Help Tux Heal: Support Starfish's Mission

We first saw Tux wandering around our neighborhood around March. We feed the ferals so we noticed he wasn’t one of the regulars who would come to eat at our porch. We noticed him sleeping in the neighbors bushes, and saw him getting beat up by the other ferals in the neighborhood regularly. He started looking worse each week, but he would never let us get closer than to look at him through the window.

Recently another litter of kittens was born and I had been trying to trap them to find them homes so I had my humane trap set out to catch them. I woke up Thursday morning with this guy meowing at me from inside. He wasn’t like the other ferals I have TNR’d (trap, neutered and release) he was calm, wasn’t hissing, and seemed utterly exhausted. I called my contact at Starfish and asked her if we could get him approved for TNR and medical through their organization. I was worried he actually might not make it. She got him an appointment right away and I took him in last night.

He had surgery this morning and he has a bit of a recovery ahead of him. His fur was so matted that they had to shave him down to the skin. In other places he was missing huge patches of fur. He has a hematoma on his ear and he needed stitches to repair a huge laceration that made his ear flop forward. As suspected, he had been declawed in what the vet described as a botched procedure, which is why he couldn’t defend himself outside. Most people don’t know that it is now illegal to declaw cats because of how inhumane and barbaric the procedure actually is. He was also neutered and so he’s been through a lot. This was a large expense for Starfish to cover.

Tux has been an absolute sweetheart through it all (even as smelly as he was) he won over the staff at VCA Naperville.

I am forever thankful to Starfish for always stepping up to help with this feral colony that myself and some of my neighbors look out for. As a gesture of gratitude for all they do, and to help them continue doing this great work, I always offer to replenish the resources we take to help these guys by hosting a GoFund Me in each animals honor. I always seem to find the most expensive project pets for them to help, lol. All funds collected go to Starfish and all donations are deposited to them directly. They are a 501c3 non-profit organization.

Thank you to everyone who has been asking about him and following his story. Please share this with your feline loving family and friends. Let’s help Starfish continue their life changing work.

Thank you.

XoXo

Julie and Tux