1335. Offspring of the dam in Picture 1471. Is the cat a he or she? Owner wanted to "spay" her.

"You must have brought in a stray cat that had been spayed before," I postulated as she was very kind towards strays and would get them sterilised if they linger around her house. Soon, many strays came to her house for dinner, queuing up patiently. She spent around $200 per month on cat food, she told me. She was a freelance professional woman
and I presumed she could afford to help some strays.

"No, no, no, no" the cat lady pursed her lips and looked at me with a smile at the same time. "I don't go around Singapore bringing in stray cats for sterilisation. Only those street cats roaming near my house."

This cat lady is as serene as the pussy cats who perch on her writing table as she does her paper work. She had shown me a camera picture of the 4 house cats.

She continued: "This cat was born in my house and I rear her as a kitten to this age. So there is no way she had been sterilised by the cat welfare volunteers who trap-neuter-return the cats after sterilisation!"

This time, I thanked the divine powers above that she did not bring the cat to me to "spay." Otherwise I would also be in the same predicament of having to explain why I could not find the female reproductive organs. Vet 1 still had to charge her for zero performance and she was a tad upset. Zero performance does not mean zero payment. This gentle lady who always instill a stress-free reaction from me whenever we converse, did pay Vet 1's bill and for that, I appreciate her for not being predatory on veterinary performance. After all, Vet 1 had done a good job and it was not his fault that there was no womb discovered.     

As she came to me, I still had to resolve her problem of why Vet 1 could not find the womb. Going back to basics, a physical examination was the starting point. 

It was a big surprise to me when I found out that this cat looked feminine as indicated by a well developed vulva. But hidden inside between the vulval folds, there was the male organ relatively well developed. 

1336. It was reasonable to assume that the cat was a she as the scrotum was undeveloped.

1337.  Vet 1 spent an hour but found no uterine horns.

1338. A very rare case of a bisexual cat.

"The cat is a bisexual," I showed the cat lady the sexual manifestations of the male and the female genitalia. The cat lady's anger was assuaged as I managed to show her that the cat was also a "he" although there were no developed scrotum and adult testicles.

Some 8 weeks had passed since my encounter with the cat lady who had confounded the veterinarian by presenting a bisexual cat to "spay".

On a fine Sunday morning of July 26, 2008, the cat lady and her husband came with a female cat. I thought she had completed her sterilisation of all street cats near her house and inside her house.

Seeing me dumbfounded, she prompted: "Doc, remember the bisexual cat?"

"Yes," I said seriously. How could I forget when bisexual cats are as rarely encountered or sent in for sterilisation.  

The cat lady said: "This is the mother of the bisexual cat. I need to get her spayed."

I presume that since this cat had borne 2 kittens in 2 litters, I would not be played out by the divine powers above and would not suffer from zero performance. Man proposes but God disposes, so it is better to check properly. 

"Why do you want to spay her?" I asked the cat lady who seemed to have slimmed down much more than before. Certainly the operators of the numerous Singapore slimming saloons and doctors offering liposuction would have zero business from her. 

"Well, this cat was on heat for the past 3 days. She had stained my writing table with her vaginal bleeding. In addition, her son whom you neutered 2 months ago is now grown up to be as big as his father. He has been hissing and staring at his father. He wants to fight with his father to be able to be with her."

1471. Dam has large cystic ovaries.

"Really?" I was surprised that the neutered cat still has his testosterone level sufficient to organise a confrontation with the sire.  

The cat lady continued: "The father would not have any disrespect from his son. He just approach him and just swipe him with a sudden thrust of his right paw."

"Like Muhammad Ali knocking out Joe Frasier with a left hook?" I asked. "How old is the father?"

The cat lady elaborated: "He is 14 years old but he is as vigorous as ever. He defends the inside of the house well. He is so domineering that all outside cats dare not enter the house." 

"Is he really 14 years old?" I doubted it.

"I adopted the pair from a couple who wanted to emigrate. I was told about his age then. Because he is 14 years old, he can only produce one kitten in the last two litters from this female cat. One is the bisexual. The other you had neutered. The father had also been neutered by you sometime ago."

"How do you know that the old man is to be blamed for being less fertile? It could be the fault of the female?"  

The cat lady hesitated at this challenging reply. She did not disagree and continued: "It is so noisy in the house for the past 3 days. These two males confront each other over the mother cat on heat. Rough play. I just need to spay this mother cat today as she is also bleeding and dirtying the house."

I asked: "Is the bisexual cat jumping into the fray too?". How would a bisexual cat react to a female cat on heat I wondered?  

1474. Bisexual offspring behaved differently from the neutered male offspring towards sire.

"No, no, no..." the cat lady shook her head waving her short-cropped hair, "She, I mean he... behaves gently, like a female cat, if you know what I mean." 

I did not know what she meant. Seeing my puzzled eyes, she said: "The bisexual cat just wanted to be close to the mother cat all the time. No confrontation or hissing with the other two male cats you had already neutered."

As the cat lady did not ask why neutered cats still behaved like intact males, I did not have to answer the question.

What pheromones did this dam produce such that the two neutered cats could still be attracted towards her.

Has she lots of the female oestrogenic hormones such that she had an overwhelming sexual attraction even towards neutered cats? Her pheromones must have had activated the brains of the two neutered cats stimulating them to fight for breeding territorial rights?

Perhaps her ovaries were over-producing such hormones. This should make her a nymphomaniac cat.

"She only wants the father cat," the cat lady remarked. "She is not interested in the son at all. Such a surprising behaviour in the feline kingdom." The cat lady must have deemed all cats as practising polygamy. 

"In any case, close the door. This mother cat is very fierce! Look, I had been scratched while trying to put her into the carrier to bring her to your Surgery," the cat lady lifted up her right forearm and showed me two curved red scratches of over 10 cm in length.

A fierce cat likely to escape is the worst creature on earth. She could hop above tables and climb up cabinets to the roof of the Surgery. Nowadays I make sure that the ceilings do not have any gaps especially near the area of the vertical pipes coming down from the upper floor.

I asked my assistant to close the door promptly and transfer the cat to a cat crate. Escape of the cat is an unpardonable sin.

However, this mother cat was as tame as a pussy. A grip of the scruff of her neck was sufficient. She had the biggest ovarian tissue I had seen in Singapore cats. At least 5 times larger than other cats on heat. Perhaps she really had been overproducing her pheromones and making the two neutered cats crazy for her.

Tips: It is best and safer to spay a cat when she is not caterwauling or in heat as the surgery. Tel: +65 62543326, 9668-6468 to make an appointment at Toa Payoh Vets to sterilise your cat. E-mail judy@toapayohvets.com More Info: toapayohvets.com