Conference misery::feline_v1

    He'll probably become more affectionate and stop "spraying" ( marking
    his territory with urine).
    
    In my opinion, he'll make a better pet.
    
    Deb

    I agree with Deb.  You'll probably see him more since he won't be
    out chasing the ladies!!!
    
    cin
    

    Besides, if your letting him OUT he should be neutered!
    

    OH ..I definitely agree with previous noters.. please have him nuetred
    soon.. for his own protection,, ...
    regards
    Kate.. pookie's mom..

    Another positive side-effect of neutering is that he
    (you) won't be contributing to the pet overpopulation
    problem.  
    
    donna

    All previous notes are true, but overlook one important positive
    benefit of neutering male cats:  financial gain.  
    
    Unneutered male cats fight.  Anything.  For any reason (food, territory,
    females, dominance, sheer cat "macho".)  A cat that fights gets
    cut up (you should have seen one of my roommate's cats after the
    raccoon got through with it...), and a cut up cat requires LOTS
    of EXPENSIVE veterinary care.
    
    Save money and extra kitties:  neuter your cat.
    
    Also:  be ready to watch his diet more closely as he'll have a tendancy
    to gain weight and overweight, neutered male cats have a predisposition
    to bladder infections (which makes for very unhappy cats....)
    
    Have you heard of the Friends of the Animals in Neptune, NJ?  They
    have a certificate program that helps you keep the cost of neutering
    down.  Your vet (or one that works with the FOA can give you details.)
    
    Good luck.
    
    MM                                                

    I realized something after I wrote the previous reply.  Even if your
    cat doesn't apparently start fights, some other cat may take
    him on some day and the result will be the same. 
    
    MM

    
    In my experience with our 2 male cats, neutering does not 
    in itself cause them to not want to roam around outside.  
    One of my males still loves to get outdoors whenever the
    door is open so he can munch on some grass.  The other, 
    never makes an attempt to go outside anymore.  (We keep 
    them both inside.)  And the one who used to like to go 
    outside so much is now very content at being a housecat.
    Seems to me it might just depend on how much the cats are
    let outside. 
    
    	

    I understand the need to control cat population, one of our cats
    got another of our cats pregnant again, but is it really necessary
    to stop them from having sex entirely?  I really don't think the
    cats would approve of it if they knew what being `fixed' means.
    I know I wouldn't let anyone do that to ME!  Our tom doesn't spray
    much at all, so I really think he deserves better.
    
    Is there any less extreme form of birth control for cats?
    Maybe a kitty-vastectomy, or kitty-birth-control-pills?
    

    I kid you not, Sweetie had a vasectomy.  It was done at the same
    time as some very sophisticated surgery, by a specialist vet.  I
    had no idea Sweetie was still "functional" until I brought Holly
    home.  She was run down from just getting over a respiratory infection,
    and had to build up her strength before she could be altered, and
    she went into heat before the operation was scheduled, and they
    had a mad affair all over the house.
    
    Of course, the female has to go into heat or she won't be receptive
    to the male, and I don't know what triggers heat in the female,
    so I don't know what sort of operation would be possible for a female.
     Note also that a male with just a vasectomy will still tend to
    roam and possibly get lost, get into fights with other tomcats,
    as an unaltered one.  Except Sweetie, of course, who is a sweet
    peaceable puss in any condition.
    

    Re: .9

    My own *personal opinion* is that cats don't get the same thing out
    of sex as humans do. (Of course, never having been a cat, I'm not 
    100% sure. ;-) After all, it is not just, er, the act itself but the 
    whole experience from the intimate, candle-lit dinner beforehand to 
    the tender moments afterwards that makes it an enjoyable experience. 
    Did you ever see a male and female cat do these things? :-) Do they 
    really look like they're enjoying sex when they're "doing it"? The 
    few that I've seen make it look like an exercise in brutality.

    Don't cats just have sex when a female is in heat and not just do it 
    for fun? My knowledge of biology and the facts of a cat's sex life 
    may be deficient, but I think if you gave your female cat birth 
    control pills she wouldn't go into heat, so she wouldn't attract 
    males, therefore she wouldn't *have* sex. So then what's the point 
    of not spaying her?

    I suspect being a whole male is a very high-pressure job -- having 
    vicious, bloody fights with other males, possibly getting the #$% 
    beat out of you, keeping the neighbors awake at night with yowling, 
    spraying to mark your territory.... all that trouble for a quick roll 
    in the catnip! 

    Let me give you a couple of examples of how my altered cats have 
    "suffered" along without sex: 

    Case #1:  Several years ago I had two neutered males, Alfie and Junie. 
    Then I adopted an abandoned, unspayed, female cat. (I knew Nikki was 
    not spayed because she was in heat when I found her.) From the start
    the three cats got along great; they slept together and groomed each 
    other. Alfie, the dominant cat, claimed Nikki as his, although there 
    was no fighting and all three were friendly. Two months later Alfie 
    died (diabetes and kidney failure). Junie, who had always been timid 
    and who had never "known a woman", now started acting "lover-like" 
    towards Nikki. (I think she came into heat again about this time, but 
    the details are fuzzy now.) They went through a romantic courtship 
    period, playing and cavorting with much tenderness and affection; it 
    was a reenactment of the falling-in-love scene in Walt Disney's "Lady 
    and the Tramp", except with cats. I did have Nikki spayed shortly after 
    that, but they remained devoted friends and lovers until Nikki died.

    Case #2:  Almost two years ago, I again had two neutered male cats,
    Junie and Fuzzy Wuzzy. Fuzzy was a year old when I adopted Misty, a 
    12-year-old, spayed female as a companion for Junie, who was 17. I 
    kept the cats separated for a week or so, then let Misty out of her 
    room in the basement to come upstairs and meet the guys. Junie 
    ignored her, but when Fuzzy saw her he started acting like he was 
    drunk, in love, in heat! He rolled around on the floor in a very 
    obscene manner, trying to attract Misty's attention. Then he played 
    with his stuffed mouse -- tossing it up in the air, chasing it, even 
    laying it at her feet at one point -- to show Misty how virile and 
    what a good hunter he was. Unfortunately for him, Misty wasn't 
    impressed (she was too homesick). After a day or two a dejected 
    Fuzzy took the hint and the relationship became platonic. However, 
    Junie and Misty became good friends and companions.

    The point to my long-winded reply is that I don't believe cats need 
    to have sex to enjoy life or to enjoy each other. 

    If you were to visit an animal shelter, where huge numbers of cats 
    and kittens -- whose only crime is being born -- are put to death 
    each year for lack of homes, and weighed that against the dubious 
    pleasure cats might get out of sex, you might have a different 
    perspective on the importance of cats having sex.

    Linda

BOTTOM LINE:

Cats mate when the female is 'ready' to breed...i.e., ready to get pregnant.
no female birth control is available that would allow mating as the male needs
a receptive female or HE doesn't get any sex and all forms of 'female'
type of birth control prevent the state in which the female can become
pregnant....so, if you give your male a vasectomy and spay your female,
 he will still be out trolling for females, gettting into fights, run 
over by cars, and all the other 'wonderful' experiences awaiting the 
sexually active male cat.

As much as you enjoy sex (don't we all?) scientific research indicates
it is a vastly different experience for the feline and canine members
of our families.....there is not indication that the animals miss the
breeding cycles once they are neutered, and they sure live longer and
healthier lives without them!