Just a fact

Being a cat-sitter, I am often asked questions about cats and their behaviour. I have come to learn over the years that the one thing that will get a cat a one-way ticket to the animal shelter is aggression. The second and third most often reported reason is that they spray the home or urinate outside the litter box. Hands down, the 3 things that people will not tolerate from a cat.  And I can tell you from experience of visiting and handling many of the cats at our local animal shelter that most come in there over a year of age and they have not been spayed or neutered. The female should be spayed. The male should be neutered. Once they reach 6 months, all cats should be fixed. Our local animal shelter is a 'no kill' shelter so the kind people there work with these cats and do their best to find that forever home for them. But, every one of the above behaviours can be caused from not sterilizing the cat. That's it....no getting around it. It is the answer to the over-population of unwanted cats and will provide you with a much happier cat in your home.

 Right now, our shelter houses almost 200 cats that are up for adoption. That is not counting the cats in foster homes like our Annie and little Audrey. That is one little shelter in the middle of no-where. Multiply that by tens of thousands in this country. People have to wake up. People have to become more responsible. Sometimes I just want to scream.

I have many homes where I am cat-sitting this week. Two of those homes have asked me to also put food out for the stray cats that come to their door every day. One lady has a heated water dish for them to always have fresh water with their generous portions of cat food. Caring, loving people trying to help cats that at one time lived in a home in this town and have been lost or abandoned.

Where do they stay to get warmth? It is winter here. The shelters are packed and really, there are so many in this situation around these parts that it is mind-boggling.

So you do what you can do. I put food out for them and fill up the water dish. They are no where to be seen because they are scared of people. God knows what their story is. Then I drive to the spot where I feed the ferals and place more food there. I haven't seen a cat there all winter but the food goes every night. But then, everything is starving, right?

I can't see them starve.

hugs, Deb