If you think having kittens is nothing but fun - well, just wait until they're six to eight weeks old. That's the time when they take over the house, curiously investigating everything and getting into or causing trouble most of the time. They would jump on tables, knock things over, fall into the bath tub when chasing bubbles, crawl under the sofa and get stuck, and one managed to climb the curtains up to the ceiling, and then hung up there screaming for help. Looking back, it seems I was busy all the time, either rescuing a kitten of cleaning up the mess. Which was quite a job with eleven kittens.
That was the time when I finally locked myself up in the bathroom for a minute of peace and quiet, and tried to find out what had gone wrong. From the minute I learned that both my cats were pregnant I knew there was nothing I could do to change it. Even though the kittens came unexpected, even unwanted, I never thought about having them aborted. It wasn't their fault, and I couldn't let them pay for it. But the whole situation could have been avoided, had I just been more educated.
Of course I knew that when male and female cats live together, spaying and neutering is a must to avoid having offspring. The one mistake I made was that I relied on friend's recommendations rather than seeking help from experts.
I had often heard that cats must not be spayed or neutered before the age of six months, that an early spay/neuter would result in them stopping to grow and having all kinds of health problems later in life. Like so often in life, there's always a "true story" that a friend had heard from a friend who had heard it from a friend who had heard it from a friend etc. I haven't counted them but there must have been at least four "true stories" about female cats that died after being spayed, and about the same number of "true stories" about toms that had all kinds of health and behavior problems after being neutered. In my inexperience, I believed these stories, and never doubted their medical value or reliability. Later on, when the kittens had turned my house into an archeological site, I tried to track down the people who had really lost a pet due to an early spay/neuter, and surprise, surprise - I didn't even find one!
Angel and Mandy were my first female cats ever, and little to nothing did I know about cats in heat, silent heats and the like. The likeliest source of information seemed to be my friend who owned the girls' mother, and she was more than willing to share her experiences with me. She not only described Duchesse's behavior during the heat but also told me that Maine Coons are rather slow in their development, and that it was likely the girls would take after their mother and not come into heat before their tenth month. Looking back, it seems strange that I never doubted a word she said, even though I knew that Angel and Mandy were from an "Oops"-litter. Maybe it's only human to rely on what a friend tells you rather than on things you read or hear from strangers.
I had Paul neutered as soon as he was six months old. Unfortunately, it had been done just one or two days too late, and as the girls both had silent heats (a natural behavior when female cats live with an intact male, he can smell their condition anyway so there's no need for them to put on a show and try to attract a tom) I didn't realize what was going on - until it was too late.
Raising the kittens stressed us all out, Angel and Mandy physically and emotionally, and me emotionally and financially. Sleepless nights when I had to get up every two hours to check the nursing and feeding, the cost for food, litter and vet bills for vaccination, check-ups, scans and the like. The total amount of money I spent on the kittens was about five times as much as spaying both cats would have cost me, and besides, I don't think that an early spaying could have done more harm than having the kittens actually did to both girls. When the kittens were old enough to be given to new owners, another problem occurred: I just couldn't find good new homes for them all! Only three found loving and caring new "tin openers". More bills piled up, this time for newspaper ads, but to no effect. Even though German shelters are no-kill shelters, I just couldn't stand the thought of abandoning my babies there. In the end, Steve and I decided to keep them.
I made my mistakes and paid for them. Even though I consider myself rich in terms of love given and returned, I've learned my lesson well - that having a cat spayed/neutered is a decision that must not be taken lightly or delayed for too long, and that preventing unwanted offspring is an act of true love.