Puppies and Kittens

When Sims 3 comes out with their pets expansion later this year, I'm going to waste several days, perhaps even weeks, of my life making kittens and puppies.  And ponies, because it looks like they'll have horsies too!

But real life is different.  Last year, just before the hard winter set in, I noticed that the cute black cat in my neighborhood had birthed a litter of adorable kittens under our front porch.  I looked up the number for our local shelter, but the kittens had been moved by their mother the very next day.

I don't know if those kittens made it through the winter.  Their mother did, as I see her here and there, but the kittens?  I haven't seen any other cats roaming.

I love cats, and the idea of those poor little snuggles freezing to death is horrifying.  But death is more likely than the mother taking them to a nice house and leaving them there so that they can go to a warm friendly animal shelter.

I don't know if their mother was a feral cat or an indoor-outdoor cat.  If she was feral, then there are services, particularly in cities, set up to capture, fix, and release feral cats.  If she was an indoor-outdoor cat, then those adorable kittens are on the owner's head.

Even if I'd notified a shelter about the kittens and they'd been picked up, their chances were not 100%.  People tend to adopt kittens more often than cats, but plenty of people also take kittens back when they become cats.  That's why a kitten is almost $200 at our local shelter while adult cats are about $50.  And what happens to the cats that don't get adopted?  They eventually have to be put to sleep.  Killed.  It's strictly practical -- a shelter only has so much room -- but it's still tragic.  The shelter workers I've spoken to hate having to put animals down just because nobody wants them, just because there are too many to find homes for them all.

And while there are no-kill shelters in the country, there aren't anywhere near enough.  Most shelters can't afford the drain of keeping every animal they find.  Even my local shelter, which just put in a million dollar air filtration system to prevent the spread of disease among their animals, can't afford to be no-kill.

So when you let your pet outdoors without being spayed or neutered?  You're just adding more kittens and puppies to the long, tragic list of animals that never had a chance.

Please, look for a program in your area that offers low-cost or free spaying and neutering.  Doing this saves lives.  The ASPCA website has a search function for you to check your local area, as does NeuterSpay.org.  If your pet isn't spayed or neutered, find a program and take them, or ask your parents to take them.  If not for the animals themselves, then to prevent the annoyance of having to deal with a litter being birthed in your garage or under your porch, or to cure your female cat of that "in heat" yowling, or to calm down your aggressive male cat.

The way things are now, we're in no danger of running out of potential pets.  Please reduce the strain on shelters and yourself by getting your pet spayed or neutered.  A little trouble now will save everyone a lot of trouble later.

<3