"KellyH" wrote in message
...
I don't normally ask for purrs here, and I rarely post my purrs, although I
do read the requests and keep them in my thoughts. I have a friend in need
of some purrs.

My friend "J" works tirelessly TNR'ing ferals, persuading people to
spay/neuter their pets, and rescuing cats. She even goes to people's
houses and transports their cats to and from the vet, sometimes pays the
s/n fee herself if they can't pay.
This past week has been really hard on her, and she is so burned out. She
has been working with a family that had 4 cats, 3 females, one male, and a
German Shepherd. She somehow persuaded them to give up the male and one
female cat and she got them into the shelter where we both volunteer. The
other female was spayed, and the last just had kittens and she was trying
to convince them to surrender the kittens and spay the momma when they are
old enough. The couple was planning on breeding the dog and selling the
puppies. Oh, they also wanted to sell the kittens and thought they could
get a lot of money for them since they are white. All the females have
had at least 3 litters in their short lives
Anyway, after working on them for some time, they finally agreed to neuter
the dog. The dog ended up dying after the neuter from a complication.
The woman called her up and was very verbally abusive. J feels awful,
like this was all her fault. Adding to this, her foster cat that no one
would take was diagnosed with intestinal cancer and is hanging on by a
thread. She had to take her to the emergency in the middle of the night.
J deals with some scum of the earth people in her spay/neuter ventures. I
don't know how she does it. The animals need her, and I would hate for
her to quit. I told her take some time off and clear your head. I hope
she takes it.


Your friend does a good job in persuading people who might not otherwise do
it, to spay and neuter their cats.
OTOH, I cannot help but have some sympathy for the family whose dog is now
dead because she encouraged them to have her spayed and she died. Even
people described as "scum of the earth" whatever that means can love their
animals, so perhaps a bit of verbal abuse over the death is understandable.
After all, the dog would still be alive if she hadn't been spayed.

Both my cats are spayed/neutered. They are "moggies" mongrels if you would
like to call it that. It isn't necessary for them to reproduce as there are
plenty of moggies in all the shelters waiting for homes.

*However* my dogs were pedigree, of a high show standard and I occasionally
bred from them. Not for money, but to spread their genes.
If someone like your friend had come along and asked to me to spay and
neuter all my dogs, I would have been quite, well, peeved, shall we say. I
will be the one to decide if and when it's necessary. If I had taken notice
of her, had a bitch spayed when I wouldn't have done and she died because of
it, to be quite honest I might have reacted in the same way.

She should carry on her crusade, but realise that as a result of her advice,
if their animal dies people are going to be angry and rightly so. She will
have to learn to deal with it, because for sure it will happen again.

Tweed