2023 – What A Year

Together, volunteers, donors, caretakers, everyone involved with Feral Fixers, we have accomplished 926 (now 928!) spay/neuters of feral and stray cats and kittens. With the help of our dedicated adoption and foster and animal care volunteers, we have found homes for 360 cats and kittens. In just this year, you can see the impact as we reduced the volume of cats outdoors, we reduced the overpopulation crisis from every direction, helping felines and humans alike.

The challenges have been immense. 

Kitten numbers have increased dramatically –societal changes may be the biggest impact: lack of vet access, money, movement of our population – combining households, isolation and hoarding, etc. People are actually paying more attention to the cats outside and are discovering the pregnant cat, the litter of kittens much more readily than in the past which results in overall increased volume that we are contacted about. Every shelter is full. Everyone is doing their best to save every cat they can. Adults and kittens are becoming friendly at an increased pace. Years ago, a feral was a feral was a feral. Not anymore. Kittens sometimes are friendly from the time they are trapped; adults will have a complete turnaround to being friendly. National organizations are seeing this and the only advice they can offer is that even if a cat is friendly, put it back outside – there just aren’t enough homes.

Volunteers. The data can be looked at in many different ways but finding information that DuPage County ranked 2nd in 102 Illinois Counties of charities per square mile illustrates why it is so difficult finding and maintaining volunteers. No one seems to have as much time as we used to. There are so many choices of where to spend that valuable volunteer time. Our lives can change in an instant and our personal responsibilities must take priority. Feral Fixers has wonderful volunteers, and we treasure them every day. We need more, the volunteer staff is not a constant and can change quickly. From trapping to transport, fostering and shifts of cat care at the building, cleaning – oh my, the cleaning! We do need volunteers who can snuggle kittens just as much as we need those who can sweep floors and do laundry. Social people who can interact with adopters on adoption days, help with events, host events! Everyone has their own strengths and abilities, please share them with us!

Need everywhere. We can average five calls a day for help.

*Discovered kittens under the shed, come help. *My mother let a pregnant cat into her house, come trap and take the kittens. *My cat has lost its mind and is attacking me, help. *I have 15 cats in and around my house (usually results in 60+ cats). *I live outside your area, but I can bring the cats to you. *Been feeding a cat for 2 years, not neutered, now he’s injured from fighting, come help.

On social media, you may often see “call Feral Fixers, they will help you” and we do help so many!

With all these challenges we must remember the impact we have had, can you imagine how many cats would be roaming the streets, producing more and more, the suffering we have alleviated, feline and human alike! We have much more work to do but what a difference has been accomplished!

You - donors, volunteers, caretakers, are all responsible for the huge difference Feral Fixers has achieved in the last 16+ years!

A Cat’s Journey with Feral Fixers

The journey usually starts with a phone call or an email. “Someone told me about you, we have cats that need help.” The most important information is the location of the cats. If they are in DuPage County (or very close), that is our territory, and we are committed to helping. If they are outside that area, we may simply not have the resources to justify going out of DuPage – we have in the past but it is ever more clear that we need to stay in DuPage due limited resources. If they are in our territory the next step is to assign the location to a volunteer who covers that area – cats travel at least an 8-block area, they usually don’t eat or stay at one location, so knowing a neighborhood, knowing the history of an area is extremely helpful. This colony may have originated from one female that moved from a block away – sometimes we know that.

The volunteer trapper makes contact with the caretaker, trapping is arranged. The more help the caretaker can provide, the quicker everything takes place. There are times when the volunteer shows up and within an hour has the cat(s) trapped, but it can take days, weeks, months to get all the cats in a colony due to caretaker schedules, volunteer schedules and that unknown feeder down the block that circumvents all attempts at trapping because they don’t know to withhold food! Communication with neighbors is very important!

Cats travel to the Feral Fixers building to be held for surgery day. Two s/n clinics assist us – ADOPT Pet Shelter’s s/n clinic, DuPage Animal Services has a mobile unit that helps us from April to October (supply lines freeze so cold weather prevents the unit’s use in cold months). We do our best to reserve as many surgery slots as we will have cats also have as many cats as we have slots! We count on our caretakers and volunteers to keep our relationship with our s/n clinics as productive as possible! No s/n slot should go unused! Every cat gets a name assigned with a prefix that helps inform of where they came from, we try to determine the sex of the cat in order to help the clinics plan their needed resources for the day – a kitten takes less time than an adult, a male takes less time than a female and so on. The cats are transported for surgery 8 – 8:30AM on surgery days. Feral cats may spend several days awaiting surgery, during which time they stay in their traps and get cleaned up, fed, attention is paid as to their health status, temperament – we find out a lot in this time period. Cats find the smallest place to hide out in, they feel safe in the traps and get free room and board in a controlled, safe environment. Great for them in the short term! Foster kittens come in that morning, in their labeled carriers, we could not house them prior to surgery, we rely on our fosters for so much!

On the subject of kittens – they need to be at least 4 – 5 weeks old and eating on their own before we can take them in – we do not have enough volunteers to cope with a huge number of bottle babies and their mother will provide them better care than we ever could. Remember, TNR is our focus, not the harvesting of kittens from the outside. If we do take them in, they are evaluated for friendliness. Some are immediately friendly, others can take a couple days before settling down. When they reach that stage, we have Cats in Transition volunteers who care for them in a separate room, providing interaction at least twice a day, bringing them to a point where they can easily transition to a foster home and continue that journey to adoption.

Cats come back from surgery on the same day. With the ferals we check for any health issues discovered, and barring any concerns, they can be released on the second day – if surgery was Thursday, they can go back on Saturday. Weather, caretaker issues, can vary this timing. The friendly kittens are a huge relief as they go back to their fosters the same day! Some cats, once neutered, seem to realize that being friendly is a great idea and transition in just a day, which takes them on a path to fostering. Genetics and previous human contact play a major role in cats becoming tame.

We may never hear from a colony caretaker again. Once the word is out in the cat community, they may be in touch frequently as new cats show up. It can depend on whether we got that last cat, last female who can result in many ongoing litters, male cats tend to bring new unspayed girlfriends to this great food source and on and on. We have many long-term relationships with many caretakers! Contacting us as soon as cats appear is very important – even if we cannot get there immediately, knowing they are there can affect trapping planning to be the most efficient.

There are many steps in a cat’s journey, often not as simple as what is written here, we wanted to inform about the basics.

Winter Cat Care

We don't know what the weather will be in the coming months! Be prepared, feral cats need extra care available to them. Some of our favorite websites to help ferals make it thru the winter:

Alley Cat Allies

Neighborhood Cats

SpayAndStay

And the ASPCA

Why Shelters? While cats are often great about finding shelter on their own, this can lead them to places that might be dangerous for them (warm car engines) or areas where the property owners don’t want them (basements, boiler rooms. Other times, there’s just no sufficient option for them. These are all reasons providing an insulated shelter (if you have the property ownership or permission) is a great idea for community cats in cold climates…Why Food and Water? Feeding a measured amount of food is a key to responsibly managing feral cat colonies and this doesn’t change in the winter! What does change is that everything freezes quickly!

Yes, everything can freeze quickly. In addition to the websites mentioned above, TorontoStreetCats has an excellent article about how you can make a Do-It-Yourself Water Bowl Warmer for your outdoor furry friends. If you are unable to run electricity out to your feeding station for an electric bowl warmer, this DIY project might be just the ticket.

Another way to keep water from freezing overnight in winter is to copy an old trick used by horse owners to keep buckets of water out in the pasture from freezing. Take an old black tire (that's off its rim) and fill it with rocks. Then tightly wedge a large bucket in the tire's hole and fill it with water. During the day, the tire absorbs sunlight and heats the rocks stuffed inside. The rocks in turn radiate heat and keep the water from freezing overnight. You can learn more about this and other ways to keep water from freezing at night from the Neighborhood Cats website.

Check us out on the Web!

On our website, you can donate to us (via PayPal or credit card or Zelle), find out about all the ways you can help Feral Fixers, visit our store, read the latest news, and learn more about feral cats. You can see our list of Adoptable cats, follow the ‘running total’ of how many cats we’ve had spayed/neutered, see the current list of Upcoming Events, check out past years Archived articles, read about our Friends and Partners, sign up for our mailing list and much, much more!

We also have very active Facebook, X.com (formerly Twitter), and Instagram pages and recently TikTok. From these pages, you can get the latest information about what we are doing - often before it shows up on the blog! Links for all these pages are on our website home page. And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook and the good karma will surely flow your way- Thank you!

How to Help Feral Fixers

There are several ways you can help Feral Fixers:

You can BUY SOMETHING!

• You can help Feral Fixers by purchasing apparel and accessories from Animal Hearted and with our logo at Cafe Press - a percentage of these purchases is sent to Feral Fixers.

• You can purchase items on our Wish List from Amazon and have them directly delivered to Feral Fixers.

• You can also purchase pet supplies at discounted prices from Kuranda and scratching pads and cat toys from Imperial Cat and have them sent directly to Feral Fixers. Or you can purchase Cat Litter from Cat’s Pride and nominate us to receive free litter.



• You can purchase and donate needed supplies to us from wherever it is convenient for you to shop (a current list of supplies needed can be found on our website).

The latest and most complete instructions on how to help Feral Fixers through your shopping can be found on our website – click on the WANT TO HELP tab at the top and then click on Buy Something!

You can SPONSOR one of our Adoptable cats on Petfinder! To see a list and pictures/video of our cats currently up for adoption, visit our website – click on the WANT TO ADOPT link at the top. To sponsor a cat, click on the cat’s picture and then on the SPONSOR link on the right-side of the page.

You can DONATE to us directly via PayPal or via a Credit Card (and new this year, via Zelle). To do any of those, click on the DONATE link at the top of our website. This will take you to our Donation Page where you can donate either via your PayPal account or via a Credit Card (no PayPal account needed) or via Zelle. And did you know that you can set up Monthly donations via PayPal? These are absolutely wonderful for us, giving us a steady, can-count-on-it stream of income, more important than ever now to help take care of our monthly building expenses. To do so, just check the Make this a monthly donation box in the PayPal page -you can cancel it at any time.

You can also use the QR Code here on your mobile device to go directly to a special PayPal Donation page.

On our Donation page, we’ve also included documentation on how to donate to us via Stock Donations or Direct Wire Transfers and Workplace giving and matching donations. And finally, should you be so inclined, we’ve included documentation on how you can donate to us with Estate Planning / Legacy donations.

Switched jobs or your employer has had Human Resources changes? Check to see if there is a Matching Funds Program! Some companies have started doubling the original employee donation! A very large number of companies already have a matching funds option, and more are being added all the time. You can check a current list of such companies here.

More information about how you can help Feral Fixers by participating in any of these programs can be found on our website donation page - Thank you!

Have you seen our Adoptables?

2023 was a record year for adoptions! We closed out the year with a total of ~360 successful adoptions, which is ~20% higher than most prior years in which our total was around 300. No wonder we have been so busy this year! Of these 360 adoptions, 57 were adult cats (1 yr or older) and 303 were kittens.

This brings us to a total of ~3100 adoptions since we acquired our state of IL shelter license in 2013! It is heartwarming to know that 3100 cats & kittens now enjoy a warm home, good food and lots of love as a result of our efforts. :-) This is all made possible by the thousands of volunteer hours our many dedicated trappers, transporters, fosters, Cats in Transition volunteers at our building, and adoption event volunteers devote to the successful outcome of all of the cats & kittens we take into our care.

With this larger embedded base of adopted cats, comes an increase in the potential requests for returns. Unfortunately, we have seen higher than average requests to return cats within the last couple of months. It is always very stressful on the cats to be pulled from their home environment and requires our time and resources to ready the cats for a new home, which impacts the new cats & kittens we are able to help. While we work with adopters to try to resolve any issues, sometimes the necessary answer is a return. 16 cats were returned in 2023. Fortunately, 11 of those cats have found new loving homes.

Some of the most touching rehoming stories include:

• Matthew - adopted as a kitten in August 2013, returned in June 2022 because his family had a baby with respiratory issues. At age 9, the return was quite a shock for Matthew and he spent some time in a loving foster home to regain his confidence. Fortunately, he found wonderful new adopters in Feb 2023 who cherish him as their baby.

• Madrid - adopted with her sister, Madison, as kittens in August 2021, returned in October 2022 because their family no longer had time for the cats with their young children. As a social Russian Blue mix girl, Madison was quickly readopted. As a shyer black girl, Madrid took much longer. She came out of her shell in a foster home without her sister around to steal all of the attention. She especially blossomed when she came to the building and became the office cat. From there she was adopted by a wonderful Feral Fixers alumnus adopter in May 2023, and is now living the good life hanging out with her 3 new male cat brothers.

• Morie & Morty - adopted as kittens in Dec 2021, returned in February 2023 because their adopter had health issues and could no longer care for them. As two shyer black brothers, Morie & Morty struggled at our building and their foster home. Fortunately, a very patient adopter with a love of black cats came, met them and fell in love. She adopted them in March 2023 and they have been acclimating nicely.

• Boone - adopted as a kitten in Dec 2017, returned in June 2023 at 6 years of age, because they had a new baby and no longer have time for the cats. Boone is a very friendly boy but was initially rather shell shocked by the transition. He spent a couple of months in a loving foster home which prepared him for adoption by a terrific couple in August 2023.

While there is much to celebrate, there are still many cats & kittens who are waiting for their forever homes. We currently have ~70 kittens (< 1 yr old) and 9 adult cats who are awaiting adoption. Let's shine the spotlight on those who have been waiting the longest.

Spotlight: Bonded Teenagers

Baron & Balisima, Bunker & Buehla, Patchouli & Pavarotti, Scottie & Scooter, Ziva & Zizi (Ziva & Zizi pictured)

These five bonded pairs of kittens were rescued in the spring and are anxiously awaiting their forever homes. Because they are bonded, they are often overlooked by folks looking for a single kitten. But aren’t two kittens twice the fun?!

At ~6 months of age, they are past the destructive kitten phase, and will keep your house intact. They have been nurtured and raised in loving foster homes and are ready to transition to their forever homes. They will all need a little time to adjust to a new home and will do best in a quiet home with adults or older children. Once they get comfortable and bond with their new families, they will be wonderful and loving companions.

Spotlight: Mommatus

Mommatus (aka Mommy) is a tall, regal, calm, and watchful 1.5-year-old brown tabby with white cat with long, long legs. She is barely out of kitten hood herself and was such a good mommy! She had 3 daughters (Nimbus, Tropos & Exos), who have all been adopted.

Mommy moves like a dancer, until she gets some butt scratches. Then she freezes in place to enjoy all she can - total elevator butt! She still has some playful kitten energy and likes to engage in interactive play. When she is ready to relax, she will settle in nearby and drag her tail across her people to claim them as her own.

Mommy likes to be elevated - taking everything in with her calm, watchful gaze. Mommy will be a wonderful companion in a quieter home with adults only or teenage or older children.

Spotlight: Wolcott

Wolcott is a handsome 1 yr old longer fur black boy. He was rescued as a kitten in 2022 and has been waiting for the right home for over a year. Here is what he has to say:

"Hello! My name is Wolcott and I'm the sweetest scaredy cat you'll ever meet. I am a very handsome 1 year old boy with beautiful amber eyes and long black fluffy fur that I spend my time meticulously grooming. As such, my fur is always silky and soft, but I always adore being brushed by my humans anyways.

I am very shy and easily frightened, that's my nature, but I've learned that I am capable of building trust with my humans. Once I trust you, I really adore attention. First thing in the morning every day, I greet my foster mom and rub against her legs until she can sit with me on the floor and give me lots of pets. I love to play and chase toys and can move impressively fast when on the hunt (and also when I slightly over-react to a sudden movement or a loud noise). To me, humans are so tall and intimidating, so I really feel safest when people get down on the floor with me to interact at first. I might seem fearful, but I am actually very brave because I face my fears every day to enjoy the love and companionship of my foster parents. I am a very sweet kitty, and I am excited to find my forever home."

Wolcott would do best with an owner that works from home so he can have lots of time to get familiar with you and learn your daily routines. He would not do well with young children. He loves other cats and would do best in a household with another cat to be playmates with. He takes time to build his trust with new people, so he needs a very patient and loving owner, who finds joy in gaining a cat's trust and slowly building a lifelong bond that will reward both you and Wolcott.

We look forward to finding homes for all our cats and kittens and hope you will share their information with your friends and families, so that 2024 makes a huge difference in both cat and human lives!

Adoption events are generally held twice a month and alternate locations between our building and the Downers Grove PetSmart in Finley Square Mall. Adoptions occur between events by appointment at our foster homes or our building. The first step in adopting is completing our adoption application which can be obtained online or by emailing [email protected].

Pictures of these cats and all our Adoptables can be found on our website.

From Barns to Warehouses to Backyards for our Working Cats

We were able to place nearly 100 working cats across our area this year!

These are cats that cannot be “returned”, due to a number of reasons (including threats from neighbors, major construction, or other dangers), and they vary in temperament from very feral, to semi-friendly.

They are placed as working cats to provide poison-free pest control for yards, farms, and businesses. And often, they end up becoming part of the “family” so-to-speak.

We want to highlight a few locations this year.

1st - a warehouse in Aurora, where they have a colony of feral cats from us. The cats all work together to keep the mice and other pests out of the equipment and supplies and are well rewarded for their work.

2nd - a backyard in Burr Ridge where we placed cats from a hoarding situation. The family wanted pest control for their yard, and they have children who wanted a pet but couldn’t have one because of allergies in the household. The cats we placed there were less than a year old, and at the time wanted nothing to do with people. But, due to the diligent work of the kids of house involving treats and toys, they are now loving some attention, as well as story time! The cats do not want to stay inside for very long after stories are done, and they have cozy digs on the family’s deck.

3rd – a wonderful horse facility in Maple Park, that has taken more than a dozen ferals from us as working cats. Working cats face the same dangers as when they were in their original locations. Remi, one of their favorite ferals was hit by a car and passed away. We do our best to mitigate and plan ahead for dangers while giving them a new chance at life in a new location, there are no guarantees. We mention this as we receive so many requests from caretakers to have their cats relocated, thinking it is the perfect answer and don't understand when it is the last answer we pursue to resolve a situation. Remi’s caretaker wants everyone to know she had a wonderful life, and ended up being very friendly to those she knew! As her caretaker Sara said, she was very feral when she arrived and during acclimation process, she didn’t want anyone near her. Sara says, “We let her go and we didn’t see her for months and then all of a sudden she started following me around and it was crazy!”. Remi will always be remembered, and Sara hopes she inspires others to give working cats a chance!



We always need good homes for working cats and would love to talk to you about how they can benefit your home or workplace. Email us at [email protected].

Want to help?

Interested in helping Feral Fixers? We are looking for a 'few good volunteers'! Specifically, we need transporters, fosters, people to do laundry, scrub traps and cages, help with for s/n trips and recovery.

We need transport help both in the morning and the afternoon. If you're interested in helping, call us at (630) 881-7459 or email us at [email protected].

Worth Repeating

From our 6/26/23 Blog Post, information up to 6/2023:

Facts And Figures

You see that we track how many cats we’ve done from the beginning by checking our “How Many Cats” link on our Home page. DCAS prepares a report of how many total surgeries they have done since 2018 – when they received the mobile unit and started doing surgeries for us. If all the projected births had happened, we would have over 61,000 more cats to deal with. These are only DCAS figures, because we use ADOPT for at least the same number in a year, these numbers could be doubled. Wrap your head around that one!

This chart shows the prevention of births based on ½ of all births being female and average of 4 kittens in each litter, 3 litters per year possible, cumulative effect.

DuPage County Statistics – the estimated 2023 population in DuPage County is 937,662, with 344,314 households, a $54k average income and a 7.46% average overall poverty rate. If we were not practicing TNR, there is no way to find homes for an average of 12,000 additional adoptive homes each year for cats and kittens, nor can our current Rescue facilities house this many cats. Please think about it and do your utmost to get every cat neutered!

How many cats? 14,878 (and counting)!

Feral Fixers was founded in September of 2007. Our totals of spay/neutering cats, by year:

Visit our website and scroll down the page until you see the box on the left-hand side that says “How Many Cats?” click on that link you will see our Statistics page, where you can see our month-by month progress.

2023-2024 Holiday Card Photo Contest!

As many of you know, each year Feral Fixers sends out a Holiday Greeting card to everyone on our mailing list.

Beginning with the 2012 card, the picture on the card was chosen from entries made by you, our friends and supporters. While there is no monetary prize awarded for the winning entry, the winning photographer will be credited on the Holiday Card.

And so, we would like to recognize the winning picture of “Meowton Abbey” for this year's holiday card submitted by Wendy & Jim.

We encourage you to submit your own photos of outdoor cats in winter. The picture should definitely say "winter" and "outdoor cat" and “snow”. We can accept pictures in nearly any format as long as the resolution is acceptable.

Thank you, Wendy & Jim - this picture of the “Cat Condo” truly says "winter" and "outdoor cat"!

Please send your submissions to [email protected].

The deadline for entering is April 15, 2024.

What Will Happen In 2024?

The next year is just plain unknowable! What we hope for is neutering “As Many As Possible, As Soon As Possible”! AMAPASAP! While there will always be feral and stray cats, we can do our best to neuter as many as possible in order to prevent overpopulation, overcrowding and suffering in all areas of cat care and ownership. We will hope for more volunteers, more high-volume veterinarians, more community government involvement to assist in TNR, and the continued, unbelievable support of our donors!

Upcoming Events

January 6, 2024 - PetSmart Adoption Event! - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at the PetSmart in the Finley Square Shopping Center at 1550 Butterfield Rd in Downers Grove from 11am to 3pm. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, January 5th) at [email protected]. You can see all of our adoptable cats by visiting our website.

January 14, 2024 - Frosty Claws! Once again, it is time for Frosty Claws on Sunday, January 14th from 12noon to 4PM. This will be our 14th year and after 14 years we will finally be raising our entry donation to $15 in advance (by January 9th) and $20 at the door. Join us for food, beverages, boutique, Silent Auction, door prizes, raffles and the company of fellow cat lovers! We welcome donations for our fundraisers, please contact Tammy, [email protected] to donate new or antique items. So far, we have a Barbecue Grill, bicycle, quilts, hand-knitted afghan, cat tree, a wide range of items! We hope to see you there, it is wonderful to once again see the people we’ve helped over the years! Early-Bird tickets can be purchased here.

January 20, 2024 - Feral Fixers Adoption Event! - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at the 330 Eisenhower Lane N location from 11am to 3pm. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, January 19th) at [email protected]. You can see all of our adoptable cats by visiting our website.

February 3, 2024 - PetSmart Adoption Event! - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at the PetSmart in the Finley Square Shopping Center at 1550 Butterfield Rd in Downers Grove from 11am to 3pm. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, February 2nd) at [email protected]. You can see all of our adoptable cats by visiting our website.

February 17, 2024 - Feral Fixers Adoption Event! - Feral Fixers will be hosting an adoption event at the 330 Eisenhower Lane N location from 11am to 3pm. All of our cats/kittens are in Foster homes, are spayed/neutered, current on their vaccinations, microchipped, dewormed and FeLV/FIV tested. If you would like to get pre-approved for same-day adoption, please email us (by noon Friday, February 16th) at [email protected]. You can see all of our adoptable cats by visiting our website.

You can always see the most current list of events by visiting the Event Calendar page on our website.

(Click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a full-size version)

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