest of the cats were not hungry enough to go in the traps or leave the property. They just watched us.
After Baby Chocobo and Moon Pope were recovered from their spay/neuter surgeries, we showed the woman again when we returned them outside to their alley.
This woman and her neighbors are now thanking us and trying to help. Unfortunately the elderly man who is the main feeder still will not listen, but we will keep trying. I’m hoping my friends in that area will also keep trapping.
Starting in 2004, I learned about TNR from Alley Cat Allies and trapped a few cats. They were mostly mother cats with their kittens, so I brought them inside to be socialized and admitted into shelters.
Then in 2005, as I was trying to trap a very sick cat, I trapped Bobcat instead, and he ended up being the first cat I initially TNR’d, trapped, neutered, and returned outside.
He looked like a Bobcat, down to his stubby tail.
Along with Bobcat, I also TNR’d a dozen other cats in my yard, including Magic, a grey male, and Princess, a female white/brown tabby.
The three of them bonded, and were my first real colony.
I never fed cats in my yard initially. The colonies formed after the cats were TNR’d.
Since they hung out in my yard all the time, of course I now fed them, but we did not have much shelter. I made one Rubbermaid bin shelter, but they would only lay on top of it.
I worried about them that winter. My backyard was only grass at the time and there was no cover for them.
My next door neighbor had an old open garage that had some bedding for them, and she turned on a heat lamp for them at night.
When summer came, I started experimenting with the garden, and the colony continued to spend their days in my yard.
When fall came, Magic started coughing. Because they were bonded to me at this point, I was able to get all three of them into separate carriers and take them to the vet.
Magic and Princess tested FIV+/FeLV+. My neighbor, the one who had the heat lamp for them in her garage, adopted them.
Unfortunately, because Magic was symptomatic, he died six months after being brought inside.
Bobcat tested FIV+, and I fostered him until he was admitted to PAWS Chicago and adopted within a few weeks.
I’ve learned a lot since then and am so grateful that TNR is becoming more popular and known as it the most humane way to control the cat population. It is the only way I could have helped Bobcat, Magic and Princess.
Nancy Blanchard says: Hi Vanessa,
It’s been awhile since I’ve been on my Facebook account. Your entries here are fantastic! You’re doing an awesome job! The cats on your block are very very fortunate.
Take care and I’ll have to visit the Cats in my Yard paypal site!
Thank you for the kind words, Nancy! The cats around here have a lot of caring neighbors that agree TNR is the most effective and humane solution to ultimately reduce the outdoor cat population, and contribute to their colony management.
Vanessa, yeah, if the styrofoam pieces you use are just squares cut out and dropped in, propped up by straw, this will happen. We cut our pieces using a template so that the 5 pieces are fitted perfectly to the shape of the bin, and inserted so tightly that they cannot fall over, even with no straw in the bin. 🙂 (shameless plug for Tree House brand shelters here!)
I moved that piece for the photo – that was the “floor” used as extra insulation, not propped up. The cats scratch the insulation and it also obviously gets filthy from them. You can hose down the bins because they’re plastic, not the insulation. There’s no right or wrong way, I’m just freshening up a lot of bins and have found this way saves time for me.