Gringa, a TNR’d colony cat, was found dead outside Saturday by the Avondale alley we are trapping in.

Gringa was a beautiful cat already TNR’d by Erica from PAWS before we started this project. Gringa was being fed regularly by George, a man who drives from somewhere else to feed in this alley twice a day.

Joann got to know Gringa during last week when she was trying to trap intact cats there with a drop trap.

Gringa had a lot of fun playing with the string.

In true small world fashion, although we didn’t know it at the time, our friend Maribeth B. found Gringa’s body on Saturday, talked to neighbors, and placed her in a dumpster because she didn’t know what else to do. Maribeth lives close to this project and we’ve been in touch throughout.

The following photos may be upsetting to some people.

Before we knew that happened, though, another neighbor called Joann about Gringa. Joann and Kim went to retrieve the body. This is the second dead cat found in this area in the past week. Joann saw the blood left behind where Gringa was on the parkway.

Joann and Kim took Gringa to MedVet Chicago, just like Ivan. The vet determined this time that Gringa was definitely hit and killed by a car. There were tire tread marks on her body.

The vet was pretty shook up himself. He said that in the past three days, he has seen six cats hit by cars, most of them were people’s pets. We don’t know of their outcomes. But he said that in 35 years of practice as a vet, this past week has been the hardest on him. I implore everyone to keep their pet cats inside. This is not just “weird coincidences” happening at this colony. This is happening everywhere. Of course, colony cats need to remain outside because they are feral. Being hit by a car is one of the many dangers they face, but like other wild animals, a lot of them know to fear and avoid cars.

MedVet was able to dispose of her body properly and without charge. We are so grateful for their help.

Later that day we talked to Maribeth, and figured out that Gringa was the cat she found earlier. We are grateful that neighbors are trying to watch out for these cats.

RIP, Gringa.

Ziggy Stardust is a long-haired orange cat that’s been hanging out in Kim’s yard for months now. 

Ziggy was not easy to trap, but with trap conditioning, like I did with Puffy, Kim was able to trap her. Yes, I said her. Most orange cats are male, but Ziggy is a female.

The vet also determined that she was already spayed, and about eight years old. Unfortunately she is not microchipped. Because she has been hanging out for so long now in Kim’s yard, we think she is either dumped or lost long ago. She does not let anyone get too close to her.

Once the vet shaved her, they discovered that her mats really were a problem. All of that red you see on her skin here is a rash, now treated with antibiotics.

Boots, another one of Kim’s colony cats, was very concerned about her. They’ve been hanging out a lot together.

Ziggy is also underweight. Since Kim feeds the cats good food daily, they decided to do bloodwork to see what’s going on. She has hyperthyroid and some high liver enzymes. Kim is now putting medication in her food twice daily. She is supposed to be in that medication now for the rest of her life. The vet wants to see her every time the medication needs a refill. Since Ziggy is still acting feral and is so hard to trap, we’re currently trying to figure out how that going to work.

Ziggy also got updated vaccines, flea treatment, and tested negative for FIV/FeLV. Her total vet bill is $526 so far. If you’d like to donate towards her care, you can do so at the donate link at the top of this page, or through paypal.com, [email protected]

We’re hoping Ziggy continues to improve and gain some weight. Maybe she will learn to trust humans again once she feels better.

Today we watched this mama cat move her kittens around from an abandoned garage, to outside of a basement, and back again. 

Joann and I talked to the restaurant owner who feeds the cats, other neighbors, and the grocery store owner where some of the kittens are now. There are estimates of up to 12 kittens within these three buildings. There are more mama cats, who keep moving their kittens around because there’s a lot of activity in this alley. Cats were fighting in the garage where the kittens initially were. Children have found the kittens and tried to play with them. A group of drunk homeless men keep coming by and want to sell them. Things like that.

It was pretty overwhelming, because we spent all day today to check on traps and clean them, transport cats to the spay/neuter clinic, care for cats in traps, and take two cats needing care from a full service vet, costing $661. Just yesterday we managed to get six kittens off the street – they all went to our friend Robin’s home to foster. She is amazing. Kim managed to adopt out two other kittens from here just last week. When we saw there were even more kittens we couldn’t believe it. And there is nothing we could do for them now – they are too little and need to stay with their mamas.

We found part of one litter in this basement. 

We’re going to try to bring some shelters to entice the mama to stay there. Please contact us in the link at the header of this page if you’d like to assist with this project. Thanks!

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

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.

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.