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. 

This week’s weather has been perfect for trapping.

So we decided to trap at two sites where TNR has been done already, but there were new cats coming around. It’s been pretty successful so far – seven cats were trapped and brought into the clinic for their TNR spay/neuter surgeries and vaccinations. I’ll be introducing the Amadeus Colony and Boonie Colony soon.

Nothing gets me more inspired about animal rescue than talking to other people and hearing their stories.

The other day I met Joann and Terri for the first time in person over lunch. Joann lives near me, somehow found this site and has been offering to help with TNR. She’s done TNR in other neighborhoods, and other forms of animal rescue, mostly cats. When she worked downtown in the nineties she would take kittens from a homeless woman named Bonnie that she would always see with a different kitten. In all, Joann estimates she took about 50 cats/kittens from Bonnie and adopted them out. This homeless woman acquired these cats through ads in the paper. Joann even confronted one of the previous “owners” of one of these kittens. Eventually she also got help for Bonnie through social services. Joann also worked with other people helping a hoarder home. But before the hoarder home cats were adopted out, they first took in other cats that were left behind nearby in Cabrini-Green when it was demolished in 1995. The hoarder home cats were on one floor, and the Cabrini-Green cats were on the second floor. All eventually were vetted and adopted out. Her stories amazed me.

Terri lives near the Armando Colony and has been doing TNR there for seven years. She talked about a boat left parked year-round next door to her that every year a litter would be born in until she started TNR. She would “go fishing” for the kittens in the boat and adopt them out. It sounds like her colony is all fixed now, but there are a few newcomers that I offered to help with.

The best part was seeing Terri’s car. Can you tell she has a cat colony in her garage or what?