Uuuggghhh.... What a night.... Mia is in heat!!
The last few days I noticed that she was becoming more and more affectionate but just thought she was getting use to me and all the new attention I was giving her. Mia's also been meowing at night since I got her. The first few nights it was just a little but then it got to be more and more. At first I thought she wanted more wet food, I only feed her one can a day but leave dry food down all the time. I would shoo her and tell her that she wasn't getting anymore and she should eat dry food if she was hungry. The next night as soon as I went to bed the meowing started again but this time she still had a little wet food left so I knew it wasn't that and since she sits by the front door when she does this(not over by the open window), I assumed maybe she was missing the other cat she use to live with.
Now none of this meowing has been annoying so far. Mia starts as soon as I get into bed for about 10-15 minutes and then stops till around 8am, plus her cry is so soft it wasn't agonizing to listen too. Yesterday however I noticed she started meowing a little bit more during the day and was rolling all over the carpet and then I saw her start kneading her back legs, kinda like she was walking in place. I was concerned because I had never seen any cat do this before and was afraid she was going to start peeing around the house. You see, my last cat Olivia was never fixed and I never saw her go into heat in the ten years that I had her, so I had no idea what to look for.
Thank goodness for the intranet. I researched her symptoms on various sites and all said she was in heat. In fact she clearly displayed every symptom the computer said she would. I kinda thought she may be too young for this but did you know they can start heat cycles as young as four months?!
The first day I got her I started calling around my area looking for a vet. My last vet was over 45 minutes away and I didn't like them so I wanted to switch to someone else. The couple I got Mia from said that she had had all of her kitten shots but was due for a checkup and they would look into getting her records from their vet to pass on to my new one.
The place closest to my house said it was $44 for a office visit plus a $14 one time record setup fee. OK $58 was no big deal and I could work with that. I next asked how much it would be to spay her and declaw.... $619!! I actually gasped into the phone and asked the lady if she was kidding. I thanked her for the info and said I was going to call around and call back if I chose to make an appointment. All the other places I called were right around the same ballpark... Yikes!! I had no idea that it cost so much. I figured for now I would take her in to be checked out and save my money for the summer and whenever I could afford it would have Mia taken care of. I figured I had plenty of time since she was so young still, Boy was I wrong!
The other night before I even realized she was in heat I was watching the local news and every week they spotlight a pet from the local SPCA that is up for adoption and give all sorts of info. One of the things they were talking about was how in June they were running a program to help Spay or Neuter pets in the area. Our SPCA use to have a hospital attached to it where you could go and get reasonable priced vet care but due to lack of funds last summer it closed so we are no longer able to have our pets fixed at the SPCA. I decided to call and see what it was about but found out it was for low-income families and even though I'm only making 60% of my salary being out of work, I still make too much to qualify. Are you kidding me?? It's not like I'm rolling in the cash over here. I live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings account!
While I was on the intranet looking up her symptoms I thought I'd see if there were any programs available and I actually found one! FriendofAnimals.org offers discounted certificates to get your pet spayed or neutered. The cost of a female cat was only $65!! The way it works is you order and pay for the certificate online and once you get it in the mail you can call a vet from their list of participating vets and make an appointment to have your pet taken care of. I checked out the list and found a vet on there that was approx 20-30 minutes away... hey if it's gonna save me over $550, I'll take the drive!
So I have a solution to my problem however there is a few hick-ups. I don't' get payed till June 2ND so I won't be able to order the certificate till then. Then I have to wait for the certificate to come in the mail, hopefully this won't take long. Then last but not least, they won't fix a cat that's already in heat so you have to wait till between cycles. I'm really praying and hoping the whole process doesn't take more than a month!
3 comments:
Yikes! Our cat is neutered, thank goodness. I was bummed to hear about the hospital closing too. We went there to have our other cat put to sleep a couple years ago. $35 instead of the $125 the regular vet wanted. we couldn't afford that! Did you call the vet on the list, to make sure they accept those certificates? I might call them, to make sure. You can't always trust the internet. It's like a bitchy, best friend. Cool, full of gossip, but can screw you over if you're not careful. Good luck with Mia. BTW, every time I see MIA in a post title, I'm thinking, who's missing in action?!?!
Sarah~
Yup I'm defiently gonna call them first, they're in Blanford which isn't actually that far from my house. If not there's another one in East Hartford. Either way the drive(even with gas prices) is cheaper than $619!! I'll probably only use that vet for the spaying and then get one thats closer to my house.
We actually used a Friends of Animals certificate when we got our cat spayed last year and it worked great, no problems or hidden fees or anything like that. The certificate comes pretty fast and hey, any wait is better than paying $619! Good luck!
Post a Comment