Spay & Save Event a Huge Success

Save lives – spay or neuter your cat.  That’s the mantra we followed on Sunday, July 17 when we admitted 18 cats to be sterilized.

There are thousands of unaltered cats living and roaming around in the greater Portland and Vancouver area.  Female cats have the ability to become pregnant as early as six months of age and can have 1-2 litters a year.  It’s a vicious cycle that contributes directly to the overpopulation of unwanted cats.  Contrary to popular belief, cats cannot survive on their own for long without human help.  Cats have been domesticated and therefore rely on us humans to feed them, give them shelter and protection, and take them to see a veterinarian when they are sick or injured.  So, when more and more cats roam our streets and neighborhoods trying to stay alive, they end up suffering and many starve to death.  These unwanted cats end up at the animal shelter and are euthanized.  It’s a tragic story.

However, The Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland and local veterinary hospitals have come together to pool their resources to hopefully write a new, happier ending to this sad story.  The Spay & Save program was created to reach out to lower income families who might need some extra help to have their cats sterilized.  The goal is to make spaying or neutering your cats an affordable procedure for everyone so we only have wanted cats living in our community.  We want to end the suffering.  Each month, Multnomah County Animal Services,  Oregon Humane Society, Feral Cat Coalition, Cat Adoption Team, and other local veterinary hospitals make special arrangements to be available to perform spay and neuter surgeries for this program.

Our day to be of service was Sunday, July 17th, 2010.  We had 17 members of our health care team volunteer their time to make this event a huge success.  Spay & Save clients called 503.802.6755 to make an appointment and then came our way early Sunday morning.  We had folks at the front desk checking clients in, doctors and technicians performing pre-anesthesia exams, and then patients were transferred to our surgery team and finally our recovery team.  Once each patient was fully awake and ready to go home, we then met with each caretaker to explain home care instructions.

We received several kind words and compliments and even a few thank you cards.  One Spay & Save client asked how she could help volunteer for this program and gave us some really cool, handmade refrigerator magnets.  We had a great day knowing we were making a difference.  It can be a bit overwhelming to think about the thousands of cats that are homeless and suffering.  But if you stay with that thought and ask yourself, “What can I do today to make a difference,” the answer becomes clear.  Start by spaying or neutering 10-20 cats, or in some cases 40-50 cats.  That’s exactly what we started to do to break this vicious cycle and dramatically lower the unwanted cat population.

Dr. Angela Casazza, one of our associate doctors who also volunteers time at the Feral Cat Coalition, took the lead for our hospital and worked closely with certified veterinary technicians Loralei, Jenn, & Regan to plan and prepare for this day.  They spent several hours working through all the details to make sure we had everything ready to take good care of our Spay & Save patients.   We know how special and important dogs and cats are to us humans.  They bring us happiness and joy and they help us become better people by teaching us compassion, patience, and unconditional love.  We can definitely visualize a day when there will be no more unnecessary suffering due to unwanted pets continuing to procreate and add to the pet overpopulation problem.