Francis' "little procedure"

in article , sue and dave at
wrote on 2/1/05 3:12 PM:

HI Priscilla,

I'm in the process of arranging the ritual for my siamese Moxie who is 6
years old and still intact. Vet visit Friday for pre-surg check/labs and
then schedule the neuter.

This winter he has taken to the time-honored tradition of Male Cat Marking
and this morning backed up against ME in bed and plastered the duvet with
grossness.

He is the epitome of Handsome Male Cat, but the innate behavior that
arrived ( which I truly did not expect to happen after all this time)
rules out his retaining the gonad equipment.

I've sent for the Feliway to help curtail the behavior as much as possible
for as long as possible, until he regains some propriety about his home and
surroundings.

I'm also feeling very guilty that I did not do this when I should have.

So yes, I understand your feeling sad, but I also know you've done the
right thing!

Sue
( yep, the Western Maine one)


Especially since he is completely developed, I bet you won't see a big
difference in his behaviour at all (except marking, which I hope does
subside).

in article , Justin L at
wrote on 2/1/05 6:01 PM:

Priscilla H. Ballou wrote:
Well, Francis had his cold trip in his carrier this morning. OK, not so
cold since he had a hot water bottle (it was 11 F so I relented) and was
traveling on my lap in the cab of my neighbor's pickup truck. I dropped
him off at about 7:45, and around 9:30 I got a call from the vet that
Francis was done with surgery, was a little groggy, and would sleep for
the afternoon. I had also asked them to clip his claws, and he got
chipped while he was under.

I go pick up my little baby after work, and my neighbor will drive us
home.

I know this was the right thing to do, and that it'll be for his good,
but part of me is feeling sad. He's a beautiful young male, with very
distinct and bulgy balls. He could have been the icon of healthy
maleness. Those distinctive balls are gone now, and so is some of his
maleness. I feel sad about that, while I know I wouldn't have
considered doing anything different.

Does anyone else experience this when they have their cats neutered?

Priscilla

My kitten Elwood went in for the snippage today too!

I thought he would be all mellow and relaxed once I got him home, but he
is very hyper!

I guess he doesn't miss them that much.

Hope your Francis recovery goes well too.

Justin

Oh my gosh your kitten is named Elwood!! How CUTE!! My mom was engaged to an
Elwood once and I just thought it was a great name.

"Justin L" wrote in message
om...

My kitten Elwood went in for the snippage today too!

I thought he would be all mellow and relaxed once I got him home, but he
is very hyper!

I guess he doesn't miss them that much.


Good for you for getting Elwood snipped. He's such
a cute boy.

"Cathy Friedmann" wrote in message
...

"sue and dave" wrote in message
...
Sue
( yep, the Western Maine one)

That's what I was wondering, too. ;-)

Cathy


Ayuh, one and the same.

lose the mind for private e-mail.

"Meghan Noecker" wrote in message
...
Maynard was neutered 18 years ago as a 6 month old kitten. I was
nervous the actual day simply because there is always a risk. But
other than that, no qualms at all.

I was 14 years old, and I paid for it with my newspaper route money.
You see Maynard was a kitten from an unplanned pregnancy. His mom
chewed through a screen window and escaped. She had 8 kittens, and
Maynard was the smallest of the 3 runts. He was hand fed from day one.
When it came to time to give away the kittens, we were getting ready
to move back from Iowa to Washington. My mom mistakenly thought that
keeping a kitten would keep her cat from going into season again. So,
we kept the last kitten, who happened to be the ugliest - Maynard.

That was in In August. We got to Seattle, and posted pics of him. He
was offered for free, but he was so ugly at that time (and bright blue
in the pics) that we never got a single phone call.

By November, I was hooked. He was sleeping on my bed, eating my food,
and just plain my cat. I went to me dad and asked if I could have for
Christmas. And I would pay for him to be neutered. Christmas came and
went. No word from Dad. (Back then, he wasn't big on animals, and we
already had 3 cats and 2 dogs). The day after Christmas, I asked him
if I could keep Maynard, and he replied, "I guess so. Nobody else
seems to want him."

I think it cost me $30-35 to get him neuetered. A whole month's
earnings from that paper route. But I sure was happy to keep him. And
I still have him. He isn't the brighest, but he is the sweetest. And
he wasn't ugly for very long. I'd still kill to find those blue pics
though. One of these days, I am going to dig through my mom's boxes of
negatives. Gotta be in there somewhere.

Maynard is one fine cat, and I have never regretted it for a second.

A cool story! Maynard turned out to be one lucky kitten - & is obviously
still one lucky cat, & you were one clear-thinking, goal-oriented, &
responsible 14 yr. old! :-)

Cathy

On Tue 01 Feb 2005 03:44:16p, Priscilla H. Ballou wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav ):

Does anyone else experience this when they have their cats
neutered?

Purrs for Francis to feel back to himself soon. I don't have any
experience with this other than Rhett, current hoolikitten. He seems
no different to me now, about a month and a half later. He also had a
big pair of dangly doodads.

--
Cheryl

On Tue 01 Feb 2005 07:20:54p, Karen Chuplis wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
):

There is just more to being
a boy and girl than hormones alone I believe otherwise they
would all behave the same and not have such distinctive traits.

I can remember years ago how all neutered pets were called "it"
rather than he/her. It just not so!

--
Cheryl

On 2005-02-02, Meghan Noecker penned:

That was in In August. We got to Seattle, and posted pics of him. He was
offered for free, but he was so ugly at that time (and bright blue in the
pics) that we never got a single phone call.

Okay, I've seen ugly babies, but I have *never* seen an ugly kitten. I want
to see these blue pictures! Does he have three ears or something?


--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

in article , Meghan Noecker at
wrote on 2/2/05 3:46AM:

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 20:52:46 -0700, "Monique Y. Mudama"
wrote:

On 2005-02-02, Meghan Noecker penned:

That was in In August. We got to Seattle, and posted pics of him. He was
offered for free, but he was so ugly at that time (and bright blue in the
pics) that we never got a single phone call.

Okay, I've seen ugly babies, but I have *never* seen an ugly kitten. I want
to see these blue pictures! Does he have three ears or something?



Okay. Here is the early kitten photo. The main one we used to promote
him. I still carry it to show that ugly kittens do get better.

http://www.zoocrewphoto.com/cats/maynard1.jpg

This one was taken about 2 years ago. I'll have to scan more pics. I
have more recent pics as well as some older ones, though not the
really bright blue ones (can't find those). I have a nice one taken a
few weeks ago, but I gotta figure out where I put it.

http://www.zoocrewphoto.com/cats/maynard8.jpg


--
Meghan & the Zoo Crew
Equine and Pet Photography
http://www.zoocrewphoto.com

Ack! He is still cute. The tips of his ears curled!!

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote:

On 2005-02-01, Priscilla H. Ballou penned:

Does anyone else experience this when they have their cats neutered?


It's definitely a little bit sad to me. When I was nine years old, I cried
the day Puma (RB, dog) was snipped. But unfortunately, given the reality (way
too many unwanted pets, behavioral issues, and the inability to teach pets
"safer sex"), it's the best thing. At least in my opinion.

Oh, definitely. But sometimes the best decision can have accompanying feelings.

The spay procedure on girls is a lot more invasive than the neutering
procedure on boys. If I had thought it reasonable not to do this to Oscar, I
would have avoided it. But I'm glad she had it done.

I wonder if I'd react the same way if Francis were Frances and had been
spayed. Francis had big beautiful bulgy balls, and they are very
obviously Not There Anymore. It's a visible reminder of the loss.

BTW, he's home now and doing just fine. I'm probably seeing what I
expect, but he already seems to be behaving less agressively towards his
older siblings. This is a Good Thing.
;-)

Priscilla