Yes, we know it's been several months since we've issued an eNewsletter.  We're sorry about that, but we've been so busy spay/neutering cats that we just haven't had time to do much else...

We've now surpassed 900 cats (919 to be exact) that we've fixed in 2012 and, barring something unforeseen, we'll easily pass the 1,000 mark again this year.

In Tammy's Letter From the President, she announces our newest fundraiser - "Fall is For Friendlies" and tells you why we are looking for some additional funds from our loyal supporters.  She also talks about our 'missing traps' and 'seed ticks' - you can learn a lot by reading our eNewsletter!

We're planning on taking a break from our TNR activities beginning December 1st, and are looking to start up fixing cats again on March 1st of 2013.  So, if you have any cats in your area that need to get fixed, now is the time to contact us and arrange to get this done.

You can read about this, and more in this eNewsletter.

Thank you again for all of your support.

Sincerely,

Sorry it's been so long, there's just is not enough time for everything!

First off, let me announce our newest fundraiser - "Fall is for Friendlies!" A very generous donor has promised matching funds up to $1,000! And our most pressing need is the neutering of all the friendly cats and kittens that have no one to provide funds for. We will be doing our own version of "Chip-In", Ted has been hard at work on creating a "widget" that will allow us to post the funds as they come in, not only those that we receive online so that you can see a true reporting of how the campaign is going. This fundraiser will begin on October 20th and end on November 11th. That's a short period of time, so don't set this aside when you get it and think you will come back to it - the harsh truth is that we need the funds now and are hoping that knowing there are three short weeks to participate may encourage you to donate now before you forget.

As an example: In August we neutered 92 friendlies. Of those, about 49 had no donations to offset the cost. Friendlies cost us $55 each, so that is $2,645 just for August. We cannot continue at this pace without additional donations, it is wonderful that our donor suggested the matching funds campaign because they want to see their donation grow in order to help us the most! Donate thru PayPal or by mail, we will update the amount donated daily!

You may have noticed that our annual "Bazaar" is no longer on the calendar. The venue that we hold the event at had a fire and would not be up and running by November 11th. We could not find another location in the amount of time at the same cost and decided to cancel the event entirely. If you have a location we could hold our Bake Sale at, that would be great! Our bakers would still love to do that for us! This is another reason that the "Fall is for Friendlies" could not come at a better time!

In my last letter, I asked for a rainbow of adoptions and we have placed soooo many cats and kittens. It has been great! We give them to shelters six at a time some days and our fosters have a great network of friends! But. There's always a but, isn't there? The flow in is greater than the flow out. In one day, we took in 15 cats and kittens. They could not stay where they were, we could not leave the kittens out there to grow up to the size to neuter, the adults were going to end up getting hit by a car as they had lost their wildness that protects them. Again, those that probably could be tamed but would take two months instead of two weeks to be purr monsters, we have to put back. They have a colony to protect them unless they decide to be friendlier on their own and hopefully someone will take them in at that time. Our best hope is that the caretakers, upon hearing that we cannot take the kittens and cats in to our homes, will accept our dog crates and instructions on how to tame them on their own. This happens quite often, and then we do our best to help them place the cats. Please volunteer to foster and help us keep these friendlies off the streets!

You're Mailbox is Full

If you've tried to contact us, we have to tell you that all of these friendlies take up so much of our time that we cannot keep up. Heck, it took me 3 weeks to change our outgoing message because there was always something more important to do - like answer the phone - which, if you got the "mailbox is full" message, you know there was still something more important than answering the phone - like caring for a cat. But, as of this writing, we have neutered 840 cats this year alone and are on target for doing more than 1,000 once again and what keeps us going is that next year has to be easier. We do this with just 4 people doing trapping and coordinating caretakers. These 4 also do other jobs as well. We're pretty much "on call" seven days a week as TNR is not a 9 to 5 job.

Traps

If you have one of our traps and are not using it, PLEASE get it back to us! Every trap that goes unused and unfilled results in more kittens being born and puts us farther behind. People seem to find it comforting to have one on hand "just in case." Make sure you don't have one hiding in your garage, attic, crawl space or your trunk! Not having traps can slow us down, too, so we've had to purchase some more. Not what we want to spend money on.

Seed Ticks

Just when I think I've seen everything - I encounter Seed Ticks!

This adorable 8 week old kitten seemed lethargic and I thought he was just underfed. Then I saw these tiny, tiny black insect things. I thought they were newly hatched beetles but could not find anything that they could possibly be. Then I came across SEED TICKS - the larval form of ticks. Imagine a perfectly formed tick, but smaller than the head of a pin, latched onto the kitten's skin. He was already under the weather, did not want to use frontline on him til he perked up a bit, so I was on tick patrol for 3 days. Then I found an adult tick and could not take it anymore so crossed my fingers. Saved the little buggers that I didn't crush in a jar. Just thinking about them makes me twitch. Andy is doing fine, seems to think I'm going to be picking him all over still but hopefully we will get past that soon! Please read up on them, droughts seem to really bring on the insects!

Thank you to everyone who participates in our fundraisers, visited us at the events we have a table at, like us on Facebook and care about the cats.

We Couldn't Do It Without YOU! 

Feral Fixers has a very active Facebook page.  You can go there and get the very latest information about what we are doing - sometimes even before it shows up on the blog!

Don't forget to "Like" us and the good karma will surely flow your way...

To find our Facebook page, click on the Facebook logo.

Thank you!

Feral Fixers was founded in September of 2007. In that abbreviated first year, Feral Fixers had 86 cats spayed / neutered. In 2008, Feral Fixers had 525 cats spayed / neutered and in 2009, Feral Fixers had 868 cats spayed / neutered. In 2010, Feral Fixers had 1,002 cats spayed / neutered and in 2011, Feral Fixers had 1,024 cats spayed/neutered.  So far in 2012, Feral Fixers has had 919 cats spayed/neutered

This brings us to a total of 4,424 cats. Clicking on the adding machine will send you to the Feral Fixers 'Statistics' page where you can see our progress, month-by-month, since we've started work.

From December 1st through February 28th, 2013, Feral Fixers will NOT be bringing in cats to PAWS for TNR.  We're doing this for three reasons; 1) We have a TON of paperwork we need to catch up on, 2) trapping cats in winter / cold-weather can be very dangerous to the cat and 3) we need a break!

But this doesn't mean that we're not going to be busy with Feral Fixers activities. People sometimes don't realize how much behind-the-scenes documentation and paperwork is necessary to make a 501c3 organization such as Feral Fixers a successful organization.  To list just a few activities that we'll be concentrating on beginning in December, we'll be updating our name & address database so that we can send out our Holiday cards, we'll be updating all of our donor/deposit information so that we can send out our Donation tax letters, we'll be updating our database of feral colonies so that we can more effectively plan our efforts in 2013 and beyond, we'll be planning our fifth annual Frosty Claws fundraiser, etc., etc., etc.

So, if you have feral cats that need to be fixed, we would encourage you to work with Feral Fixers NOW, so they don't have to wait until next Spring.

 

Want to purchase something purr-fect for your cat-lover friends and help out Feral Fixers at the same time?  Just visit our CafePress store and Buy Something! In addition to the Canvas Lunch Bag shown to the right, we have T-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons, hoodies, mouse pads, gym bags, messenger bags, coffee mugs, tote-bags, pet food bowls, Pajamas etc. A portion of each sale goes to help us in our TNR efforts.

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.