As Hazel was approaching the 6 month old mark, the time had come for her to be neutered.
But there was a problem.
Due to Covid restrictions, the earliest we could get an appointment was a month or so after her 6 month birthday.
This wasn’t ideal, but we had no choice.
Probably our fault for not thinking that far ahead but I guess we didn’t appreciate there’d end up being a clamour for pet neutering services post lockdown.
As our contract with the breeder, Basia, stipulated we would have to get Hazel neutered by the time she was 6 months old in order to receive a copy of her TICA registration (a common practice- see ‘Bengal Cat Scams: List of the Top 9 Things to Know to Avoid One‘) we thought we’d inform her of the delay.
Basia understood our predicament, but warned us that Hazel’s behaviour may change if/when she does come into heat and that there was a risk that she might start to spray.
Great…
Being locked down with a cat squirting urine around the house and not a thing we could do about it for a month wasn’t exactly welcome information, but I suppose, if it were to happen, at least now we would not be caught unaware.
But still, we had our fingers crossed Hazel would keep her legs crossed, if you know what I mean…
The Beginning, Middle and End
The first sign was a marked increase in miaowing, often at night.
Not her usual noise- this sounded more like a call, probably to attract males.
I kept telling her “Get to know them a bit first…”
She would then start to ‘present’ after having her name called- which was weird yet amusing.
We did feel sorry for her, but there was little we could do other than distract her with play.
She grew more affectionate in this period though- rubbing her head against our legs for example.
This heat-induced behaviour continued on and off for a few days at time over a period of about a month, until we finally had her neutered.
And fortunately, she never did commence spraying.
Further Reading:
