I took Sheba into the vet today because I was concerned at how pregnant she is, how little she is and how young she is. The vet agreed with me, she got taken on her first heat cycle which means she is just 6 months old. She is carrying 7 plus kittens and they are due to arrive any day.

I had a long talk with my vet and even though my heart weeps, I have left Sheba there for an emergency spay. I hope no one thinks less of me for this decision. I don’t like and it just shouldn’t be this way. But it is, what it is and until people decide to act responsibly towards their cats, this type of situation will occur again.

I talked with other rescuers who I know I can cry on their shoulders and they agreed I did the right thing. It is the worse of spots to be in- to factor in Sheba’s age, the fact that she probably never really had a mom and therefore has no maternal skills. Her unsure history of whether she got proper nutrition, because even though she is pregnant, she is skinny in places she should be fat. This means that the kittens could have compromised immune systems and my hands would be full with bottle feeding so many mouths.

There are NO homes for kittens here. People can email me and tell me to try harder to find homes for them (which by the way really hissed me off!) No one tries harder than I do to find homes for these kittens and cats. We are looking at a bad economy, a dying town and a state with the highest unemployment rate in the country. My other kittens have been on petfinders now for almost 4 weeks and there have been no clicks on their details. No one wants another mouth to feed.

So on the way home from the vet, I wept for the lost ones who should have never been. It is so unfair and sad.