Alicia is caring for a lot of outdoor cats in Englewood. Her home is now their home. The majority of the cats are friendly. This is not a colony, this is a place where people who cannot care for their cats, bring the cats and leave them there, or the cats are lucky enough to find her on their own.

She feeds and cares for them daily. She provides outdoor shelter for them, and also has a few fosters indoors.

I met Alicia a few weeks ago while volunteering with PAWS Chicago PAWS for Life Outreach Program. They have been helping her do TNR and have been able to admit some of her cats into their adoption program. Here are a few of the cats being returned to her that day, riding along in the PAWS van with us. When we returned the cats outside, you could see how friendly some of them were immediately.

I knew who Alicia was before I met her because one of the cats from my own Humboldt Park neighborhood ended up on her Englewood block last year. Long story short, this cat was originally adopted out from Tree House, but I trapped him in my yard a few years ago because the owner always let him out. The microchip was then referenced to me. Somehow this cat ended up on Alicia’s block years later. She brought him into PAWS for treatment last December, and they traced his chip. Unfortunately the cat was euthanized because he was so sick. To this day we have no idea how this cat ended up from my neighborhood to hers.

Alicia wants the friendly cats on her block to have indoor homes. The majority are just too friendly to stay safe on the street. Every time we visit, several of the cats come up to us for pets. I contacted my friends at Hyde Park Cats to see if they could help. This rescue group is amazing. They responded immediately, and visited Alicia last week. That same day, they took two cats into their foster-to-adoption program. In fact, the grey tabby cat in that last photo is one of the cats that is now in one of their foster’s homes. His name is Sweet. Check him out now indoors.

They also admitted this little black cat into their program. She loved being outdoors with her friends.

But she really loves being indoors.

Please contact Hyde Park Cats if you are interested in adopting one of these cats, or donating to their cause. Alicia also needs additional fosters for her other friendly cats. Here are a few more. 

Relocation for feral cats is very difficult and should be used as a last resort. I’ve managed to avoid it in my area so far by networking with neighbors to find other people to feed the cats when a feeder is no longer able to do so. I’ve written about The Rockstar Colony before, a colony that lost their home, and a new feeder on the same block stepped up to care for them, providing food and shelter, and even adopted one of the cats.

The Eleanor Rigby Colony is another example, as they are on their THIRD home since 2009, also all on the same block. Their previous feeders died, but each time another neighbor stepped up to care for them. People care about the cats much more than you may think. You just have to talk to them and network.

Ingrid H contacted me two weeks ago from Everyblock for advice on finding another colony or another feeder for her TNR’d feral cat, named Veda. She’s been feeding this cat for almost a decade. I was very excited to hear from another person here who did TNR that long ago! I asked to share her story, and she kindly obliged, even providing me with photos.

Ingrid is moving at the end of this month to another state, and she knew she was the only person that fed Veda. She let Veda into her basement during the winter. Veda is pretty feral and not suited to be a full-time indoor cat, though, and Ingrid was worried about what would happen to her when she left. Ingrid initially thought that Veda would have to be relocated elsewhere.

This is Veda.

Veda initially came to Ingrid’s apartment building looking for food. Ingrid fed her, and before long Veda showed up with her kittens.

One of the kittens, Ratso, was adopted out by PAWS Chicago.

Ingrid ended up keeping two of the other kittens.

This is Malvina. And this is Andy. He’s still a scaredy cat that only allows Ingrid to pet him when she’s laying down next to him.

Obviously Ingrid is going to take these indoor cats with her to her new home, but she was worried about what was going to happen to Veda.

Once Ingrid started talking to her neighbors face to face, she found people willing to help. A neighbor across the street from her said that not only would she continue feeding Veda, she would do it in the same spot Veda was used to! No relocation necessary at all.

Ingrid also just bought a Feral Villa hoping that Veda will use that this winter. I suggested sprinkling some cat nip around it to entire her. Do you have any other suggestions? I love a happy ending.

I met up with Chicago TNR again over the winter to help with trap-neuter-return, TNR, for outdoor cats in Englewood, a neighborhood in Chicago’s south side. My friend George started Chicago TNR by herself last year and has been humanely trapping colony cats all over the south side. She started trapping the Englewood cats last November in partnership with PAWS Chicago’s low-cost spay/neuter clinic.

By mid-December, in just six weeks, Chicago TNR Trapped-Neutered-Returned 93 cats in Englewood. 32 additional cats were Trapped-Neutered-Relocated to farms and warehouses that contacted PAWS Chicago looking to help pull cats off the streets and also for rodent control.

I joined George again one day in December in Englewood, where we trapped eight of those cats in less than two hours, just by driving around. George typically drives the PAWS’ van loaded with Tru-Catch traps, pet carriers, cat food for donations and bait, and other items needed for TNR projects, including newspapers, paper plates, and sheets to cover the traps. The cats are everywhere outside there, and we decided just to go to places where we knew there were community cats.

I met up with George at this TNR’d feral cat colony.

These cats are well fed and have shelter under the front porch. We moved on to an alley right around the corner where we saw a few cats, including this orange and white cat with a flea collar. We asked around but no one claimed him as theirs, so we decided to try to trap and take him to the clinic.

He was suspicious but clearly hungry. So we set up a trap.

And got him a few minutes later. 

We quickly moved on to another block where George knew of a colony and visited the feeder’s house. A well-endowed male cat was hanging out on her front steps.

After a quick consultation with the feeder, who claimed him as one of her indoor/outdoor pet cats,  we got him into a carrier to be neutered as well. 

Around the corner from there we placed a Rubbermaid bin cat house for shelter.

It is well concealed from the street and you would hardly notice it, but hopefully it will help keep a few cats warm in the winter.

From there we moved even more quickly. The feeder told us about a few cats down the street, and we saw them right away. We placed two traps baited with tuna near another feeder’s front steps, and two cats obliged by going in them immediately. These cats were hungry.

The woman that was feeding them was moving out of the neighborhood that day and was very grateful for our help. She told us that there were other feeders on that block so these cats are cared for.

George and I decided to split up at that point and she drove to another spot while I continued TNR on this block.

A few doors down this long-haired beauty came running down the steps and out of the gate to greet me on the sidewalk.

I talked to her feeder as well, who said she was friendly, but they could not let her permanently into their home.  She followed me down the block once she smelled the food.

She was easy to gently push into a trap.
George came back at this point fairly quickly with two more cats in traps, and another pet cat in a carrier. So now we had eight cats. It was freezing outside and we decided to wrap it up.

She wanted to show me Sabrina’s Colony. This is a colony of over a dozen cats. Sabrina feeds diligently, and rescues friendly cats and kittens all the time on her own.

The cats are gorgeous and well fed. They all came running when they saw us.

This tabby cat appeared to be the ringleader.

We were out of paper plates, but we fed them anyways on the ground.

These cats have ample shelters on her front porch.

From there we took all of the cats to PAWS Chicago’s low cost spay/neuter clinic. We met up with a few other feral cat trappers who were also dropping off their cats. We made sure each cat in a trap was fed.  Every trap was lined with clean newspaper for the cats to sit on, and each trap was covered with a sheet so that the feral cats would be calmed in the traps. Here they are ready for their spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, parasite treatments, and ear tipping.

Once the cats are fully recovered from their surgeries, usually within 24 to 48 hours, George then returns the cats to where they were trapped. In this case, the pet cats were returned to their owners, and three of the cats in traps, including the long-haired beauty that ran to greet me, were relocated into companies requesting cats for rodent control in their warehouses, while also feeding and caring for them and providing shelter.

I look forward to helping George in this neighborhood again. There are too many intact cats running outside here and the residents welcome any help they can get.