Hi all! Just took my 5 month old kitten to be neutered yesterday. All went well, and that's the end of that...umm...no. Dh AND my know-it-all brother both adamantly declared that I was cruel to the poor guy, depriving him of what makes him a "him". Does anyone have a horror story about your own or someone else's cat who wasnt neutered, and how the owners regretted it. This is just for argument's sake, mind you, since the deed is done. But I do not like hearing "that's so sad, the poor guy, you shouldnt have done it, it wouldnt have been so bad...etc etc bla bla bla" Since I've never owned a male cat before, I dont really know the extent of the "spraying" or marking territory, and other behaviors... What say you, ladies?
My male cat was a miserable nightmare, to the point that we were going to get rid of him.... Until we spayed him. He stopped spraying, stopped hating the boys, stopped picking fights with the dog, etc. He became a COMPLETELY different cat. Not to sound too much like Bob Barker here, but there's no reason not to help control the pet population!
I lived with my grandmother when I was 15 and we had a male Siamese who was a terror before he was neutered. He would attack visitors ankles by hiding under the couch and reaching out with his paws to grab them. I know it sounds funny, but he was mean! He was a house cat and very spoiled, but so aggressive. After we had him "fixed" he became lazy and laid back. He did tend to gain weight so we had to watch that. He once hit 22 pounds and the vet flipped! He was so much easier to live with after his surgery. Before he had it he actually climbed on top of a large wooden drapery rod and chewed the drapes loose from the wooden rings that held them. My grandmother came home and asked me if I took the drapes down. (I noticed they were missing when I came home from school, but thought she was having them cleaned or something.) We started looking and found them where they had fallen behind the couch. Another time he jumped on my grandmother's bed and she didn't get right up to feed him so he peed on her! Do not feel bad about the surgery. You did the right thing!
:lol: Had to laugh becase Bob Barker's voice came to my mind as well as I read the first post. No experience with cats as we are dog people, but I love how men feel such a need to protect male parts. As for my dh, he was fully in support of neutering our dog.
Growing up, my family had many cats. If your cat was not altered, assuming he was going to be a house cat, he would tear your house apart, your children apart, and stink your house up to high heaven. If he was an outdoor cat, which he probably would become if he wasn't altered because even your husband would get sick of the smell, your children would most likely find the cat smeared down the street because male cats are always on the prowl. Although an altered male will go for a stroll once in a while, most likely he would get fat and lazy and be a pleasure for your children to play with. Unaltered males aren't the friendliest of sorts and cats can give some very serious scratches that require medical attention. Not to mention that an unaltered cat can also raise your vet expenses due to fights and diseases past through fighting. You can vaccinate the cat but it still risks injury from fighting or being attacked by dogs.
Men are so weird about that stuff! I think they take it personally. I think they have nightmares about women walking around with "nippers" or something. My male cat is still intact and I am this close to throwing that creature out of my house!! He climbs to the top of the coat rack USING MY GOOD LEATHER COAT and tears up my houseplants and just basically makes a nuisance of himself. Dh swears we're getting him cut 'eventually' but he wants him to get bigger and older first. Why? I do not get why you would want a bigger cat. I know I'll like him better after we get him fixed(the cat not the husband).
The cruelty would be in letting that cat keep parts that would torment him because of the lack of opportunity to use them! We delayed neutering our dog, because there was a possibility that my husband was going to field trial him. (He needs his parts to compete even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't use them to find birds.) Anyway, there are times when he seems like the urges are going to drive him insane. He pesters our elderly dog who happens to be his grandmother. She snaps and tells him off, but he's stupid with nature's call and keeps wagging his tail hopefully as she tears into him. He'll be going in for the big snip soon for his own sanity as well as ours!
I had an errand to run that took me to the Humane Society today and they had a sign up with many benefits of neutering. A cat's cancer risks are greatly diminished when they are "fixed." They also don't have as many injuries because they a)don't roam as much;less likely to get hit and b)aren't as likely to get into fights. I can't think of a single good reason to NOT neuter a cat. (Not talking about breeding here, just pet cats)
I will second all of the above great reasons to neuter. Just be glad your Dh isn't aware of the available implants.
Ah... yes. My bil and sil had 3 male cats in the house. And the cats were fighting, so they gave one away. After a few months, they got sweet kitty back. And now... their house REEKS of cat spray. So bad, in fact, that we transported our nephew in dh's truck and the stench took a week to disappate. They no longer have 2 out of the three... but the smell is already there.
My mom had an unneutered male cat in the house when I was a teen. That cat's favorite spot to spray was our clothes. My mom had a one bedroom apartment, so the only place to put our clothes when we visited was behind one of the rocking chairs in the living room. That smell is almost impossible to get out of clothes and it's no fun going to school smelling like cat pee. He was the sweetest cat in the world, but the spraying was rediculous. Plus, not too get nasty, but that cat used to enjoy himself on any soft surface he could. I didn't even knew cats did that until that cat. I think it's crueler to keep them intact when you're not planning on breeding them.
The ONLY advantage I know NOT to fix a cat or dog would be if it was a pure-blood and you wanted to breed it. If you're not interested in raising babies, get the animal fixed!
Hahahahaha, lol, THANK YOU LADIES!! Just read all these aloud to DH at breakfast table...he sighed and said.."yeah...ok...but it's just so hard seeing some poor guy getting his stuff chopped off"... Men will be men, but I proved my point, thanks to you guys!
