Yet another reason to fix your cat.

A few days ago we took a spay/neuter application from a woman with two cats – she wanted to get one of the cats spayed, but thought she’d need to give the other one to the shelter because there was “something wrong with her” and she lacked the money to take the cat to a vet for treatment.  We asked what was wrong with the cat and she said she didn't feel well and was oozing pus from her vagina.

 

We suggested getting vouchers for both cats anyway and taking the one that was sick to the vet asap – it’s possible spaying her would take care of the problem and she could keep her cat – and if the vet thought something else was wrong -- we may be able to cover some or all of the treatment cost if it was an acute health issue.

Lucky for this cat her mom took her in quickly and sure enough – the problem was pyometra – and the cure was getting her spayed.  Pyometra is an infection of the uterus and – if not treated quickly can lead to sepsis and death of the cat.  Only female cats that have not been spayed can get this type of infection – so when you’re weighing the odds of whether to let your cat reproduce or fix her – think of how sad you’d be to see your cat sick with a totally preventable infection.  Other illnesses your cats can’t get after they’re fixed include mammary gland tumors, uterine cancer and – in male cats – testicular cancer.

We still maintain the number one reason to fix your pet cats is that they’ll be easier for you to care for and will be better long-term companions but with secondary reasons like these – who wouldn’t want to get their cats fixed – sooner rather than later?

"We just thought it best that our cat have one litter before we spayed her."

We don’t hear this every day, but we hear it often enough to make us shudder.  Someone calls to get a free spay/neuter voucher to fix their cat and proudly announces that it's time now because she just had kittens – usually coupling the announcement with “they found good homes for all her babies” or – they “will keep mom and her babies together forever” in their home because she’s “such a good mother” to them.    Apparently this makes it okay – the kittens will be cared for.

No one will argue that their hearts are in the right place.  The miracle of birth and motherhood are a sight to behold – and who can deny that baby kittens are precious?    Yet – like many of life’s temptations – allowing your cat to reproduce for your and her enjoyment – has many unintended consequences.

Just a few days ago we had a frantic call from a woman whose pet cat’s planned pregnancy went awry.  She gave birth to one kitten but several hours later was still in labor and obviously suffering.  She had no money to take her to the vet and needed financial assistance to get her help.    This meaningful experience of giving birth almost cost the cat her life.  Although many cats can and do have kittens on their own – a good number of them end up at vet clinics when they encounter problems.   You don’t know if your cat will need help until it’s too late – and the cost of emergency vet care can be staggering – with no “kitty insurance” to absorb the cost. 

  

The concept that it’s okay to let a cat have one litter is flawed because it doesn't keep the population stable – it increases it geometrically.  Cats don't have babies they have litters -- averaging four to six kittens (not one or two) and some litters contain seven or eight kittens.    Add to that the likelihood of a mother cat getting pregnant again while nursing and the numbers go up even more.     You “may” think you can find good homes for the first litter, but the second litter -- not so much. 

You may want to keep Mom with her kittens in your home but as the kittens grow into cats the commitment gets more and more difficult to keep.  The average cost of caring for a cat is about $500/year.  By the time you realize the financial commitment that was implicit in the cat commitment the kittens are much harder to adopt because they’re now adult cats.  And – if you lacked the money to get mom and the litter fixed promptly – when the kittens are 8-16 weeks old – you’ll soon find the kittens are now parents too and your problem has escalated to a crisis point.  Don’t look to shelters to take on your cats and find them homes – they simply can’t.  According to the ASPCA about 70% of -the cats given to shelters are euthanized for lack of homes.  And the no kill-shelters you think will welcome your cats?  Well they're usually full – and when they are admitting – they’re looking for kittens because that’s what they can most readily place.   Many will accept new cats only if they are current on vaccinations and already sterilized -- at your expense.

With all of these pitfalls, it’s hard for us to understand why anyone believes it’s best to let their cat have "one litter".  Spaying and neutering your pet cats should be a bottom line of adopting them – the sooner the better.  But – if you and your family want to experience the wonderment of kittens – do it responsibly.  Hook up with a shelter or rescue that has a family of kittens in need of a foster home to love them and care for them until they’re old enough to be adopted out.  It’s a 4-8 week commitment that instead of contributing to the problem of cat euthanasia can work to prevent it.    And – who knows – in the foster family there may even be a kitten or mom cat with your name on it.  

Safe Sex for Cats Begins and Ends with Spay/Neuter

For most cats spay/neuter is a bottom line at adoption, but for those cats living in low-income households it’s often an unattainable luxury.  This is especially true when there’s more than one cat to fix causing the price to go up exponentially.  These caregivers want to act “responsibly” but they just don't have the front-end money to fix their cats -- even at low-cost nonprofit clinics.  And even if they can afford the lower rates, the longer drive to get to one of these clinics keeps it out of reach.

Yet far from being “irresponsible,” many of these low-income caregivers make a valiant effort to keep their cats “kitten-free” using other methods of birth control.    Here are a few of the most common:

Delay.  If their pets are kittens, they delay sterilization assuming they’ll save up the money by the time the cat is old enough to reproduce.  What escapes them is this can happen as early as 16 weeks, which is why shelters with staff veterinarians won’t release kittens until they’re fixed – sterilizing them when they’re as young as 8 weeks and including the cost in the adoption fee.  Ironically, the caregivers who can’t afford to fix their cats also can’t afford an adoption fee so they look elsewhere for their pets – and are not disappointed.  Finding a free cat or kitten is easy – they’re readily available from friends, relatives, and coworkers or simply roaming around outdoors -- typically the offspring of other cats whose caregivers also couldn't afford to get them fixed.

Isolation.  Many caregivers try to keep their female cats indoors while they’re in heat – which is every two weeks from early spring to late fall – but inevitably someone opens a door without looking and the cat is out in a flash – often pregnant  by the time she returns home. 

   

Even those who succeed in keeping their female cats indoors often assume it’s okay to leave them with their male relatives – thinking that sons, fathers and brothers won’t impregnate their mother, daughters or sisters.  Not true.  Cats have no cultural mores to prohibit incestuous behaviors.    In the cat world any female cat is fair game for an intact tom.  Those that realize this may try keeping the male cats in one room and female cats in another, but of course this plan is foiled the moment someone forgets to close a door.  And – the stress it puts on the caregivers is considerable.

Selective Sterilization.    Still another common method of kitten control in multi-cat homes is to fix one sex and not the other. A major flaw with this is that it’s not always easy to tell the sex of a cat and by the time you realize “Harry” is really “Mary” she may already be pregnant.

And since it’s so much cheaper to neuter a male than spay a female, the males are often the ones fixed, so inevitably the female cats get pregnant anyway – sneaking outdoors when they have the opportunity.

Even when the money is there to spay only the females, the male cats will find other females to impregnate – or will start to spray and lose their homes for a problem that could be prevented by simply neutering them.

 

As valiant as these attempts at birth control are, they are all largely ineffective.  The only way to prevent kittens is sterilization – a simple surgical procedure that not only is 100% reliable, it also increases the probability a cat will keep his or her home long-term.   Once sterilized, cats are better housemates – no longer spraying, yowling or kittening.  

In most of central and northern New Mexico, we provide free vouchers to low-income caregivers committed to the life care of their cats.   These vouchers pay the full cost to spay or neuter their cats at local veterinary clinics who subsidize the surgery costs.  If you know someone living in our service area that has intact cats, refer them to us.  They – and their cats – will be glad you did.

Is It Really Raining Cats and Dogs?

If you believe the statistics published by many animal organizations, yes.  For example, PETA’s web site states that in “…seven years one female cat and her offspring can produce an incredible 370,000 kittens” And …”Just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years”.     Although these numbers may add up on paper, Mother Nature sees to it that they never play out in real life – for if they were even close to being accurate, our streets would be so full of cats and dogs that we wouldn't be able to walk down the sidewalk without tripping over them.  And that simply isn't the case.

No one really knows how many cats and dogs there are – but the pet owner marketing surveys published by APPA (American Pet Product Producers Association) may shed some light.  They estimate there are about 164 million cats and 78 million dogs living in American homes.  Annual adoptions into this population include about 12 million cats and 11 million dogs.  Un-owned cats living outdoors in feral cat colonies add to the total cat population –but again how many there are is unknown.  Estimates run as high as one feral cat for every owned cat.  Yet as we've seen through our spay/neuter program – the line is blurry between the two groups and many “yard cats” may be double-counted.

Of the 12 million cats adopted out each year, only 500,000 are purebred cats purchased from breeders, and 2.5 million come from animal shelter adoptions.  The overwhelming majority –9 million-- are cats that are literally found outdoors (feral, lost or abandoned) or born to someone’s pet cat – and then kept or given to someone else through a free cat ad or networking person-to-person with friends, relatives and coworkers.

APPA doesn't distinguish, but we assume the majority of adoptions are kittens and puppies – with most of the balance being young adults – often abandoned or relinquished from homes that can’t afford to fix them.   For – once pets become sexually mature, they become increasingly challenging to care for – even for the most loving guardians.   Only 12% (or 20 million) of owned cats are left intact – not because their guardians don’t understand the importance of fixing them, but simply because they lack the front-end money to do so.  Scare tactic population statistics aren't needed to drive home this point – all you have to do is live with one to understand. 

    

So why does PETA and many other otherwise responsible animal organizations perpetuate these grossly misleading statistics?  Perhaps they think that this is the best way to show the importance of spaying and neutering cats or that it’s the best way to justify the use of healthy cat euthanasia to manage shelter occupancy rates – for according to the HSUS, 2.5 million cats and kittens are put down prematurely in shelters annually – rough half of their total admissions.    Whatever their reason, the result is a distorted picture of the number of cats – one that may be more hurtful to them than helpful.

April Showers Bring May Flowers -- And Lots of Kittens Too

If you find newborn kittens nestled in with your daffodils and tulips this spring, don’t be surprised.  Unlike dogs who are largely commercially bred, cats mostly reproduce the old fashioned way – randomly.   And – with the majority of pet cats now sterilized as kittens -- most of this random breeding happens outdoors in feral cat colonies.   

These colonies consist of lost and abandoned pet cats (who revert to feral behavior for survival) and their feral offspring.  They reside anywhere they have a stable food source and available dry shelter:  in rural fields with healthy rodent populations and thick vegetation --in commercial areas with dumpsters (that attract rodents) and protective landscaping -- and in residential yards with outdoor garbage cans or food left out for wildlife -- using log piles, sheds, undersides of mobile homes or similar structures for shelter.   You may have feral cats living very close to your home and not know it because they maintain such a low profile – active only between dusk and dawn when they’re least visible to people.  But their kittens -- who are not mobile -- are much easier to spot. 

Feral kittens come in a rainbow of colors -- black, grey, orange, yellow, white, brown – and a kaleidoscope of patterns – solid, striped, swirled and patched – with fur ranging in length from short to medium to long.  Some even look like purebred cats – complete with color points and blue eyes.  They supply our shelters and rescues with a bumper crop of adoptable kittens each year – with the excess often put down for lack of homes or for contracting stress-induced illness.  And in spite of the number taken to shelters, more are passed person-to-person to friends, relatives and co-workers or through “free cat” ads in newspapers and on Craig’s List.  Still others go unnoticed and remain in their colonies permanently living as wildlife – often producing kittens themselves when they’re as young as 4 months old.

If a litter of kittens is born in your yard, leave them with their mother until they’re old enough to walk and eat on their own – usually about 4 weeks old.  Observe them --but don’t disturb them -- or the mother will move them.  Put kitten food out nearby at the same time each day for the mother to eat – leaving it out just long enough for a meal – and then pulling the remainder when she walks away.

You can (and ideally should) separate the kittens from their mother at 4 weeks – otherwise she’ll train them to be as afraid of people as she is.  Wearing protective clothing or using a live trap, very carefully bring the litter indoors as a group to socialize – both to people and to their littermates -- or find someone who loves kittens to do it for you.  No special skills are needed other than a desire to spoil them with lots of human attention.    When you start handling them, wrap them in a towel for your protection.  Socialization occurs quickly in kittens this young – taking just a few weeks’ time – and it’s most effective when it’s done in private homes (not shelters) where they get exposed not only to people but to other pets and household noises like TVs, washers and doorbells.   

While they’re being socialized, start networking to find good homes for them and -- whenever possible –fix them before giving them away --many vets sterilize kittens at 8 weeks of age provided they weigh at least two pounds.  Fixing the kittens not only makes them easier to place, but it also optimizes their chances of keeping their homes permanently.    Once they’re sexually mature, the persistent kittening, yowling and spraying often becomes more than even a committed caregiver can handle.  And – if they lack the money to fix the cats themselves -- they’ll face the tough choice of giving them to a shelter where they fear they’ll be put down –or abandoning them outdoors where they’ll have to fend for themselves – creating more feral cat colonies in the process.     

And – to prevent an encore litter later in the year –fix the mom cat too -- mom cats can get pregnant while they're still nursing.  When you separate the kittens, live trap the mother at feeding time and get her to a clinic for spaying.  Once she’s fixed, bring her back and release her outdoors.  If you can, continue feeding her meals --and if you find other cats coming to eat– get them fixed too.  If financially this is more than you can handle, check with cat rescues and vet clinics to see if there is funding – as there often is.    

For Cat Spay/Neuter To Work, All Cats -- Male, Female, Indoors and Outdoors -- Need To Be Included

Almost everyone today understands the importance of fixing their pet cats.  This goes without saying.  Yet many still apply a different standard to the yard cats they feed.  Fixing yard cats – especially if they’re not socialized (feral) – is a bit more challenging than fixing your adopted pet cats, but no less important.  If left intact, it’s only a matter of time before their persistent kittening, yowling, spraying and fighting will try the patience of even the most committed caregivers -- and when that happens --the cats they once enjoyed feeding become a burden -- often abandoned outdoors or taken to a shelter where they will almost certainly be put down as “unadoptable”. 

If you know someone feeding unsterilized outdoor cats find out why they fixed their pet cats but let their yard cats stay intact.  Here are the most common reasons we hear and how we respond:

“They’re not my cats – I just feed them.”    While that may be true, if the cats are fixed they’ll be easier to care for and better neighbors.  And -- once you have a meal-feeding routine in place -- live-trapping for sterilization is almost a slam dunk.  We provide full feeding and trapping information in our Feral Colony Handbook.  

“The cats may belong to someone else who may not want them fixed.”  There’s an easy way to test this theory.  If the cats are tame, put inexpensive cat collars on them with a note taped inside asking if the cats are someone’s pets and if so would they call you to confirm this.   If the cats do have a full-time guardian, they’ll see the collar and read your note.  If the cats are feral you won’t be able to put a collar on them and can safely assume they’re not someone’s pets.

“They’re too wild for me to handle”.  It’s true that you should never handle a feral cat – but hundreds of feral cats are live-trapped daily for sterilization.   The process is relatively simple and safe so long as you leave the cats in the live traps to take to the clinic.  The staff will anesthetize them through the trap, then remove them for surgery and return them to the traps while they’re still under anesthesia.  When you get the cats home you simply return them to the outdoors by opening the trap door.   Traps can be loaned, rented or purchased from a variety of sources ranging from friends, vet clinics, home rental businesses, pet or hardware stores.

“I fixed the last cat that came to my yard and he disappeared a few months later so I’m not going to pay to have any more done.”  It always hurts to spend money on a cat and then lose them.  This can happen – although not as often – with adopted cats too.  If money is the reason you’re not fixing the cat, call your local cat groups and veterinary clinics to find out what organizations help with the cost.    If there aren’t any, find a vet that willing to sterilize the cats without requiring any additional work to keep the cost as low as possible.  And – act quickly – the sooner you fix your yard cats the fewer you’ll have to pay for.  Cats have a talent for reproducing. 

Today's World Spay Day 2012

The last Tuesday in February is set aside annually to bring international attention to the importance of spaying and neutering pets. For cats this is particularly important because they can breed when they’re as young as 4 months old and as often as three times a year – starting in late winter and continuing into fall. 

It’s easy to see how the situation spirals out of control.  You adopt a stray cat or the kitten of someone you know and before you realize it she’s pregnant.  Once her kittens are born you try to find them homes but a few don’t adopt out so your single pet cat is now a family of cats.   And – if you don’t act quickly to get the entire family fixed – more kittens will follow.  We hear this story over and over again from people applying for our free spay/neuter vouchers – and we think – if only they had known about our program sooner…

And -- as important as cat spay/neuter is in containing the domestic cat population --it’s even more important for the cat.  Once spayed (or neutered) the cat is healthier, a better companion and statistically much more likely to retain his or her original home.  Left intact, it’s only a matter of time before the difficult cat behaviors – yowling, spraying and kittening – become more than even the most dedicated caregiver can manage.  When this happens the cats are typically abandoned outdoors (where they form or join feral cat colonies and continue reproducing) or taken to the local animal control shelter (where they’re often put down -- for no other reason than they were never sterilized).     

Fortunately for most pet cats – about 85% of them – spaying and neutering is a routine part of adopting – shelter cats are typically fixed at 8 weeks of age before they are released to a permanent home.  And stray cats that are rescued by families with the resources to take their new cat or kitten to the vet for a new cat checkup are usually fixed right away. 

It’s the remaining 15% of cats that miss out – not because their new family doesn’t understand the importance of spay/neuter but simply because they lack the front-end money to get it done.  This is where we—and many other organizations today -- help.  By fixing the pets adopted outside the shelter systems  by students, young parents, and disabled or elderly adults living on a fixed income.    And by doing so more cats will keep their homes forever -- which is the best outcome for everyone – the cats, their caregivers and their communities.   To learn more about our spay/neuter program visit Zimmer-Foundation.org

Happy Spay Day!

Cat Spay of Santa Fe 2011 Update

During 2011 we funded the sterilization of 1,130 cats living in northern New Mexico.  This was our first full year of operation and it brings our program total to 1,589 cat sterilizations for 798 households -- and we hope to build on this growth in 2012.

Although we provide the funding for these spay/neuters, the real key to our effectiveness is the willingness of area spay/neuter and veterinary clinics to accept our vouchers as payment in full -- often at a significantly reduced price than they charge to the general public.   Establishing a centralized clinic to do our work would be much less effective.  Why?  Because the people who most need our help -- families with young children, students, the unemployed and those living on fixed incomes such as the elderly or the disabled -- can't or won't drive long distances to a spay/neuter clinic -- especially when it involves two trips -- one in the early morning to drop the cat off and the other in the late afternoon to pick them up.  Working through in-place veterinary clinics puts spay/neuter directly in the communities where our target group lives.  And in a region as spread out as northern New Mexico this is particularly important.

We especially thank the following clinics for their participation:

• Animal Wellness Center, Santa Fe
• Brainerd Animal Health Center, Sapillo
• Espanola Humane Society, Espanola
• Gruda Veterinary Hospital, Santa Fe
• Pecos Valley Veterinary Clinic, Pecos
• Sangre de Cristo Animal Hospital, Santa Fe
• Santa Fe Humane Society Spay/Neuter Clinic, Santa Fe
• Santa Fe Humane Society Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic, Northern New Mexico
• Valley Veterinary Clinic, Santa Fe
• Vista Larga Animal Clinic, Edgewood

Often we hear "If you can't afford to get your cat fixed, you shouldn't have one", but we simply don't believe that's true.  There are many that can provide a good loving home for a cat who don't have the wherewithal to pay for the sterilization.  And -- often these are the same people -- that can benefit most from the unconditional love a cat can give them.  By helping them get their cats fixed we help cement the bonding -- eliminating the problems that most often cost these cats their homes -- kittening, yowling, fighting and spraying.   And in a culture that kills thousands and thousands of companion animals each year for lack of homes -- we think this is an important thing to do.

Cat Spay of Santa Fe Comes of Age

July was a benchmark month for Cat Spay of Santa Fe.  By its end,  we had helped 570 caregivers fix – and keep -- over 1,000 cats – in just a little over a year since we first launched.    And we did this by partnering with ten northern New Mexico veterinary clinics (private and nonprofit) so our participants could do the surgeries in their own communities on their own time schedules.  This is paramount because our target cats mostly live with the elderly, the disabled, and families with young children who find driving long distances to a centralized spay/neuter event difficult if not impossible to handle. 

Establishing locally-based low/no-cost spay neuter programs has to be at the crux of any community’s cat assistance services.  With it, all the other issues surrounding cats become manageable – free kitten ads start to disappear, shelters no longer burgeon, and outdoor cat abandonment happens less often.  Without it, cats with perfectly good long-term homes lose them when their intact behaviors (kittening, yowling and spraying) become more than their caregivers can handle.  Lacking the money or the clinic accessibility to fix their cats, they give them up (to a shelter or by releasing them outdoors). 

Of the 1,000+ cats we’ve fixed so far in Santa Fe, less than a handful came from shelters, breeders or pet stores – almost all were either found outdoors, given to them by a friend or relative whose cat had kittens or born to their own cats that were not sterilized.   Although shelter cats are almost always sterilized before adoption, they account for less than 20% of the cats adopted each year – so the majority of cats rely on their caregiver to ensure they’re fixed – and those with the money to do it usually do.  No one chooses to live with an intact cat – much the opposite – it’s the most frequent reason that a cat is given up.  Often simple solutions are the most effective – and nothing is simpler than providing low/no-cost and accessible spay/neuter for all cats living indoors or out. 

If you live in northern New Mexico, our program is fast, convenient and free.  Usually you can apply during a 5-minute phone call and your vouchers will be mailed the next day.      They cover the full cost to spay or neuter each cat and vaccinate once for rabies (if it’s done at time of sterilization).  The program is open to families with gross incomes under $40,000 a year who are committed to the life care of their cats and willing to get all the cats in their care fixed within 30-60 days of applying.  We can also provide assistance to property owner caring for naturally-occurring colonies of yard or barn cats regardless of income.  Full program information is on our web site:  zimmer-foundation.org.  

“If I get my female cat spayed, do I have to neuter my male cat too?”

More often than you’d think, we get asked this question by caregivers calling for spay/neuter help -- but once they understand our program is totally free -- they enthusiastically apply for vouchers for all their cats (male and female) – and it’s good that they do.  

The cost of getting cats fixed (particularly in multi-cat homes) is out of reach for many people even through low-cost spay/neuter programs.  They try to economize by just fixing the female cats – or in some cases if they’re concerned about male spraying – just fixing the male cats.   They're trying to do the “right thing” by preventing kitten births in their home, but in the process they miss out on some of the most important benefits of cat sterilization.  Here are just a few:

1.  Fixing all your female cats may prevent them from having litters of kittens, but if any of your male cats have outdoor access, they’ll roam until they find other females who are intact and impregnate them.  You’re simply shifting the kitten problem to someone else’s cats – or contributing to an increase in the community’s feral cat population.   

2.  While your male cats are on the prowl  for unsterilized females, they’ll be spraying – most likely in someone else’s yard -- and the property owner won’t appreciate it.  Un-neutered male cat spray is highly noxious and one of the reasons that so many people view outdoor cats as a nuisance.   After neutering the odor diminishes considerably and makes you and your cats better neighbors.

3.  Neutering a male cat lowers his testosterone level and heads off his getting into serious cat fights with other un-neutered males.  Just one trip to an emergency clinic to stitch up a nasty cut or treat  an infected puncture wound can set you back magnitudes more than the up-front cost of neutering.

4.   FIV – a potentially debilitating lentivirus that affects 2-4% of all domestic cats – could potentially be eliminated simply by neutering all male cats.  The virus is very short-lived outside the body making saliva transferred through bite wounds from one infected male cat to another during territorial fights the most common means of spreading FIV.  Ironically neutering a male cat at a low-cost spay/neuter clinic often costs less than running a viral test to see if your cat has the virus.  

5.  Neutering your male cats will reap personal rewards for you too.  Once male cats are fixed they become better companions – more docile and more accepting of human attention.

Sure fixing your female cats is a step in the right direction – but just that.  To fully benefit you’ll need to follow through and get your male cats neutered too -- the sooner the better.  If you live in northern New Mexico we may help with the cost – visit our web site or call to apply.

Spay Day USA is Today

Today marks our 11th Spay Day USA participation. This event was established in 1995 by the Doris Day Animal League to draw national attention to the importance of spay/neuter for cats and dogs – and to give a central theme to grass roots events held simultaneously throughout the country -- often free or very low-cost spay/neuter events.

Today – over 85% of all pet cats are automatically spayed or neutered by shelters and rescues before being adopted -- or soon after by their caregivers. The other 15% -- are often left intact. Not because their caregivers don’t recognize the importance of getting their cats fixed but simply because they can’t afford the surgery – even at a low-cost spay/neuter clinic. These are often the cats living with students, young parents, disabled or elderly adults living on a fixed income – or with property owners feed colonies of stray and feral cat who take up residence on their land -- and the sheer number of cats put the cost of surgeries out of anyone’s reach.

Often these caregivers are stereotyped as “irresponsible” but this is simply not the case – given access to free and convenient spay/neuter help they jump at the opportunity to get the work done. How do we know this? Because we provide them with the help they need to be “responsible” and they tell us.

In celebration of this year’s Spay Day, we’d thought you might enjoy hearing them first hand so we’ve pulled a few comments out of our mail bag to share with you:

“I am 66 years old living on $824. SSA retirement and this would really help me. Thank you.” -- Clare, Santa Fe

“Thank you for helping me and my cat M. We took her to the mobile clinic in Las Vegas and she’s recovering nicely. Due to being impoverished after my bout with cancer in 2007, paying such an expense would have been very difficult. But the dear companionship of my M is a joy worth it. Thank you.” -- Robert, Las Vegas

“I haven’t been able to find anyone to give this very nice cat a home and It was apparently abandoned, unneutered, by the previous tenants here. It has been hanging around my yard since I moved in, but has been a constant, ever thinner fixture since the weather turned cold. Although very friendly to people, he is quite aggressive to my existing neutered, older cats, and I can’t expect them to accept him into the yard or house as an unaltered tom. I can stretch my budget to feed him, but professional services are beyond me at this point. This is a wonderful program you are offering and I hope I can qualify so that I can integrate the cat into my household.” -- Terri Santa Fe

“My S. kitty is nearly mended now from her recent spay surgery. I am relieved that this has been taken care of as I could not have financially done so on my own. Again, many, many thanks.” – Bahira, Santa Fe

“Your funding of this project has made a difference to both the feral cats in that area as well as the elderly residents. They have been very worried about the “wild kitties” and as a friend to many of the folks there, I want to especially thank you for putting their minds at ease.” -- Sue, Santa Fe

It's easy to see that these caregivers are anything but irresponsible.  So the next time you hear a media piece blaming them for a burgeoning cat population -- remember these true-life stories. Once we quit blaming others for the problem of homeless cat euthanasia, we can work on solving it.  And the solution is known and simple – make every day Spay Day USA -- providing routine free and available spay/neuter access for all cats – male, female, indoors and outdoors -- to everyone regardless of income.

Every Day Is Valentine's Day When You Have A Cat To Love

Valentine’s Day is always special but this year it seems to be more anticipated than in other years. Sure the purveyors of all things Valentine – candy, cards, flowers and dining – are most likely behind all the press it’s getting, but don’t be put off by the commercialism. Valentine’s Day goes deeper – it’s not so much about loving someone as about “being in love”. That added feeling of warmth and happiness that comes from intertwining our lives with others – like the euphoria we feel when a bright sun shines after a heavy rain. Or the happiness that comes from getting a promotion or scoring well on a test.


It goes without saying that most of us who have cats love them. Why else would we scoop their litter boxes and put their food out before having our morning coffee or sitting down to our evening dinner? In return, our cats provide us with unconditional love – they’re always there waiting to greet us when we return home -- and are just as happy to see us on a good day as a bad day. And – when we take the time to sit with them, they jump up to be petted -- purring as if we’re the most important person in the world – and to them we probably are.

The benefits of cats as pets are well documented. The simple act of petting a cat can lower blood pressure and their daily companionship can often head off or minimize human depression. Public housing units are required by law to allow cats so even those on the thinnest budgets can benefit from a loving cat-human relationship. Unfortunately assisted living residences don’t always accommodate pets and because of this, many individuals who would benefit from the extra care these places provide continue living independently so they can keep their cats. And – when they do ultimately move where their cats aren’t allowed – the emotions they feel are akin to those of mourning the death of a loved one.

Often the people who benefit most from having a cat -- students, young parents, disabled or elderly adults living on fixed incomes -- are the ones with the most difficulty paying the front-end costs to neuter their cats and so they’re often depicted as “irresponsible”. This simply isn’t the case. They get the importance of spay/neuter but with limited incomes other bills take precedence and before they know it, the situation is out of control – the female cats start going into heat and having kittens -- and the male cats start spraying – so they’re taken to animal control shelters where they’re often euthanized – or dropped outdoors to fend for themselves where they often form or join feral cat colonies.

It isn’t that they can’t provide good homes for their cats – they can. It’s just a matter of economics. By simply providing them with free and local spay/neuter we can help keep these cats in their homes with the guardians who love them. In northern New Mexico, – with the help of area spay/neuter and veterinary clinics -- that’s what Cat Spay of Santa Fe is doing. If you know of someone here who has an un-neutered cat, give them our phone number so we can help make their Valentine’s Day a day of love and commitment to the soft furry friend that keeps them company. Our program is fast, convenient and free. Every cat that stays in their original home is one less on the streets or in the shelters. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cat Spay of Santa Fe Fixes 459 Cats in 2010

Cat Spay of Santa Fe finished its first (May-December) year with a total of 459 cat sterilizations – and we’ve already got another 60 outstanding vouchers redeemable this month to give 2011 a jump start.

Our program is unique because it offers free and accessible spay/neuter help to cats that typically live below the spay/neuter radar – not because their caregivers don’t get the importance of sterilization -- but simply because they can’t afford it. They may be students, young parents, or unemployed, disabled or elderly adults living on fixed incomes – or they may be property owners feeding stray and feral cats that claim their yard as home -- where the sheer number of cats puts the cost of surgery out of reach regardless of income.

We appreciate the help we’re receiving from area vet clinics (shelter and private). For as important as it is to make spay/neuter free, it’s equally important to make it convenient. For many caregivers, the cost of gas is prohibitive and others are dependent on public transportation or friends and relatives to take them to a clinic – and they’ll hesitate to ask for help if it involves a major drive.

Our vouchers are now accepted in Santa Fe at Valley Veterinary, Sangre de Christo Animal Hospital, Gruda Animal Hospital and in Edgewood at Vista Larga Animal Hospital. In addition, the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society accepts our vouchers at both their Spay/Neuter & Wellness Clinic and at their SpAN New Mexico Mobile Clinics – the latter accounted for almost half of our 2010 surgeries and enabled us to extend our services to outlying areas that would be difficult to cover without them.  

Through the efforts of these clinics we're able to help caregivers fix -- and keep -- their cats.  Cats that could otherwise end up on their own outdoors or euthanized in shelters.  We look forward to 2011 as our first full year of activity and hope to see our spay/neuter numbers triple. Full details and program applications are available on our web site – but for many of our lower-income applicants who aren’t computer savvy – all it takes to apply is a five-minute phone call. We have no waiting list and mail vouchers as soon as the application is approved. Happy New Year to you and your cats!

BTW we're mapping our spay/neuters on our web site --totaled by zip code.  To see the scope of our service area just click here.  We'll update the map monthly throughout 2011.

Happy National Feral Cat Day

Today is National Feral Cat Day – an annual event established by Alley Cat Allies in 2000 to call attention to the “forgotten felines” -- those cats who are not exposed to humans during their first 8 weeks of life – and consequently grow up afraid of people – making them more akin to squirrels and rabbits than to the cuddly pampered lap cats who share our homes.


Our cat programs began in 2000 by providing free spay/neuter help to feral cats in Michigan and now we continue that work in New Mexico as one element of our Cat Spay of Santa Fe program. Over the years, though, our primary focus has shifted toward pre-emptive “TNR” – working to keep cats in their original homes -- off the streets and out of animal control shelters -- by providing free and convenient spay/neuter access to lower-income families. We know that the overwhelming reason why people abandon their cats is that their cats aren’t fixed – and money and convenient access to spay/neuter help is the overwhelming reason why they stay intact. By fixing these cats we can stop feral cat colonies from forming (or growing) in the first place. And it’s incredibly easier to get disadvantaged pet cats fixed than it is to live-trap feral cats for sterilization.

We salute the efforts of Alley Cat Allies in driving home the existence of feral cats and their efforts to ensure that all cats – not just shelter-adopted house cats – are brought under the spay/neuter radar. But in the process let us not assume that feral cats are inherently different from pet cats – as they are the exact same species. And – let us not assume that because a cat wasn’t socialized as a kitten that they can’t or wouldn’t enjoy living with people. We’ve learned that lesson first hand from the 4 teenaged feral cats who share our home. It took a little front-end work to get them comfortable but now they enjoy all the amenities of indoor living. After 5 years of being house cats it’s hard to distinguish them from the other socialized cats they live with -- other than we can’t pick them up and --except for Cleo -- they’re not lap cats.

While we chip away at the cat overpopulation problem leaving outdoor cats in place makes perfect sense – too many adoptable cats are euthanized in shelters to encourage the domestication of feral cats en masse. But – as often happens – when someone is feeding feral cats they become attached to one or more – there’s certainly no harm in moving the cat indoors using appropriate safety measures and with a basic understanding that they will act differently than companion cats act. Feral cats are no more biologically wired to rough it outdoors than pet cats are. Leaving feral cats outdoors is fine -- but -- whatever you do – if you’re feeding them indoors or out -- make sure you get them fixed.   If you're in the Santa Fe area we may be able to help -- see our web site for our feral colony management program details.

U.S Shelter (Cat-And-Dog) Killing Rate Lowest Since 1950

In its July/August 2010 issue, Animal People  reports that shelter kill rates are down 17% over the last 3 years despite a depressed economy that many thought would have the oppostive effect.

It was feared that the low economy would dramatically increase the number of owner turn-ins (from people who no longer could afford to have a pet) and decrease the number of new adoptions (with fewer people willing to take on the cost of a pet).   The result of this would be an increase in shelter kill rates.


Whatever caused the dip in shelter kill rates is not clear and is probably the result of many factors. Still, Animal People was able to identify one important factor:

“Wherever shelter killing has markedly dropped, about 95% of the progress can be attributed to low-cost and free high-volume cat and dog sterilization – which both reduces the numbers of homeless animals and, as free-to-good home puppies and kittens vanish, increases the opportunity for shelter animals to be adopted.”

It’s truly a closed-loop system –  by lowering the input (through pro-active spay/neuter) you also lower the output (shelter kill rates). It’s a very simple concept that seems finally to be taking hold!

Cat Spay of Santa Fe Celebrates Its 100th Spay/Neuter

Since we launched our free spay/neuter program last spring we’ve often felt like we’re watching water boil. We’ve filled the pot and put it on the stove and are now painfully waiting for the burner to do its job. The burner is inertia -- that momentum that takes so long to build and  apparently even longer to stop.

You see, we have the unique position of watching our Santa Fe spay/neuter program ramp up while our Washtenaw County program ramps down. Yes – almost a year after we officially discontinued our TLC spay/neuter programs we’re still getting calls and applications for spay/neuter help from Michigan.  Despite the fact that our 2010 application says in bright red letters that you have to live in the Santa Fe area to participate. That’s how strong the desire to get a cat fixed is when you love your cat but live on a limited budget. And, as much as we’d like to help Michigan residents get their cats fixed, we simply can’t. All we can do is refer them to other programs.

So when we posted our spay/neuter invoices today and found we’ve completed 100 surgeries in our new community we exhaled. Half of these surgeries were done in August – twice as many as were done in July and three times as many as in June. That’s how inertia works. In the near term we’ll continue to show steady increases in applications as our program gets better known through word-of-mouth and the area cat organizations and vets start to recognize that our funding is there for the cats that need it most. Our newspaper ads and bulletin board posters will kick in too.

While inertia keeps building in Santa Fe, the opposite is happening in Michigan. So it won’t be too much longer before our Washtenaw County phone requests and applications fade out entirely being replaced by similar -- and fillable --  Santa Fe requests.

Going Beyond TNR to Feral Colony Management

I don’t think anyone can dispute the merits of getting outdoor cats sterilized. It improves their overall health and disposition, helps bond them to their caregivers, makes them better neighbors and lowers their numbers. This sounds great, but is it too good to be true? No, but there is one hitch. Not in the individual benefits to each cat fixed, but in the collective benefit to cats as a species – lowering their numbers.

Using cat sterilization to reduce the overall cat population only works when there’s a focused colony manager/caregiver both willing and able to monitor the cats so they get to know all the colony members – even the most timid– and then proceeds to live-trap the cats – all the cats (male and female) to get them fixed quickly before more litters are born.

How do they do this? They establish a set meal-feeding routine – putting out food once or twice a day at the same time and place. This conditions the colony to appear at the same time each day and – because they aren’t allowed to free-feed – they’re hungry when they arrive. Once the manager identifies the whole colony – a process that may take a week or two depending upon how timid the cats are – they can start supervised live-trapping to get all the cats (male and female) fixed – a few each week – every week – until all the job is complete. After that, all the manager needs to do is continue the meal-feeding routine to flag colony newcomers – if any – so they can be fixed quickly too.

Using this method -- in less time than it takes one female cat to reproduce (63 days) -- an entire colony of 20 cats can be sterilized – at a rate of just 2-3 cats a week. The results are a kitten-free zone – a plot of land where naturally-occurring outdoor stray and feral cats can live their lives without contributing to the already burgeoning cat population. And, as we noted, sterilized cats are healthier, have more pleasing temperaments, bond closer to their colony manager and become better neighbors. No longer spraying, yowling, fighting or reproducing.

Linked together, these kitten-free zones will eventually end the community’s reliance on healthy-but-homeless cat euthanasia – replacing it with a grass roots network of kitten-free zones.

If you live in the Santa Fe County area and you’re feeding outdoor cats, why not take it to the level of colony management? If you do, we can provide you with step-by-step guidelines to create a kitten-free zone as well as provide you with free spay/neuter vouchers -- one for each cat – so long as you use them within the allotted time period – 45-60 days depending on the number of cats in your colony. Interested? To learn more, visit our web site and click on the Feral Colony Management Program.

A Fresh Look At FIV+ Cats -- One More Reason To Fix Your Cat

With 13 teenaged cats, I spend a lot of time sitting in vet clinic waiting rooms. I usually read a book, but sometimes I browse through the clinic’s vast offering of cat magazines. Last week I was glad I did as one of them pointed to an article on the Best Friends’ web site entitled: “FIV: Catching A Bad Case of Rumors”. The article’s well worth reading as it allays many of the fears and misconceptions associated with FIV. And I was surprised to learn that BFAS now permits FIV+ cats to be adopted by guardians with other cats in their home – cautioning them to keep the FIV cats healthy and take extreme care while introducing them to their others cats. Good advice for all cat introductions -- not just FIV cats.


But this is a sea change in shelter behavior. When FIV was first identified in 1986 it was swept up in emotion – largely due to its biological similarity to the human lentivirus HIV. Although it’s sometimes referred to as “Kitty AIDS” it is not – and it cannot be transferred to humans. Standard shelter practice was (and still is in many animal control shelters) to test for FIV and euthanize positive cats – even when they are ostensibly healthy. And even without performing a different test to verify the results of the first – a protocol recommended to guard against test errors. Because of this, even cats without FIV can be erroneously euthanized as well as kittens who may test positive as babies because their mother had FIV but are actually negative on tests performed after they turn 6 months old.

Allowing FIV+ cats to be adopted is good news – so long as the guardian is aware of the condition. Many cats with the virus lead long healthy lives with no outward sign of illness. Knowing that the cat has FIV helps too. Essentially cats with FIV have compromised immune systems so if they contract an illness they’re less able to shrug it off. Knowing this, their guardians can head off problems by getting veterinary help at the first signs of illness.

And if sterilized FIV cats are properly introduced to existing non-FIV sterilized cats, the risk of transfer is extremely low. The virus only lives for a short time outside the blood stream so it’s almost always transferred from one cat to another through deep puncture wounds – usually in fights between un-neutered male cats. Cat fighting is stable homes rarely leads to puncture wounds. Casual contact (shared food dishes, water bowls or litter boxes) doesn’t cause infection nor does most sexual contact.

Spaying and neutering cats is a highly effective way to stop the spread of FIV -- since it prevents the situations that often result FIV transfer.  And this is just another reason why free and convenient spay/neuter of all cats living indoors or out is so important.

Happy Mother's Spay

Is it okay to spay a mom cat? Can she be fixed when she’s in heat, pregnant or nursing? The short answer is yes. And, because cats are polyestrus long-day breeders – you often have no choice. They go in and out of heat continuously -- every two weeks -- during the “long day months” of February through October -- unless they’re ill or already pregnant. Their heat cycles start when a female kitten is as young as 16 weeks and yes – mother cats can become pregnant while nursing – and related cats and kittens (brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, sons and mothers) do breed. If you’re living with a male and female cat or kitten (related or not) you can have a litter of kittens even if your cats are indoor-only. My first female cat got pregnant while I was moving into a new apartment – I left her in the new one while I went to pick up another load of belongings-- not knowing a kitchen window was slightly open. When I returned there was a neighbor’s tom cat in my living room and 63 days later we had a brand new litter of 3 kittens. That’s all it takes. My cat lived alone and had never been outdoors and yet she was pregnant! I didn’t even know she was in heat.

The best way to prevent this is to get your cats (male and female) fixed as young as possible. Vet students today are being trained to sterilize cats at 8 weeks of age and two pounds of weight. Many private veterinarians also fix cats at that age or wait until their 12 weeks old and three pounds. Some still adhere to the older practice of waiting until they’re six months old – this helps to make a pet cat more suitable as an indoor companion, but leaves you exposed to having or causing an unintended litter or two.

The early spay/neuter surgeries have been standard practice in animal shelters with in-house veterinarians for over 20 years now and not only have they demonstrated it’s safe – but some argue it’s better -- because young kittens are more resilient than older cats and have less surgery after-effects to deal with. For female cats the surgery is often simpler – since they can’t be in heat or pregnant.

So can you fix an in-heat or pregnant cat? Yes.  But not without increased risk -- as the surgery is more complicated. If you think your cat is pregnant, fix her immediately – the longer you wait, the more complicated the surgery will be. If you find yourself with a pregnant cat and your vet recommends against spaying her -- or you have moral quandaries about doing so --you may have a litter of unintended kittens. If so, start finding homes for them even before they’re born, but plan on keeping them together as a litter for their first 8 weeks. This is how they learn to be cats.

And – most importantly –get Mom spayed as soon as her kittens are eating on their own – at about 4 weeks of age. Mom can get pregnant at that time and finding homes for her second litter will be a lot harder than the first. Our Feral Colony Handbook (Appendix C) gives a good overview on how to care for and socialize kittens.

And please – don’t intentionally breed your cats – no matter how beautiful they are. The odds are their kittens won’t look like them anyway. If you really enjoy kittens, channel that energy into a more positive light by volunteering as a foster home for kittens that couldn’t be prevented. Cat rescues and shelters get flooded with them and they have to be placed in foster homes until after they’ve been socialized and are at least 8 weeks old. You and your children can perform a great community service by opening your homes to these very orphaned babies – making every day a mother’s day for them.

Cat Spay Of Santa Fe Update

After our first burst of activity in late April, Cat Spay of Santa Fe went dormant.  We kind of expected that to happen as it takes time for a new program to build a rhythm.  And – since it is a new program – that’s okay -- because it gives us some time to work out any kinks without making too many public mis-steps. (We used our earlier Ann Arbor spay/neuter programs as a model but there are differences between Ann Arbor and Santa Fe that'll cause changes to how we work with both applicants and veterinary clinics.)

While we build up an application rhythm, we're finding ways to speed the process up -- here are a few things we're trying:

• We've already expanded our service area. In Ann Arbor we were sandwiched between some very large metropolitan areas – like Detroit, Jackson and Toledo (Ohio) – so we serviced only specific zip codes to limit applications.  In Santa Fe County, with the exception of Albuquerque (who has its own free spay/neuter program) we're surrounded by low-population rural areas  – and so we’re expanding our initial service area to include them – so long as they’re able to drive into the county for the surgeries.

• We’ve joined Scoop – a social network web site of the Santa Fe New Mexican for animal lovers –and this is our first post to it.  If you're reding this on Scoop and want to help us fix pet cats for lower-income Santa Fe area families – just print out our program flyer -- or contact us and we'll mail you some for posting.   The more places in Santa Fe who display our flyer, the more people we'll reach.  Community bulletin boards are often our best way to find qualified applicants.  To help, you can post the flyers on pretty much any community bulletin board in or near Santa Fe County --- where you live or work, shop or attend school or church -- anywhere you think cat lovers will see them.

• We've mailed posters and applications to the many Santa Fe pet stores and veterinary clinics for posting.  By their nature, these places often see or hear from the ones that have cats and can’t afford to fix them -- and we'd like to be at the top of their referral list for help.

And – while we wait for our application rhythm to kick in – we’re working with Felines & Friends to fix as many feral cat colonies as possible.  They’ve got four active TNR projects – a senior citizen home, a casino, a doggie day care and a pet boarding business – all with colonies of reproducing cats that'll be much better neighbors once they’re fixed. We’ve provided vouchers for about 50 of these cats so far – and will happily provide more if they’re needed to quickly complete the job.

Our long-term focus has to be on the pet cats in lower-income families -- to prevent more cat colonies from forming -- and to ensure cats don't lose good homes just because their guardians don't have the front-end money to fix them.  But existing cat colonies need help too – so until our funds are flowing regularly to sterilize pet cats, we’ll work wherever we can to help all cats.   It’s simply the most effective way to limit and eventually eliminate – the senseless practice of euthanizing  healthy-but-homeless cats -- and isn't that really our ultimate goal anyway?