People who don't spay/neuter their goddamn pets!

The BBQ Pit
21

Zev-

I got ya. :smiley:

I know you’re keeping her away from males, but my sis-in-law was doing that, too. And you saw where that led her. Interesting and quite mind boggling fact: one unspayed cat can potentially lead to 14 million kittens in nine years. Here’s the cite: Media Center | PETA.org :eek:

Pretty fucking wild, eh?

As for your hamster, no need to get them spayed/neutered if they’re seperated. There are next to no vets who will perform the surgery on an animal that small, anyway. The anathesia is usually too risky.

22

**

True, but the chances of my hamster escaping to the “wilds” of Brooklyn, and then coming home pregnant are sooooo remote…

I know. It was a joke.
DanielWithrow,

Yeah, we had a hamster litter about ten years ago (with another hamster, obviously). While she didn’t try to eat the youngsters, she did act really wacky while she was caring for them.

Zev Steinhardt

23

Zev -

I was referring to the cat.

I know. I was simply passing along information in case you didn’t know.

24

Zev-

You have full permission to bitchslap me. Hard.

I just got it.

:rolleyes:

25

Don’t ask me where I got “cat” from. When I saw Smokey, I somehow assumed you were referencing a cat, and that the hamster thing was a seperate joke all together.

Trust me when I say I’m usually not this much of a flaming idiot.

I need to switch back from decaf.

26

I agree with all of this except the thread title, which should read, “Goddamn people who don’t spay/neuter their pets!” No need to curse out cute little animals with stupid owners; it’s not their fault. :slight_smile:

For the record–two cats, one store-bought Siamese (spayed) and one Humane Society tuxedo cat (neutered).

27

Right. Time to check in with a little bitching of me own on the subject.

[Aside]
Welcome to the boards, QGG. Fun place, innit?
[/Aside]

A buncha years back, Mrs. Skeezix decided she wanted a cat. So off we go to the local shelter, and end up coming home with this sorta tiger-striped, grey on dark grey cat. They tell us that her former owners kept her strictly inside (as we plan to do) and moved to a no pets apartment, and here we are. IANACat Person up to this point, so it’s gonna be her cat, and keep it offa my keyboard, and you change the litter box. (Yeah, I’m a dumbass, I know.) Well, the cat decides she’s mine, and I find out how wrong I am about not being a cat person right quick-like. Turns out, she’s some breed of Siamese we’d never heard of (Lynx point sound right to anyone?) and, being Siamese, she adopts one person to be her ‘favorite.’ You already know who that is. :slight_smile:

It also turns out, when we take her to be spayed, that she’s already pregnant. And the vet only discovers this after she’s “under the knife.” So, bye-bye kittens :(, hello added surgery costs.

What pisses me off about this is that her former owners were obviously walking shit-stains as:

  1. She didn’t get pregnant inside, as an only cat, no matter what kind of freaks owned her
  2. The litter was early enough that there were no outward signs of it, meaning the cat got pregnant, and immediately went right to the pound (not a no-kill shelter)*****
  3. This cat is the coolest animal I’ve ever run into, and anyone voluntarily giving her up shows inescapable signs of brain damage

14 years later, here I sit. The old girl’s still ticking along (though we’re worried, and pretty sure, that this’ll be her last year) and ruling the roost over a big dumb tuxedo who lets our daughter absolutely maul him without complaint, and a bookend looking pair (male and female) of white tigers, both of whom, much more sensibly, avoid her like the plague, except for dinner time, where they both hover around the table, waiting for the odd scrap.

And guess who’s still changing the litter boxes, after all these years?

[sub]***** Yeah, it’s possible it happened while she was at the shelter, but various friends and family members have patronised this place for years, and never spoken an ill word about the staff or thier practices. Since they insist on adopted animals being spayed/neutered, I tend to agree.[/sub]

28

I really wish that Bob Barker would change his tune from the “please remember to spay and neuter your pets” gag to the “please ensure that the Rosebud Sioux Reservation finally gets some goddamned fucking potable drinking water sometime in the twenty-first Century” bit. He grew up there, apparently before the advent of Evian’s popularity, so he oughta know.

That’s not to say that I don’t agree with his crusade, but fer chrissakes… oh, hell with it. We all fight our own battles, I guess.

29

Skeezix -

<Aside>
Thank you much. Yes, it’s quite the fun place to be!
</Aside>

Heh, you’re not a dumbass. That’s the same tone I took when Missus QGG bought home an Italian Greyhound. Keep it off the couch and you potty train it. Funny how they grow on you, eh?

What a shitty predicament for the poor girl. You and I both know that her former “owners” were ass-mauling monkeys, and allowed her to breed whilst not giving a rat’s ass.

She’s had a good life, except for her first year or so. Don’t be too sad when she goes.

I love pet owners like yourself, Skeezix. I’d like to take your post and shove it in the face of people like my sister-in-law while screaming “This is what you’re NOT, okay?! This is responsible and caring, you ignorant mother fucker!” Not that it would get through to them. :rolleyes:

30

Sofa King -

I’d like to neuter Bob Barker. Not that I don’t appreciate his sentiments, because I of all people do, but Jesus that man rankles my nerves.

Plastic faced old fuck.

31

I think the seemingly vast difference that being noted in the cost of spaying/neutering is likely the difference between spay clinics and private vets. The last 4 cats I had (2 male 2 female) were all fixed at a non-profit spay/neuter clinics for less than $35 each. My private vet charges over $100.

32

We just adopted a kitten from the SPCA - at a cost of 160$ CDN. This includes spaying, first vaccinations, a complete physical by a vet (our choice), licence, tags, deworming, inital flea control and microchipping. They even threw in a small bag od cat food for free, when I asked about what brans she’d been eating at the SPCA. TOTALLY WORTH IT!

33

Ah! The thing is, the pet clinics around here operate much like human social services - you have to prove financial hardship.

So, here’s something new. Our six-month-old American Mastiff pup is turning out to be exemplary of the breed. As the breed is new, and the gene pool fairly small yet, the original breeder has asked us to consider breeding her. We would get to keep the puppy of our choice (kinda nice, since we like this one so much we’d already considered getting another) and she will supply the male and put potential adoptive families in touch with us. She has a waiting list for the pups, so we’re sure they’d be guaranteed homes. She has also asked us to NOT breed her more than once. In light of this thread, I’m feeling guilty about even considering it.

34

:smack:

Okay. I have been putting it off, because I’m a wuss. Apparently not good enough in the logic department.

But the way she’s been making nice to the table lately, I may have to wait until a new litter of feline furniture is weaned … :smiley:

going off to investigate spaying costs locally …

35

Check the coupon things you get in the mail. I got one today for a spay for $55 neuter for $30 (For cats. Dogs varied by weight)

However, I know that even $55 is a lot for someone on a shoestring budget, so if anyone is in DFW I will pay. Just e-mail me: thielka1@hotmail.com

36

Yet another reason to have your pets spayed:

My folks got a tiny little Siamese kitten, many moons ago. The vet told them she had to be X months old (I disremember now) before she could safely be spayed. So we suffered through her first ‘heat’ that year, Christmas time.

Anyone ever heard the ungodly sounds a Siamese makes when in heat? It was Christmas Eve, we had a houseful o’ friends and family, and a large empty (at the time) room downstairs. This room, chosen for its acoustics, I guess, is where she went into a full fledged freak out. She made sure to greet every new guest in the hopes of finding a mate, giving them not only the auditory assault, but winding around on her belly, ass in the air, tail standing up like a flagpole…

The best bit was when a few tipsy folks started singing caroles in the living room, at the top of the steps leading down to the aforementioned room. The cat raced up the stairs, burned two quick circuits of the room, spilling a couple drinks in the process, then back down to her lair. Where, of course, the yowling resumed. Teach us to try and drown out her mating call. Up to that point, I’d always thought cats only made that horrific noise when in coitus.

Once the house was empty of guests, we foolishly decided to get some sleep. The cat was having none of that, however. The racket went on until about 5 in the AM, or so.

Sometimes you just can’t put a price on these things.

37

Skeezix, just so you know: lots of vets now a willing to sterilize animals at very young ages. Our local spay/neuter clinic requires only that a cat or dog weigh at least 2 pounds before getting sterilized.

This is a pretty big change from past veterinary practice, but it seems that animals actually benefit from being sterilized at a younger age: they recover faster, and they suffer fewer reproductive system diseases.

Plus, they don’t drive their insomniac owners into a murderous frenzy.

Daniel

38

zev -

Whoever it was above said vets won’t spay/neuter small animals is incorrect.

You just have to find the right vet, and the small animal has to be very young.

I haven’t spayed my rat, however. As she’s a solo creature, I’m not too worried about it. Unless she and the iguana have been getting it on… :eek:

BTW, I agree with the sentiment in the OP.

39

Years ago I knew a girl whose cat had just had a litter of about six kittens. As I watched the poor thing struggle to keep up with them, trying to prevent one from falling in the pool while a few others were hanging on for dear life trying to nurse, I asked her, “So, why don’t you get your cat spayed?”

“Oh, we think that’s cruel.”

I could have slapped her.

Her kittens ended up having more kittens, and on it went…

40

Oh my, this is hitting rather close to home just now.

We recently moved to a farm in Vermont. As we were moving in, we were informed by the previous owners that the barn cat had had a litter of kittens and that they were “pretty sure” that she wouldn’t follow them to their new house. Seeing as their new house, though nearby, has no barn to live in and, 5 weeks later, they still haven’t moved in, they were clearly correct.

We came here with 2 cats of our own, a pair of brothers (both neutered) who are declawed and spend the majority of their time indoors. I became obvious the first week when one of our cats spied Mama Cat on the porch and hissed at her, that they weren’t going to get along.

Meanwhile, I had an unspayed female with three 8 week old kittens that wouldn’t come anywhere near us. Why hadn’t she been spayed? Well, she had been given her shots and was ready for surgery when their other cat was hit by a truck. (Unfortunately, this is all too common around here, as we live on a major truck route. 50 mph past my driveway.) So they decided not to spend the money. And, to my cynical mind, that decision came quite close to the time we bought the place, so perhaps they decided to leave the problem to us?

Anyhoo, I had her spayed. She spent 3 days locked in the upstairs bathroom, to protect her from our cats and to keep her away from her still-trying-to-nurse babies, before I let her outside. She seems to have healed well. I’m waiting for the kittens to get used to me enough that I can catch them and take them to the vet.

As much as I love cats, I really wasn’t planning on taking care of six of them!