Cj ---

[borderdawn]

Well CJ has only just had the Cat, she is in strange home with strange people, the background of the Cat is not known, the Cat is only a "pet" so not good enough quality to be bred from, surely the best option would be for the Cat to be spayed and end the thought of any potential problems? My opinion only.
Dawn.

[bobbie3917]

i do agree with Dawn and Dm om this 1
but i also agree with what DM said about the price the right home is more important than the money

[Fran]

Congratulations CJ! I hope all goes well for you and PF.

I would consider trying to get decent homes lined up now..

[Phill]

piter, pater, piter, pater, of little pawsEASTER CATS!

[dandysmom]

Originally Posted by CJK

Hadn't thought of looking for potential new owners now.
Any ideas where to start? I know there are various free advert sited online, but are they good places to find decent homes?
I gues if i "screen" the potential owners I'll get some idea.

Do you think it worth preparing a short questionnaire and asking them to fill in? ANd is it worth doing kitten contracts, or is all that sort of stuff really only for GCCF and pedigrees etc? ( well PF is a pedigree, but you know what I mean)

Any ideas on asking price too? As I have no idea.
Free attracts wrng sort of people, but too much doesnt attract anyone,

so much to think about.

Been looking into things i going to need for the birth, information varies from a cardboard box lined with plenty old towles or kitchen paper, to things i never heard of before lol!!!!

Yes, the questionnaire is an exellent idea! My friend did that when Kate had kittens; she screened those applicants as if they were applying at the CIA!! They had to agree to spaying/altering, and to return cat to her if for some reason they couldn't keep it (no one ever did!) That way you can get a feel for the sort of home you're sending the little precious one to...when I re-homed Patches I had an interview with the lady who had to give her up, & took pictures of my other cats, my house & the screened porch so she could see what kind of a home she was going to...I send her a picture of Patches with my Xmas card every year for the last 19 years!!

[Snoof]

I think what would be best, to be honest, would be face-to-face interviews with a list of standard questions you want to ask. Because you can't really tell from a questionnaire what people are like (or if they might not be lying) - face-to-face gives you much more to go on; inflection, pauses, tone, enthusiasm... Etc.

[dandysmom]

Oh, a couple of more things: sorry, I don't come down on the side of having her spayed now; that's a serious operation, & poor PF is finally settling down in a good loving home & learning to trust people; I simply would not put her through that now. That's just me, however. As to the number of kittens: I bet on 3; she is young & wasn't apparently very well taken care of before, so....my guess....

[Snoof]

Originally Posted by dandysmom

Oh, a couple of more things: sorry, I don't come down on the side of having her spayed now; that's a serious operation, & poor PF is finally settling down in a good loving home & learning to trust people; I simply would not put her through that now. That's just me, however. As to the number of kittens: I bet on 3; she is young & wasn't apparently very well taken care of before, so....my guess....

The resulting hormonal imbalance of being pregnant, then not having any kits, then having to adjust to not having reproductive organs could also be a bad thing. At the moment, given she's been treated so poorly and gone through an emotional rollercoaster, I'd be wary of it, too.

[smudgley]

Originally Posted by Snoof

The resulting hormonal imbalance of being pregnant, then not having any kits, then having to adjust to not having reproductive organs could also be a bad thing. At the moment, given she's been treated so poorly and gone through an emotional rollercoaster, I'd be wary of it, too.

A few points in response to your post....There will be no hormone imbalance through being spayed.- her body will not know she was ever pregnant.
She won't need to adjust to not having reproductive organs.- She will not know if she has reproductive organs or not.
She has not gone through an emotional rollercoaster, cats do not have emotions as we do. Yes she has gone through changes / change of environment, but emotions, no.

As for her not going through a major op due her poor condition.... well is putting her through a pregnancy fair either?


I do not hold strong views one way or the other on this as it is a tough one.
But I do know that with any animals, only the best of the best should be bred from & only when they are in tip top condition.

Also - CJ did you know she may be pregnant when you got her?

[Snoof]

I assumed cats' reproductive organs (throughout pregnancy or not) emitted hormones, which affect the body and the "emotional" (I think it's clear cats' emotions are not like ours is clear, but I think the word "emotions" fits the bill all the same so I'm going to keep using it throughout this post so as not to confuse myself ) upmake - hence their going into heat when fertile and that affecting their behaviour and disposition.
I used to know a cat who wasn't spayed (back when I was very small, I have no idea why she wasn't but she never had kittens, either) and who was about as scared of strangers as Ninja is, but when she was in heat she would come up and be stroked and petted and pester you morning, noon and night (she was my best friends' cat).

If I'm wrong about the physical part of it, I do apologise. I assumed the hormonal system worked somewhat like ours.

But I do think cats have something we can call emotions - Ninja, for example, is full of fear a lot. PF seemed to be, as well, for the first few days. I am not coming down on either side of this debate - it's too personal a choice for me to do so - but I do think putting her through the stress of a fairly major operation at this point, after having been dislocated and having just begun to build trust in her new environment, carries its risks.

And yes, pregnancy, labour, delivery and the subsequent care of a litter carries its own risks as well. But given the initial response was overwhelmingly in favour of abortion/immediate sterilisation I thought it would be no more than fair for me to give an argument from the other side that might explain why this is not the choice everyone would make in this situation.