Gustav

Behold little Gustav! He is my newest foster kitten, by now already over a month with us. Our vet found Gus at Fairbury cattle Sale Barn. Gustav was dirty, crying and seeminly abandoned (I assume his barncat mom couldn't make it back to their lair) so he took him to the clinic to adopt out. I went to help groom him and feed; later offered to raise him until adoptable age because he needed a one-to-one foster care, specially being feral/barn..a month later he's a velcro cat. And cuteness overload of course. Gustav has a catster page

http://www.catster.com/cats/879435

Eartipping in Fairbury

I get cats_either feral or strays_eartipped when they are at the vet for spay or neutering because

when talking with the Chief of Police he said that when they have complains from neighbors the police will shoot cats that don't have any visible ID, such as a collar and tag.

Pretty weak criteria in my opinion because any outdoor cat can loose a collar easily. He did agree to not shoot cats that were eartipped as those would have been neutered and vaccinated for rabies.

Many owned cats roam Fairbury streets and even if I don't adopt out to a home that won't keep the cat indoors, I don't know what could happen in the future so that if the cat is to be adopted out in Fairbury, it'll be eartipped.

And of course the ferals and hard strays that we return are eartipped too.

On photo is Luciano, one of our housecats; he lived with the ferals and was trapped as such. He proved to be most friendly and worth a second chance at homing so that we took him in and fostered. Eventually he wormed his way into our hearts and now is part of the furmily.

I'm fostering Sergio whom I got eartipped too because I thought he could be adopted out in this town. However after a week at home Sergio proved to have food allergies so I hope to adopt him out in a place that has pet stores selling grain free cat food. Being the economy what it is ordering Sergio's food online can get expensive otherwise.

Gina or The Plus Part

Last summer we're feeding several cats at our porch so I thought it would be better if I'd trap to possibly neuter or whatever they needed. Gina (on photo) was one that walked into the trap but turned out to be already spayed. Most weren't, now they are and only two were not friendly. Later I got Geronimo who was euthanized because he was ill and tested positive for FIV and FeLV. The "Plus Part" is the part of TNR I am not proud of, in it the R stands for Release or putting the cat back where we found him because

there are no more foster homes and we are full at the moment. But in the broad spectrum is better than leaving the cat intact so that is my consolation.