Each year millions of healthy and lovable cats and kittens are euthanized at shelters and humane societies in our country because their numbers greatly exceed the number of available homes. While some pet parents claim that they have no trouble giving away their kittens, they should realize that their babies take homes away from other unwanted kittens. Also, if they were to call the adoptive homes one year after the adoption, they might be surprised to find that very few kittens still lived with the families that adopted them.
Many cats are surrendered to humane societies or abandoned at the age of 5-6 months. At this age they have outgrown their kitten cuteness and are beginning to exhibit adult behaviors such as territorial marking. While spaying (females) and neutering (males) can not make them remain eternally kittens (at least size-wise), sterilization can eliminate a number of annoying behaviors, such as:
An altered cat is likely to be a calmer, healthier, more content pet. Studies show that spayed and neutered cats have average life expectancies twice as long as those of unspayed and unneutered cats.