Please Participate in World Spay Day

Here it is 2015, and we have been celebrating World Spay Day for 20 years now.. Despite all the wonderful progress we have made in the world of our companion animals, there is still so much more to be done.

It is so easy to insulate ourselves from the overpopulation problems. Our government institutions 'take care' of the problem for us.  Three to four million companion animals (that is about half the population of NYC) are killed every year for the simple fact that there are not enough homes and this is done in back rooms and the bodies are quietly disposed of and it simply is not discussed (which is why there is such a huge swing in the numbers)

Most of us go through our entire day, a week, a month, heck all year with out seeing a single stray animal. Often when we do see them, we write them off as being owned by someone else.  My husband convinced me of that once.  A cute little stray kitten came up to us when we moved into a new apartment, and he said she must be owned by someone. A few months later she came back crying for help because it was so very very cold and she was so very very hungry. We were able to capture her, but she was so fearful that she almost didn't take our help. She eventually did, but unfortunately it was too late for her then, the FELV that was inside her was taking it's toll and we ended up having to put her down shortly there after.

Those of you reading this blog must love cats.. why else would you be here. Most of you already know of this horrible problem of over population, but do you really know... I mean KNOW.. We are told that three to four million companion animals never make it out of the shelter, but did you know that there are approximately 70 million cats that are living outside of a home in the US alone? I can't even begin to quantify 70 million in a way you might understand the enormity of that number. In a human's average life span you live approximately 613,600 hours..so that is about 114 life times in hours.

No.. how about this.. there are approximately one homeless kitty for each iPhone sold in the first quarter of 2015.   (I'm not quite sure how I feel about that statistic). Honda was fined $70 million for under reporting injuries.  The data breach by Target involved some 70 million consumers..

So freakingly overwhelming for one..

and those who are paying the price are the most vulnerable amongst us.

These were cats luck enough to be found so they could give birth in a home.  They were fed well prior to and after giving birth so that they could nourish their offspring.  Most of my queens were social and were happy to have me around during the birth. I have also fostered a couple of truly feral cats, ones that would rather rip my face off than let me anywhere near them, and thankfully the kittens were easily tamed and all made wonderful pets.

There is SOOOO much that can be done, and it can be done if we all take part. Your part doesn't have to be huge.  Adopt a kitty and save a life. No room for another? How about fostering? I know so many of you swear you couldn't because you couldn't stand to give them up, but how can you stand to watch them die? Okay, I get it, fostering isn't for everyone.. How about donating some money to a local spay/neuter clinic, or a local friends of feral group? Even a dollar helps.. I know it feels so weird to just give a dollar, like we can't be bothered to be more generous, but dollars add up... they make a difference, really they do.

Have you considered ever volunteering for a spay/neuter clinic? You do not need medical training to help out. I went once and helped check cats in and set them up in cages.

And for the love of all that is furry, PLEASE, if you have a friend who has a cat who is not neutered, please share with them the contact information to a local clinic. If you see someone on social media spouting off how cute their cat's third litter of kittens are, tell them how disgusting you think they are (but in a nice and pleasant way since you do catch more flies with honey) for littering.

Be active. Participate. Do something. Do ANYTHING. Be part of the solution..

Thank you.



This post has been brought to you by Abby. Because of the overwhelming number of cats waiting for homes, kitties with special needs like Abby will most likely never find a home. The thought of returning her to the shelter depresses me to no end, and I've been in a pretty bad place for a while now. I cling to the hope that maybe, just maybe.. but each day that goes by that she isn't regulated or progressing away from the fear that rules here life... She can not stay with me indefinitely and I have put a limit on her time here as a matter of weeks. Returning to her to the shelter will kill me. She is an absolutely lovely cat that just wants to curl up next to you and be with you. She eats two cans of Fancy Feast Classics a day, and as of right now is getting 1 unit of insulin twice a day that she takes with out even noticing it.

It's Just One Litter

There is not a day that goes by that I am not hit in the face one way or another by the extreme over population of companion animals in this world.  Sometimes it is a really cute way, like when a kitten I am fostering paws at me for the first time.  Sometimes it is a really heart breaking way, like when a kitten I have been fighting to save dies from something that should have been preventable.

This is just in my world.  I live in one tiny corner of one tiny little town.  When I venture forth I see it everywhere.  Rescues overwhelmed with animals crying for help. People who are looking for places to place a stray or their own cat that they have to give up for what ever reason where they will have a chance to find a home.

Every day, actually to be brutally honest every eight seconds, a companion animal loses its life simply because there was no where for it to go.

Warning, image kept intentionally small - but I think everyone should see this.  Everyone should know.

I saw this image on Facebook a while back.  If I let myself dwell on it for any length of time my eyes start to leak.  I don't see broken unadoptable animals here, I see all of the foster kittens I've taken care of.  Before the shelter had a foster program, kittens too small to be adopted were routinely euthanized.  Many shelters still do.  Most open admission shelters have to euthanize regularly to keep themselves from warehousing animals or being financially drained and put out of business.  "No Kill" shelters are not funded or staffed well enough to take on the onslaught that open admission shelters have to deal with.

Why?  Well there are the stray, feral, and unowned cats reproducing, but often it is because people insist that their kitty should reproduce.  Their kitty is unique, special, loving, sweet, kind, loyal... beautiful.  Their kitty deserves just one litter.

No.  They don't.

Nor do they want one.  Cats are not like humans who ache to have kids, cats are ruled by the hormones that course through their body thanks to their ovaries or their testies and as a result that is all they want or thinking of it other terms, they are slaves to their hormones.  They *must* procreate.  If you have ever seen a cat in heat, you know she is not comfortable.  Have you ever seen a cat mating?  Think there is anything enjoyable in that?  The penis of an intact male has barbs on it to rip the lining of the uterus of the cat.

Then there is the fact that there is a darn good chance that your kitty's kittens are going to be nothing like your kitty.  Unless you have pure bred cats on both sides of the equation, than you are playing a genetic Russian Roulette. So many factors go into each individual cat, and litters can run the whole gambit of colors and personalities.  Even with pure bred cats, you are not guaranteed the personality you might want.

Just one litter means that you are "littering" and adding to the over population of the world.  The excuse I hear all the time: "But I will find homes for them!!" yes, but those are homes that could be adopting cats already IN the world.. Just one litter often means that three to five more cats die.

Just one litter means a harder life for your cat.  Being pregnant drains the body's resources and leaves them vulnerable to health issues.   Issues that are transitory like upper respiratory infections and more serious issues that are more likely to occur down the road like mammary cancer.

You want to see witness the miracle of birth?  Head over to YouTube, you can find anything and pretty much everything there.  Want to be a part of it, volunteer for your local shelter, chances are they will be more than happy to let you foster so you can be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.

You may only see the cuteness and the joy when you think of just one litter.
What I see is all the kitties that didn't get a chance.

All is well

I just ran home and checked on the kittens.  Everything is good.  They were nice and quiet while Meira came out and had a little snack.

She is eating which is good, and her back end is dry and doesn't look nearly as disgusting as it did this morning, and a far sight better then it did before she gave birth.. maybe she won't be getting a bath after all.

I find it very interesting that they were born on National Spay Day..

My co-workers asked me how I could come in to work today.  My husband also asked me this morning if I was going to go into work today..   Well yes, I could stay home and stare at Meira as she nurses, but seriously, kittens this young aren't all that much fun.  Cute as buttons, but they get boring pretty fast if you just sit there all day and stare at them.

What I did this weekend...

Besides hang out with Peter and Tinsel?  yup, I had an interesting day on Saturday. 

A few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to help out with SpayDay.  I said sure, what do you need and when?  I was told there would be emailed information, and I was good with that.

Well what I didn't realize is that the email would come two days before the event.  I was a little put off by that since it is my husbands' birthday weekend (birthday on Monday) and there was a darn good chance we would have had plans to do something together.  But since both he and I are last minute kind of people, we hadn't settled on anything, and his brother wanted him to come help him with some things, we decided to each do our own thing.  So I went south to a clinic that was participating.

For $25 you could get your cat castrated, for more (I don't remember the exact amount I think it was $40) you could get your cat spayed.  Pretty good deal.  The people prepaid either at the clinic or at the shelter so basically I was checking people in, getting them to sign consent forms and ID'ing the cats to make sure we knew who was who in all of the may lay.

27 cats were brought in.  it was quite amazing watching the staff work.  As it seems in every vet clinic, there was one woman who was doing a million things, and she amazed me.  How she kept everything straight I'm not sure.  There were a bunch of us who were trying to help but felt we were more in the way sometimes.  I trimmed a lot of claws, got a few mats out of fur (oh those bug me to no end.  We had three older Persians who must have been used for breeding in the past who were COVERED)  I also got to watch a few surgeries (which is when I realized for certain I am sensitive to ISO - the sedation they use - as I kept getting light headed.  I wondered if it was the act of cutting and sewing up a cat that made me want to lay on the ground until I watched her sew one cat and did really well until all of a sudden I wanted to be on the ground.. so I figured it was the ISO)

The surgeries are really interesting.  boys go FAST.  snip pop snip tie glue.    Even the girls went pretty quickly, the first surgeon had it down to 17 minutes per cat. 

I was there from 7:30.  People started showing up at 8:00 am  I left at 4:00 PM when the last cat was sedated and headed into surgery.  Seems like such a long day for such a small portion of the unaltered cats to be taken care of, but part of me was thrilled that 27 cats would no longer be adding to the overpopulation.


So then I got home and hung out with Peter and Tinsel.  Tinsel is turning into quite a love bug, he wants his attention and he wants a lot of it.  He's also hit that awkward teen age lanky stage, and watching him trot across the room he looks like a black panther, dragging his feet on the ground before planting them.    It is a shame he is across the room in just a few bounds, and doesn't have more room to run, but he'll be leaving at the end of the week (or maybe early next week) and HOPEFULLY his furever home will finally show up and take them home.  (and no, it is NOT going to be me.  As much as I love them, there is no more room at Chez Connie Maison des Chats)

They are both way better at taking their medication then I thought I would have a right to hope at.  It is clindamyacin and it is horribly bitter tasting.  I spend a few minutes apologizing for having to give them icky stuff but that it will help them feel better and promising them yummy food for dinner.  I went and got a bunch of shredded type canned food (they prefer that to the loaf stuff) and they seem to say "GROSS!!" after I give it to them, but they do not seem to get mad or be upset.  Peter is not a fan of it, and will let Tinsel go first, but when he sees Tinsel getting loved on, he comes over and rubs against my ankles.   I usually sit down there for an hour, and half of that is just sitting watching them play either with each other or toys.  Tinsel is partial to a little red furry mouse he bats around and grabs and carries off.  They like to come and lay on top of me for a few minutes, then jump down and play a bit, then snuggle, then play, it is rather cute.