A dilemma for the owner of Meow Meow
About a month ago, my friend was recovering from the work day in his attic apartment. He had the TV on, he had his windows pulled wide open, and a pile of frozen french fries cooking in the oven. At some point during his relaxation, a beautiful orange stray cat jumped through his window. It started meowing, he started petting it, and by the end of the night, he decided he would keep it.
He called me the day after to tell me the story, because exactly the same thing had happened when we were roommates at university. An orange cat jumped through our window one night early in the fall semester, and "Marmalade" became a permanent resident. I actually didn't care too much for Marmalade, so she slept in his room.
I called my friend up a couple days ago for an update on his cat. What had he named it, did he buy a collar, etc.
He was driving in his car. He told me, "I'm taking my cat to have an abortion." I had never heard of such a thing before in my life. He had learned his cat was pregnant when he took her to the vet for shots. The animal doc heard his story and told him that it was very common for strays to try to find a home when they got pregnant.
My friend said the vet didn't give any counseling, but told him that if he wanted his cat -- which he's named Meow Meow -- spayed, it would also "terminate the pregnancy."
"I've thought a lot about it," my friend said. "While she came to me to have kids, I don't think it's good for there to be more cats in the world. There's six million of them in pounds across the country." He's making the choice for her. It turned out he had to wait until this Wednesday for an opening, so my friend still has time to make his final decision.
I didn't know what to tell him, but I've been thinking about it ever since.
