Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Uh, Oh....We've Got Kittens

When we discovered a colony of feral cats on the property, the whole point of feeding them/caring for them was to get them spayed and neutered.  We know there are too many unwanted cats and dogs, it's a huge issue everywhere and the notion of so many animals being euthanized just breaks my heart.  My thinking was that I could befriend them, and once I could handle them a bit, I could get them to the vet.  If they were quite friendly, I hoped to find them homes.  A little naive, perhaps.  Some of the cats have never become comfortable with me, and now we have kittens.  I feel so bad about this - I could have tried harder and trapped the unfriendly cats.  In making some inquiries, I found that the local rescues, like Funds For Furry Friends, are over-whelmed with cats.  People look for the 'free' kitten ads in the paper, and balk at paying the small fee the rescues require.  The fee includes spaying or neutering and shots, and is really a great value compared to what the people would pay on their own at the vets.  People who get the 'free' kittens quite often don't get them spayed, and more kittens arrive.  It's an unfortunate cycle, and now I've contributed to it.  I feel really bad.  In the meantime, I've never been around kittens, and they are soooo darn cute; even these little guys whose eyes aren't open yet.

4 comments:

  1. Who had the litter? Too bad, because now you have more little ones to find homes for.

    Keltie

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a drag. The mommy is one of the two orange twins I've just always called 'Baby Orange' and 'Baby Two'. They are both too shy to approach; I'm assuming the other is a male 'cause he doesn't appear to be expecting! Haven't really gotten close enough to either to figure that part out before.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're heart was in the right place. I agree that euthenizing shouldn't be an option unless absolutely necessary. It irritates me when farmers deliberately keep cats in barns to keep mice invasions down, but won't both to spay or neuter them and euthenize their offspring. We're picking up two more cats next Wednesday and are so fortunate the shelter now includes the spaying/neutrering, the shots and exams for a very meager $50. The last time we got our cat from the same shelter, we paid a pittance, but by the time our vet examined her and spayed her, it was well over $150.

    Too bad we weren't closer. We were looking for a gingey kitty. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The cost coming from a rescue like Funds For Furry Friends really is a great value! Oh, tooooo bad you're not closer - I've got the cutest group of little gingey cats.....

    ReplyDelete