text: We're a 501c3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and practicing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in DuPage County, Illinois. We believe that TNR is the only effective, humane and long-term solution to the problem of cat overpopulation.
  The Feral Fixers e-Newsletter - Issue #6 - March, 2009
  Wet your Whiskers!
  Feral Fixers is proud to announce its next event; the first annual "Wet your Whiskers"! This event, to be held in late June, will be a fund-raiser for Feral Fixers and a chance for all of us who support Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) to get together for an evening of fun and frolic.
  Arrangements are now being made for the venue and the entertainment for the evening. Further details will be in next month's newsletter and will be posted on our website.
  Stay tuned!
  Message from the President
  Many feral cat caretakers live in fear of Animal Control, but have you ever thought about where the responsibility for pet overpopulation and euthanasia really lies? Our society has created different governmental departments to carry out the laws that we enact to cope with these issues, so really, we, the public, are responsible. It is possible to become a town or a county that comes close to being no-kill, to do that we must make the necessary changes to facilitate this.
  Here are the links to the statistics from 2007 and 2008 for DuPage County Animal Care and Control (note these are pdf files - you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader (available here) to read them). We are publishing these statistics with their full permission. As you can see, we (they, all of us) have a ways to go before we can think about "No-Kill" DuPage County.
  The information can be a little confusing when seen all lumped together. Please take the time to look at the charts, line by line. For our purposes we are only concerned with the Cat column – the Dogs hopefully have their own spokespeople!
  There was a rise in cat euthanasia from 2007 to 2008, which seems directly attributable to the increase in the number of ferals brought in (= 138), but there were also fewer cats going out due to return to owner, adoptions and transfers to other shelters (= 235). The difference in total euthanasia was a 143 cat increase...
  Visit our website to read more about what our President, Tammy McAuley, has to say about our local Animal Care & Control organization and what we can to do end the problem of pet over-population.
  Want to help?
  Interested in helping Feral Fixers? We are looking for a 'few good volunteers'! Specifically, we're looking for someone to help us transport cats to and from PAWS (the Spay/Neuter clinic we use) in Chicago. We need transport both in the morning and the afternoon. If you're interested in helping, call us at (630) 881-FXRS (3977) or
  email us at info@feralfixers.org.
  Matching contributions
  A truly wonderful way to help raise money for Feral Fixers is to try and get your employer to designate Feral Fixers as an organization which is eligible for 'Matching Contributions'. What this allows the employee to do is to contribute to Feral Fixers and then have that contribution matched by the employer; essentially a '2-for-1' donation.
  One such organization which has designated Feral Fixers as an organization eligible for matching contributions is HSBC Bank. Pat is an employee there and has taken the time to file the paperwork and, generally, chase after the process to get this accomplished. Now, whenever Pat gives us a donation, HSBC will match this. If you are an employee of HSBC, please take advantage of this capability and let HSBC know when you donate to Feral Fixers. Doing so will double your donation to Feral Fixers without costing you any additional money. Thanks Pat!
  If you work for an employer which has a matching gift program, we encourage you to ask them to designate Feral Fixers as an organization eligible for these matching donations. We are a registered 501c3 organization and can supply you with any and all documentation necessary to prove that we are an organization which is legally allowed to receive these types of donations. Thank you!
  How many cats? 726 !!
  Feral Fixers was founded and incorporated in late September, 2007. In our first fiscal year (through September, 2008) Feral Fixers had 476 cats spay/neutered. So far in our second fiscal year, Feral Fixers has had 250 more cats spay/neutered.
  Website updates
  We are thrilled to announce that 'The Artist Formerly Known as Katt' has agreed to join our website staff! "Kattt" (as he is now known) is now submitting a weekly column to our website; "Audios / Visuals of the Week", a column where Kattt shares with us humans his unbiased and hard-hitting look at the Feline world. Please note that we do not edit Kattt's postings in any way; he would agree to join us only if we did not censor any of his work. Therefore, we have to warn you to not let dogs or small children to view our website unsupervised.
  For this newsletter, and as a public service, 'The Artist Formerly Known as Katt' (as he now wishes to be known) has pointed us to a a website which will let we humans know if our cat is exhibiting behavior we should be concerned about. I will now let 'The Artist...' speak...
  "Greetings humans! While most of us in the feline world are quite happy to co-exist with you humans, there are a few of us who are just 'bad apples' and would like nothing better than to be responsible for a feline-induced homicide. These cats pretend to be nice to their human servants, all the while plotting their demise. One of our 'better angels' has taken it upon himself to create a website whereby you can not only view some of the warning signs that 'your' cat wants to do you in, it also lets you take a quiz so that you can quantify the threat. Here is a clue that 'your' cat might have nefarious designs...
  Visit this website and save yourselves!"
  Jewel-Osco Shop & Share update
  Feral Fixers collected over $232 from the 3 Jewel-Osco Shop & Share dates that Diane arranged for us. This is enough to fix about 10 cats. Thanks Diane (and thank you, Jewel-Osco, for having such a wonderful program)! She will be arranging some more of these Shop & Share dates for us this year and they will be announced in this newsletter.
  Donate to Feral Fixers
  Feral Fixers offers its TNR services to all colony caretakers, without charge. While we ask for donations from colony caretakers, we recognize that for some of them, any additional cost is just too much. Therefore we rely on donations from other individuals to make up the difference and allow us to continue our work. These donations allow us to spay/neuter additional cats, keep a 'bank' of traps and trap dividers we loan out for free, hold workshops and provide other educational benefits. You can help us continue our work by clicking on the Donate button, below. This will take you to the PayPal website where you can donate to Feral Fixers via PayPal or Credit card. Feral Fixers is a registered 501c3 charitable organization and any donation is deductible to the fullest amount allowed by law. Any amount you care to donate is gratefully received.
  Shop for Feral Fixers!
  Want to purchase something purr-fect for your cat-lover friends and help out Feral Fixers at the same time? Just visit our Café Press store and Buy Something! In addition to the Spaghetti Tank Top shown to the right, we have T-shirts, Hoodies, Coffee Mugs, Pet food bowls, etc. A portion of each sale goes to help us in our TNR efforts. To visit the store, just click on the Spaghetti Tank Top or visit our website and click on the 'Buy Something' button at the top - Thank you!
  Visit us on the Web!
  Visit our website at www.feralfixers.org. There you can donate to us (via PayPal or Credit card), visit our store, read the latest news, and learn more about Feral cats. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you can also sign up to be on our mailing list so you don't miss a thing!
  What is TNR (Trap / Neuter / Return)? TNR is a full management plan in which stray and feral cats already living outdoors in cities, towns, and rural areas are humanely trapped, evaluated, vaccinated, and sterilized by veterinarians. Adoptable cats and kittens are transferred to sheltering organizations to be adopted into good homes. Healthy adult cats unsocialized to humans are returned to their familiar habitat under the lifelong care of their original caretakers.