WHY?!!!! Do people do this..

Keeping all names and what not away from this but here is a post for another board i am on..

<<<OK, I want to breed my barn cat (I either keep my kittens of find homes for them) to my friends 6 toed Tom cat. I want some 6 toed kittens (like Hemingway had). Anyway, Bitsy (my beautiful barn cat) delivered 5 healty kittens today (2 calico, 2 gray and white, and 1 black and white). So how do you breed cats? Do you take the female to the male, or vice versa? How long after having kittens will she come into heat (seemed like last time it was just a few days). Any advice on how to go about it would be appreciated!! The tom cat lives about 40 minutes away, so I am afraid to have her just drop him off, and I don't want to take her there for fear that I will never see her again.>>

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY is this cat not fixed? UGH. The really sad thing to me, is that not one person. (aside from myself) asked that question, or asked why have more kittens...and this is a board of people who rip into people for not having "the best of the best of the best stud" (horse wise which i agree too but should this not apply for ALL animals)

Ugh i am beating my head on the wall right now.

You should invite the person to come to TCS saying we can give good advice on breeding cats Imagine their suprise when they get bombared with desex your cat!

Just kidding of course, but I hope you get the message across to them-

I like Sam's idea!

I thought about it! I really did! LOL...and you know its not out of the question yet..lol depending on the reply i get. I am trying not to be nice..so far and not freak out. what shocked me most was that NO ONE ELSE on the board said anything..about it.

Seems pretty standard when it comes to breeders. Hey, a decent mamacat should be able to pump out five litters a year, right?

They're probably saving up profits so they can buy some purebreed cats.

I would definately invite her to this site. Oftentimes, people don't understand about the overpopulation....and breeding 2 barn cats together is not a good thing. Has this cat been tested for FIV, FELV? Did it receive it's rabies shot? Hopefully by posting here she will receive some advice that will convince her to spay her barn cat and let it have a nice life.

Katie

Originally Posted by TNR1

I would definately invite her to this site. Oftentimes, people don't understand about the overpopulation....and breeding 2 barn cats together is not a good thing. Has this cat been tested for FIV, FELV? Did it receive it's rabies shot? Hopefully by posting here she will receive some advice that will convince her to spay her barn cat and let it have a nice life.

Katie

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Well after i said something so did a few other people hehe and i just sent her a novel about it. lets hope she reads it. It just bugs me beacause i have seen this same person comment on Stallions, and this and that...and than she does this..ugh to me there is just no diffrence at all. you hold one type of animal to a standard you should hold them all.

Originally Posted by Nano

Seems pretty standard when it comes to breeders. Hey, a decent mamacat should be able to pump out five litters a year, right?

They're probably saving up profits so they can buy some purebreed cats.

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haa...

I'll bang my head against a wall with you. WHY??? This cat has just had a litter and he can't wait to get another one under way so he can have a cat with extra toes. This is just silly. Fix the damn cat and get one from a shelter or rescue group. They are available, just look. It reminds me of an episode of Emergency Vets on Animal Planet about a year ago. A mama cat was having problems delivering her kittens. Turns out this was the cat's 18th litter. Yes, that is right, 18! I wanted to go to Denver and slap some sense into those people.

First off.... some people are ignorant. The post sounded like a post from some of the very young members on this board. Everything sounds all sweet and fun until you understand the real aspect of raising kittens and why people breed in the first place. (Not to bash teenages.... there are some VERY smart, good teen breeders on this board)

Okay maybe this person should go to Hemmingways house and see his cats first hand? I am sure they are all loved and taken care of, but they don't "appear" to be in the best of conditions. Some are VERY thin, a lot are very old looking. All feel like they need a bath. Not my ideal cat. Not all of them have extra toes. I am positive they are all looked after, fed and loved, but they look more like feral cats more than house cats.

Too bad some people are so self centered that they can't see the big picture!

Bobbie

i am banging my right with you!! people need to be educated about the overpopulation of animals. they need to be educated on how many unwanted animals there are at the shelters, and how many GREAT animals are put down every day, because of overpopulation. ALL of my animals have either come from the shelter or have been strays. i know so much about parvovirus in dogs, that when i started working at the vet clinic, the vet told me "I" knew more about parvo than she did!! i have 13 cats and 5 dogs. i wish there were better ways of educating people that they should spay/neuter their pets to prevent the overpopulation in the shelters. if anyone knows of any let me know!!

Common sense alone would tell this person to do a search thru Petfinders and find a six-toed cat, a sure thing, instead of breeding the barn cat & seeing how many in the next batch. It sounds to me like this person could use a pic or two of available 6-toed cats available from Petfinders. I can understand the attraction, I took in a pg. stray who gave birth to 7 kitties, 3 w/extra toes, that were like thumbs; those cats used their toes like thumbs, and loved to join my daughters in their wading pool - they used to accompany on taking the dog for walks and were just so friendly & outgoing, plus they learned tricks such as "give me your paw", "sit" & "up" just from me training the dog (You'd give the command to the dog, & the cats would do it). I think that the high IQ might have been signs of Siamese (they had the conformation, but not the coloring), and not the 6-toes; however, none of the other regular-toed cats had that type of personality.

Another thing about Polydactyls is the further down the line in the gene pool they get, the less likely they will have more polydactyls. The father may have the mutant gene and the 6 toes, but the mother does not, and is more likely to have normal kittens that carry the gene but not the toes. If by chance that Tom cat's parents were both normal, but carried the gene, and he was one or two of the litter to get the toes, he would carry the gene, but probably not the toes any further. I had a whole colony of stray wild Polydactyls living in my hay barn. After catching most of them and spaying and neutering them, the others that couldnt be caught in time, and were bred by more wild normal strays had fewer and fewer polydactyls even though they carried the gene still. As of today they are all fixed and tamed, they way they should be!

Originally Posted by catsknowme

Common sense alone would tell this person to do a search thru Petfinders and find a six-toed cat, a sure thing, instead of breeding the barn cat & seeing how many in the next batch. It sounds to me like this person could use a pic or two of available 6-toed cats available from Petfinders. I can understand the attraction, I took in a pg. stray who gave birth to 7 kitties, 3 w/extra toes, that were like thumbs; those cats used their toes like thumbs, and loved to join my daughters in their wading pool - they used to accompany on taking the dog for walks and were just so friendly & outgoing, plus they learned tricks such as "give me your paw", "sit" & "up" just from me training the dog (You'd give the command to the dog, & the cats would do it). I think that the high IQ might have been signs of Siamese (they had the conformation, but not the coloring), and not the 6-toes; however, none of the other regular-toed cats had that type of personality.

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Mine were completely different than yours! Yes, they were very smart, but I've had normal cats just as. My female Polydactyls were very moody and whiny! Most didnt like to be held, but didnt mind being petted though. The males were very nice, but loved to adventure and hunt.(These were barn cats) and to be kept inside would mean insanity to them. My Caroline(the one that just won at my daughter's cat show) is a direct line from a very prominent Ploydactyl. Her mother had 7 toes on all 4 feet, but Caroline is normal, and very irritable, moody, never purrs, and is the fussiest eater I've ever known! So they are all different just as normal cats are, it just depends on their blood line disposition.

You are right Wellington; she'll get soooo many responses about spay and neuter - it would be a good thing tho in that case. Now if she were really capable of breeding her kitty, we DO have some great breeders too but I digress.

btw W, I did get around to reading your profile (took me time to get better from that migraine - finally had to go the ER, there is nothing worse than a doctor who is a patient and usually I am good but the nurse could not get the IV in and I am so used to finding tiny veins that I put the &^% thing in myself. They wer not happy but I did get maxeril and after about 12 hrs, the headache was a dull throb instead of being a horrible pain!!) and noticed you are in NZ. Of course I knew that from yuour name. I have never been to Wellington tho I once gave a lecture at Univ of Ortego Med School. I met a fellow prof there who teaches there and we continue to be close friends. She of course lives in Dunedin - beautiful city!! Maybe one day I'll get to Wellington.

I did not realize how young you are - compared to me anyway, lol (I don't think I'm old but some days - heheh). I am a bit envious - I could not legally operate a cat rescue at your age, even tho I saved more than a few cats, I was unable to sign the adoption contracts - I did sign and a family member older than 18 could sign for me but it used to ^%& big time. How do you get around it or does NZ allow 15 yr olds to enter into legal contracts. I might have tried to look the other way but the welfare of the cats was paramount and if I'd had to reclaim one for some reason, I needed legal protection. Plus my grandfather was a Judge and would have been very upset with me if I'd looked askance of the law.

Anyway, good for you for having the resolve to operate your own cattery. That is a lot of work and responsibility and you take it seriously. And since I have many 15 yo patients, I know how serious and smart they are. I always vowed as a kid never to treat teenagers like some adults treated me at that age. Maybe it's partly why I became a pediatrician - being an adult is sometimes highly over rated.