Time for my lecture on spaying/neutering cats. Yes, it's a good thing for dogs as well, but my area is cats. The photo above is of a litter of six we found underneath our back porch. Their mother disappeared when they were about 2 1/2 or 3 weeks old, and we ended up raising them. Let me tell you, bottle-feeding six cats every four hours isn't a picnic. We were lucky; all six cats survived. We ended up keeping four, which is another story in itself, and two found homes through the local shelter.
Some estimates show that a pair of breeding cats and their offspring can exponentially produce over 400,000 cats in 7 years. That's a lot of cats. Also, there are 45 cats and dogs for every person born in America. Only 1 in 10 of the dogs, and 1 in 12 of the cats will find a permanent home. These numbers can be greatly improved if only more people would spay/neuter their pets, and adopt pets from the local shelters.
I wouldn't give up my kitties for anything in the world, but if we hadn't found them, some of them wouldn't have made it, and those who did would probably have had very short and very tough lives. They are now almost 9-years-old, and are living the "Life of Riley." :)
Having a cat spayed or neutered helps prevent unwanted behavior such as wandering, spraying, fighting, etc. It also prevents many types of cancers common in cats. It's a win/win situation.
OK, I'm off my soapbox....for now. BEWARE!!! I could jump back on at any time.
For more information, and to read about some great work by a great person, check out www.safehavenforcats.com.
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