A new kitty...

I have a new kitty coming to stay with us.  She is a young, very small Siamese who was stuck in a fence near the railroad tracks.  A city employee found her and brought her to a nearby vet.  This poor kitty is really scratched up and has severely scraped paw pads.  We do not know if she is feral yet but we do know she is pregnant!  She is in a lot of pain and is understandably totally freaked out.  Basically, she is acting feral but she might just be scared to death and in a lot of pain.  We will just have to give her time to feel better and see if she is feral or not.

We don't know how long she was stuck in the fence but we know she was terrified.  The fence is near the railroad tracks which means the train went by her (loudly) and it shook the ground as it went by.  She nearly ripped off her paw pads while trying to escape.

I will know more on Monday.  She is going to come stay with us after she is feeling better.

Update on "feral" cat

In the middle of the night, the feral cat was meowing and moving around. She had not really moved since I brought her home.

She looks a lot better. She ate last night and drank some water.

My pregnant feral cat dilemma Pt. 2

My true feelings came out this morning. I no longer have to wonder what I think about the situation. I am not sure if I was in shock or what last night but I wasn't thinking clearly.

I was talking to my boyfriend about this in the car this morning. After about 5 minutes of him telling me how sad he was about the kittens, I started to cry. I saw it so clearly.

I cannot believe that I did not go with my initial instinct of keeping the cat here to have her kittens. I knew the "ethical" answer at the very beginning but I was persuaded by different outside sources.

I feel deeply saddened that this happened and I will never do it again.

I believe in not killing any living being unless they are sick to the point of no return. There was nothing wrong with this kittens, that I know of. They had every right to a chance in life as any other animal...these kittens just weren't born yet.

I read and read online last night to get different perspectives on this issue. There are many perspectives. None of them really helped me.

This morning I made up my mind about it and I do not believe in killing any animal unless they are sick. That includes, not killing kittens, in utero.

Of course there is a pet overpopulation problem. That is evident. It does not mean we should go around killing innocent unborn kittens. They are already here. All we can do is prevent new births.

I deeply regret what I did. In humans, I believe life begins at conception. I do not agree with abortions at any time during the pregnancy. Why didn't I think about that when I was contemplating what to do with these kittens? I think everyone has a right to life. I was influenced by outside sources and didn't listen to my instincts. Next time, I will trust myself and only myself.

I made the decision but I will never make that decision again. Ever.


This is her this morning:

My pregnant feral cat dilemma

I have been helping a woman trap some semi-tame ferals in her neighborhood. We put out the traps this morning. Out of a possible 8 cats, we caught 1.

She was pregnant.

I had a really hard time deciding what to do. I talked to the people at No More Homeless Pets Kansas City and they told me there was not a way to tell how far along she was without a sonogram. I felt pressured to have the kittens aborted...but I am still the one that made the decision. So, I said to spay her.

I am still not sure if I did the right thing. During her surgery, they found out that she was really far along in her pregnancy and her kittens were aborted. I didn't ask how far along she was (but I assume she was close to giving birth) or how many kittens there were.

I don't want to know.

The woman at No More Homeless Pets told me how there are already too many kittens out there...blah blah blah. I know all of that. These are kittens that were already created...they are already here-just not born yet. I believe in spaying and neutering to prevent kittens, not kill ones that are here or in the womb.

Did I indirectly kill these sweet kittens?

Should I have done it differently? I already have 5 cats here and that is about my limit in terms of my energy level. All of these cats need food, water, a clean litter box and love and attention. I asked around at the shelter I volunteer at and every else has a lot of cats too. It's kitten season and lots of people are fostering kittens or cats. There was nobody available to take the kittens.

I was told over the phone by someone at NMHPKC who said if the cat is put under anesthetic and she is pregnant that it would cause problems for the kittens.

After doing some research, I am not sure that is the truth. It might depend on what type of anesthetic they use. I haven't found a clear answer.

All I know is that I have been thrown into a moral dilemma that I can't undo. All I can do is decide what to do the next time this happens.

:(
This is her after I got her home:

This is her later in the evening: