Happy Valentine’s Day!  Now that we have reached mid-Feb, the daylight hours are getting longer and that means one thing—all the little girl cats in town are getting poised to go into heat!

Unspayed female kitties come into heat every 2-3 weeks, and this will continue until they are either spayed or get pregnant.  Each cycle lasts several days.  While they are cycling, they tend to get extremely loving, may arch their bottoms into the air more than usual, and become amazing escape artists.  The urge to find a boyfriend can be so overwhelming that they might even chew through screens, jump out windows, or quietly slip out the door when no one is looking.  Yowling, which usually results in sleep deprivation for the humans in the house, is also a common occurrence!

To add insult to injury, some girl kitties will advertise they are in heat by “spraying” their urine.  Since most of the cats we take care of here at the cat clinics are inside kitties, this is occurring in the house.    The flip side of this is the boy kitties answering the girls—usually by spraying urine around the outside perimeter of the house/property. 

The cure of course is simple—spay and neuter these little kitties!  As a bonus, spaying before the heat cycles begin greatly reduces the risk of breast cancer in our girl kitty population.  

Ah, kitty romance--I think I prefer chocolate and roses!

Dr. Maria Berger