Does it ever creep you out a little to have these weird de-sexed creatures running around?

I mean, all you have to do is visit your local animal shelter sometime and suddenly the creepiness factor is a small consideration compared to the alternative, but still, it's a little weird.

And I'm going to lose some friends here, but I think that people who are not breeders but decide to have their pet bred in order to sell the pups ought to be taken out and horsewhipped. Those people are only slightly better than puppy mills, and contribute just as much to the overflow in our animal shelters.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Answers

We found our cat (as a kitten) at the humane society (in a fairly progressive state) and they insist on spaying/neutering before releasing the animal.

But, because he was a kitten, rather than the normal neutering, they performed a vasectomy... or a kitty version of a vasectomy. Still has all his parts- just can't have kitties. Some vets are cautious about this because they worry that the cat might have developmental problems by doing this procedure so early- but it also is far less painful and the cat heals in a matter of a day or so.

Our cat is almost five now and he's not aggressive, he doesn't "spray" and no problems from the surgery. At the same time, he's still playfull and hasn't gained weight or gotten 'lazy' like some neutered cats do.

I don't know if this is connected or not, but he has *NEVER* had a litter box accident. We've traveled across the country with him (he spent nine hours sitting in a duffle type carrier on my lap on a plane trip and never went, he also has lived in three different apartments and spent a week in a hotel) and still no accidents. Maybe he's just a very hygenic cat but I've never before met any animal who never had an accident.

I too have very strong feelings about breeding- unfortunately, animals are still perceived as possessions.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

both of my baby cats were neutered, and it didn't seem to phase them a bit. they're both just funny little wacky furballs. i volunteer at an animal shelter and, really, after seeing what i see, there's just no room left in my mind for the alternative.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

When I got Howard (at the ripe old age of three) he was still intact. Boy, we corrected that fast.

It doesn't bother me. These animals are pets. They aren't wild. They're no longer meant to be wild. I think that spayed or neutered pets are often happier--it's easier for them to meet their owner's expectations. I know that Howardbeast is happiest when he knows what's appropriate and temptation and inclination to do otherwise is slight.

Not that my dog is an automoton. He's a kook.

I will admit to being relieved when his tummy hair grew back. The, um, affected region is buried in fluffy hair.

Sometimes, with male dogs who have NOT been neutered I get the creep out reaction. Not so much to the dog and his parts but to his owner, a sort of "what is WRONG with you" reaction.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Well...I have female dogs and lemme tell you - going through heat ONE TIME for a Rott will convince you to spay. No, she wasn't any trouble at all, except she bled like a grown woman. Yikes! She's a gentle, loving creature, but refused to wear her special pants (an old pink bikini of mine, safety pinned on). She ate them.

Her spaying was a turning point in our relationship, because I came to visit her at the hospital that evening, and they let me sit in her kennel w/ her. She must have been comforted (tho her drugged out demeaner tore me up), because my (ex)husband did NOT take the time (cuz he didn't give a damn), and she was very cool with him from then on.

Picking her up the next day was hilarious - she was so high she tried to chase a butterfly in the vet's flowerbed. I was wishing for a camera.

I also have a Yorkie, a.k.a. Spawn of Hell. I let her go several years because I MEANT to breed her, but was always too afraid of the complications and responsibility, so when I finally got around to spaying her, it had absolutely no effect on her personality. Too bad. And because I had waited, she was prone to mammary cysts which also had to be removed. I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner.

And then there was my male Dobie - had him snipped because he kept peeing on everything and trying to hump the Yorkie. (He managed that by picking her up in his front paws and, um, thrusting her up and down on his thangy. Pick a football up by your wrists and you'll get a good representation.) Didn't help him w/ the peeing, tho, because he was already 2. The vet said it needs to be done when they're a few months old to alter that kind of behavior.

So I fully support the snippage - but would encourage you to visit Doc tonight, if your vet lets you. Unless you think it will rile him up to see you come and go...but w/ my two it was better for some evening cuddling. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Well...I now have female dogs and lemme tell you - going through heat ONE TIME for a Rott will convince you to spay. No, she wasn't any trouble at all, except she bled like a grown woman. Yikes! She's a gentle, loving creature, but refused to wear her special pants (an old pink bikini of mine, safety pinned on). She ate them.

Her spaying was a turning point in our relationship, because I came to visit her at the hospital that evening, and they let me sit in her kennel w/ her. She must have been comforted (tho her drugged out demeaner tore me up), because my (ex)husband did NOT take the time (cuz he didn't give a damn), and she was very cool with him from then on.

Picking her up the next day was hilarious - she was so high she tried to chase a butterfly in the vet's flowerbed. I was wishing for a camera.

I also have a Yorkie, a.k.a. Spawn of Hell. I let her go several years because I MEANT to breed her, but was always too afraid of the complications and responsibility, so when I finally got around to spaying her, it had absolutely no effect on her personality. Too bad. And because I had waited, she was prone to mammary cysts which also had to be removed. I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner.

And then there was my male Dobie - had him snipped because he kept peeing on everything and trying to hump the Yorkie. (He managed that by picking her up in his front paws and, um, thrusting her up and down on his thangy. Pick a football up by your wrists and you'll get a good representation.) Didn't help him w/ the peeing, tho, because he was already 2. The vet said it needs to be done when they're a few months old to alter that kind of behavior.

So I fully support the snippage - but would encourage you to visit Doc tonight, if your vet lets you. Unless you think it will rile him up to see you come and go...but w/ mine it was better for some evening cuddling. Good luck!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I was a bit nervous when our puppy, Duncan, was neutered. Our vet was very kind, but he's still scared spitless of her. He won't even take a *treat* from her these days.

He didn't seem to hold it against us. We had a big, nasty cow bone waiting for him when he got home and generally comforted him as best we could. Forty-eight hours later, he was back to his rambunctious self.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Holly's stories are so funny! I have this mental image of the Dobie And the Yorkie that I cannot shake.

My husband fosters rabbits that have been bought as cute fluffy l'il bunnies and then given up two weeks later when people realize they are real animals that take real effort to raise. It is such a bad problem that there is an organization called The House Rabbits Society to find them homes.

My cats were a litter abandoned before their eyes were open. The dogs are from a shelter, and were a day away from being destroyed.

All of our animals were thrown away by other people. All of them are fixed, so that they do not contribute to the overpopulation. When people tell me, oh so earnestly, that they are going to breed their animal once, because they heard somewhere that it is better for the animal, it is all that I can do not to breathe fire on them. Especially when it is cats, and they say they already have homes for all the kittens, which is when I always ask why they don't send their friends down to the RSPCA to pick one up before it gets destroyed.

I am just rabid about the subject, can you tell? :)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Both of my kitties are de-sexed. I never know what to say when people ask if they are male or female (one of each), because really now they are both neither, so does it matter?

I definitely believe in spaying/neutering as soon as the animal is old enough. There are way too many unwanted animals at the shelters.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I think my cats still have genders, actually -- Sally is extremely feminine, and the boys are ... well, okay, they're pretty feminine, too. Sally had one heat cycle before she was spayed, so that might have made a difference. Benny and Rudy were both neutered at about five months.

I definitely think it's in the interest of animal shelters to require spaying and neutering as part of the adoption contract. Neutering was both required (i.e. you paid a deposit for it when you adopted the animal) and subsidized (i.e. it was only $15 for a male, $25 for a female) in LA County when I lived there. As a result, when I wanted a kitten I had to call four or five different animal shelters, and finally go on a waiting list for the one five month old kitten I was able to find. Then I had to be the first person at the shelter on the day he became available in order to adopt him.

That's how it should be. If puppies and kittens are hard to come by, then only people who really want them will have them, and we won't have "extras" that have to be disposed of.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

all my goldfish have been fixed. i can't be responsible for crossbreeding in the sewers... d-

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

All the best to Doc.

I told you about the fluke last Friday the 13th, but that is rare. Fitch was the runt, too, and apparently just not strong enough.

It's taken a couple of weeks, but Abercrombie and (Nu)Fitch are getting along just like sibs, and Sailor the dog tries really hard to get involved too. I wouldn't have a fully sexed pet, since I want to have them for a long long time.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Yes, my cats are spayed and neutered. I wouldn't have them otherwise.

I know people who think it's "not natural" or it changes their natures but hell, they're pets. They're not feral animals and I don't want them to be. If it makes them a little less wild that's fine with me. I don't let them got outside, either, and that's not "natural" either.

Frankly I'm not comfortable with animal sexuality - I wouldn't keep a dog that humped things - and de-sexing them is great.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Mack and Brandy are both fixed. Mack was two years old and intact when I got him from the animal shelter and they provided $10 nuetering for me. I would have done it anyway, but it was helpful to have it cheap.

Brandy was fixed when she was about 8 months old, right after we got her. She's still very feminine even though she's really uni-sex.

Ginger is getting fixed very soon. The vet said to wait till all her adult teeth have grown in and then do it. I'm going to make an appointment for next month, as her 6 month birthday is next week.

Ginger is the result of an accident. My father's dog wasn't spayed because she's a pure bred lab and the previous owner wanted to breed her. Long story about that bad owner and the reason my Dad ended up with Abby. My dad didn't have a lot of trouble giving the puppies away -- they were all adorable, but I believe animals should be fixed.

I've been to those animal shelters, and see the enormous amount of cats and dogs in there. Please -- get an animal from there instead of paying a lot of money for one. Most of those shelter dogs are the most loving animals and truly appreciate what you do for them. Sure, Mack came to me with a few problems, but a little love and disipline later he's the best dog you could ask for.

So my motto is ... Spay and Love a Stray!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Both my dogs are neutered/spayed, and I get furious when people say, "Why did you neuter Jake? People would pay money for his pups!" I feel like this: if you are foolish enough to breed your pets, you should be responsible for each and every one of the offspring. Not just finding "good homes" for them, but taking them back if the good home doesn't work out. Which it doesn't, half the time. Otherwise, we're just breeding, collecting the money, and sending the animals off to their death sentence.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I have four cats, three neutered when I got them as kittens from the local Australian animal shelters, and one neutered when I rescued him from the streets just before leaving Australia. The 3 that were done as kittens are generally much calmer beasties I think, than the one done later.

And on the subject of overbreeding, I get very ranty about that. I think people should have to have licenses for dogs & cats, they should all be registered and kept track of. If you're not a professional breeder, you have no damn good reason for having an un-neutered pet, none none none. And as for those people who say "I couldn't afford to have my pet registered", sorry, you can't have a pet then. It's a fiscal responsibility, and a life responsibility, not to be taken lightly, and if you can't afford it, then you don't get it. And once ou take on that responsibility,you don't throw it away.

I have little or no sympathy for people who have their animals put down because their new partner is allergic or they have to move and can't find a place that takes pets. It's less irresponsible than dumping the animal, but still, once you take on the responsbility for a life, you deal with that.

I'm fairly open minded and flexible, until it comes to the view of pets being "disposable" and then I get a bit fascistic.

I paid to have my cats moved from Australia to the USA, and I'm not particularly wealthy, it's just something you have to do.

Amanda

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

As someone who worked as a vet technician all through high school, I can tell you that *not* spaying or neutering your pet is a hundred times worse than doing so.

Un-neutered and un-spayed animals create terrible problems in terms of overpopulation, and I had to assist with literally dozens of euthenasia's a month because someone couldn't stand the thought of letting their pet go through something so "unnatural."

But also, pets in their "natural" state are pretty miserable. Male dogs tend to get oversexed, and can't control themselves after awhile. (Nothing more fun than Pepper humping your leg), and heat makes female dogs AND cats absolutely pathetic.

Good luck to Doc. He'll feel a bit woozy, but you'll probably notice a pretty nice change in his behavior after he's done.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

We spayed both cats. Boy kitty was beating the crap out of girl kitty and we had to listen to them fight all night long, so we got him fixed first because neutering boy cats is not as bad as abdominal surgery and we figured that getting him calm before her surgery was a good thing. It worked well.

The only thing that bummed me out, was that she's a really really really super sweet cat and she'd have been a GREAT mother! We have dog-kitties. They come when they're called. They beg for dinner food scraps, they roll on their backs to get their bellies pet and they will sell their soul for a kind pat or a little scritch. She's just very sweet and will put up with anything including the kind of unintentional abuse that a 6 year old can cause a cat, like dragging it around the house under its front legs. I think she'll enjoy the baby when it comes, once she's gotten over being jealous about it.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

All fixed, of course. I don't know how old Criffin was when he was done, sometime before he was 1 1/2 (or however old he was when I got him). I think he is definitely male, and he does occasionally spray, but in a "See, I really _AM_ pissed off" way. Cinsand was done when he was only a few months old, at most. He's pretty gender-neutral. I wouldn't have it any other way. And I do think that Mama and BOK are much happier having been spayed, even if they don't realize it.

On the rabid front, does anybody remember Dear Abby or Ann Landers a few months ago, with this old couple talking about wanting to have their kitten killed and buried with them when they die so it wouldn't have to deal with new people? (And no, they weren't from ancient Egypt, and there wasn't any mention of having their servants put down as well, either). Many a rant was had that day.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

We got our cat from a shelter in Boston that will not allow you to adopt a pet unless it's "fixed." Their reasoning, which I agree with wholeheartedly, is that you're adopting an abandoned animal, so not take the step to avoid MORE unwanted animals? All of m pets have been spayed or neutered, and I never noticed any major changes in their behavior or happiness.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Pro-spaying/neutering, definitely. A lot of the anti-spaying "it's unnatural" thing seem to come from people over-identifying with their pets. "How would I feel in that situation?" they think. Like it's in any way comparable. Grateful, is what I'd like to imagine cats feel. Grateful not to have a litter of kittens every year, with every skanky old tom within cooee having a valid claim to fatherhood, for example. My cats didn't seem to mind at all -- a tom I had neutered still went roaming off at night. My last cat, a beautiful gray tabby, turned up on my doorstep as a tiny starving, traumatised kitten, barely weaned. I suspect she'd been dumped in the park across the road. How natural is that?

It is a rant-inducing topic, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I work in a vet's office, and it seems like every two weeks or so, we get a female dog or cat in with a pyometra infection. This happens to older female animals who aren't spayed... they seem to be "nymphomaniacs" - in a perpetual state of heat - when they are actually just trying to rid themselves of the discomfort. A hysterectomy must be performed immediately or the animals will eventually die from it.

How difficult is it to get your pet's ass into the doctor's office and pick them up two days later? Sure, they'll be in pain for a while, but they get over it. I haven't seen an animal die from a neutering yet - but I have seen them die from pyometra or complications from a late pregnancy.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

And for heaven's sake - have your puppies vaccinated against Parvovirus. Nothing is more sad than to see a puppy come in and be in constant pain from this preventable disease. It can be transferred in countless ways, so it's hard to just keep your puppy away from it. Just do it.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

yup, nico is fixed. absolutely definitely.

when i got her, i lived with my roommate, who also got a kitten at the same time. so two female kittens. we were students, living on student welfare, trying to finish highschool. the minute i got the cat, i started saving for the "fixing". there was no way i'd have been able to give away kittens, and even though nico was an indoor cat at the time, she occasionally ran the gauntlet of the front door and made it right out of our building. little beastie :)

i did feel terrible though, for ripping out her organs. and yes i know all the arguements and agree with them 100%. but still - that's her little kitty body and i'm making this decision. all of these thoughts were fueled by a guy i was dating at the time, a bukowski wanna-be, who went off on me every time i saw him about how i was ripping out my cats sexual organs and throwing them in the garbage. i wanted to strangle him.

however - two nights before her surgery appt. she went into heat!!! i didn't hear a thing - but my roommate, who was a light sleeper, was up all night yelling at the cat and freaking out. needless to say she started saving to get her cat fixed right then and there.

when i went to pick nico up from the vet, the funniest thing happened. they put her in my arms, and she was quite sore and sour, but when i was holding her she seemed to get pretty happy. so we're heading for the door, and i'm leaning against it to open it and i call out thanks and see you later to the nurse-ladies, and one of them waves - and little nico glares at her and lets out this incredible hiss! i couldn't stop myself from laughing. it was toooo funny.

at home though she was really bitchy for days and kept giving me dirty looks whenever she tried to jump up on the couch and it hurt. so i felt bad again.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

Tova came to me as a stray (a friend's cousin found her in an alley, screaming at her backdoor) and I considered not having her spayed since she was destined to spend her life indoors. Ha ha ha. I had never lived with a cat in heat before. Her ordinary loquaciousness turned into unimaginable yowling. I called a friend who was a vet and asked if there was any way to shut her up until I was able to get her in for surgery -- the event that followed the vet's advice involved a Q-tip and is too terrible to relate.

The office cat for my former employer was also a stray, and when I took Lotus in for her shots the vet discovered that she was not simply chubby, pregnant. He said he could still give her the shots, but the in utero kittens be screwed up and he'd do a spay afterwards, yanking out Lotus' sex organs and everything that happened to be in them at the time. Instead of readily agreeing to this, I decided to think about it, and took her back home. (My friend Kate, who had come with me to the vet, took note of his disdain at the idea of bringing more kittens into the world and said disgustedly, "He acted like we'd gotten the cat pregnant OURSELVES.")

I ended up finding a bunch of people at the office who were willing to adopt kittens, and Lotus had a batch of five a couple of months later. It was great having them around the office during the few weeks before they went home, and their future owners got to spend lots of time with them beginning the day they were born, which was great for kittens and people alike. I still meet up with these cats sometimes, when I visit ex-co-workers or they brought the cats with them on the job [they're now five years old] and they are all the most laid-back, well- socialized animals you can imagine, perhaps from being constantly cooed over and played with by a dozen different people since before their eyes were open. [They're all fixed, too.]

I will say that having kittens changed Lotus for the worse. She used to be very friendly and purry and now she's a total bitch who tolerates humans only occasionally and spends most of her time stomping around outside. (When she runs into people from the office out in public, she pretends not to know who they are.)

On the topic of gendered animal behavior, Tova is *always* referred to as a "he" by people upon meeting her (and even those who should know better, such as my mother), which I attribute to the fact that she is vocal, aggressive, and frequently naughty. Murray, Wil's silver Persian, is conversely continually labelled "she" in spite of his [former] sex, I believe because he is beautiful, delicate, and shy.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I'm all for you getting Doc fixed. We got Buster done at 4 months old. It was supposed to help stunt his growth. I don't know if it did any good as he's 110 pounds. On the other hand, he doesn't "mark" his territory like most other male dogs, and it was cheaper because he was only around 30 or 40 pounds when he was fixed.

It didn't change Buster's attitude much, it made him a *LITTLE* less stubborn, but that's about it.

Don't worry about Doc, he'll be fine. Enjoy the Babysitting while you can!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

I had Simba fixed last Thursday. It was so funny because when I took him into the vet anytime the word "neuter" was mentioned he would meow at the top of his kitty lungs. I was able to pick him up later that day which surprised my because I was expecting the overnight deal. He's still a little leary of jumping but the attitude change is so dramatic! I now have the perfect lap kitty instead of the "screw you!" defiant little beast. When I get my next cat I'm definitely going to have it fixed ASAP!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999

You know what I'm stuck on here? I keep thinking about the homeless people along Haight Street, and how the happiest of them seem to be the ones with dogs. Usually happy looking dogs. I endorse pet spaying and neutering, but I don't want to be the one to stand in the way of the homeless/stray pup dynamic. Which isn't well thought out, I admit. I'm sure they can't provide the best homes, but there's something so damn symbiotic and Romantic about it. "I can take the streets, so long as I've got ol' Spike with me." And vice versa (with dog and human reversed, not with dog and street reversed). So I'd still be behind it all 100%, but only if things like this were subsidized.

I'm stuck on that, and I'm stuck on the image of Bob Barker always telling me to have my pet spayed or neutered -today-.

What about the people who are daily viewers of "The Price Is Right"? Their poor cats and dogs....

-- Anonymous, September 19, 1999

Speaking on behalf of Doc, Mr. Kipper, I don't think he'd mind being neutered every day, if that's what Bob Barker thinks is best. He's been spoiled rotten since yesterday and he's bouncing around like the Happy Dog that he is.

As for homeless people, didn't San Francisco have a program a while back that allowed homeless people to adopt animals from the shelters? In other words, those animals aren't necessarily just strays that were running around the streets.

A lot of people disagree with you, by the way; I've heard lots of people bitch about homeless people being allowed to have pets. I don't know; I think if the pets are well taken care of and aren't attacking people, it's better than having them euthanized.

Eddie Moreno (formerly homeless guy who was murdered downtown a couple of years ago) was a regular sight around town with his little brown dogs. They were nice dogs and he was a nice man. I gave him cat food for the dogs a few times. And I think everyone knows the guy in midtown with the big black lab mix (I suspect it's a rottweiler/lab mix; it's fucking huge). I wouldn't exactly call that a NICE dog, meaning it's not particularly friendly, but it's extremely well behaved. Doc met it a few months ago and it was very tolerant of psychotic puppy behavior. I'd feel better if it were neutered, but that guy has had his dog for as long as I've lived downtown.

Jeremy has had problems with homeless people and their dogs along the bike trail, though. Of course, I've had problems with upper middle class people and their dogs in McKinley Park, so what are you going to do?

-- Anonymous, September 19, 1999

I am fully in favor of spaying/neutering. My cat, Taz, has been "fixed" for most of her life. She was only a couple of months old when she came to me. She had been abandon as a kitten by a family that moved away and left the animals. I had already been looking for a kitten, so I welcomed Taz into my apartment.

As a kitten (and still) she was such a ball of fluff. I wasn't even completely sure about her sex until her first visit to the vet. At the time I was a student. The local humane society had a terrific program where they would give coupons for spaying/neutering and shots at local vets, even if you didn't get your animal from the shelter. Taz was spayed and given shots for the bargain price of $33.

I tried to visit the afternoon after the surgery, but my vet wouldn't allow visitors. The next day, I could tell she was groggy, but glad to come home. My parents say I spoiled her rotten, because those first few days, she stayed in my bed and I brought her food to eat out of my hand. It wasn't long before she was back to hyper kitty, but even now, three years later, she prefers to eat out of my hand to the bowl.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 1999

All of my cats, Mittens, Gryffyn, Pippen, Charmin, Gray Lady, Portia, Simba and Jenny-AnyDots are spayed or neutered. I am pretty outspoken about it since visiting the pound in 1991. It was June and there were so many mother cats with their litters.....I cried so hard I could barely see to look for my missing cat. There are SO many wonderful animals available in shelters and at the pound....we do not need any breeders at all! That is a bunch of malarky! Charmin showed up on my doorstep on a February morning. He is such a loving, nice, well-trained cat that I'm sure someone wept over his disappearance. I feel that had he been neutered at that time he would not have wandered so far and got lost. My boys are still boys and the girls are still girlish and they have a wonderful life and don't know what they're missing. Well, Portia does.....she thinks she has died and gone to heaven as I brought her from my mother's farm and she had had far far too many litters and lost far, far too many children. Pippen and Simba are her kids.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 1999

Both Aliera and Jezz are spayed. Sebs will lose his lil' peepee when he's old enough (How old is that? I forget... but we take him in for his shots soon enough, anyway - so I can find out)

I've been trying to stay out of this conversation because I am afraid of going off on a rant about my fuckin' stupid ass neighbors. Sebs is one of the kittens from their HORDES of cats. YOu think I'm kidding? When I moved in here, they had like five cats. That's it. There's like 15 - 20 over there on any given day now. For all the talk, they haven't spayed ANY of the mom cats... or even chopped the sperm donor parts off any of the male cats... so their cats are all lil' breeding machines.

The most HORRIBLE part is - they're all inbred. You want the novelty of a six-fingered cat, come talk to me - I can get you one. Any coluor of the rainbow.

The saddest part is when the inbreeding goes wrong and COMPLETE litters die. It's SO horrible to walk outside and SMELL dead cat. It's the most horrible thing on this planent and yet ANOTHER reason why I'm glad I'm moving in SIX FUCKIN' DAYS! YAY!

-- Anonymous, September 21, 1999

Oh yeah, they're fixed. Vivian's cats are fixed, and they're "inside" cats. The nextdoor neighbors have a small pack of feral cats that periodically produce litters (most of which don't survive too long, I'm not sure if they get adopted out or picked up or sent to the pound or get killed by passing cars.) It's just DUMB and FOUL. maybe someday technology will give us the opportunity to purchase "seedless" pets...

-- Anonymous, September 21, 1999

Hey, Jolene, you probably inherited the woman who used to be Bernadette's Brownie leader. She had approximately 60 kittens when I was over once. I was horrified.

There was a story on the news last night about LA. Their shelters are so overcrowded and people walk their kids to school with baseball bats to beat off the stray dogs, they are considering a "must-neuter" ordinance. The breeders, logically enough, are protesting. But there are purebreds in the shelters, too. I say license the breeders and make everyone else spay or pay.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 1999