Mooksie showed up at his colony with a severely swollen and crumpled right ear a few weeks ago.

He is part of a group of feral cat colonies totaling 30-40 TNR’d cats that Jennie K. cares for in the West Humboldt Park area of Chicago. I bring cat and dog food to Jennie when I have it, because along with the colony cats, she also cares for 11 rescue cats and one dog in her home. Jennie lives on a fixed income and is on disability. She can hardly keep up with feeding, let alone vet care!

My rescue friend Erica was able to trap Mooksie with Jennie’s help, and rushed him to our amazing vets at Elmhurst Animal Care Center. There they determined he had an ear hematoma that required surgery.

Hematomas are extremely painful initially for the cat, and are caused by trauma to the ear. They quickly can become infected and require extensive surgery. They do not heal on their own.

Mooksie went under anesthesia and the vet drained his ear. They used dissolvable sutures with a small opening left in it so that the ear could continue to drain on its own. We asked for dissolvable sutures so that we would not have to re-trap him for removal later. Mooksie required a catheter during surgery, antibiotics (convenia) for the infection, full ear cleaning and oti-pack ear cleaning solution, and intravenous fluids. He was also required to be hospitalized in intensive care.

His total vet bill came out to $531.30 We did not realize how extensive and expensive ear hematomas can be! Ear problems are pretty common for colony cats. If you’d like to make a donation to help cover his care and to continue to feed his colony, you can do so at the donate link at the top of this page, or through PayPal at [email protected]

I returned Mooksie back to Jennie and his colony after a few days of observation and rest. His ear will be permanently folded over, but it looked really good and completely healed.

I took the opportunity to also bring more cat and dog food to Jennie. I made sure Mooksie helped!

He was VERY happy to be returned to his colony, and so was his bonded friend, Bootsie! She came right out to greet him at their feeding station. It was as if she was waiting for him! Jennie said she seemed to be frantic all week missing him. She thinks they are litter mates as they look exactly alike.

Then they started chasing each other.

The cats all live in this abandoned building and are fed by Jennie daily.

They easily access the building through this broken window.

See?

A big thanks to Erica and Jim for trapping and transporting Mooksie, to Jennie for caring for this colony, to our vets for healing these cats, and to all of you who continue to donate towards their care! This couldn’t be done without all of you.

It takes a village to make TNR work. Cats In My Yard demonstrated how to TNR cats and distributed information on how to help outdoor stray animals at the 606 Block Party in Humboldt Park.

We set up in the 1st Ward Alderman’s booth. Alderman Moreno is a supporter of TNR and reaching out to the community. Thank you to the entire 1st Ward staff! A lot of people came to this event.

People were interested in learning about TNR, and Jim gave tutorials throughout the day. Alderman Moreno and his staff listened in. Maybe we can TNR together some day.

We talked about how to make Chicago a No Kill City, and how TNR plays an important role.
Lots of people came by to learn more about trapping. What was apparent throughout the day was that every person could trap cats themselves. They just needed to know how to get traps and how the process works in Chicago. 

I mean seriously, children figured out the traps immediately. My niece Lydia wanted to show people how also.

It was pretty cool to see what drew people to our booth. We brought stuffed animal cats, including a Lil Bub cat, which were big hits with the children. They all wanted to pet them, including my nephew. 

Joann also came with us to talk about TNR. Her cat bag was a huge hit.

Older children really wanted to learn. They would “trap” the stuffed cats over and over again while their parents watched. We are hoping it inspired some people to help the cats in their neighborhood.

At the end of the day, we walked back home on the trail with the traps. I wonder if this is the first time that traps have been up there?

Thanks to all who came by to show their support!

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.

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.

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.