Sex and the Kitty

As an avid cat lover, I can attest to the fact that cats literally breed like rabbits - and this is no joke. For those of us that love cats, we know all about Sex and the Kitty - that 1 cat that turns into 2....3.....4... and more cats. And sometimes very quickly - before we can even blink an eye.

My kitten Shasta (that was still just a kitten to me) - proceeded to get pregnant at the tender age of 6 months. Because I was not very familiar with cat pregnancy, I did not think that she could pregnant at such a young age - so I wasn't in a particular hurry to get her fixed.

WRONG.

Several weeks later she presented us with 3 kittens - and being the sucker that I am - I ended up keeping all 3 kittens, which now brought my cat family to a total of 5 cats ( I also had another Siamese that I had rescued from the pound - but she was fixed already)

So now being the owner of 5 cats - and not wanting to do a repeat of another teenage cat pregnancy - I proceeded to get all the kittens fixed at a young age.

Feeling pretty proud about myself now for being a responsible cat owner, I got comfortable with the fact that there would be no more cat additions to the family ( 5 was quite enough!)

WRONG AGAIN.

One day while out watering I spied something lurking below my bathtub planter. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a young cat, looking for a new home. Not wanting anymore cats, I decided to try to find a home for this one, but YUP. you guessed it- SPARE CAT number 6 became a member of the family due to my families insistence that they would help take care of her.

RIGHT....UH...HUH....

I should have known better when they gave me that song and dance about taking care of the new cat......

So yes I now had a another cat, unspayed, and you guessed it- before I could get her down to the vet - presto, another teenage pregnancy. ( I think when you get a cat you need to take them within minutes of them arriving and get them spayed IMMEDIATELY!)

So - Yup - now I have 2 more kittens, further raising my cat population - once again.

Too much sex and the kitty for me.

Anybody want a kitten???

According to statistics, two breeding cats can have two litters per year. With roughly 2.8 surviving kittens per litter and a breeding life of 10 years, those cats can multiply to more than 80 million cats and kittens in ten years! The ASPCA estimates that 10 million cats and dogs are killed each year in the US due to a lack of homes. This is a deplorable situation, but it is not a hopeless one. To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, "Our greatest inhumanity to animals is not hating them, but being indifferent to them."

So what is the solution to this Cat breeding explosion?

Get your cats spayed ASAP. Don't be like me and assume because you have a young animal that your cat won't get pregnant. I can almost guarantee that if you have outside cats and they are not spayed THEY WILL GET PREGNANT, and it can happen very quickly - again - and again!

Remember, 2 possible litters in one year!

(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher on the internet and an avid pet lover. If you have enjoyed this article a thumbs up would be appreciated and feel free to join Dorsi's reader/fan club. You can also subscribe to her RSS feed which will notify you when she publishes a new article. Thanks for stopping in to read and hope you enjoyed the kitty faq's!)