Recruiting Colony Caretakers
That’s a super cute AI pic! It’s not really what life as a feral cat in the winter looks like, however.
If you’d like to help the outdoor cats through this potentially brutal winter, by providing shelters and vet care, click Mr Butter over there (or down there, on a phone!) to see our fundraiser.
This particular Chicago winter is expected to be unusually cold and come with above average precipitation. Worse – the quote is “above average precipitation, including snow.” That says, to us, that they’re also assuming ample RAIN as well, which will turn to mud, slush and ice, over and over.
Some TNR-focused orgs and trappers are considering an uncommon choice for winter: reducing their TNR work, so that they’re not forced to return cats with shaved bellies out into the snow, with no guarantee of food and shelter
Weeeeee…. well, we are on the fence.
We understand their thinking. We’ve been thinking along the same lines since September, when they rolled out that lovely winter forecast! But we know – and so do they – that using winter to TNR can help reduce Kitten Season 2026. So it’s a conundrum, for all of us. Everyone will make the choice that they believe does the most good/least harm.
So here’s our Winter plans…
1 – Cuddly and our partners will continue to TNR, but likely at a slower and more thoughtful pace. This will allow us to try to work around the weather, which is expected to have bursts of extreme cold and/or precipitation but not be relentlessly cold and wet, and still make some progress.
2 – We will continue growing our foster program, in preparation for the Kitten Season tsunami that may result.
3 – We will start recruiting caretakers with a passion.
and here’s why…
This is such a complicated thing to try to boil down to bullet points! Forgive us if you think this is too much yakkety-yak, but we want to be clear about what the heck we’re trying to accomplish. (This is your Oh shut up and get to the point link)
Tons of people heard the “Chicago releases hundreds of cats to combat rats!” story, years ago. It isn’t true. Or, rather, it isn’t that simple. The CITY didn’t do that – the city allowed it to be done. It was actually done by animal welfare organizations and individual trappers, all of whom continue to do that work to this day. That TNR work is often confused with colony caretaking. We’d like to help stop that confusion.
A really basic, simplified hierarchy –
Cook County Animal and Rabies Control approves which animal welfare groups (mostly rescues/shelters) can act as feral cat sponsor organizations. Those Sponsors approve colony caretakers, help facilitate TNR, provide information about caring for the colony, help remove kittens from the colony, etc. Those caretakers do the hands-on work of providing food, water, shelter and necessary vet care to the cats of their colony. Info flows upward: caretakers keep a census of their cats and report that to the Sponsor orgs, who report that info to ARC.
We wholeheartedly believe that colonizing the feral cats in the city is of the greatest importance. That means that we think the CARETAKERS are of the greatest importance in the whole chain. The reports, if updated and filed as they’re supposed to be, are one of only two written records (the other being numbers reported by TNR clinics/vets) that can give the county any kind of head count. That head count can make a lot of difference in what funding is available to the overall effort. But that’s a soapbox for another time!
The Managed Care of Feral Cats Ordinance rules us all. And here’s the thing about the confusion we mentioned earlier – the ordinance only protects registered colonies and their caretakers. Truly, we don’t know if anyone would report you or fine you for working outside of the ordinance BUT the ordinance does not override other local laws… and unregistered feeding of free roaming community cats CAN result in fines and you being held responsible for any damage the cats do. Yep, those cute little a$$holes that you feed but can’t pet exist in a black hole, unprotected by wildlife laws AND by the feral cats ordinance, until someone (you and us?!) registers to be their caretaker. The only people who can *legally* feed them are registered caretakers. A lot of people don’t seem to know that and most of those who don’t know that ALSO don’t know how easy it can be to remedy their status.
The point!
Cuddly has joined the ranks of the Sponsor orgs and we have plans to try to do some things that aren’t actually required of sponsors. We want to be partners with our caretakers. We want to help with vet costs, provide caretakers with every tool that we can, know your colony well, be prepared for the periodic kittens and ready for the guys who show signs of friendliness and the possibility of converting to Indoorism… We’re not going to just wait for you to file a report – we’re going to be there all the way and when the report is due, we hope that we’ll be up to speed. We want our caretakers to have the same support system that we offer our fosters!
You can apply right here (.pdf will download) and we’re really hoping that you will. Once filled out, just email it to us. We’ll review and be in touch as quickly as possible. If you have questions, you can call or text the number on the application any time.
The more registered caretakers and colonies we (we=Cook County) have, the more certain we can be that TNRed cats will find their way to guaranteed food and shelter. That will make it a lot easier to get more work done through the toughest of Chicago winters.