Difficult Choices

Yesterday was the second Sunday of the month. Spay Day. Which meant more trapping. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed the “whore’s” belly bulging again. When she started poking her head around the traps, I had to make a very difficult choice. The Animal Coalition of Tampa, an absolutely phenomenal organization in every respect, will destroy pregnancies of cats brought in for Spay Day. They repeatedly tell you to try to trap pregnant ones to stop the cycle of homeless animals. Logically, I understand this. I really do. But my heart was torn.

I’ve resorted to standing behind the dumpster with a squirt bottle to dissuade the already fixed ones from going in the traps. Certain ones just don’t learn and I can count on them to get trapped several times. Saturday night I had to call my mom to ask her for her always wonderful advice on matters of conscience. I knew that the best thing for the situation was to trap the mama, but I still had to weigh the pros and the cons.

The pros:

• Maybe she is sick of being pregnant. I know she is the mother to at least two litters already. Maybe she just wants to be done with the carrying and the nursing and wants to be carefree like the rest of them.


• The worst thing you can do is trap a mother cat who’s nursing. Days away from her litter will cause the kittens to starve. By how far along she is now, I’m certain she can’t be nursing another litter somewhere.


• The kittens could be born sick.


• The weather is getting colder and they might struggle.

The cons:

• She can’t tell me any of this. All she knows is what nature has taught her. Maybe she’ll be sad.


• She could give birth in my apartment which would be terribly traumatizing for my entire household.


• I love kittens too much. I don’t want this on my conscience. If I know they are out there, I can look for them in 6-8 weeks and try to save them for Cat Call.

My mom helped a lot. We discussed the options and ultimately it was my decision. Realizing that doing this to her babies was my decision and not hers made me make up my mind for certain. Without delving into very touchy subjects, let me clarify I am pro-choice for us people. Not knowing what the mama’s choice would be I have to err on the side of life and let nature take its course.