Gideon's Big Day

On September 24th, we made the decision to bring Gideon to the spay/neuter clinic hosted by Denver county to have him altered at exactly 6 months old. Of course, we already knew long in advance that we'd have him neutered, but the clock felt like it was ticking over us constantly. The breeder we got Gideon from, like many breeders, felt that it would be best to wait until he was 8-9 months old before altering him so that he could reach his full size potential before taking away his natural testosterone.

However, many cat experts and veterinarians (ours included) don't feel like this is necessarily the case and more harm can be done in waiting, the most frightening of them for me being that male cats tend to attract stray cats and start having peeing wars to mark territory and make themselves known. Once marking behaviors starts, it's extremely difficult to stop and more likely to come up in the long run once they "get the idea" in their minds. I've read horror stories of male cats starting this behavior as early as 5 months.  I wanted to comply with the breeder and perhaps find a happy medium of times when we could have it done, but around 5.5 months, we found evidence of a pee spot on a dog bed by the door with a rather feline odor.  Now, it's possible a dog could have peed on it and made him think it was suitable, and it wasn't a "spray" type of pee. But just the same, we agreed that 6 months would have to be our happy medium.

The Denver Dumb Friends League offers a free spay/neuter clinic for cats, regardless of income level. For us, this was especially helpful, as I'd rather donate the cost of what the vet was charging ($200) to animal welfare for what is realistically a very simple procedure. Another huge bonus was that it takes place on weekends; to take Gideon to our vet during the hours specified would be quite a juggling act for my husband and I and would likely cause him longer, all-day discomfort rather than just a few hours.

The whole process was an early-morning excursion and not one I'm sure Gideon would like to repeat, but at least it's done. Gideon did well in his recovery, and I fondly got to see that my cat is a happy drunk. We were warned that cats tend to be defensive, frightened, and grumpy when coming out of their anesthetics, but Gideon was a bit of the opposite. He waltzed out of his carrier like he owned the place (which, as a cat, he thinks he does), greeted each of the dogs with a head rub, and seemed to be in a great mood the rest of the day like he was just happy to be out of there.

I am a little sorry we didn't feel that we could wait as long as the breeder wanted, and will feel bad if the act stunts his growth any, but 6 months is a bit longer than most adopted cats get to have and is at least the onset of puberty. He doesn't seem any the wiser in the longrun and, I can say, maintains his perfectly litterbox habits with less cat-calling at doors!

My handsome guy at 6 months