Instead of two legged children we have four legged ones. Our first was Bucky Bloo, then Smudgy, Pixie, Scruffy Doo, Dundee Boy and then lastly Amigo. Frank said he's put his foot down and we can't have any more furkids, but we'll see, ((wink, wink))
We both grew up with pets; cats, dogs, birds, fish, and a frog. We both feel very strongly about adopting, rescuing, and not purchasing pets from pet stores.
We'd always been involved in animal causes, and supported charities, but we lived in a nice part of Evanston, IL where we didn't see homeless pets wandering the streets. We use to go to charity events, write checks, volunteer with fostering. Once we moved, we found ourselves in a bit of a quandary. Why were there so many cats and dogs loose on the streets? Well, little did we know we moved into one of the targeted zipcodes in the city of Chicago, known for the large amounts of stray pets that wander the streets. We couldn't just write checks anymore, we had to "get our hands dirty". Once we started doing TNR we saw an immediate difference. The cats weren't crying and fighting all night, there were less kittens showing up in our yard, and the cats started looking healthier, overall.
We do not know everything there is to know about TNR. We are not veterinarians, behaviorists, vet techs, or anything like that. Frank has degrees in Latin American Studies and works in the education field, and I have a degree in chemistry and work in the environmental field. With every cat we learn something new! We also try to take homeless, but friendly cats/kittens off the street. The latter can be a sour topic with folks who do TNR, because there isn't always room to foster these cats, or place them into no-kill shelters - it takes up time, resources, and space. Quick example: recently I heard about three kittens who had taken residence in a garage, I went to trap three kittens and left with six!! Then I got word that there was still one kitten left. I went back to trap the last kitten and ended up trapping three!! So, I was already over crowded with 6 kittens, but I couldn't sleep knowing there was one lonely kitten - so I figured, what's one more kitten. HA!! So, now I have 9 semi-feral kittens, that need socializing, shelter, care, spay/neutering, and placement into a no-kill shelter program. I was in-over-my-head. In addition to our six permanent residence pets, a foster, and then 9 kittens we were very very very overwhelmed.
We try not to tap out a resource, and spread our needs over various groups. PAWS Chicago offers a great feral package to fix ferals, only $20. We also foster kittens and cats for PAWS Chicago and Tree House Animals. Tree House has a fabulous pet food pantry, and they are the only shelter that takes in strays, FIV+, or sick cats! The Chicago Stray Cat Coalition sponsors Spay Days where you can take in as many ferals as you can trap. I borrow traps from all three groups. Placing cats/kittens into programs takes time, hence it eats resources, unless you are prepared to endure it, think twice about it...but know that takings kittens/cats to Animal Care and Control may come from noble intentions, they can not guarantee that those cats/kittens will not be killed.