08/29/2026
A few years ago, a family reached out for help. They had nine female cats that were pregnant and they asked if our rescue could help. I said, "Yes! I will give you ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐๐!" And they said, "Oh no, we could ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ spay a pregnant cat. That would be awful. We won't do that to the kittens. We will figure something out."
Eight weeks later they reached out, frantic. ๐ฑ They said, "We have 42 kittens and they all need homes immediately. We are handing the kittens out, but there are just so many of them! We are overwhelmed. We cannot afford to feed them all. Some are sick and need antibiotics... We plan to put them all outdoors if you cannot help." ๐ญ
It is SO HARD as a rescuer not to get frustrated and resentful. ๐๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ฑ๐ข๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ด๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. We understand that people feel guilty about it - But if you do not plan to take full responsibility for the kittens and you plan to dump those problems on someone else, you should not be allowing kittens to happen. Full responsibility is spaying/neutering all cats/kittens prior to rehoming. Not calling shelters and rescues and begging them to make room in the middle of kitten season. Not handing out more unfixed kittens in a community without any resources.
Every single one of those kittens... took away a home from another cat that already existed in our community - It cost our organization $4700 to spay/neuter all of those kittens and an additional $900 to fix the Moms ($5600 total and that did not even cover the expenses for the sick kittens ๐ข)... It used all our kennels, all of our funding, all our manpower... For a month, ๐๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ป ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ hit by cars and cats dumped in the woods and cats losing their housing, because someone got to say, "No. I do not agree with spaying a pregnant cat." ๐ญ
Please help the rescues get ahead in 2026. Help your community get ahead. Spay/abort is a controversial topic... But a necessary topic. We are in an overpopulation crisis. We all have to do our part.
*I found this on my phone from March and have no idea where it originated, but it's so important so I wanted to share.
