I went to our local Animal Control facility yesterday to fill out the adoption papers for our new kitty. We've had her for about a month actually, doing foster care. While I was in the pet store one Saturday, AC was having an adopt-a-thon and they had a bunch of kittens. I was just going "to look" Well, this one was so darned cute.....but, when I looked closer, her foot was missing I asked to hold her and well, we were hooked.

The lady there told me I could foster care her. I think she just wanted to move another kitty along, if you know what I mean. So, I did that, and took her to the vet, etc. So, long story short, yesterday we went to make her our kitty, officially. While there, a woman came in with a mom dog, and NINE puppies. She was moving and couldn't take them with her. I tried hard to not be judgemental, but, as I explained to my DD that those puppies, if not adopted, will be put to sleep, I just wanted to SCREAM at this woman who brought them in. As we sat there waiting on the paperwork and such, I got more upset and started thinking of a solution. Mobile spay/neuter??? I don't know the answer........YET.

As we were leaving, feeling helpful that we spared at least one kitty from an almost certain fate, the woman who dropped off the mom dog and puppies, was driving away.....guess what she had in her hands???? Yup, a cigarette, and a cell phone. If you can come up with the money for cigarettes, why can't you get your animal spayed??? I wish they would fine people for not having their animals fixed. It's not a right to have an animal, it's a privelage

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Watch out when you talk about people having cell phones and cigarettes!!!!! Surely you must know they rationalize their priorties.......Those are must haves! Entitlements.....givens.....expected..........

Unfortunately, people are not responsible so many ways and this is yet another area where humans could and should do better. They are counting on someone with big heart like you must have to come along..........

dl

We work at a local non-kill rescue league once in a while. They only adopt out pets that are spayed/neutered. They will take a litter of unwanted puppies/kittens, BUT...if the owner is present...they try to make it on the condition that the mother is brought in to be spayed. (Of course there is no way to enforce that, but they try to make people understand the situation!) I truly is sad...

Even "breeders" don't seem to get it. We know a lady that had 20+ puppies at one time. Why keep breeding if you have multiple litters still available?! Come on!!!!

CA is trying to pass a bill that says you have to spay or neuter your pets. There are a few exceptions. They tried to do this before and people yelled from the roof tops that you can't tell them what to do to their pets. They are probably the same people that let their pets get pregnant again and again. There are already so many unwanted pets why add to it? I also used to foster kittens. I would keep them for the week and then take them to Petsmart on the weekends to be adopted. The people that I worked with could only save as many kittens as they had people to foster. That left a lot of kittens to go to the animal shelters. I was not very good at fostering. I would cry when I left them each Sat. and Sun. For me it was both happy and sad to see who I was going to pick back up each day. I ended up adopting 3 of the kittens and had to stop fostering because I didn't have room for more cats at my house.

Heading OT here...sorry OP....

I was recently at a house where I overheard the mother telling someone that she couldn't afford to pay her morgtage and had called the mortgage company to get a deferment. Later on, she was telling me about their cell phone plan "and it's only $130 a month!". As far as animals go, they have a dog, 4 cats, a guinea pig, 2 ferrets, a BIG bird, and some rats. I have no idea who's neutered/spayed....but if you can't afford a roof over your head, why on earth do you have a cell phone and animals?

It sickens me too. An aquaintance of mine once said that she purposely let her cat get pregnant so that her kids could "witness the miracle of birth." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "and are you going to take the kids to the animal shelter afterwords, so they can witness the miracle of death?"

__________________
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

Talking about people who can't afford pets and a mortgage, I've been reading where real estate agents/banks are finding pets who have been left behind after a foreclosure. Some have been in the house for weeks or longer where the owner just left a bag of food, some water and left them on their own. I can't imagine doing that to an animal. Somewhere I read about someone who left a goldfish in a light fixture and the water was so dirty when the real estate agent saw it, she just dumped it in the sink and the little fish was just flopping there. She rescued it and put it in something else and took it home with her. It must have been a magazine article I read about this. It was a sad article.

Did the lady tell you that the reason she had not done it was because she could not afford it? Even if it was the reason, maybe she had no money then, but does now. I NEVER judge the way people spend their money. You don't know their story, anyway.

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

Allinaugust as a huge huge animal activist this makes me so mad, and yes if she could afford those ciggys and has a cell phone she could have taken better care of her animals. In other words of course animals do not compare to our children turn it around if it mean't putting food on the table or formula for your baby that better come first before those stupid cigarettes Omg I hate hate them and cell phones well again should only be used for emergencies..Thanks for posting a great and wonderful and important issue that should be addressed more often and then perhaps especially for kittens we would not have so many who are without a home and or have to suffer and die a slow death because of neglect, people put kittens and puppies right out in the street like trash . Very sad.... Peace. Catherine

Says.....you?

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

You know, it looks like that's one area where the governator will be cutting expenses in California. Looks like they'll be keeping animals that they pick up for just a few days before euthanizing them.

Sad.

"stupid cigarettes Omg I hate hate them and cell phones well again should only be used for emergencies" Here you go ILL taking the high road..
I use my cell for business and personal use, I dont have a land line because I have a cell phone.. Who the hell are you to tell someone how to use a phone??
You have no idea why this lady brought the dogs there.. maybe she borrowed a phone, as I do loan mine to my mom sometimes because she doesnt have one... Maybe it was a choice between feeding her kids or the dogs...
How easy it is to sit and judge.....
Remember the cigs next time you use something that their taxes paid for...

__________________
Be careful what you wish for.....

Well said. BTW, all of my cats are spayed and neutered. Glass houses people.

__________________

Has anyone thought maybe she was given the dog and had no idea the dog was pregnant ?.. Maybe s1 gave her the dog and she took it to the vet and was told the dog was pregnant. Who really knows the story.. we all can ASSUME anything we want in this case, only the lady knows the really story and the whole truth.

My three are, as well, just for the record.

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

Exactly!!!!

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I was always taught that you had the money put aside for a spay/neuter BEFORE you got a pet, that way you didn't have to worry about it.

But then I was raised by animal loving parents who are very responsible pet owners-all pets were fixed, got regular vet care, good food in appropriate amounts and, if needed, a peaceful death.

So much of the pet problem comes from the idea that pets are disposable, since so many other things in our society are. Didn't have the cat fixed and she had kittens-get rid of 'em. Dog is having a problem with barking-get rid of it. Moving to a new home in another state-get rid of the pets. Going to have a baby-get rid of the pets.

The whole thing makes me angry.

__________________
Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

I've heard that line many times from parents at the school I work at. Now I have to use that rebuttal. It is just too good to pass up ~ thanks!

Once again Dannic you come right into my post for the record dear and groovygirl too Allinaugust made the first comment about the ciggys and the cell phone usage not me. I merely agreed with her and stand by my post, if you have money to but ciggys and money to pay your cell phone bill which to me in comparrison to being a stable reliable trusty and capable and most of all responsible pet owner those items mean nothing... So once again Dannic comes after me but go ahead just making sure you realized I was not the first one to make that comment, nothing personal againist Allinaugust because she was right on the money with her comments and her views... Very sad... Peace. Catherine and again I hate cigarettes.......

YOU are the one that said cell phones should be only for emergency use. That is why it was directed the way it was. It is not your place to say what people should/should not do with their phones.

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I've been through a nasty pregnancy and birth. Overpopulation issue aside, there's no way I'd wish that on my kitty girl! Animals can be wonderful companions, but they shouldn't be treated as biology lessons, or easy sources of income. And there's no way they should ever be treated like they're disposable, or will disappear if you leave them behind when you move. Honestly, I'd like to see not fixing pets treated as irresponsible, and something you wouldn't want people knowing about.

allinaugust, cats and dogs seem able to get along with physical disabilities more easily than most people, given the chance. Something tells me you're not going to regret taking home your kitten.

To groovygirl it is my business when someone who is irresponsible and they are driving away with the cell phone to their ear, anyone who decides to drive and talk on their cell phone you bet is my business are you seriously going to tell me its okay to drive and talk and perhaps text even better???? Peace. Catherine

It's a huge problem around here. I think part of the problem is that people here rarely go looking for or plan to get a pet. They just sort of show up and people start taking care of them. In my entire life I have never gone out and got a cat, though I've had several (every one of them we got fixed except the newest, he'll get fixed when dh gets his July bonus). We currently have two cats. They were both around 6 weeks when we got them (about a year apart) the first we found in our pool. I heard a noise outside and when I looked he was struggling to get out, I took him in and dried him off, then couldn't bear to put him back out. The second one was dumped and found by the neighbor's kids in the road up by Dairy Queen. Their father said they had to take it back and I knew the kitten wouldn't fair well

While I always get my cats fixed, I can see how people take in an abandoned animal believing that the least the can do is give it a home. They're not thinking ahead and realizing that if the animal doesn't get fixed they'll be more little abandoned animals just like the one they just found. Or they do, they just can't afford it, but don't want to leave it out to fend for itself.

We have one shelter here, but every time I've called them to take an animal they've been full.

We are surrounded by so many strays most of them wild, though I'm pretty sure at least one of my neighbors is feeding them because they are some of the fattest strays I've ever seen.

The other day I sat down on the front porch and all of a sudden this little tiny head poked out from under the stair. It's a kitten about 3-4 weeks old. A few minutes later mama cat showed up. I have no idea how long the cats have been in there. It's a concrete porch and a hole that they got into, the rest is totally enclosed.

I've been thinking about trying to get the neighbors to pitch in and try to round up as many strays as we can and take them to a place that offers low cost spay & neuters. I'm pretty sure a few of my neighbors would put in a little bit of money, the biggest problem is the majority of the stays are wild and won't let anyone near them. It's not as good as finding them homes, but if we could get at least some of them fixed it could make a dent in our population explosion here.

__________________
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

you are a real mess! How did this become about driving while talking? You had to reach real far to try and defend your statement because you know it was way out of line. You can't dictate that cell phones be used only in emergency cases. How can you even try and change it so much?

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

We have rescue groups here that will capture wild cats fix them and put them back where they found them. Since they would really not be able to be adopted this is the next best thing. I think it is very nice that you and your neighbors feed the stray cats. You can't be expected to fix them too.

I found a place that would fix strays for $25 each and that included their rabies shot. It may sound like a lot to spend on cats that aren't yours, but when you consider how many gardens they've torn up, cars that have been scratch up from them walking on them and all the porches that have been sprayed and stink to high heavens, it doesn't seem so much if you can get several people to chip in. But of course more cats will always show up and and a lot of them are impossible to catch, so it would even if we fixed some of them we'll never get rid of the problem.

And if word got around town, every cat would be dumped on our street from then on most likely.

Besides the damage they do, it's just sad to deal with. At least once a month a cat gets hit on our street and the kids get upset. Earlier today my neighbor brought over a kitten she found in the parking lot across the street, it hadn't been hit, I think it was left there by it's mother. It was almost dead and died within minutes, we buried in her yard before one of the younger kids saw it.

__________________
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

I have 5 kitty rescues, all have been fixed, one dog fixed and one that has just recently been rescued that is gonna lose his family jewels pretty soon. I love my furry babies, and would probably have hundreds if I could afford to have them fixed and give them what they need. The animals are so much happier and less stressed with that problem taken care of for them. I know it is hard not to judge people and their actions, but honestly from the posts I have been reading, it seems to depend on the topic who makes judgements and who doesn't.

By the way, I do smoke and I use my cell phone any time the urge hits me, but I have done without smokes when there was a choice of them or bills or my furry babies, and if the cell phone bill got in the way of them it could go too.

Groovygirl I am a mess listen hon take a few moments and go back to the op and read what allinaugust wrote about the women using the cell phone, end of story with you. This post is so important please if your a responsible pet owner please have your pet sprayed or neutered. Peace . Catherine

Do not try and turn this around. You started yapping about people driving while texting and talking, and that is not what this was about. You tried to turn it into that when you realized how ignorant you sounded. PEACE!

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

Here is a picture of "Peggy"

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Beautiful kitty!

__________________
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

OMG! How adorable!

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

What a cutie!!! Enjoy your new baby!

__________________
Linda

I may get lambasted for posting this, but here goes...

I like the biology lesson aspect of pets having babies.

We also "let" our cat have a litter.

Now to explain...

Our kitty - the one we'd had for 12 years - died. A few weeks later, one of DD's classmates happened to take some kitties to show and tell at school, and said they were 'selling them for free.' lol. DD asked if we could buy one at that price, and I said yes.

The friend's mom had taken in a stray that had a litter of kittens the very next week. Our kitty was from that litter. That family lives on a farm and the mama cat became a barn cat, as did its siblings.

The kitty we took was an inside kitty. She darted out of the house one time at 4 1/2 months old. and we didn't find her again until the next morning. Unbeknownst to us, she was out being trampy. She continued her life as an indoor kitty and we'd planned to have her spayed at around 8 months, mostly because that was when it was going to be convenient for us.... and as an inside kitty, it wasn't like she was going to get pregnant.

And of course right about the time we were going to have her fixed, we realized she was pregnant.

It WAS a great biology lesson for our kids. They loved to put their hands on her belly and feel them move around. And it was fascinating to us that she insisted on DD being with her when she delivered them. If DD left her side she would find her and meow at her loudly until DD followed her back to the closet she had staked out.

Watching them get to the point that their eyes opened... introducing them to real food.... it was a great experience.

She had three babies. My brother took one and got him neutered. A friend took the other two -a male and a female - and sadly, the female had a reaction to the anestheia and died as she was in surgery being spayed. The vet had never had that happen. It made her scared to have the male fixed.... so they keep him inside all the time.

I'm the daughter of a vet and lived all of my growing-up years at our animal clinic. I helped deliver everything from goats to calves to kittens. It was just what we did. We also frequently spayed cats that turned out to be pregnant once we opened them up... and I took many a kitten fetus to show and tell in jars of preservatives as a result. It was fascinating to compare the aborted kitten to the gestational development chart and figure out how 'old' the kitten was.

I certainly don't recommend getting pets knocked up just so your children can experience the process, but I do have a very strong understanding of the mindset that has an appreciation for all that you witness when you have a pet that has babies. It's always been a little sad to me that this is not part of their lives: Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - ThePioneerWoman.com

I do believe if you can't afford a pet you shouldn't get one.

Awwww!!! What a beautiful kitty.

__________________

Considering a cat's normal gestation is around 63 days, my guess is she got out more than once if you waited until she was 8 months old to have her spayed. Oh, btw, cats don't get trampy. They are doing what nature tells them to do. People, on the other hand...

I really hope this was just a one time thing. I was in my 50's before I had a cat in my house that had kittens. We fostered 3 throw away Mom's who ended up in our neighborhood. Any cat I've ever owned has never gone through that "miracle".

“Come quick, come quick,” their mother said “The time is getting near.
” She feels that when the kittens come the children should be here.
She told them that a big orange Tom took “Kitty” as his wife.
It’s wonderful, a gift from God, the miracle of life."

At half a year young “Kitty” feels too painful and too scared
To appreciate six miracles, blind-eyed and yellow haired.
But she knows these lives depend on her and nature tells her how
And as she cleans them, children ask “Mom, can we go now?”

But now and then for six more weeks the children visit her
To play with six new magic toys made of life and fur.
The six weeks pass, the newness gone and new homes yet unfound,
Mom bundles up six miracles and takes them to the pound,

Where lovingly, with gentle hands and no tears left to cry,
The shelter workers kiss them once and take them off to die.
And “Momma Kitty” now she’s called, mourns her loss and then
she’s put outside, and of course, she’s pregnant once again.

Dad tells “Kitty” STOP THIS NOW or you won’t live here long!
But deep inside of Momma Cat, this time something’s wrong.
Too young, too small, too often bred, now nature’s gone awry,
Momma Kitty feels it too and she crawls away to die.

She too is freed from this cruel world, and from her time of strife.
How harsh the truth, how high the price, this “Miracle of Life”?

Barry Taylor is a small animal practitioner in Franklin, NH

__________________

Thanks, virgo, and sorry I wasn't clear (and may have had a typo, as well). We got her at about 12 weeks. It was at 4 1/2 months that she escaped. She still seemed so, so young to me that it didn't occur to me that she could even get pregnant. Our plan was to spay her at 8 months - life was just busy and time-wise, that was when it seemed like sending a kitty in for surgery and then being able to stick close to home for a few days while she recovered was going to work out best.

But... before we got to that point in time, we realized she was very pregnant.

Mind you... this was all six years ago, so she may have been 5 months when she conceived and 7+ at delivery. Either way... she was quite young, it was an unplanned pregnancy, and it caught us all by surprise. It turned out to be an experience the kids found fascinating. I'd be lying if I said anything different. Would we have done it on purpose? Nope. My first thought when we realized she was pg was "Oh, no - how are we going to find people to take a kittens???" As it worked out... we had a very easy time finding homes for them. The two that are still living are very, very much beloved.

And yes... we got her spayed soon after the kittens went to their new homes. Our dog was neutered as soon as he could be, as well.

You're the daughter of a vet and you didn't know a cat could get pregnant at 5 mos? Regardless, why would you let a 5 mos old cat carry to term?

__________________
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

jujubee, it has been nearly 30 years since I lived and breathed animal gestation issues. She was the runt of the litter... she was small... she escaped for about eight hours... and her being ... um... promiscuous just hadn't crossed my mind. "Back in the day" it seems like we spayed at around 6 mos. We were headed out of town for 10 days the day after she escaped and I was just relieved she had turned back up and hadn't gotten hit by a car. Had I been hearing a howling tom I probably would have clued in.

She didn't really balloon and *look* pregnant until 2 weeks before she delivered. She was still at an age where she was growing rapidly so changes in size didn't necessarily send us any lightbulb moments. I knew exactly when it happened given that she had only been out once, and I remember calculating that she *could* go as early as within a week of our discovering her condition if she went early.

So... yes, we let her carry them to term. Had she had any distress we'd have taken her in. Afterwards we were concerned that she had a fourth kitten that she wasn't delivering, so we took her in and they determined that she wasn't.

Her delivery was actually very quick, and she was a good mama to those babies.

Again...I'm not advocating doing any of this on purpose. Just reporting our personal story. Perhaps it's the farm girl in me, but when your childhood was literally one delivery after another, when you bottle fed baby calves in your back yard and helped deliver calves by the headlights of a pickup night after night during calving season, when you spent hours on end plucking porcupine quills out of the mouths of dogs who had gotten into tussles with the wrong kind of wildlife, when you've assisted in the de-scenting of a set of baby skunk siblings (remember.... we're talking 35ish years ago and that it wasn't illegal and they'd have died, otherwise, because their mother had been hit by a car)... when those were the experiences of your own childhood and you have fond memories and the realization that you learned so, so, so much biology from the experience, I don't think it's crazy or heartless to wish for your children to have just a small taste of that.

As I mentioned, we had no trouble whatsoever giving the kittens away, and they were given to great homes. They are much, much loved... and interestingly, by people who weren't in the market for a cat until they saw these. My own background, living in a small farm town, was that kittens *were* easy to place. Very, very easy. People always wanted cats for their barns. My adult life isn't in that same extremely rural region... which is why I wasn't quite sure, initially, what we would do with them. Thankfully, within the week that they were born, they were spoken for.

And again... I don't recommend anyone doing this on *purpose* by letting an unaltered animal roam. I'm just sharing our experience. I *get* why people appreciate children getting to witness the circle of life beginning. I also know there can be overpopulation pitfalls... which is why, sadly, it's not advisable for people to willy-nilly let what happened with *our* cat be a way of life.

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww......what a little cutie pie.

__________________
~~just open your eyes and see that life if beautiful~~

sorry the pic is so huge, I put it in tiny pic, and figured that would shrink it.

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

We liked the big picture. My dh was sitting on the couch behind me and said what a cute kitten. lol Sure makes me want another one but 3 is enough.