A Tale of 13 Kitties

When Bonnie Wienke of Homer, Illinois called Prairieland in June of 2002, she was in quite a predicament. Always a cat lover, Bonnie never thought twice about feeding a stray. However, her generosity led to 14 cats in and around her house. There were 3 outside cats - 2 females (O.J. & Bootsie) and 1 male (Papa) - that were somewhat wild, not fixed and constantly reproducing. In fact, all 7 of Bonnie’s inside-only kitties were the product of O.J. and Papa. To make matters worse, O.J. just had a litter of 4 kittens that she was protecting. That’s where Prairieland stepped in.

Two volunteers made daily trips to Homer to set-up humane traps to catch the 7 semi-wild cats living outside on Bonnie’s property. After two weeks, all 7 were caught, fixed, and vaccinated. The cats went back to Bonnie’s, where they live in her backyard and have access to her garage for shelter, food, and water. In addition, two of Bonnie’s inside kitties were fixed, and all seven received vaccinations. And although Bonnie still has many mouths to feed, all of them are happy, healthy, and fixed.

Homer, one of OJ's 4 kittens

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