Juniper
I see cats everywhere in my neighbourhood and ever since the mother cat gave birth at my neighbour’s mid-last year, she has had another litter of 3 kittens. There are super cute but at this rate, she will be producing more than 10 kittens a year if left unspayed. Munchkin the grey kitty I found last year, was on heat a few weeks ago and it was really stressful to ward off her suitors. One was particularly persistent. Let’s call him grandfather cat as he had long whiskers that made him look old although I am sure he wasn’t geriatric old.
The first signs that Munchkin was on heat was when she kept rolling around on the ground, leaving her scent and she was panting too. Then trouble started with grandfather cat coming round even during a thunderstorm. He had the most irritating croak that announced his arrival. I spent days chasing him away. I’d kept Munchkin indoors with the doors closed but the poor thing had to have occasional toilet breaks and then I would be on the look-out for grandfather cat.
You can’t fence in a cat, no matter how hard you try and there were a couple of times Munchkin went missing and only emerged when I shook the cat kibbles bag. She was pursued by grandfather cat a few times and I wondered whether she had been impregnated already since it doesn’t take long for male cats to do the deed.
I made an appointment with the vet for Munchkin to be spayed on 30th April. My vet only does cat spaying twice a month and he’s always fully booked for those sessions. I made the appointment more than 2 weeks ago. I couldn’t take the stress of repelling Munchkin’s admirers any more and besides, that wasn’t a fool-proof way of contraception. The best and most effective way was to get the cat spayed.
Munchkin had to be on fast for 8 hours prior to the spay. She was quite grumpy when she realised she wasn’t getting any breakfast, kept meowing in protest. I told her she could have extra rations after the spaying. I wasn’t the earliest cat caretaker as there were 3 other crates containing kitties for the same procedure.
The vet’s receptionist called in the afternoon to inform that Munchkin was under anaesthesia but she was in the early stage of pregnancy. There was no choice but to abort since it’s better to do this than to have kittens that need a home. It’s not so easy finding homes (never mind good homes with caring pet owners) for cats or dogs.
By 5pm, Munchkin was ready to be picked up. I’m glad she has been spayed. It is a great relief because I have seen first hand how terrible it is when the cat is on heat, it looks like she is suffering when she doesn’t get to mate. There are already enough cats and dogs everywhere. It’s awful to see strays who are starving or sick so we need to do our part and spay our pets or even strays because there are too many unwanted animals out there who actually do deserve a loving home.
