Every Rat Bastard Who Doesn't Spay Or Neuter Your Cats

The BBQ Pit
1

Aww, isn’t he cute? Lets get him!

Damn, he’s scratching our furniture; put him outside.
Damn, he eats more than I thought he would.
Damn, it’s a pain in the ass to change the litter; let him out to piss and shit.
Damn, it’s too expensive to give shots, he’ll be ok.
Damn, his piss STINKS!
Damn, she got pregnant… Again!
Damn, the cat’s not in. Fuck it, I’m going to bed.
Damn, he got into a fight.
Damn, that scratch turned into an abscess.
Fucking cat. Now I have to go to the vet. HOW MUCH? Forget it! Euthanize!

You know what? If you can’t AFFORD a cat, don’t GET ONE. It costs a lot of money. Food, litter, shots, vet trips. Don’t figure on a bag of Cat Chow and a bowl of water. That’s not the way it works.

When you adopt a cat, you’re OBLIGED to that pet and whatever happens to it. You’re it’s PARENT. And you go through thick and thin with that cat. You don’t just GIVE UP when it’s costing too much, stinking too much, or too much trouble. YOU BIT THE BULLET, NOW DEAL WITH IT.

But the second worse, above all bad situations (worse to follow), is when you neglect to spay/neuter your cats!*

His piss stinks, put him out. She’s howling, put her out.
WHAT A FUCKING GOOD IDEA ~ NOT !!!

Pregnancy will surely ensue. Not only that, but fights with neighbourhood cats will happen and your cat will be in a brawl with the one who wants the pussy. BAD shit happens when your cat is in a fight. Cuts, abscesses, diseases. PREGNANCY!

And what happens?
~ You give the kittens to a pet shop. They sell the kittens. They don’t give a shit to whom. For all you know, it could be an asshole parent like you.
~ You tell the bitch to hit the road. Sometimes, you drive her out to a road far from home and dump her. Other times, you’re so cold hearted as to just not let her in when she begs for the door. Sometimes you move and don’t bring the cat. She’s left to her own devices with newborn kittens and no food. If she’s LUCKY, those kittens will learn to fend for themselves and she will be then able to independently look for refuge. (My cat suffers from an immunodeficiency syndrome caused by nourishing her kittens past when she normally would, and has permanent scars from their teeth marks on her teats. It cost me $4000 to find out what was wrong with the stray (over a few years); I’d say it’s cost me another $3000 over the years to pay her medical fees. Glad it was me who ended up with her and not you. What happens to those kittens? I’ll tell you what.

*** Worse situation of all (that I can imagine)** It’s fucking -48C (-54F) again tonight. Second night that low. It hurts to breathe the air. As I waited for my car to heat up, I noticed one of the stray cats (that was a stray kitten in the neighbourhood this summer), disappear under a one step stairway of a building. As soon as I returned home, I inspected this hole into which he disappeared. I quickly realized this was his home. Hard to inspect without moving snow, which I didn’t want to do for fear of exposing this “home” to more wind. I called him. Didn’t know what I would do if he came out (since I already have 4 cats), but I knew I would help somehow. He didn’t come out. Maybe he was scared. Maybe he was sleeping. Maybe he was dead. I prayed he was. IS THIS THE WAY YOU TREAT ANIMALS WHO ARE DEPENDENT ON YOU?

You SICK SONS OF BITCHES who do this to animals who are dependent on you. They’re not wild. They’re DOMESTIC. That means they’re meant to be IN HOMES. It should be ILLEGAL for some of you to own a pet if you think they’re so disposable. And don’t even get me started on the people who think “dogs like staying outside” at these temps.

IF YOU WOULDN’T DO IT TO YOUR CHILD, DON’T DO IT TO YOUR PET!

I will be reading the replies. I can’t stand bad stories about animals. They traumatize me and give me nightmares for weeks if not months. Please don’t be graphic. Please be sensitive about what you say, since I’m extremely sensitive about this. Thanks.

2

Amen.

As a rescuer/adopter of multiple cats – strays and other folks’ throwaways – I say people who treat pets as disposable toys have shriveled blackened husks where their souls should be.

3

Well, to be fair, I wouldn’t spay or neuter my child. :wink:

In all seriousness, though, amen. I’ve never yet bought a pet – I’ve adopted and rescued every critter we’ve had, including the pregnant mother-cat of a nearby neighbor and her kittens. And they’ve always been terribly sweet…and we always, always, always spay and neuter them. I can’t fathom not doing this.

4

As I’m owned by 3 rescued felines, I’ll also implore others to 1) spay/neuter their cats and 2) treat animals with respect, they are not something you can want one day and throw away the next.

My big sister has just discovered a no-kill shelter in Dallas - a home with 80 cats. Count them, 80 unwanted and beautiful felines, abandoned by people who will be mice in their next life.

5

We recently rescued a cat from our roof. We’d seen this particular cat around for several weeks now, always outside. I’d already rescued her from the roof once before. And it was one of those below-zero nights we’ve had the last few weeks the second time, so we kept her in. We’ve put an ad in the paper, because it is possible that she dashed out the door of someone who actually cares and worries about her.

If no one claims her, we’re keeping her. And as soon as my car is sprung from the garage, we’re getting a cat carrier and taking her to a vet for a full checkup and a spay, if she isn’t already (I certainly can’t tell). With luck, she’s not in the early stages of pregnancy already (again, I certainly can’t tell, but she seems very young to be sexually mature (we’re guessing she’s barely 1 year)).

6

We’ve got a lot of “stray” cats, including three “garage rats” (kittens we found in the garage). All are wonderful pets. All go to the vet regularly. We didn’t buy any of them.

We love our kitties. Our latest is “the Bum,” a mighty fine fluffy male cat that started hanging around this summer. He was a big tom cat. We took him in, got him fixed, and now he’s fat and sassy and living the high life inside, not out in the cold. And he seems very appreciative. Lazy bum. :wink:

There’s also Tangie, who was rescued from a pound, one day before he was scheduled to be put to sleep. He still looks up at us with this sweet gratitude.

7

Wait, you’re not supposed to let your cats go outside now? This is considered a bad, if not an evil, thing to do? Damn. ALL our cats were “outside cats.” But then, we lived in a rural area, so the odds of a traffic fatality were pretty damn low, and two of them had been barn cats before we adopted them from the farm next door.

8

Man, I get pissed when I hear about people buying pets from pet stores. When there are SO MANY animals needing to be adopted in shelters! Don’t give those bastards breeding them for profit any incentive to keep doing it!

I’ve had Elvis since he was a bitty baby, born in a wearhouse. He used to suckle on my hand and is truly like my kid. He likes to be cradled like a baby. I give him so much love and affection, it hurts my heart to think of anything bad happening to him.

The vet was getting annoyed at me because I kept asking, every time I took him for a series of shots, “can I nueter him yet? Can I do it yet? How bout now?” I was so paranoid about doing it.

There are way too many irresponsible assholes out there, who look at animals as nothing more than another piece of property, to be disposed of as such.

They make me sick. :mad:

9

Racin: Context is important. In a rural area, I imagine that the risks are relatively low.

My mom lets her cat (Jane) out, as she did with her predecessor, Rosie (who lived to be 19). Mom lives in the city, but she has a nice backyard that backs onto a small alley, and Jane is spayed.

On the other hand, I live in an apartment; front and back are cement, and front is a busy street. The furs do not go out, and they’re both fixed.

snuggles Zazou

10

I’m with you, OP. I hate it when people get pets they aren’t willing to take care of. If you’re gonna get a cat/dog/etc., you should do what you can to make sure it lives a long and healthy life. It burns me up to see people get an animal and tie it up outside after they get bored with it.

But I just gotta say: 7 thousand bucks on a CAT? I could send my daughter to private school for 3 and a half years on 7k!

11

Someone released my Sapphire to the North Texas Humane Society, saying that they wanted a kitten instead. I’m sure that the people working in the Humane Society refused to give them a kitten. Sapphire was maybe a year old when I adopted her. Two and a half years later, she’s still very playful, and I imagine she will be all her life. Whoever gave her up missed having a wonderfully affectionate playful cat for a pet. Now Sapphire has a home forever, with at least two human slaves and another cat to play with.

We do not let our cats go outside. At least not on purpose. We tried adopting a stray that was hanging around last year, but he turned out to have FIV, so we had to put him down. I couldn’t find a vet who would neuter him because he was FIV+, and we really could not keep a tomcat inside. Nor could we let him roam outside, to infect other cats. So we had him put down. He was a sweet, affectionate little fellow, too, not very old. :frowning:

12

The fluffy tortiseshell that’s currently passed out on PucksRaven’s knee was a product of a move-and-dump. We got her after she was found on the loading dock of our local feed & pet supply store, skin and bones. About 2 blocks back from there is a small park.

When we were moving houses about 6 months ago, the sight of the moving boxes made her nervous, to the point where we confined her to a bedroom so she wouldn’t see them. On moving day, we took the cats over in the afternoon, after the movers had left. Carrying her through the empty appartment she started shaking. As we drove to our new house (right near said park) she cowered in my lap limp as a dish rag and shook. Usually, she is a calm, happy car rider. I have never seen a creature so terrified, it broke my heart. We imagine it must have happened just like that-- her family packed the house, and then drove her to the park and dumped her out there. Like some crappy ass green field in the middle of a traffic circle is going to provide her with food.

And it goes without saying that when she showed up at the pet store, she was unspayed, and according to the vet had borne at least one litter of kittens. Whatever happened to them, I don’t wish to think about.

This cat, however, now lives the sort of life where someone hand-feeds her sliced turkey, so don’t feel too bad for her.

13

Her Majesty and I are just getting to know each other. I’m somewhat cautious about falling for her because she may yet get claimed. Also, I’m a little bit paranoid about the possibility of her biting and breaking skin, because we haven’t gotten her checked out yet and I have no idea what she might and might not have.

For now, it’s like having a new baby. Everything’s by the book. Cat food only, no people food yet. Eventually, if we get to keep her, we’ll probably end up hand-feeding her turkey, too, but for now we’re just kind of existing in her environment. She’s not people-shy, but she’s not quite ready to trust us completely yet, either.

14

“Traders” are a common problem in the animal rescue community. What continues to amaze me is just how dumb they are. They actually think they can come in trade in their old model for a newer model, like at the car dealership. I give an incredible amount of credit to the shelter workers simply for managing to be polite to these people. I couldn’t be. This, I suppose, is the reason I’m not involved in the ‘surrender’ division of my rescue org.

jayjay, best of luck with your new kitty. When you get your car back, you might want to take her over to your local shelter/humane society/whatever and have her scanned for a microchip.

15

I own a dog and 4 cats. (yeah, i’m nuts.) The German shepard and two of the cats were on purpose, the other two, were by chance and would have been in very worse conditions if I hadn’t picked 'em up.

The first was a year and a half old calico who the owner was trying to get rid of along with her first litter of kittens. He had given away all of the kittens, but no one wanted the mother, and he was just going to “dump” her out in the country somewhere. Well, I didn’t agree with that, so I took her. She was terrified at first, but has settled down, and in the past 4 years has become a very affectionate and beautiful cat.

The second one I rescued was a small little gray kitten, probably just weaned or not yet quite weaned. We found her on the sidewalk on a winter day, with the temperature below freezing, all beat up and bloody, with some parasitic worm infection, and her left ear badly damaged. We scooped her up and took her to the vet. He wasn’t very optimistic about her survival, but after some discussion, he ran some tests to make sure she didn’t have FIV or Luk, give her her shots, and us some meds to take care of the infections, and he removed the parasites that had infested one of her wounds. She pulled through with no problems, although she lost the outer part of the ear, and has become the hell raiser of the whole bunch. She has NO fear, and an insatiable curiosity that will no doubt one day get her killed like the proverbial cat. But she is VERY affectionate and many times I have walked by to find her curled up with the other cats all over the poor dog (they’re all strange, just like their owner.)

They’re all spayed/neutered, and they’re all indoor (cept the dog who goes in and out when she wants.) I just can’t understand how some people will just abandon their animals on a whim, or when they tire of them. If you’re not ready or don’t want that commitment, DON’T GET THE ANIMAL IN THE FIRST FRIGGIN PLACE. Sadly, there’s alot of people out there who just consider pets to be a decoration or something.

I can understand the indoor/outdoor cat, we had quite a few when I was growing up, but they were always fixed and full up on their shots at all times. But we NEVER left em out when it got near the freezing mark, well, even if we wanted to, they wouldn’t have let us, as they were masters of streaking in or out whenever the door opened. But we were more out in the suburbs/country, where as now, I live in the city, and just wouldn’t take that chance. Luckily, the ones I have now, have no desire to go outside, they just sit right at the threshold and stare out whenever I let the dog in or out.

16

I have 3 cats right now. All adopted. Two were strays from my apt complex, the third was a kitten from my aunt. The female’s spayed, the male has an apt for the 28th, and the kitten’s too young to fix (10 weeks).

There are two cats outside who I wish I could adopt. One’s a huge white female (Like the size of a fox huge), and the other’s a big grey male. I feel so bad for them being outside all the time. But I can’t really have 5 cats in my apt. So I pet them when they’re outside my door, and always leave a handful of food outside.

Up here, they have the Fixmobile (well, I don’t know the real name) that you can take your cat to and get them fixed for $10 (females) or $5 (for males). I can afford shots, but paying $170 to get my boy neutered was a little too steep for me. So my big tom has an apt for the 28th.

And about animals, I know I say this whenever a rescue post comes up, but people need to put more thought into getting a reptile. I’ve seen too many go into rescue or be treated poorly because people didn’t realize 1) snakes easily live to be 20 - max life of a Ball Python was 49 years. NOT like a cat. 2) Burmese Pythons and Iguanas (two most common rescues) get HUGE. Burms - 15-20 feet, Iguanas- 6 feet. They do not stay all small and cute. 3) You need to feed frozen/thawed, you bastards. Snakes will eat dead prey, and a live rat can remove large chunks of a snake’s body.

Nimwits.

17

Our boat cat wandered up to our house in October a year ago. He was very friendly, if a tad skittish. We found out from the woman across the street (the one who knows everything that goes on in the neighborhood) that he’d been put out by a neighbor who just didn’t want him any longer. I didn’t want to take him in because we had two cat-hating dogs at the time, but my husband decided he’d like a buddy to live with him on the boat.

What a wonderful buddy he’s become (despite waking my up at 4 this morning!!!) - and of course, we got him neutered. In the interim, one of our dogs had run off, and the cat managed to make a truce with the remaining pup. I’m taking him back to the boat tomorrow, and after we build our house in Maryland, he and the dog will live happily ever after with us. I’ve always preferred dogs to cats, but this little guy is a lot of fun, even if he doesn’t respect my need for beauty sleep.

18

My apartment doesn’t allow pets, so I get my fix volunteering at Animal Friends, a no-kill animal shelter. One thing I have no tolerance for is people who abuse or show cruelty to animals, including abandoning them. All of our animals are not only spayed or neutered, they’re microchipped so that if they ever do wind up going astray, voluntarily or involuntarily, they’ll come back to us. While our screening process is rather rigorous (among other things, if you rent your home, not only will we ask to see your lease, we will call your landlord to make sure pets are allowed), we realize mistakes occur, and we’d much rather see them safe and sound than astray or abandoned.

We’ve got some real sweethearts at the moment, including a purebred Himalayan whose owners moved to England and asked us to find him a good home. I’ve also seen too many cats who wound up with us because “fiance didn’t like cat.”

Check out the website – we’ve got photos!
CJ

19

One of my conditions for a future fiance must be that he likes cats, especially the one that will be owning me (since the minute I move out of here, I will be given into the service of Her Majesty Emily to get her away from the dogs). That’s a given. I’d be a bit skittish about being more than friends with somebody who didn’t at least like my cat, just because my pets have always been very important to me.

Kittens are cute. They are very cute. They are also crazy. I’d rather have an adult kitty!

20

My brother worked for our open access shelter one summer, and came up with his own Modest Business Proposal: Rent-A-Puppy.

Customers would come to his business and get themselves an eight-week-old puppy that they could choose from his huge stock. They’d play with it and enjoy it until it got old (i.e. several months later) and its cute puppy habits started turning into adult dog problems. When that happened, their contract would allow them to bring the no-fun-any-more adult dog back to the business and trade it in for a new puppy. All the fun, none of the responsibility!

Man, he hated some of the people who brought animals to us. It’s an occupational hazard.

Because our shelter never turns an animal away, we receive on average more than 25 animals every day. That’s about 200 every week, nearly ten thousand animals every year. Sometimes the reasons for an animal coming to us are perfectly understandable: the scary dog was a stray in their neighborhood, or the cat had badly mauled their two-year-old child, or the dog is thirteen years old and badly sick and needs a humane death. Other times, people bring in a box of puppies with a smile: “Here’s some more puppies for you – our dog just had another litter!” Or they’re getting a divorce, and neither person wants to take care of the cat any more. Or they got a puppy, and it just won’t stop peeing on their carpet, and they think crate training is too cruel. Or, and this is my favorite, the animal is too dull.

We take them all. We try to educate people, we try to encourage them to have their remaining animals sterilized, but we take them all.

And we try to find homes for as many as we can. But remember how many we get every day? Of those twenty five, we’re lucky to return two of them to their original homes, and we’re really lucky if we can find new homes for another six of them. For nearly 20 animals every single day, almost seven thousand animals a year, the best we can offer them is someone to hold and comfort them while someone else gives them a quick, gentle death through lethal injection.

We do our best to minimize the animals coming to us. We offer free spay/neuter vouchers to people on public assistance, and subsidized spay/neuter vouchers to everyone else who needs them. And we just got a great new law passed in our county, maybe the first of its kind in the nation (if anyone knows of a similar law – not just differential licensing – let me know!): all dogs and cats in our county older than six months must be sterilized unless the owner has purchased a $100 unaltered animal permit for the animal. We begin enforcing the law in April.

Maybe one day I can tell you we take them all, and it won’t be a tragedy.

Daniel