Firstly I have to say that I am a) not a cat person (but I can’t have a dog because I rent and my child IS a cat person) and b) I have never owned a male animal before.
The child wanted a cat and while cats are not my favourite creatures I don’t like living in an animal free house, so 4 years ago I relented to the “mum can we get a cat…mum can we get a cat…mum can we get a cat” onslaught. A friend’s cat had just had 5 new candidates which the child was desperate to inspect and bring home.
My main consideration was the cat we bought home must be a male because they are cheaper to “fix”.
So we go to look at the kittens and I instantly forget I don’t (much) like cats. There were 4 almost identical tabbies and 1 black and white chap who must have had a different dad. One tabby instantly crawls onto the child’s knee and he decides this is the one we must have, after checking it had the correct genitals I agreed. Then that damn black and white one kept enticing me with its “Love me because I am different and therefore I am the underdog (cat?). You can’t possibly leave me here with all these tabbies when I am sooooo special and unique” it even purred as I held it! If that ain’t cheating I don’t know what is!
So needless to say we arrived home with 2 kittens (grrrrrrrrrr) The tabby was his and is tragicaly and horrificaly named after a Pokemon (Meowth…no way I was calling “Pikachu time for dinner”!). The black and white one is Zorro due to his very classy mask and he was “mine”.
Of course cats being cats and not being anything like dogs instantly decided that Meowth was in fact mine and Zorro was the child’s. Yayyyyyyy a cat named after a Pokemon now thinks it loves me! BUGGER! The stupid creature only comes when I yell Pokemon names of the balcony! It also has the bizzare habit of thinking everytime I sit on the loo I am only doing so because I am in a convenient place to pat the stupid creature (It is rarely called Meowth now and usually responds to “loo cat”).
I have never lived in a 2 cat household before and found kitten antics to be …awwwwwwwwwwwwww CUTE, someone should have shot me then. The cute lil ruff’n’tumbles eventually turned into “This hallway is MINE…if you walk down it I will be forced to attack with the hissing fury of a cougar” interspersed with “Hey I remember you…OHHHHHHHH I think I love you , shall we nestle on HER bed cause we know SHE loves that”
Anyway male cats are cheaper to “fix” but 2 male cats are not. I was faced with the dilemma of not being able to fix both out of the same paycheck (yes I could have saved…but if I was capable of that I would not be renting and I would own a dog not a loo cat) and choosing who was to sacrifice his balls first and while one or the other irritated me mildly from time to time I was worried that whoever had had his balls cut off first would come home and tell the other to “RUN NOW!!!”.
So I put it off and I put it off (well they looked so proud of their balls!). The Family Member Who Knows Much More Then Anyone (hi mum ) kept telling me that the boys would spray, not that she has ever owned a male animal and hates cats with a passion. 4 years later I was feeling proud my boys didn’t spray, smug that mum was wrong and starting to quite like cats. Three weeks ago Meowth wanders into the bedroom, casually catches a pat or three then lifts his tail. The tail quivers in excitement and I think (and even ask him out loud) “And why are you so happy, stupid?” BEFORE I realise the fucking little bastard is spraying my wardrobe. I was truly flabbergasted. How dare he I thought! I mean I have patted you on the loo, you ungrateful little shit, not to mention putting up with you wailing for dinner from 3 in the afternoon when I have clearly said dinner is at 5! So after screeching in a way that clearly disturbs cats and chasing him til all I could see was the tip of his offensive tail disappearing out the cat door I scrubed the wardrobe door with bleach and assorted cleaning products and thought well that’s the end of that.
But bloody cats have noses better then I thought obviously because Zorro appeared the next day with the “You think your pee smells vile do ya…well mine will scare people away permanently” face on and procceded to send his own piss torpedo all over the wardrobe door.
And the battle is on…one pisses…I clean…the other pisses…I clean…they meet mid hallway and do the deathroll on each other…then the pissing starts again…then for no apparent reason they love each other deeply for a day or 2 and can’t sleep alone. Cats!!! grrrrrrrrrr they are fucking bizzare creatures!
I am about ready to take a carving knife to their balls but by the same token I don’t really want to have them fixed anymore, they seem so proud of their tabby/black balls.
While I am heartily fed up with the “My piss is more pungent then yours” wars. I really would like to know if there is any other solution other then pinning them down and doing a home castration.
Yes I know I shoulda got them fixed but they seemed rather attached to their balls, but the next time the piss hits the wardrobe door I will be attached to their balls with pliers!
You’re gonna have to get them fixed. Although, I’ve heard that once they start spraying that a fixing won’t necessarily stop it. I’m a girl-pet kind of person, so I’ve not had personal experience with this one. But, sprayers or not, it sounded from your balcony-calling comment that you let them outside. This means that getting them fixed is really the responsible thing to do. How do you know they aren’t out there roaming around knocking up every random pussy they come across?
Get them neutered. It will decrease the spraying, although it may not stop it. If they had been neutered before the habit emerged, it probably wouldn’t have shown up at all. Neutering also eliminates all risks of testicular cancer.
This isn’t meant with bitchiness–but if you can afford the cat, you can afford the neutering.
Boy cats, much like boy people, can be pretty gross. Get them fixed NOW, before they saturate everything (and everyone) in your house (and knock up every cat in a 5 mile radius). But as Belladonna and now others have said, that won’t necessarily stop them now that they’ve started. My brother’s cat still does it, but only when he feels his territory is being threatened. My brother played with a dog the other day and now his furniture is paying the price. And make sure they get BOTH nuts while they’re at it. When my boy cat was fixed they could only find one testicle. Weeks later, the one-nutted wonder was humping my leg. We got that taken care of mighty quick. He doesn’t spray, but his butt is very stinky. My girls are sweet angels who smell like powder-puffs. Go figure.
They do make a spray that neutralizes the odor, so that may help keep them from re-spraying the same area, but I don’t know how well it works. They should have it at the pet store. You’re now owned by two cats and you’ve just got to get them snipped. Some places offer discounts or will do it for free. Check around at local animal shelters and clinics. Quickly.
Get them neutered ASAP. There is no training an animal, especially a cat, out of instinctual, hormonally driven behavior. Even after neutering, they’ll continue on for a while, then slowly taper down as the testosterone levels drop. So you’ll still be cleaning cat piss off your wardrobe for a while. Of course, they may never stop spraying, now that they’ve started. Cats can be terrribly stubborn about stuff like that.
The fact that they’re partially outdoor cats just clinches the deal. Neutering will decrease their territoriality, along with their inclination to roam around looking for in-heat females. This means less fighting in your hallway, and less fighting with other, possibly contagious, cats outside. Cat fights can lead to infection with FIV, FELV, FIP, rabies, etc., not to mention painful (and expensive) abcesses.
In the meantime, try cleaning up the urine with an enzyme-based cleaner. This will get rid of the scent markers that encourage them to keep peeing in the same spot, instead of just covering it up. It may take several goes to get rid of it entirely. Whatever you do, don’t use ammonia or anything that contains ammonia; ammonia smells like cat piss to a cat and just makes the problem worse.
Get 'em fixed. I have two neutered boy cats, and my parents over the years have had many of them-- some were even adult strays who wandered into our yard, took up residence, were cultivated with food and kindness and then taken to the vet to have the deed done. I know you hear sometimes that fixed boys aren’t the same after as before, but I’ve never seen any of ours change. In other words, they’ve all remained complete little bastards
Probably incorrectly but I was assuming that the owners of the female cats had done the “fixing”. I know I have always fixed every female animal I owned. But surely pussy needs a pussy ')
Have you told men this!
:eek: ;_
[QUOTE] OK - so you let two unfixed male cats go outside?*
[QUOTE]
Truly I had never heard such a thing as indoor cats until I visited this site. Kiwi cats are outside cats…balls and all. Yes seriously I know that unfixed boys ain’t a good thing…but I never had an unfixed female so I am (usually) a responsible pet owner.
Other then “Don’t let those ball-laden bastards outside” does anyone have any suggestions that might make them feel more encouraged about spraying outside? Is it cause there are two of them that it is a problem?
We are strictly a girl kitty household now. Fixed boys will spray. Fixed boys will whine like little girlie-men to get out and make dates with the neightborhood sluts. Girls love their mom and dad a lot.
Well Rabies isn’t an issue here (but does explain the indoor cat thing) though I’m not sure of the other diseases you mentioned …though the boys have had all their jabs. But thanks for the amonia tip, thats what I was looking for.
Well, there are always female-cat owners who are in the same situation that you’re in, only their thought was “Gee, I don’t want one that sprays, so I’ll get a girl-cat.”
Ask the local shelters and see if they know of any programs that will pay some or all of the cost of fixing your boys.
You know, there are girl cats out there who don’t have nice humans to take them in and get them spayed. They were born outside and they live their whole short lives outside, getting knocked up once or twice a year, constantly nursing kittens, and finally dying at a young age, either of birthing complications, sexually transmitted diseases, cars, or just plain getting too worn out from the toll that repeated litters take on their bodies.
Please get your boys fixed. Are they vaccinated? If not, you should get them checked for FIV and FeLV, too, and get them vaccinated against those if they haven’t contracted them already.
The boys have had all their jabs! And I live in the 'burbs not a great hive of stray kitties…in fact the only cats I see are the big fat buggers that come thru the boys cat door to eat their food because they are too wussy to run them off.
Yes I should get them fixed and would have done a long time ago if they were girls, but we all know how sensitive males are about their balls…who do I pick for the chop first? and will he tell his brother to flee when he realises the horrible truth!
Around here, the burbs have a good share of strays. You just don’t see them a lot because feral cats tend to keep out of sight.
Females are just as attached to their innards. That’s why they need a knife to get rid of them. Honestly, I think you are humanizing them way too much. They won’t tell each other what happened. One will come back all groggy and walking funny for a day. The other will just leave him alone until he’s ready to play again. They don’t really care that you’re chopping their nuts off, they won’t be offended, they won’t be depressed, they won’t know what happened.
It would be better to get them both done at once, but if you can’t, just pick the one who sprays the most, I guess. I don’t know if it will cause any dominance issues if one if neutered and the other is not. Any idea CrazyCatlady? But there’s no way you can get them to only spray outside. They spray their territory, and your house is part of it. Your only viable option is the Snip.
Sorry, my post crossed with yours that said they had been vaccinated.
But if you think there are no feral cat colonies in the 'burbs, you’re fooling yourself. They’re mostly shy of humans, but they’re almost certainly there. There are cats tucked away most anywhere that there is food to support them in this country.
calm kiwi–you’re being silly. I don’t mean to be nasty because it seems like you do care for these animals, but the fact of the matter is that you know what should be done. Unfortunately, it’s seeming more and more to me like you’re in here just waiting for someone to come along and say “Oh, that’s okay don’t get them fixed. You were right to neglect this important part of being a cat owner.”
The fact of the matter is that you mucked up. They should have been fixed long ago, and now you’re going to have to deal with the consequenses of putting it off. There is no magic pill to make them stop spraying. There is no guarantee that the owners of female cats in your neighborhood haven’t been just as irresponsible with their animals as you have been with yours. There is no excuse for putting this off any longer in the mistaken belief that overpopulation is not a problem in your corner of the world. Cats fuck. They spray. They roam. They fight. They can, and often do, contract nasty diseases when allowed outside. Fixing them will eliminate or, at the very least, greatly reduce the risks associated with these behaviors. Get them fixed, give them to someone who will, or keep them in the house and live among their stench. Those are your choices as a responsible pet owner. Anything else is just shirking the duties you signed up for when you took those cats into your home.
I don’t know cats that well, but I think you’re being oversensitive about how they’d “feel” about not having testicles. I don’t think they’d really notice.
I had my dog neutered after a couple of years, because he had started marking territory in the house. The reason for the delay is I originally planned to show him. And he is inside/outside – inside our 6’ wooden privacy fence. So there was never a danger of him impregnating any females.
Anyway, long story short, I worried the same thing as you, but my dog didn’t notice or care that he was missing anything. In fact, he still has erections regularly.
It strikes me as kind of weird that the declawing issue (something I have NEVER heard of here) is cruel but whacking the balls of what are essentialy teenagers is a good thing. Yes I agree every responsible pet owner should have their pet fixed, but I still think it is odd that the declawing issue got lots of alternative suggestions but pissing boys=cut their nuts off.
I want to state yet again that I acknowledge that the boys and their balls should have been seperated at 6 months but surely I don’t own the only intact males on the whole SDMB!
Yes I have personalised the whole de-balling thing (it’s probably a good thing I own cats not dogs cause I am much more sooky around them) and yes I will castrate the little buggers and as they mourn their balls I shall feel the guilt. I just don’t want either of them to run away.
Famale moggies probably don’t mind losing their bits as much because Tom’s are not good at child support
) kept telling me that the boys would spray, not that she has ever owned a male animal and hates cats with a passion. 4 years later I was feeling proud my boys didn’t spray, smug that mum was wrong and starting to quite like cats. Three weeks ago Meowth wanders into the bedroom, casually catches a pat or three then lifts his tail. The tail quivers in excitement and I think (and even ask him out loud) “And why are you so happy, stupid?” BEFORE I realise the fucking little bastard is spraying my wardrobe. I was truly flabbergasted. How dare he I thought! I mean I have patted you on the loo, you ungrateful little shit, not to mention putting up with you wailing for dinner from 3 in the afternoon when I have clearly said dinner is at 5! So after screeching in a way that clearly disturbs cats and chasing him til all I could see was the tip of his offensive tail disappearing out the cat door I scrubed the wardrobe door with bleach and assorted cleaning products and thought well that’s the end of that.