Maxfield made a full recovery from his neck wound and checked out of my feral recovery lounge today.

I finally was able to get a decent photo of him when I transferred him back into the trap from the crate today. He was aggressive and growled the entire time, which means he’s feeling a lot better.

Just look at him! Look at that face! That glower! I love him and the feeling is not mutual. Feral as F**k. My favorite kind of cat, and why my TNR obsession started. Sometimes they still need our help, but we’ve failed them so much. They still deserve dignity, but we don’t deserve their gratitude in return.

He cleaned up his face and started grooming, which is also a good sign. His face was banged up and he was sniffling last week. He was getting bored in the crate as I found it trashed every morning. He would use the litterbox, but then shred the puppy pads and pull in any towels covering the trap and crate.  It was time for him to go back out.

George from Chicago TNR picked him up. She had five other cats in her Feral Mobile to return back to various sites.

These two cats were going back with Maxfield to their site in West Englewood. They are most likely siblings or offspring of Maxfield. Same glower. Same long hair. Same feral stare.

At least these guys weren’t wounded. We have no idea how Maxfield was injured, but I’m so thankful that George trapped him in time to treat it.

This handsome brown tabby boy from another site is pretty friendly, and George was bringing him back to a south side feeder who is willing to work with him for socialization, and possible placement into a no-kill shelter in the future.  This orange guy is very friendly and George is trying to get him into a foster home.

He’s friends with this other orange guy, who’s a bit more feral.

If anyone is interested in fostering these cats or other friendly cats from our TNR projects, please contact me at [email protected]

Godspeed, Maxfield, and all of you beautiful feral creatures!

Maxfield was trapped in Englewood this week and brought into PAWS Chicago’s clinic for their TNR package. They found a horrific wound on his neck.

Georgie from Chicago TNR and Cynthia trapped about a dozen cats in this particular alley so far. Maxfield was one of them, and the clinic discovered his injury while under anesthesia for his TNR surgery.

This was most likely caused by an abscess from a bite wound. Per his paperwork, there was crusted hair over the wound, so they cleaned it up.

Then he was given a shot of Convenia antibiotics to offset infection, and they recommended recovery for 7-10 days. PAWS Chicago performed this medical service free of charge. They are the only vet clinic in the Chicago area who offers this to colony cat caregivers and we are all so thankful to have this resource in the city.

I offered to recover Maxfield for George as soon as I saw his injury. Her foster room is currently occupied with a friendly cat from the same alley that she is trying to place into a rescue.

A few years ago my friend, Dave H., gave me a dog crate that attaches to a trap to safely recover feral cats that need to be confined for an extended period of time. Dave invented this set-up and we call it the feral cat recovery lounge. It’s become to be an invaluable resource for several cats I’ve recovered.

Once you attach the trap to the crate, you cover the whole set-up and allow the cat to freely move from one end to another. The food is kept in the trap so that it is easy to get the cat to re-enter the trap for transport later.

Maxfield settled right in. As soon as I attached the trap to the crate, he bolted into the crate. He decided to wedge himself next to the litter box, and hasn’t moved much since.

He hisses, growls, and bolts so far, all signs of feral behavior. He seems a bit congested, so I’ve been adding Lysine to his wet food. His appetite is good – he’s been eating the wet and dry food as soon as I leave. Because the outside temperature is pretty mild, I am keeping him in the garage with plenty of blankets and a heater to keep warm. The crate and trap are elevated off the floor with blocks of wood for circulation and so they are not just sitting on the cold croncrete floor. Nonetheless, we don’t want him too warm because we want him to keep his winter coat.

He’s doing well and I am hoping tonight he will explore the crate more. There is a second level just above his head where there’s a soft bed for him to sleep and recover.

I will keep all of you posted on his road to recovery within the next week. I’d like to thank George and Cynthia for saving his life, for PAWS’ providing his medical care, and for Jim’s help caring for him while I’m out of town for work.

Sometimes feral cats need a little bit of recovery time BEFORE surgery.

Such was the case with Sydney. PAWS Chicago said she was a bit too sick with a URI to get spayed. They gave her a shot of Convenia, an antibiotic, and said she needed some time to get better.

Sydney was initially trapped last week by Cynthia, a woman who does a lot of TNR on the south side. Cynthia currently has a house full of foster cats, and did not have anywhere else to put Sydney. Sydney’s feeder is unable to recover cats. My friend George from Chicago TNR always tries to help Cynthia, and reached out to me.

I was happy to set Sydney up in the ingenious feral cat recovery lounge donated by Dave H. I’ve had multiple cats stay in the lounge and it has made my life, and theirs of course, a lot easier. You can connect a trap to the crate, which gives feral cats a lot more room during an extended stay.

It also gave me the chance to observe Sydney a bit more to see if she was truly feral. She is about eight months old so we wanted to see how she would act. I gave her a bed and some toys.

Sydney acted feral the entire time. She did not play, and tried to hide from me every chance. When I was cleaning the crate, she would go into the trap, and vice versa. Here’s what it looks like inside the lounge, and how she tried to stay away from me. The wood in the middle is an elevated platform with a cat bed for her to sleep on. The litter box goes underneath it. The food goes in the trap so that the cat is trained to go into the trap. At this point she was also hissing and growling. She will be going to PAWS hopefully today for her TNR surgery. Her feeder is actually pretty attached to her, so perhaps she will warm up to him some more once she is spayed and returned to him.

I dropped her back off at George’s house yesterday. George greeted me with vegan chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. I’m always amazed at learning new things about my TNR friends. Today I learned she published a vegan cook book with her husband, David, called Veganopolis. And check out their blog! I need to order this book and try out some of the recipes.

Fingers crossed that Sydney’s surgery goes well, and she will be safely returned to her colony!

Maxfield discovered the upper “bedroom” level of his feral recovery lounge a day after I set him up in the crate.

He is recovering from a deep neck wound treated since last week. He’s supposed to be kept confined at least 7-10 days to make sure infection doesn’t set in. So far he’s doing great in the lounge, but still acting very feral. So, I can’t get a better photo of him than this. He’s a really beautiful long-haired grey and white cat.

All cats in the recovery lounge end up sleeping on the upper level, thank goodness. The litter box is on the lower level, and the attached trap has all of the food and water he needs.

Maxfield is still acting absolutely feral towards both me and Jim. He tries to bolt, strikes out aggressively, and growls and hisses at us the entire time. It’s pretty awesome. I absolutely adore feral cats like that as they are letting us know with certainty that they want to be free outdoors. They are why I started TNR in the first place – to stop the feline overpopulation crisis, and to let feral cats live their lives outside with dignity, caring for them when they want it, on their terms. I’m out of town for work this weekend and Jim is caring for Maxfield, making sure his crate is kept clean with fresh puppy pads and newspapers, the litter box is cleaned out, the dry cat food and water dishes are refreshed, and he gets all of the wet cat food with Lysine that he needs.

Maxfield has some diarrhea which seems induced by stress only so far, and a very good appetite. Hopefully he will be ready to be returned back to his colony site in West Englewood this week.

A young man named Atticus was worried about a TNR’d colony cat on his block. The cat was acting sick and lethargic, so Atticus posted this heartbreaking message on Everyblock, asking for help:

“so there’s a feral cat, a sweet old man, who lives on my block. i think a neighbor across the street usually feeds the colony, because i see them hanging on his porch a lot.

the old man cat seems like he’s really sick. his nose is all crusted and he’s on my back porch right now, seeming like he has a bit of trouble moving. he’s just hunched there, breathing heavily.
i know not to touch him, because he’s definitely an ear-tipped feral. i tried to make him comfy, brought him a little bit of food. he sat up when i got near him, but did not run, which is one of the ways i know he is not doing well, because he used to run when i got within 30 ft orso of him.

i guess my question is, am i caring too much for what is basically a wild animal? he surely won’t even live the month without medical attention, but he is ‘no ones’ cat, just there to keep the rat population down.. i’m not posting to say, “dang i don’t want this guy to die on *my* porch!” as much as i am saying, “is there a way we can do something for him?”

i don’t have the money to pay for medical attention for him, and i’m not sure if it’s even a cause worth fighting for because he might just be old as hell and withering with age.

thanks, neighbors. i’m sorry to post something so bummerific, i just love this old cat.”

Joann and Kim brought traps to Atticus. Atticus and his girlfriend, Katie, watched the traps day and night. This sick cat would come and go, and sat by the trap for a few days.

In the meantime, they trapped another black cat. They named her Ditto, and she received her TNR treatment at the Anti-Cruelty Society’s clinic.

Finally, after a week of setting traps, the sick cat went in.

We went to our friend, Dr. James Harris, at Elmhurst Animal Care Center.  We found out there that this sweet “old man cat” was actually a female. She was a senior cat, sick with upper respiratory infection – URI, underweight, had only a few teeth left, and had some pretty extensive mats on her back. They also found her microchip from her TNR, which was traced to PAWS’ clinic. The Elmhurst clinic sedated her, did her bloodwork and FIV/FeLV test, and gave her an antibiotic injection of Convenia for her URI. They carefully clipped off her mats, but left the fur intact underneath. Afterwards I set her up in my feral cat recovery lounge. Her total vet bill was $121. If you’d like to make a donation towards her care, you can do so through the Paypal donation link at the top of this page, or directly through paypal.com with [email protected]

In the meantime, PAWS let us know that she was TNR’d in 2010 on the same block we trapped her. Her name was Stacy. The person who TNR’d her has since moved from the block. She was the only cat she ever TNR’d because Stacy kept having litters of kittens. But Stacy had other feeders caring for her since then, including Atticus, and his neighbor across the street.

The next day Dr. Harris informed us that she tested negative for FIV/FeLV, but her bloodwork results were dismal. She would need ongoing daily medication and care for lymphoma, most likely. This was just not possible in her situation and Stacy was already very sick. She was acting very lethargic, barely moving in the dog crate, yet very scared and stressed at being confined. At the same time, if we put her back outside, she was not in a situation where she stayed in a single place and could take daily medicine and daily care. Winter was coming and the cold would eventually kill her. After much discussion between all of us, Jenny N. at PAWS offered to take her to their clinic and euthanize her.

RIP, Sweet Stacy. You were surrounded by love at the end of your life, and brought a lot of people together who tried to help you the best way we could. We are so grateful for the compassion of Atticus and Katie for caring for her, for reaching out to the local Everyblock community, and to the vet care from Elmhurst and PAWS. Every animal deserves a dignified and humane death when they are suffering, and this is why we provide that care as best as we can to the colony cats.

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.