Introducing the Central Park Colony: Trapping Cats and Other Wildlife

Karen K. contacted me at the beginning of this month about TNR for the cats living in her next door neighbor’s garage in Logan Square.

The colony is made up of a mama cat with her four kittens, although the kittens are now already almost grown. Karen was worried about the cats because neighbors were complaining about them pooping in their yard, and that there would be more litters soon.

After making sure Karen was feeding the cats on a schedule, she stopped feeding for a day or two. Kim and I started trapping them last Saturday, meeting up at 6am to set up and bait the traps.

This is the garage with a huge hole on its side that the cats all live in. Throughout that day, we trapped all five of the cats. At one point, Karen even trapped a black squirrel, and let her out. I would’ve loved to see that! We kept trying to trap early Sunday morning before PAWS’ clinic opened to get them TNR’d, because we knew obviously there is a papa cat out there.

When I showed up at 5am on Sunday, a raccoon appeared on top of the garage above my head.

This raccoon was bold! He climbed down and kept trying to go in the traps as I was baiting them with sardines. I’ve never seen anything like it.

When Kim came to check on the traps later all of the sardines were gone, but the traps were still open. The raccoon knew how to eat the bait without setting off the traps!

In the end we still had five cats ready for their TNR treatment at PAWS’ clinic.

Queens is the beautiful queen mama cat.

And then we trapped the rest of her family. Here is Manhattan, female.

Bronx, also female.

Brooklyn, female.

And Harlem, the one male. He would’ve had quite the harem if this colony was not TNR’d.

All of the cats went to PAWS’ clinic for TNR last Sunday, and have been recovered and TNReturned. Karen will let us know if any other cats show up in this area.

Cathy Mac says:

October 27, 2016 at 10:51 pm

So fun to see all your cats and adventures! Thanks for sharing!

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Vanessa says:

November 14, 2016 at 6:34 pm

Thank you, Cathy!

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TNR Team Effort in Trapping a Colony

Twelve cats and kittens were trapped at the Catalonia Colony in one alley so far.

Oleksandra and Kim volunteered to help a TNR request from PAWS Chicago for this colony cared for by Bonnie, a feeder in Hermosa. There are A LOT of cats in Hermosa – it kind of reminds me of how my neighborhood used to be a decade ago. Joann and I also then joined efforts in trapping, transporting, recovering and returning the cats. Jenny N., the clinic director of PAWS, also continued to help us with transporting the cats back and forth from the clinic. We are very grateful for all of her help this year! The entire colony that Bonnie knows about are now all spayed/neutered, but we know there are more cats out there and will continue trapping.

The three kittens were immediately admitted to PAWS Chicago.

They were trapped first, along with some adult cats, almost all of them feral.

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This photo shows Kim’s recovery room. Catalonia is in one of these traps, and we named this colony in honor of him because of all of the hilarity – ahem, I mean worry – that he put her through. Catalonia managed to get out of his trap, and spent a few good days loose in the room. He was absolutely fine, but it took some time to get him hungry enough to go back in the trap on his own. One of his favorite spots during those few days was hanging out in the window.

Once he was trapped again, he was TNReturned and very happy to be back with his siblings and bonded friends in the colony outside.

Bonnie thinks Barcelona was the mama cat of the kittens. It makes sense, as she was so frantic to get out of the trap, that she rubbed her nose raw against it. Barcelona also has an issue with her right eye. PAWS kept her for observation for a few days in a dog crate, and then decided she was healthy enough to be returned outside. Per the head vet at PAWS, she is already losing that eye, and the lid is slowly closing over it. It is not causing her any pain. Should she show signs of any infection or anything else in the future, Bonnie will call us and we will re-trap Barcelona for further treatment.

Madrid was a pregnant female, TNReturned.

Seville is just one of three male cats from here, now TNReturned.

Along with Bilbao. He was seen further down the block from Bonnie.

And was trapped easily. Valencia is a tortie, so obviously she is female, now TNReturned.

Lugo is another female cat trapped a few days later.

Along with Toledo.

Bonnie is so grateful to have all of the cats back. They live in her beautiful, clean yard where she feeds daily and has shelter for them under her front porch. Kim also purchased additional Rubbermaid bin shelters for her. I returned the cats back to Bonnie’s car port, where the cats shot out of her traps straight into her yard.

We were told that there are four more kittens further down the same block. Just a few days ago Oleksandra trapped this calico while looking for the kittens. The calico is obviously friendly so Oleksandra put her in her bathroom before taking her to PAWS.

At PAWS they found out she was already spayed. They gave her a microchip, updated her vaccinations, and tested for FIV/FeLV in case she would be admitted for admission. She tested negative. Oleksandra went door to door on that block and found her owner! The owner said her name is Marigold and she has two other spayed/neutered pet cats. They are all now reunited.

This project is ongoing and I am confident it will be done soon! If you live in or near Hermosa in Chicago and would like to help, or have any more information about outdoor cats there, please call us at 773-609-CATS (2287) or email at [email protected]

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Introducing the Catalonia Colony: Three Kittens Already Off the Street

We started TNR at a new colony last week, called the Catalonia Colony. Nine cats total were trapped.

Two sisters reached out to PAWS Chicago for help with TNR at their single-family home in Hermosa. Bonnie had a growing colony in her backyard and was overwhelmed. Oleksandra, Kim and Joann volunteered to help and tag teamed to trap the cats. They did a site visit, and talked to Bonnie about the colony’s feeding schedule. They immediately saw kittens, especially this little Siamese one, who kept popping up everywhere. They trapped her first, along with five adult cats. Isn’t she stunning?

The next day they trapped her two siblings, and another adult cat. We put the kittens together in the same trap to take them to PAWS along with the rest of the adults for TNR.

The kittens were already almost socialized. They were not quite big enough to be spayed/neutered, but Erica at PAWS found a foster for them to wait until they could be admitted into their adoption program. They kept them cozy in a crate until the foster was ready.

We’re very thankful for PAWS for taking these kittens!

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Helping Sherbert, a Senior Colony Cat, Get Full Medical Care

Sherbert showed up sick, dirty and disheveled while we were trapping for the Avondale TNR Project. His fur and ears were filthy, and his breathing was congested. He’s the 55th cat we trapped for vetting in Avondale so far, but he is the first one that was already TNR’d by someone else, as you can see by his ear tip.

It was clear something was wrong. But he was trap savvy, and one night Joann used a drop trap.

It worked, but he acted so strangely in it. He would not move, and just laid down in it, almost as if he was playing dead. We didn’t know if he was just exhausted or scared, or both.

Eventually he went into the regular Tru-catch Trap.

I took him the next day to Roscoe Village Animal Hospital. First they determined he was FIV-/FeLV-. Then they went ahead and updated him on his vaccinations and treated him with antibiotics for a URI, cleaned his ears, and gave him Revolution for fleas. They also did bloodwork to determine his overall health status.

In the meantime they traced his microchip to Tree House, who has been attempting to reach the person who TNR’d him in the first place four years ago.

The vet said it was clear that Sherbert is pretty much a senior cat, and his teeth were really, really bad, most likely causing stomatitis. This explained why he might have been so dirty – this condition is painful and cats stop grooming themselves as a result. It is also painful for them to eat. They recommended he get a full dental, but first he needed to recover from his infection.

Kim put Sherbert up in my feral cat recovery lounge in her house so that he could eat and sleep as much as he needed with a little more room for comfort. This lounge is a dog crate and trap attached together so that feral cats can be moved easily from one part to the other. I have used it for several feral cats during their recovery.

He’s doing well in the crate, but he hasn’t shown any signs of friendliness so far. I know this photo is dark, but you can see they really cleaned up his fur.

I am planning on taking him back to a vet for a full dental next week so that he can hopefully eat without pain in the future. We are getting quotes from a few vets because the highest one so far was for $1500.

There are a lot of feeders in this area and people who let their unfixed pet cats outside, which is really why there are so many colony cats. Without comprehensive TNR, the feline population has exploded here. We are doing what we can to help Kim get the population under control. So far we’ve reduced the population in three alleys by almost half in three months because of TNAdoption for friendly cats and kittens along with TNReturn for feral cats.

In the meantime, I’m a firm believer that feral cats deserve full medical care as well. If something is treatable, it will get done, just like with a pet cat. I will post the total cost after the procedure next week. If you would like to donate for his $489 vet bill so far and his upcoming dental, you can do so through PayPal at [email protected] or at the donate link at the top of this page. Thank you!

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Introducing the Polska Kittens Colony from Avondale

Back in June we met the owner of a Polish restaurant in Avondale feeding three feral female cats. They would wait outside the back door in the alley for their meals.

We are calling this the Polska Kittens Colony. It is the next alley over from the Big Daddy Colony.

She fed them raw ground beef from her restaurant. We have donated beef wet cat food to her since. She said they all just had kittens.

We soon saw what she was talking about.

This mama cat was moving the kittens from the garage to a basement accessible from the outdoors, and back again.

We talked to the owner of the basement as well, who owns a grocery store. The owners of the garage were not available. Other neighbors told us that these feline families were being moved all around by the mama cats and disrupted by kids and drunk men in the alley, that they didn’t have a clear idea of how many kittens there were, or who had them. This alley is BUSY with lots of traffic and people.

We decided to let everyone be, and that Barbara, the owner of the restaurant, should call us when the kittens come out to be fed after they are weaned.

So about six weeks later in July, Barbara called on a Friday and said she saw kittens running around outside of the garage.

Joann went there immediately and first trapped the last female cat that we knew about from the Big Daddy Colony. Esther was pregnant and TNReturned. We couldn’t believe she was already pregnant – we had trapped her kittens in June, which were all admitted to PAWS Chicago. Here’s Esther, the mama of some of the orange creamsicle kittens. She is the 28th cat trapped from that alley this summer.

Then Joann and Kim trapped all three lactating mama female cats and six little kittens at the Polish restaurant.

Here’s Abby the Tabby.

Sterling.

And Tabitha, the star of the video moving all of the kittens around.

These mama cats were kept for recovery for a few extra days in Kim’s laundry room.

They also trapped six kittens: Harley, Jordan, Payton, Penelope, Poe, and Shakespeare. We guessed they were from 2-3 litters because of their sizes. It’s really hard to tell when you are not the one who is feeding the cats yourself, or have a set location for the colony. The kittens were trapped, three to a trap.

Kim and Elissa started socializing and fostering them.

One of the black kittens had this gummy gunk all over his side. It has since been combed out. Who knows what the heck they were getting into in that garage!

Some of the kittens were quickly ready for their close-ups!

Then on Monday, Joann got a call from Barbara saying she found another kitten. Joann went to trap him immediately. Kitten #7, Lucky Johnny, was absolutely frantic, meowing his head off after being alone all weekend.

Long-time supporter, Kati E., donated and sponsored his care. Thank you, Kati!

All seven of these kittens are being fostered currently by Kim, and went to PAWS Chicago for their first round of vaccinations on Monday. They will be admitted for adoption in August. They are currently being fostered by Elissa. Then, on Wednesday of this week, Joann got ANOTHER call from Barbara about two more kittens there. Joann again went to trap immediately, and got THREE more kittens.

Meet Rutabega, Radish and Turnip. All three of them were at PAWS today for their first vet appointment, and will also be admitted to PAWS Chicago’s adoption program in August.

We think we now have all of the kittens, but Barbara will call us if she sees more or other intact cats. We have now trapped 38 cats and kittens from the Avondale TNR Project in tow alleys. Almost half of these cats will be admitted to PAWS Chicago and adopted into indoor homes, rather than living on the streets. If you’d like to help us traps cats, foster or make a donation, please call us at 773-609-2287. Thank you!

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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.

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RIP Ivan, Colony Cat from Avondale

Ivan is the second cat that has died since we started the Avondale TNR Project. With every TNR project of this size – here we are talking about estimates of 50 cats within three blocks – there are always inevitably sad endings along with the happy ones.

Ivan was trapped and taken to the clinic on May 31st for his TNR treatment. He was feral and his surgery went without a hitch. He was returned back outside to the colony after recovery without a problem, along with a few other TNR’d adult feral cats. They are all healthy, even tested FIV-/FeLV-, and have lots of feeders and garages for shelter.

The next photos may be upsetting to people, so consider this a warning.

Last weekend Joann got a call from George, the feeder who is trying to stop us from trapping, to say he found a dead cat in the alley. He was furious, and most likely blames us for killing this cat. He also texted Erica from PAWS this photo of Ivan’s dead body, without an explanation. Can you imagine? George also then called Erica and screamed at her for twenty minutes about us and the cats. She has been trying to help him for the past few years now with TNR. We wish we could get him to listen to us, but at this point there is no time or reasoning with him. We want to concentrate on helping the cats as much as possible with the time we have. The only good thing is that at least he called to tell us. Even when the outcome is tragic, it is better to know what happened, rather than just having a cat disappear. When Joann talked to George and other residents, they said someone already threw out his body. Joann and Kim searched the alley and found his body in this dumpster, right near where we’ve been trapping this past month.

This is not the proper way to dispose of an animal’s dead body. Also, they wanted to make sure to scan him for a microchip so that we were absolutely sure that this was Ivan.

Joann took him to MedVet Chicago. They scanned him for his microchip, and examined him. They did not find any signs of trauma or broken bones. They found his mouth was clenched shut and full of blood. They thought he may have died of rat poisoning, but said they could not tell for sure without a necropsy, which costs $900 there. They then disposed of him free of charge. We are very grateful for their help and compassion in this matter.

Ivan also may have died from trauma from being hit by a car. I have found other cats like this, and so have other trappers. Cats get a glancing blow to the head or body, and then die a day or two later from internal bleeding. Yes, a necropsy is needed to know for sure.

RIP, Ivan. We wished we could’ve helped you sooner, but we know you are free of pain now. We will keep trying to help the rest of the cats in this area with TNR.

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Lion Cuts for Matted, Long-Haired Colony Cats

Puffy is a very fluffy, long-haired cat that comes to my yard irregularly to feed ever since I TNR’d him in 2013.

This past year he’s been looking fluffier than ever. His long-haired coat is magnificent, but starting to look downright disheveled. He’s not easy to capture on camera – he’s a true feral who only visits at dusk or later.

His fur looked out of control, but I had to wait to trap until summer when it is hot enough for him to be shaved. So I zip-tied traps open at the cats’ feeding stations and starting feeding from them to condition the cats to the traps.

It worked like a charm. Last week when I came back from vacation Chicago was nice and hot. I set the traps and quickly trapped Bouncy Bear and Dash by accident. I released them immediately. Eventually Puffy went in very early morning. He looked totally suspicious.

And upon closer examination, I saw I made the right call. His fur was out of control, with huge matts. He looked pretty good, but matts can be very painful – they can be close to and pull on the skin.

I took Puffy to Roscoe Village Animal Hospital, where I take all the feral cats in traps needing additional medical care.

Obviously, Puffy needed to be sedated for shaving. Since he was there, I asked them to update his vaccinations, and give him an exam. He was treated for fleas, but his ears looked clean. His teeth are surprisingly in good shape, so no dental was needed. And they gave him a full body shave.

Puffy, the Lion Cut King.

Doesn’t he look pleased?

He’s lucky I didn’t get him a dragon cut!

His vet bill was $393. If you’d like to make a donation to help cover his care, you can do so at the PayPal link at the top of this page.

I waited until the end of the day to return him back to my yard. Inexplicably, Funny Face started chasing after him when I returned him. Puffy doesn’t really hang out with the other colony cats here – he’s more solitary.

I finally saw him again here last night for dinner, and was really relieved to see that he was doing well, even if the other cats may be laughing at him. You can see the poof at the end of his lion tail. This time he appeared to be hanging out with Dash. Maybe they’re all making sure he is ok?

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Introducing the Big Daddy Colony: TNR in Avondale

Kim and Joann trapped last week with great success: fifteen cats and kittens trapped so far, and there’s a lot more.

Kim reached out to me this year about her neighborhood. Joann and Kim started trapping and working through her area in Avondale last week.

Kim trapped two kittens and a male feral cat. Once the kittens were spayed/neutered, the feeder adopted them into her home. The male feral cat was TNReturned outside.

She also trapped a sick cat that visited her yard sporadically. She has been trying to trap him for over a year, and believes he finally went in the trap because he was so sick. She called him Big Daddy, and the colony is named in his honor. Big Daddy was taken to Roscoe Village Animal Hospital, where after a thorough examination and tests, they all made the hard decision to humanely euthanize him because he was just too sick. RIP Big Daddy.

Joann trapped along with Kim throughout the neighborhood and saw a lot of cats and talked to a lot of feeders. Some TNR was done here before by Erica from PAWS Chicago and other volunteers, because they saw a mix of ear tipped and non-ear tipped cats. Kim has also trapped 22 cats visiting her yard in the past two years.

They trapped this beautiful TNR’d cat a few times, who also loves to pose. Her name is Georgita.

And a lot of non-ear tipped cats.

A lot of these cats are fed by a man named George. George feeds these cats no matter what, and also tries to impede trapping. He moved the traps, closed them, and did everything he could to stop them. George is an outdoor hoarder and there’s nothing we can do but to work around him and wait until he leaves.

Joann and Kim also discovered that this restaurant feeds other cats. Check out these cats waiting for their dinner in back!

The restaurant employees and several people throughout the neighborhood were all for TNR. Joann and Kim talked to a lot of neighbors and found out a lot of people feed and were concerned for the cats. TNR always involves community outreach, and more people that live in this area need to help trap. They also discovered a few other hot spots that we are hoping to work on, with colonies of 10-12 cats. In all, Kim has estimated there may be up to 50 cats within these few blocks.

They trapped in a few people’s yards and near where George feeds. So despite his ongoing efforts to stop them from trapping, they trapped eleven more cats and kittens. That means these cats are hungry. They range in all kinds of ages and litters.

All of these cats are currently at PAWS’ clinic for TNR surgery. Some of these orange cats look absolutely identical.

If you know of anyone that lives in Avondale and cares for cats that can TNR, or would like to help us in any way, please contact us at the link above or at [email protected] , or call 773-609-2287

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Helping a Caregiver with Feral Cat Colony Management

Caring for feral cat colonies means continuing to TNR any new intact cats that show up. That’s the basis of colony management for all caregivers.

Kim V. has been caring for her Big Daddy Colony in Avondale for years. She TNR’d about a dozen cats there so far. Most of them hang out in her yard.

She contacted us to borrow traps for a few cats still needing TNR and additional medical care.

Specifically this orange cat, who needs to be neutered and shaved.

We dropped off a dozen traps at her home a few weeks ago. Her indoor rescue cats made sure to investigate.

As soon as she set the traps cats came to investigate.

So far she has TNR’d two new intact males this month. She is still trying to trap the orange cat and another cat that appears to be sick. She is also pretty sure there is a black kitten down the block from her. In the meantime she also trapped several ear tipped cats, so having the extra traps came in handy.