Just to make things clear, I had her spayed when her kittens were 12 weeks old. They were eating well, but still nursing now and then.
This was 15 or 16 years ago, now. A friend of my aunt had a female Siamese that they bred, and wound up unable to sell the last two kittens. As soon as they were weaned, my aunt took one of them, and my folks ended up with the other. And a young Siamese is about as scrawny as they get, bar those funky Egyptian hairless cats (Or maybe they’re not Egyptian… anyone know the breed I’m thinking of here?) I think the vet was more concerned about her reaching a certain body weight than a specific age.
In any case, I’ll defer to your knowledge on this; the Mrs. and I keep bringing home these older cats from local shelters/vets. This is why neither of us even asked for details when our vet was looking for part-time help, earlier this year; we just don’t have room for any more in the house right now. 
I’ve read the words “there’s no good reason” quite a few times in this thread. Until I had a reason to leave one of my cats un-spayed. I believe it’s a valid reason.
I have 4 cats right now. Three of them are neutered/spayed, and one is not, and never will be. It’s not a matter of money, either. For the record, I believe that anyone who can’t come up with the money to neuter/spay their pets shouldn’t have pets in the first place.
So, to explain: Two of my cats are what we’d call “normal” cats. They are not traumatized in any way, and behave much in the same way as you’d expect cats to behave. However, the same thing cannot be said for my other two cats. These two were homeless kittens, who were rescued during the famous ice-storm that hit Montreal a few years ago. We had to go through lengthy interviews just to be able to adopt the cats, as they weren’t used to humans at all, and required a lot of special care. Suffice it to say that, though I have no idea what might have happened to them before they were rescued, these kittens were seriously traumatized.
We managed to adopt them both. One male, and one female. The male, Wotan, is scared of everyone, and everything - except me. I’m able to pet him whenever I want, and 19 times out of 20, I’ll be able to pick him up in my arms. Though the event really freaked him out, we managed to bring him to the vet to be neutered once he was old enough.
His sister, Gaia (aka Athena - don’t ask), is another story. We can’t touch her. Well, occasionally, one of us will get lucky and pet her for a few seconds, but as a rule, she’s hard to touch. If you’re lucky, she’ll run away when you try. If you’re not so lucky, you’ll lose some blood (I have). Oddly enough, she’s a sociable little cat. She’s less likely to hide for three days than her brother is, after we’ve had visitors. She might even come and hang out with us for a while - as long as she’s far enough so that she can get the hell away if anyone tries to touch her. However, the illusion that she’s any less traumatized then her brother fades rapidly if you try to approach her. Let’s just say the trauma manifests itself differently with each of them.
As I said; petting Gaia is a challenge. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy. However, picking her up is an actual impossibility. It’s never been done. The animal-rescue people who caught her told us they’d never had to work so hard on catching a cat before. If you tried to pick Gaia up, you’d probably both get hurt. I fear she would freak out so hard that she might just injure herself trying to break free. For a few years, we kept hoping that she’d eventually mellow out enough for us to be able to bring her to a vet, but we eventually had to give up hope.
So, Gaia never gets to leave the house. Since she’s so scared of people, she’s never attempted to run by anyone when they entered or left the house. If she’s interested in going outside; she’s shown no evidence of it. I do tend to feel quite sorry for her when she goes into heat, though. Mind you, that’s pretty much the only time when she’s relatively easy to pet, so I guess it’s not all bad. She’s still impossible to pick up, of course.
Is there still no good reason to have a pet that isn’t neutered/spayed?
I’ll admit that there are very few good reasons, for what it’s worth.
Argh…
“Until I had a reason to leave one of my cats un-spayed.”
Should have a part like “I would have agreed completely” attached at the end somewhere.
Damn, I must like seeing my name three times in a row.
I forget to add that our vet actually told us to forget about ever getting Gaia spayed. She argued that a cat like Gaia could easily hurt (or even kill) herself if anyone tried to administer an anesthetic to her. She said that the cat would feel like she’s no longer in control of the situation. In such a situation, she might fear for her life, and completely panic; to the point of physically hurting herself.
Okay. You have made my mind up on a couple of points:
-
The (feline) ovaries have to go. I love my cat, but no kittens, no more heat, no more yowling. Out they come.
-
My darling, beloved Climber (named so because she does not believe in walking on the floor when there is a perfectly good 8-ft-high shelf available) is definitely descended from a Siamese. The girl can sing!!
I just about died laughing at your description of Christmas Heat, because we have experienced this ourselves, Climber and I. You might have been describing one of her episodes.
My favourite moment came when I was entertaining a new beau recently :D, and she was writhing around on the floor under my table, making nice to it like it might conceivably respond. My guest and I were trying very hard not to snicker, because she was getting a little frantic about the lack of response. Finally, she turned around, swatted the table leg like it had just grabbed her ass wrong, and stalked off in a little feline fury. We cried. I wish I’d caught it on tape. :smack:
Coincidentally, I was looking at one of those cat chart posters last night, and can tell you that the cat you’re thinking of is the Sphinx, but the blurb underneath said that they were reputed to have been the pet of choice of the Aztecs. So, Egyptian sounding name, Central American cat.
Okay. You have made my mind up on a couple of points:
-
The (feline) ovaries have to go. I love my cat, but no kittens, no more heat, no more yowling. Out they come.
-
My darling, beloved Climber (named so because she does not believe in walking on the floor when there is a perfectly good 8-ft-high shelf available) is definitely descended from a Siamese. The girl can sing!!
I just about died laughing at your description of Christmas Heat, because we have experienced this ourselves, Climber and I. You might have been describing one of her episodes.
My favourite moment came when I was entertaining a new beau recently :D, and she was writhing around on the floor under my table, making nice to it like it might conceivably respond. My guest and I were trying very hard not to snicker, because she was getting a little frantic about the lack of response. Finally, she turned around, swatted the table leg like it had just grabbed her ass wrong, and stalked off in a little feline fury. We laughed. We cried. I wish I’d caught it on tape. :smack:
Coincidentally, I was looking at one of those cat chart posters last night, and can tell you that the cat you’re thinking of is the Sphinx, but the blurb underneath said that they were reputed to have been the pet of choice of the Aztecs. So, Egyptian sounding name, Central American cat.
A guy at the dog park told us he wasn’t going to neuter his dog because he didn’t want to mess up “his biology.” :rolleyes:
I listed the health benefits for him, threw in the emotional benefits of neutering in as a bonus, and he launched into a lecture regarding the environmental unsoundness of owning a dog in the first place. Apparently, our poop filled plastic bags are killing the planet, regardless of anaerobic bacteria. I guess he just has an excuse for all aspects of his irresponsible dog ownership…why he’ll let “Buddy” breed, why he doesn’t pick up his dog crap…but what’d I expect from a genius who smokes pot at the dog park? I’m sure he felt they were the deepest thoughts EVER as he babbled on and on.
It’s funny, the euthanasia of potentially adoptable animals hurts my heart deeply, but I could care less what happens to rationalising selfish jerks.
I’ve recently started working in a shelter and am having a hard time not bringing everybody home with me, so many wonderful funny animals, but being a responsible owner includes knowing who you can make a lifetime commitment to (or at least, I’ve been able to tell myself that, and resist, so far:)).
Oh, shoot. See what happens when you make jokes about disabling the reproductive capabilities of hamsters? --This thread’s a mess of oopses!
I am very happy to state that Hamish has just gotten the lovely and talented Littlefur spayed.
"I got back from a tour and she had somehow… [sub]changed.[/sub] She went into heat while I was away. And I knew because I heard her before I ever saw her, doing that delicate love cry that cats in heat do so well… Four thousand male cats are in my front yard reenacting West Side Story, ‘Toniiiight, toniiiight, won’t be just any niiiight…’ She’s in the window like some sexed-up panther Marlene Dietrich thing, like something out of Showgirls… I don’t know where she got the pole…
“She sees me and sticks her butt WAY up IN the AIR, she’s got a look of pain on her face that says, ‘JUST TOUCH IIIIIIIIITTTT!’ She’s backing into anything remotely phallic - ‘It’s a doorknob! PICK ME UP!’ You know that thing behind the bathroom door that keeps the door from hitting the wall? All night long I’m hearing, bunanananananaanggggg, bunananananaannnnnngggg, bunananannannannngggggg…!”
- Amy Boyd
That’s great, matt!!!
Speaking of cats in heat, Noel was older than we thought she was, so she went into her first heat right before we got her spayed. Oh, was that fun.
She rolled around on the floor, crying, purring and moaning. She was EXTREMELY affectionate, but my mother didn’t want us petting her, because she was afraid that would just aggravate her further.
She kept us up all night crying.
Wait a minute-she STILL wakes people up crying!
And she still always wants attention constantly.
Hmmmm…