The lady had reared this black cat as a kitten. Now the cat caterwauls. She wanted her spayed, ear tipped by cutting off a piece of the tip of the left ear and put downstairs as she felt that changing of the litter was inconvenient. Her husband had passed away some time ago. Her children had grown up and had their own families.
"It is better to cut a bigger piece," I said. "Otherwise, the cat catcher would not know she had been spayed."
"Yes, it is better," a thin tom-boyish self-employed dog transport woman with crew cut hair interjected her remarks. She had bought in a female dog on heat for spay as the owner wanted a cheaper dog licence. An intact female dog licence is around $70.00 while a spayed one costs $14.00.
I looked at the 65-year-old lady who was accompanied by a much older senior citizen to 'protect her' she had jested. I thought: "This lady would be better off with a cat to keep her company as she was still grieving over the loss of her husband who would not see the doctor for some abdominal pain for one year."
By the time the husband consulted the doctor, he had some pancreatic tumour and passed away soon. The lady had seen me yesterday to spay her cat but the cat had eaten. Spay is recommended when the cat has been starved for the past twelve hours.
The lady said, "Maybe you cut the ear another time?"
I was surprised that she vacillated in her decision to spay and abandon the cat.
I said, "The cat would require some anaesthesia the next time. It would be better to tip the ears today after the spay."
The lady could not decide.
"Do you understand that your black cat may disappear once you leave her out of your apartment?"
"It will never happen," she said. "I see the two stray cats downstairs in the void deck every day."
"There is no guarantee in life that you will always see your cat at the void deck. Government cat catchers had been reported to use nets to trap and remove stray cats. There are town council people who cannot put up with cat complaints and get rid of them. There are pest control and town-council approved contractors who dislike cats being paid by those who dislike cats to capture your black cat. Or simply a naughty man who abuses cat."
The lady was distressed at such possibilities.
"But these are realities of life. If we don't give protection to the animal we love, they are at the mercy of many bad people and environment."
She still loved this cat. Other than the need to change cat litters and the strong smell of cat urine, I don't know why she wanted to get rid of this young cat.
I did not ask more.
As she could not decide, I said, "Let me spay her. When the time comes for you to give her up to fend for herself, let me know. Then I will cut the ear tip. In the meantime, she will stay overnight at the surgery after spay, without charge and go home tomorrow."
She seemed happy at this advice and went back home. This was one of the rare times I had some free time to talk to an owner. If not, it would just be spay, tip the ear and abandonment of this gentle 6-month-old cat.
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