It was charming to discover the first litter of kittens and to watch them grow. It was saddening to discover all except one disappeared but there is now another litter of four more kittens.
Since these litters gave nine healthy kittens in about a month, this elicited a request to neuter them and pets in general as nothing but heartbreak comes when pets are breeding without restriction.
It's not my purpose to argue that point as it is valid and the RSPCA would not have to put down so many animals if more pets were neutered. It is a brutal responsibility that has been relegated to them and it's all the more harsh in that no-one loves animals more than they but they have to kill them to keep the misery for strays from getting even worse. 'No-kill' pet shelters have beautiful intentions but the reality is that the sheer volume of unwanted pets makes it impossible to place all of them.
There are some things I observe about the place here and the first is that there were about seven or eight cats here when I first arrived. The landlord and his family had been living here for quite some time so something has been keeping the cat population under control, I just don't know the nature of it.
There is a good reason for having a population of outdoor cats here as the property is fairly large at an acre of more. The place is not maintained as the typical American golf course lawn but rather like a meadow and that means there is likely to be a substantial number of mice, snakes, etc in it. Controlling mice in a rental property when most of the units will be unoccupied in the Winter is an important priority so the cats do serve an important purpose.
I don't know what had been controlling the cat population up until when I arrived but something must have been or there would have been cats everywhere when I first got here. One commenter suggested someone will bag the extras and chuck them into the ocean every so often and perhaps this is true but I don't know that. Since there were five original kittens and only one remains, it may have happened already. As I've mentioned in the reports, I've seen far fewer of the adult cats as well.
So, I appreciate your comments and the point of neutering pets has high validity as pets going feral, particularly in a city, causes nothing but problems and heartbreak. I agree with the point on neutering as all pets I owned with the Mystery Lady were always neutered even though the cats rarely went outside.
I can't neuter the cats here as they aren't my animals and I don't have the resources to do it anyway. So I will continue writing kitten reports and observing. Perhaps it will also be warranted to periodically make a statement on neutering pets and I'm happy to do that as you wish.
Since these litters gave nine healthy kittens in about a month, this elicited a request to neuter them and pets in general as nothing but heartbreak comes when pets are breeding without restriction.
It's not my purpose to argue that point as it is valid and the RSPCA would not have to put down so many animals if more pets were neutered. It is a brutal responsibility that has been relegated to them and it's all the more harsh in that no-one loves animals more than they but they have to kill them to keep the misery for strays from getting even worse. 'No-kill' pet shelters have beautiful intentions but the reality is that the sheer volume of unwanted pets makes it impossible to place all of them.
There are some things I observe about the place here and the first is that there were about seven or eight cats here when I first arrived. The landlord and his family had been living here for quite some time so something has been keeping the cat population under control, I just don't know the nature of it.
There is a good reason for having a population of outdoor cats here as the property is fairly large at an acre of more. The place is not maintained as the typical American golf course lawn but rather like a meadow and that means there is likely to be a substantial number of mice, snakes, etc in it. Controlling mice in a rental property when most of the units will be unoccupied in the Winter is an important priority so the cats do serve an important purpose.
I don't know what had been controlling the cat population up until when I arrived but something must have been or there would have been cats everywhere when I first got here. One commenter suggested someone will bag the extras and chuck them into the ocean every so often and perhaps this is true but I don't know that. Since there were five original kittens and only one remains, it may have happened already. As I've mentioned in the reports, I've seen far fewer of the adult cats as well.
So, I appreciate your comments and the point of neutering pets has high validity as pets going feral, particularly in a city, causes nothing but problems and heartbreak. I agree with the point on neutering as all pets I owned with the Mystery Lady were always neutered even though the cats rarely went outside.
I can't neuter the cats here as they aren't my animals and I don't have the resources to do it anyway. So I will continue writing kitten reports and observing. Perhaps it will also be warranted to periodically make a statement on neutering pets and I'm happy to do that as you wish.
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