Cats who are Not Spayed Should Not Go Outside

If you spend any time on Yahoo! Answers, or throughout the Internet in forums on pets, you will often encounter people freaking out as they should do in regard to their cat who is about to have kittens, or who just has had kittens, and so forth.

As a person who is well aware of the statistics regarding cat overpopulation these people frighten me. Don't get me wrong, I love kittens, they are super cute, but I am disgusted at the number of people who let their cats breed with little regard to the fact that in the United States alone over 3 million more cats are born than there will be homes for and those cats will be euthanized in shelters. Not to mention the untold others killed by owners who do not know what to do with them, or tossed out, abandoned to become feral or die.

Very simply I would love to yell “Spay your Cat!”. People seem to come up with all kinds of excuses as to why they did not spay their cat, the most feeble being “I was going to spay her but she was pregnant.”. This is a horrid excuse since a cat who was not spayed should not have been allowed outside in the first place. Other people actually use the fact that the cat was in heat as an excuse for letting her get pregnant “She was so annoying, I had to put her outside.”.

Some pet owners seriously horrify me.

There is really no excuse for letting a cat get pregnant. Domestic cats are not an endangered species, there is no reason to make more. Her own health is at risk simply by being allowed to breed – she risks getting a cat STD (sexually transmitted disease), the pregnancy itself could have complications (perhaps requiring a cesarean section to save her life), and if she is young, old, or in poor health, her life could be at risk in general.

As a person who has worked at an animal shelter, and seen week old, three week old, eight week old, and so on, kittens being euthanized by the bag full, I beg all cat owners to think harder about spaying their cat. If for some moral, or financial reason you opt not to spay your cat, at least keep her indoors. The reality is that for every kitten born there are more that will not find homes, if your cat's kittens find homes somebody else's cat's kittens will not.

There are just not enough homes for all the kittens, deal with it!

Come On Pet Owners, How Poor Are you Really?

Often I encounter a pet owner pleading online for help with their sick, injured, or dying, pet. They always seem to have the line “I cannot afford to take it to a vet, please help”. I roll my eyes nearly every time I see this, my typical response is “If you can afford a computer and Internet service, you should be able to afford to take your pet to the veterinarian.”. Yet when you say this to somebody their typical response is something like “I am on my cell phone!”. To me there is no difference, if you can afford a computer and Internet, or a cell phone, you darn well can afford to take your pet to the vet.

Veterinarian care is expensive, no doubt about it, but so are many things, coffee, shoes, car payments, and a lot of other things that really are luxuries not necessities.

Lower income people who want to have pets need to understand that sometimes pet ownership means making a sacrifice on other things in order to put money away for emergency vet care. And believe me I was there once myself (lower income I mean).

I worked part time for minimum wage raising a kid as a single parent, paying a mortgage and so forth, even with the widows pension I got (my first husband had passed away) I was still living on less than a welfare mom with one kid. I made sacrifices and lived frugally. I had no cable, no Internet, no cell phone, so ya, it does piss me off when some jerk driving a $15,000 new car bitches about not being able to afford vet care for their pet.

At least get your pet to the veterinarian so you know what is wrong, how bad it is, and how much it will cost, before you rush around taking advice from strangers on the Internet who may not know what they are talking about.

Owning a pet should be a serious commitment, that animal's life and health are your responsibility. If it dies because you were too cheap to sacrifice a cup of coffee, or could not live without a cell phone, it is your fault.

Don't be going online looking for free veterinarian help, complaining you are poor when you have 20 pairs of shoes in your closet and case of beer in the fridge. That ain't poverty.

I should add that I sympathetic when a person cannot pay expensive treatment costs, as these costs can get into thousands of dollars, but I have little sympathy for the person who gets a puppy then complains two weeks later when it is sick that they cannot afford to take it to the vet, what on earth were they doing getting a puppy in the first place? My sympathies are with the pup.

The same thing for the person who breeds there dog then finds themselves in an emergency situation requiring a caesarian section, a common risk in breeding some dogs, and complains they cannot afford it – again, then why did they bred their dog?

For the lower income people there are many cheap pets, or simply do as I did (I use to work part time for minimum wage only but always had money for my pet's needs), live frugally and below your means, and if you cannot do that – do not get a pet.

There is also no excuse for not spaying or neutering a cat or dog, if this is a financial concern you think you cannot make, adopt one that has already been fixed rather than taking one that still requires this somewhat expensive surgery – also note it is cheaper to fix male animals than females.

I could go on and on, the point is most people have money to spend on their pets, but have chosen to spend it on other things instead.   To those complaining that they cannot afford vet care for their pet, I ask "How much is your cell phone bill?".  Your pet is a financial commitment, deal with it!

Fat Pets are Abused Pets

Some people love to brag about their fat pet. They flaunt the picture of their chubby chihuahua or porky Persian as if rolls of skin were a sign of affection. Food does not equal love, too much food equals abuse, and a fat pet is a sign of a pet that is fed too much and exercised too little.

Not only can cats and dogs suffer from obesity, so can other pets, ponies not only get fat but if overfed they can get founder which may cripple them for life. Although many people do not realize it, snakes are often fed more than they need, and can be “fat”.

Neutering is commonly blamed for making a pet fat, but in reality overfeeding, and lack of exercise are the real cause. The problem is made worse when the pet gets so fat it often suffers from heart problems and joint pain making it less willing to exercise.

photo source

A fat pet is only slightly excusable; it is easy for a pet to put on a few pounds and for the owner not to notice, but obesity is not excusable. If a pet reaches such levels that it waddles around like a seal, this is a case of abuse, and allowing a pet to be in such a condition can result in prosecution under animal cruelty. In fact 2 brothers in England were charged with such a crime in 2006 when they allowed their chocolate lab, Rusty, to become so obese he moved like a seal.

While you do not want to see ribs and hip bones sticking out of a pet, if you cannot feel ribs then your pet is fat.

Pets become fat because their owners equate food with love, they overfeed the pet because they feel guilty. Dogs become fat because it is their nature to eat everything they can, they do not regulate their intake, they live as though every meal may be their last. Cats become obese for different reasons, while most cats regulate how much they eat, many cat foods skimp on quality ingredients and use fattening ones instead. "Chunks in gravy" = fattening.  Where in nature would a dog or cat going to find gravy?  Get real!

If your pet is fat you need to start increasing the amount of exercise the pet gets, and decreasing the amount of food it gets (gradually - crash dieting can be dangerous). With cats it is very important to feed a better quality food, one with less carbohydrates, after all cats are carnivores, the carbs used as filler in cheap foods are what make them fat.

There is no excuse for having an obese pet. No excuse for not walking a dog once or twice a day, no excuse for not playing with your cat – they love honey suckle toys by the way! If your pet is fat it is your fault you need to start looking after it and not smothering it with calories.

Oh sure you might try to use the “Thyroid condition" as an excuse, but a thyroid condition is no excuse for overfeeding it, or not exercising it, if the pet has a thyroid condition talk to the vet and give the pet more exercise to balance the issue.

If your pet is fat get up off your lazy ass and do something about it. You are not showing your pet love by giving it treats, or too much food, you are killing it, shortening its lifespan, making it sick.  Your pet needs better care, you need to deal with it.

*Note obese pets can become diabetic.

How to Put your Cat on a Diet 

Cats Kill Birds, so do You, Deal with it

Sometimes I encounter people who are very angry at cat owners who allow their cats outside. One of the reasons for this is the fact that house cats who go outside kill birds. I am certain even the cat's owners are not particularly thrilled with this behavior, but to be fair human activities kill a lot more birds than do house cats.

Cats are carnivores, by their very nature they have a high prey drive, we consider this an advantage if they kill a mouse, and a disadvantage if they kill a pretty little songbird. It is not that the cat is doing something intentionally evil, it is doing what is natural to do. People argue that house cats are not a natural species, and they have been introduced to areas where they did not exist, well... the same can be said of humans.

Why don't we take any blame for our own actions on killing birds? I am not even talking about the billions of chickens we slaughter, but am referring to the millions the song birds we kill. Do we dare measure how many songbirds are killed in a year by our own actions and see how that compares to how many birds cats kill?

How many songbirds die when their nesting area in the rain forest is cut? How many songbirds die when they smash into skyscrapers as they migrate in the night? How many songbirds die as the result of pollution or chemicals? How many song birds are consumed as delicacies in countries such as Cypress? How many songbirds die as the result of human activities every day?

Sure, cats kill birds, it's what they do, they are carnivores, prey hunters. Humans kill birds all the time with no thought of eating them. People come around and clean up city streets in the wee hours of the morning to remove bodies of birds killed on their migration, tossed in to the garbage. Why are we always blaming the cats?

Has anyone who is mad at cats changed their own lifestyle so as to harm no other life forms? Have they stopped having children so we no longer need to destroy forests to make houses or toilet paper? Hmm?

Good luck getting people to blame themselves when they can blame cats instead.

Cats kill birds, well... deal with it.

As a note, concerned owners who want to reduce the likelihood of their cat killing birds could put a collar with a bell on their cat but these are not very effective as cats learn how to move without ringing the bell. Keeping the cat indoors is the best way to prevent it from killing songbirds, or by confining it a fully fenced cat section made out of chicken wire so birds do not get in. Cat owners should not entice birds into their yard with bird feeders.

Pets do Not Wander Off to Die

Recently I had somebody tell me a story of their cat. They said their cat was sick and old, and one day it just wandered off to die. What? This person genuinely believed that their sick and old cat wandered off to spare them from having to see it suffer any more.

Sick, old, or suffering, pets might wander off and die... but pets do not wander of to die.

Pets do not give a shit if you feel good about watching them die or not. A pet that is sick and suffering simply wants go feel better, it hides because it wants to feel safe, not because it cares about your feelings. It knows it is weak and vulnerable. The pet is hiding so other animals don't beat the living daylights out of it as some animals are prone to do, including feral animals as well as wild ones such as foxes, coyotes, and raccoons.

If your cat is sick and old what the heck are you even doing letting the poor thing out of your house? Take it to a veterinarian for proper treatment, or euthanasia even. Keep it indoors so it is comfy and can recover and be safe. Would you kick out your dear old ailing grandmother and let her wander off to die?

Maybe some people are just too stupid to realize that sick, old, or dying pets, can be cared for, and should not be left to suffer alone.

Most pets who “wander off to die” hide and die of dehydration or starvation, having become too weak to leave their sheltered spot to find food or water. They may lie there for days before the end finally comes. In some cases these animals would have had a chance at life if only their owner got help for them.

I recall one half dead cat that my sister and I found, she was so thin that when we took her to the SPCA they immediately directed us to take her to the veterinarian. The poor cat had a bone stuck in her throat, the owner just assumed the cat dropped weight due to age and had wandered off to die. In truth the cat was dying because the owner neglected it.

If your pet is old it is up to you to make its final days more comfortable, letting it wander the streets aimlessly (many senior pets suffer from dementia) just shows a lack of compassion, and I would question how much such a person really “loves their pet”.

If you own a pet that is sick or old, turning your back on it to let it suffer and die is neglect. People who do such are pathetic and if they call themselves a pet lover after committing such a crime they should be ashamed of themselves. If your pet is old and dying you need to care for it and keep it in your home even if this means you have to watch it die, and may have to deal with the body. This is the part of pet ownership that sucks for all of use but to escape your responsibility by ignoring the plight of your pet is cruel.

If your old pet is missing, get out there and look for it!

Pets do not wander off to die, they do not run away from home to spare your feelings, they do not wander off to save you a few dollars at the veterinarian. They wander off because you didn't care enough to keep them in your home. If your pet is dying well... do something.. and well... deal with it.

Did you Really Rescue a Pet?

How many times have you heard a person say “I rescued this dog/cat from the streets.”, or “I am a pet rescue.” or, “I rescued it from pet store.”? I hear these quite often, (or see it posted on websites), the problem is... that often what the person thinks was a rescue, was not.

Stolen Pets

If a pet is outside, do not assume that it was discarded by its owner. It may have just gotten out of the yard for a moment. It may simply be lost, or may even have been stolen and abandoned since. It is not uncommon for people to take their neighbors cat, drive to another area of town, or country, and abandon it, of course this is illegal but if you are the person who finds the pet and keeps it, it could be you that is charged with theft (or at least possession of stolen property).

When you take a pet you find on the pet it is not time to pat yourself on the back just yet. You need to call the local animal shelter and report finding it so that its rightful owner can claim it. Only after waiting a certain period of time might you consider it your own – but even then it is a good idea to take it to the vet to be checked for a microchip or tattoo.

If you found this cat, I hope you would report finding him.

When a person finds a pet outside, particularly those without collars, it is unfair to assume the owner does not want it. It is far better to assume the owner does want it, but they just do not know where it is. Keeping a pet without reporting finding it is really pet theft, whether you took it from in the house, from the front yard, or somewhere down the block. If you didn't try to find the owner, you did not “rescue” the animal. I must back up for a second and add that it is, in most areas, legal to take pets you find wandering off their owners property, but only if you call the shelter and report finding it, or actually take it to the shelter.

If you find a pet, no matter how cute it is, you cannot automatically keep it as your own, the law of “Finders Keepers” does not apply to pets (at least not in most areas of the world), you have to report finding it. To say you rescued it is simply not true, if you want to rescue a pet, go adopt one from death row at an animal shelter, do not keep somebody else's pet. Yup, that means you might have to pay an adoption fee, deal with it.

Pet Hoarders

Hoarders sometimes justify themselves as pet rescuers, but many hoarders keep too many pets in less than ideal conditions, as such a hoarder is hardly a pet rescuer. Most hoarders keep pets to feel good about themselves, not to improve the quality of life for a pet, if you are a pet hoarder, you are not a pet rescuer, deal with it.

Pet Store Buyers

The worst pet rescuer story is the one where a person buys a typically overpriced pet from a pet store and says they “rescued it”. I just want to shake and yell at these people. You didn't rescue a pet, you condemned its parents to a horrid life in a puppy mill!

Only a rare few pet stores offer shelter pets for adoption (which would be a rescue) but these are clearly owned by the rescue group, not the store. When stores sell pets, it is not anything other than a profit making venture that involves thousands of animals being use to breed more – something no rescue organization would ever support. If you bought a puppy at a pet store and paid more than the cost of vaccinations and worming (approx $100US), you did not rescue it at all, you simply bought into an industry that mass produces animals warehouse style, and this applies to all pets, from fish, to ferrets, bunnies to birds. If you bought your pet from a pet store you didn't rescue it, so stop patting yourself on the back, and well... deal with it.

Yes, Yes, Cats in Heat are Annoying

Lots of times I hear people excuse themselves for letting their pet cat get pregnant by saying something feeble such as “She was in heat, and was annoying, so we put her outside.”.

It's all great until they realize that their 8 month old cat is now pregnant and now faces a risky delivery due to her age, and then the owner worries because they have no money for a cesearian section. That's only half of the problem. The other half is that even if she does have her kittens with no problems, it means.. more kittens, and we don't really need more kittens.

Humane societies exist for many reasons one of which is that more pets are born every year than there are homes for. The Humane Society in the United States reported that shelters across the USA have had to euthanize 4 million animals yearly. Every kitten of yours that finds a home (and there is no guarantee it will find a “good home”) takes a home away from another kitten.

I have six cats myself, all are fixed. When I first got my first cat I had a very low income so rather than getting one that still needed to be spayed, I adopted one that was already spayed. I soon adopted three more. I was living on part time hours, for minimum wage, but all my cats were fixed – there is no excuse for having a cat that is not fixed, and if you do, there is no excuse for letting it outside to breed.

In most areas there are low cost spay or neuter options. Even if not it should be a no-brainer to keep an unfixed cat inside. That includes unfixed male cats – is he spraying? Neuter him! There is no excuse.

An unfixed female cat will go into heat around six months of age (sometimes sooner). Her heat will last about a week (anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks), and will return regularly (every two to three weeks in the spring and summer, less often in the winter). And yes.. it's annoying. If you cannot deal with it, then get her spayed. If you cannot afford to get a cat spayed, then do not get a cat!

Do not be the person that gets a kitten then complains in a few months that you cannot afford to spay it. Or if you cannot afford to spay her, keep her indoors, and when she goes into heat, well, deal with it.

Cats Need Meat deal with it

Why is it so hard for people to accept that cats are meat eaters?

I totally get that people might chose a vegan, or vegetarian, diet for themselves, I am almost vegetarian myself. What confuses me so much is when cat owners insist on feeding a vegan diet to their cats! An omnivore might be fine on a vegan diet, but a carnivore, not so much.

Cats need meat protein and they need taurine. It's not just that they like these things, or want them, they need them.

Go ahead and put some corn beside some raw (or cooked) chicken; even if you could explain to your cat the ethics of eating meat, and killing, the cat is still going to shrug its shoulders and devour the chicken. The cat is all about surviving.

There are actually companies that do manufacture vegan cat foods, but let us consider that the standards for pet food quality, particularly in the USA, are not terrifically high. Many lower quality cat foods do not have enough meat content in them, and cats are suffering health problems as a result.

Obesity is related to how much food a cat eats. Many low quality cat foods use an abundance of fat to add flavor to their foods that are lacking in a good meat source. Since these foods use fillers, and cheap protein, such as corn, the cat has to eat more food, all the time eating more fat. This is why so many cats experience problems with food vomit, their stomach simply cannot handle all the fat, or the other crap that goes into these foods, they want meat.

I am not going to sugar coat the cat food industry, baby male chicks are ground up at age day one to go into some cat foods (they, among other things, will be listed as by-products). If a person is concerned about such issues they can select a better cat food – one that uses only human grade meat, meat that comes from older birds. Heck an owner can cook for their cat if they wish, and can select free range, cruelty free, birds to cook for their kitty, or can pick another meat source (not fish).

Guess What?  If your cat goes outside it will kill birds, it will kill mice. If you have a hamster and it gets out of the cage the cat might even kill that too. Punishing your cat for being a predator is totally unfair, and cruel.

Your cat is a carnivore, if you cannot deal with that perhaps a cat is not the right pet for you, perhaps you should get a rabbit. Stuffing your cat with vegetarian, or vegan, options is not good for it. Your cat is not a vegan, well, deal with it.

Who Let the Cats Out

Speaking of people who let their cats outside and then cry when the cat gets squished by a car. I feel sorry for the cat, not the person.

Now.. before you get all pissed, I want to tell you that many years ago, I had a cat get run over. Missy was a beautiful Torbie cat, she rarely left the yard. One day my neighbors were moving out. They had a moving van in front of their home and were in and out all day with boxes. I heard a doorbell ring, it was my neighbor.

They did not see it happen, but on one trip out with boxes they found my cat laying dead in the road, the vehicle that hit her had driven away. She was still warm. Should I be mad at the driver? No. I was the fool that let her outside and I knew there was always a risk. The incident motivated me to build a cat enclosure so it would not happen again.

In short, if you let your cat out, and your cat gets killed, it's your fault, deal with it.

I even hear people blame their kids “Oh, my child let the cat out.”. So what? If your kid is old enough to open the door and go in and out by themselves they are old enough to be wary of letting the cat outside. Simple.  At the end of the day it matters not if your kid let the cat out, a dead cat, is a dead cat.

Cats don't have nine lives, they have one. If you put your cat outside, even only once, it is at risk. Traffic isn't the only danger. Neighbors that are tired of your cat pooping in their yard will try to find a way of getting rid of it, and some methods are not exactly legal. People poison cats, shoot them, or catch them and drive them to other parts of the city, or abandon them in the country. Legally though, in most areas, any cat off its owners property can be taken to the animals shelter in the area and turned in as a stray.

Nobody wants to come home to a smushed cat, dead on the road, but some of us will. This is owner error 100% of the time, even if the “kids let it out”. If you make the choice to let your cat go outside you have nobody to blame but yourself if it ends up dead.

Yes, many cats go outside and come home time after time, perfectly fine. But... what about the ones that don't.

©image owned by author, cat in cat enclosue

If you let your cat out, and something happens to it, I will have sympathy for your cat, total sympathy for the cat, but shame on you if you blame the driver who it it, or neighbor who stole it, its your fault, and only your fault, if your cat did not make it home. It sucks, but, well, deal with it.