When I first started talking to Kim a few months ago about all of the cats she was seeing in her colony and neighborhood of Avondale, I was determined to help her mostly because of a cat named Big Daddy. Her Big Daddy Colony is named after him to honor his memory.

Big Daddy was a colony cat that kept coming back to her yard the past two years, looking worse each time. He evaded all of her trapping efforts, and in the meantime she TNR’d 22 other cats.

Big Daddy would only come to visit Kim’s yard to feed sporadically. He was clearly sick, but still surviving. 

Some of the following photos may be upsetting to see.

Joann helped Kim trap at the end of May and they trapped a lot of cats. In the meantime, they also trapped Big Daddy. We think that at this point he was so sick that he went into the trap because he knew he needed to. Big Daddy was dying. 

Despite all of that they could not get near him. He was only safe to handle once he was in the trap. Kim took him straight to Roscoe Village Animal Hospital. They have been amazing. They are close to us, open seven days a week, will treat cats in traps, and we can normally get an appointment the day we call. This is all invaluable to us colony cat caregivers providing care for feral cats in traps. The low-cost clinics can only do so much. These colony cats need full service vet care.

But this vet care is expensive. Big Daddy’s total vet bill was $341. If you’d like to make a donation towards his care, you can do so through the Paypal donation link at the top of this page, or directly through paypal.com with [email protected]

Big Daddy had to be sedated for an exam because even though he was weak, he was still feral.

He was first tested for FIV/FeLV and tested negative. We were all very surprised. They then thought he may have been coming down with pneumonia. He was underweight and very sick. A few days before he allowed himself to be trapped, Kim found him in her garden defecating on himself, but not allowing her to come near him. His body seemed to be shutting down. Any treatment would involve more tests, and most likely extensive recovery in a crate indoors. That would be very stressful for him, and the outcome was completely unknown and could not be guaranteed. They decided to humanely euthanize him instead.

RIP, Big Daddy. You were loved. We are so thankful to Kim for caring for you while you visited her garden, and letting her help you in the end. You deserved a dignified death at the end of your hard life.

Reese is one of the 17 cats and kittens trapped so far and from the Avondale TNR Project. Six kittens are in foster care, and most of the adults were TNR’d. There are many more cats outside there.

Reese was pretty relaxed outside.

When Reese came back from the clinic he slept in the trap the entire time. It was weird – we were concerned, but as soon as we woke him up, he would scarf down food. And then go back to sleep again. Not only is that a friendly behavior, but it seemed excessive. Kim agreed to keep an eye on him for a few extra days in the trap.

If he wasn’t sleeping, he was just relaxing.

Then Kim saw this on his back.

I brought Reese to a full service vet with another cat from my area I trapped that also needed medical care.

They determined that it was a skin plaque. Since it was intact and we weren’t sure yet if he was going back outside, it wasn’t a cause for concern.

But they found a bite wound on his left front leg, and he also had an URI, upper respiratory infection. He was treated with antibiotics. He also tested FIV+.

Reese is currently being fostered inside by Kim. Please let us know if you’d like to meet him!

His medical bill is $268 so far. If you’d like to help, please donate through Paypal at [email protected]

Thanks for your support!