Ben M. surprised me this week with another generous donation. This time it was a holiday gift for his friend Jason T. who asked Ben to make a donation in his name to his favorite charity.

 I’m floored. Thank you again.

Then we also figured out that we lived close to each other. In fact, Ben lives right in the middle of a few of my TNR’d colonies. When I mentioned that to him, he said he wondered why he’s only seen a few stray cats in his neighborhood.

That made my day. Yes! TNR works!!!

This is just one of the colonies right near him that I call the Eleanor Rigby Colony. You may recognize the photo from Tree House’s TNR handouts in their clinic.

Starting in 2008, I TNR’d, pulled, fostered and adopted 18 cats total from this address. There is only one cat left outside at this point. This photo shows a few of them, all of them TNR’d at first, and I’ve written about most of them. Starting from left to right:

Fluffy, the long-haired brown and white tabby was TNR’d, and then hit by a car a year later. Neighbors found her and took her to the ERl. She was euthanized because her back was broken. I found this out because the vet traced her microchip to me and called to let me know.

Patches is the short-haired brown and white tabby. She was TNReturned by me, and adopted indoors by another neighbor last year.

The only one currently left outside is the small black cat, who left the colony after her TNR and is being fed and cared for exclusively by another feeder. They named her Joker and she has shelter and full reign of their yard.

The long-haired black and white cat, is Dusty. He is the only male and was in charge of this “harem.” A few years after his TNR, a neighbor brought him to Animal Control, who traced his microchip to me. I was able to rescue him from animal control, and a friend of a friend adopted him from me. Since then, I’ve become great friends with his adopter, Greer. She has her own cat sitting business, Mama Bear Pet Care, and she regularly cat sits for me.

The other long-haired brown and white tabby is Clover. She had kittens before I could TNR her. I fostered and admitted the kittens to a shelter, and I TNR’d Clover after the kittens were weaned. Last year another neighbor adopted her indoors.

The grey cat is Gracie. Two years ago, she disappeared for awhile, and then a neighbor found her body in the alley underneath the train tracks. We don’t know what happened to her, but I suspected rat poison, since she was a great hunter and the city baits under the tracks all of the time. At least she had a good four years of being fed and cared for after her initial TNR, and she was definitely a neighborhood favorite.

Last week brought incredible news: Clover was adopted off the street.

Clover was part of the Eleanor Rigby Colony. I started TNR there in December of 2008 for an overwhelmed, disabled, elderly feeder named Rosemary. This is part of what the colony looked like then. Clover is all the way in the back on the left. Her friend Patches is to the right.

Rosemary let me do whatever I wanted. I set traps all winter and stayed in her house for hours waiting for the cats to go in for TNR. I TNR’d eight cats, but did not get Clover.

I made four outdoor cat shelters and put them under Rosemary’s porch. That following summer, Clover had five kittens in one of the shelters.

They were tiny. The family stayed under the porch.

And even moved  to another shelter under the porch.

At first I wanted to wait until the kittens were weaned before bringing them inside for socialization and adoption. Clover acted feral and I did not want to stress her out. But, one kitten disappeared. And then I found another one dying. I rushed the kitten to the vet but s/he died on the way. I decided to bring the remaining cat family inside. This time, Clover was easy to trap. Clover was always protective of her kittens, and never sought attention from me. The little grey and white kitten in back also died after I brought him inside. The two other kittens in front were sick with URI but pulled through. Once they were weaned, three weeks after being inside with me, I TNR’d Clover and reunited her with her colony at Rosemary’s house.

The kittens were eventually admitted into Tree House. Their admission was delayed until they were a bit older, because their neuter surgeries were complicated – one kitten had a heart murmur, and the other kitten has an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. But Charlie Angel and Captain Jack finally made it. Clover was a very healthy cat, but her kitten’s illnesses showed how hard it is for them to survive outside.

Clover stayed outside with her colony for the next few years. Rosemary eventually disappeared in 2010. I never found out what happened to her, but her house is still there. The colony was now fed by another elderly woman named Eleanor. Then Eleanor died in 2012, and another woman named Casey started feeding the cats regularly. At this point, I had spayed/neutered 18 cats from this colony, but this past year there are only three cats left outside. The rest of the cats were adopted, admitted into shelters, or died on the street.

Even though Clover was fed elsewhere, she always liked to hang out under Rosemary’s porch, so I kept the shelters there. Someone put a cat bed under the porch for her.

Last winter Clover and Patches really bonded with Casey, and she started letting them into her home. The funny thing is that these two cats don’t really get along with each other, but they seem to keep finding their new caregivers together.

Last week Casey told me a neighbor named Amanda was trying to adopt Clover into her home. Amanda was able to pick up Clover and take her to the clinic for a check-up, vaccinations, and testing. Clover tested negative and was docile at the clinic. She even let them cut her nails. So far she is slowly acclimating to being indoors, but is acting friendly with Amanda. If it doesn’t work out, Clover still has shelter and food outside waiting for her.

Fingers crossed, though, that she wants to stay inside. The Eleanor Rigby Colony is a perfect example of how TNR works to humanely reduce the outdoor cat population. From eighteen cats spayed/neutered starting in 2008, to an outdoor population now of only two cats. Amanda told me she used to see new cats and kittens outside all of the time. Now she was only seeing Clover, and is happy to try to bring her finally home.