“Hi! I’ve got a question that I can’t seem to get answered. WHEN is a good time to get a pet spay/neutered? Speaking of an 8 month old female Boxer. Although she is too young to breed at this point, I don’t want her to have any puppies – EVER. So when (or how soon) should I look to get her fixed? Thanks for your help. Tim” This is a real email exactly as we received it last week, and Tim ask a very valid question! The answer is…
For Tim and his 8 month old female Boxer, the answer is RIGHT AWAY! She is not too young to breed. Puppies and kittens can go into heat and get pregnant at 5 months of age. Over the past decade shelters and vets are seeing younger and younger pets coming in pregnant, most owners don’t realize their baby can have babies if they are not careful!
Spaying before a pet’s first heat is the most effective way of reducing hormone-related cancers later in life (like mammary cancer). Though Tim’s dog is more than likely past her first heat, she can still benefit from the many health and behavioral bonuses, which SpayUSA does a great job of describing on their Spay/Neuter Benefits page here.
SpayUSA also has a lot of helpful Q&A in their FAQ, including these two about the best age to get a pet fixed:
How old does my pet need to be in order to be spayed or neutered?
For many years, veterinarians were taught that cats and dogs had to be a year old to be spayed or neutered. Later, they were taught that six months was appropriate. Today we know that kittens and pups can be spayed or neutered at the age of two months (or two pounds). The American Veterinary Medical Association has endorsed this practice called Early Age Neutering; the animals recover more quickly from surgery when they are young. Today some vets will spay/neuter at eight weeks of age, while other adhere to the old practice of six months of age. The average age at which pets are spayed or neutered is four months.
How young can a female cat/dog get pregnant?
“Adolescent” cats and dogs as young as five months can get pregnant. For many reasons, it is important to spay or neuter BEFORE the first litter is born – before six months.
Here is our Adopt-a-Pet.com page about the benefits of spay/neuter too!
Need help finding a low-cost spay or neuter vet or clinic? First, ask you current vet, they may provide discounted low-cost days. If not, for a local referral, call (800) 248-SPAY (7729) or email SpayUSA@AnimalLeague.org
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We love infographics about pets and animals! This great one has lots of fun cartoon drawings of dogs combined with a bunch of facts in easy-to-digest little blurbs about the health benefits, companionship, home securtity, how they teach responsibility, increase social interaction, help with day to day tasks, and provide humans with entertainment! It was created by the website 
April 27 is National Hairball Awareness Day for 2012! (Really!) The holiday (hairiday?) always falls on the last Friday in April. The first time I ever heard my cat hacking up a hairball, I thought he was choking to death. I was frantically digging the carrier out of the depths of my closet to rush him to the vet when he hurled up the offending mass in the middle of the hallway rug. Ewwwwww. For newbie cat owners, like me at the time, the gross wet ball of hair was not anything I’d understood from my crash-course in new cat ownership. To me, the word “hairball” conjured up a dry, fluffy thing – not a sticky smelly mess. I knew that almost all cats would regurgitate the hair they’d groomed off themselves (or their feline friends), some more frequently than others. That hairballs in cats are more likely to appear in long-haired breeds, such as Persians and Maine Coons. But even shorthair cats that shed a lot or who groom themselves compulsively can have frequent hairballs, because they swallow a lot of fur. My new cat apparently fell into the latter category. Aside from the gross factor to us humans, hairballs can actually be dangerous to a cat’s life if they form a blockage that the cat can’t safely cough up. So I quickly learned what I could do to help reduce hairballs in his system – and on my carpet! Here’s what I found suggested in books, by my vet, other cat owners, and online.
I am very proud to be able to tell people about her and how she came to live with me. Here is another picture so you can see what she looks like. She is short and long, 25 lbs, she looks like a Dachsund and a Lab both. Sounds like a Lab when she barks (which is not often, just during play and fixin’ of supper!! She has the best of both as far as her personality. I give my permission for the use of the pictures and the story… maybe it will inspire someone to get out and rescue one of these beautiful doggies or kitty cat, to make their life complete.
TargetCW is one of those companies we just love because they totally get it when it comes to pet adoption. A payrolling and staffing company located in San Diego, they not only advocate for homeless pets, they’ve gone ahead and implemented a 
We can’t imagine a more perfect combination – modern design for cats and a website that supports cat adoption! That’s our friends over at 
The wonderful pet-loving folks over at 
Welcome to my foster cat house & catios! Have you ever dreamed of moving to the country where you could have lots of animals? Or wished you had more room so you could foster more pets? I found out that I didn’t have to wait till I lived on my fantasy 100-acre animal sanctuary to make my wish come true. I just had to re-imagine, reconfigure and renovate the small suburban space I already had available, on the side and back of my home. For a long time I’d saved bookmarks when I saw a really amazing cat enclosure or cat sanctuary online. But when I saw the photos in the New York Times article on catio enclosures in the summer of 2010, I knew it was time to turn my mini cat sanctuary dreams into drawings, plans and reality! Here’s how I did it, along with a photo gallery at the end, including of lots of photos of my foster cats who’ve been enjoying the results until they find loving adoptive homes!
We love Franny’s the Cats Guide over at