Emily had a question:
After a mancat is neutered, does he retain some of his, ahem, anatomy? I’ve always had female cats and I’m familiar with the way the back-end of a lady cat looks. My elderly bosses adopted two cats- a boy and a girl- and the boy looks like he hasn’t been neutered. I’m pretty certain that the shelter would have given him the ol’ snip-snip before sending him to a forever home, but i am totally unfamiliar with mancat anatomy so I just wanted to check. This isn’t to say that you’re an expert on mancat anatomy… just an expert on cats in general.
Noelegy’s mostly right, in that if you put a neutered mancat next to a non-neutered, there’s a HUGE difference. I’m so used to seeing neutered males that when I occasionally see an unneutered adult male, it’s really AMAZING just how big the, uh, AREA is. However, I can say that we definitely had Rupert neutered as soon as we were able to, and afterward he still had some pretty big fuzzy, prominent protuberances going on, to the point where if I hadn’t known for sure that he’d been neutered, I would have thought he was unneutered. I’m wondering if that’s because he wasn’t neutered until he was fully grown – we always have the fostered neutered by three months (occasionally a tiny bit older, as with the Bookworms, since we were waiting for a negative FIV result on them), there’s a little something left behind on them.
I’m going to post this question on Friday’s post, because I’m sure there’s someone out there who’s had more experience with neutering males as adults and whether that makes a difference, and I’m curious to hear.
Emily, I’m with you in that I’m sure the shelter would have had them spayed and neutered before adopting them out (assuming they were old enough), and any paperwork they were given should have stated that. Maybe their boycat is just gifted.
Then a bunch more people weighed in (direct link to those comments, if you’re curious), and I told them I was going to post this today so that anyone who has a story to tell about their neutered male who appeared to be unneutered, or who had an opinion on the topic could weigh in. Got a story to share? You know we want to hear! Leave your story in the comments.
My husband always says that cat toes look like beans (blame this post)
I’m not saying we do but maybe someone wants to terrorize their cats by exclaiming “BEANS!” while grabbing their feet.
That sounds like an excellent way to torture kittehs. And I love Pusheen!
Live kitten cam on Animal Planet.
I call the Tortie.
and
Have you considered webcams in the kitten rooms, Robyn?
That live kitten cam is SO cute (and fun to watch!) I briefly considered a webcam in the upstairs kitten room – especially when we had Maggie and then again with Emmy – but Fred informed me that that would happen over his dead body (he prefers to remain mysterious and unseen), so I dropped it. 🙂
Pretty, ain’t it? And then I got to number 21.
Oh Robyn. That baby blue hammock. Might actually start a trend, me thinks.
I love seeing one of my pictures on Buzzfeed – they do the best picture posts! The kittens in #21 are Macushla (one of Maggie’s babies) and Clove (one of the Spice Girls), from last July. Clove sure did love those big kitties.
Hello! I just wanted to stop by and tell you that my husband and I adopted little Wellington this Tuesday. He is doing really well and seems to love his new home. He has so much energy and loves loves loves to cuddle! Also, he also has our cat Albus (originally called Birch), who we also adopted through Challenger House, to keep him company. Thank you for posting so many pictures of Wellington and sharing so much about his personality. It has been a great help to us!
Also, I hope you don’t mind, but I also borrowed two of the pictures you posted of Wellington to share on my blog. 🙂 I linked back to your website.
Jessica, I don’t mind at all – and thanks for stopping by to let us know how Wellington is doing!
This thread reminds me of one of my favorite lolcats ever:
“You haz betraid my tiny trust”
I still make a squealy “awwww!” noise every time I look at that picture, all these years later.
Yep, I did it too. Awwwww.
So I took my arachnaphobic self to your flickr pictures of the spider and horrors – saw the pic of the snake on the lawn [link 1, link 2] … OMG, what kind of snake was that? Here in California, out in the country we get (very infrequently) a rattle snake or two, and their nature look alike, gopher snake, gardner snakes and some yellow colored thing – but yours… not sure what he was and waaaay to close for comfort. In the south I always think of Copperheads and Cottonmouths… WHAT WAS THAT???
I think it was a King Snake, but I honestly don’t remember for sure, it could have been a Rat Snake. He slithered across the yard when I was filling bird feeders, and since I know nothing about snakes, I followed him and snapped pictures, then sent them to Fred to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. It wasn’t. Also, I wasn’t that close to him – I had the long lens on the camera, just in case! He mostly wanted to get away from me, though.
I’ve only seen one Cottonmouth, from a distance. Those things scare the hell out of me!
But I think that maybe you missed the ookiest of my snake pictures. One day I was sitting at my computer and looked out the side door, and gasped when I saw a SNAKE slithering UP a tree. You can see those pictures here, here, and here. According to Fred, that was an Eastern Rat Snake.
Here’s a question for ya: in all of my years of co-habitation with cats, I’ve never had a “talker”, until now, that is. This cat complains about the dry food, the lack of can food, the state of the house, the wind blowing outside, the dogs, the other cats, the closed doors, the open doors… you get the idea. She is always complaining or commenting on something. The only time she is quiet is when she is eating, and then she sometimes makes those nom-nom noises. Do you have a talker? Does it change as they age? She has mellowed out since spaying, but this is one mouthy cat.
I actually don’t really have a talker. Miz Poo can be talky, and so can Spanky, but that’s only now and then, not constant. I think a constant talker might drive me a tiny bit nuts.
(There were LOTS of comments on this one – you can see them all here.)
Glad everyone got through their vet-cation from Crooked Acres. Did the big cats miss them or just take their absence in stride?
The big cats are so used to seeing kittens come and go, that they just took it completely in stride. The Weeds, on the other hand, wanted to know where their snuggle buddies went, and were happy to see them come back!
It’s good to see all the kittens doing so well. Especially Mr. Magoo. He appears to be about the same size as his siblings now! It looks like the Pickle in the back of the 5 Pickle shot is the new runt, although that might just be the angle.
Yeah, that’s just the angle – that’s Petey in the back. As of last Sunday, Magoo was still 12 ounces smaller than the next-smallest Pickles (Petey and Percy are tied at 3 lbs, 7 ounces), but he’s definitely gaining on them. I imagine he’ll catch up before much longer. (As a side note, Joe is the heaviest Pickle at 3 pounds, 10 1/2 ounces.)
And
Ok, the picture of all five pickles… You just photoshopped the one on the left, copied and put her behind herself.. Right? even the wink is the same! MOL
That’s Polly in the front and Petey in the back. I love that they’re both winking the same eye!
“You get away from that string, that is MY string, and you are not invited to share it!”
Smug little brat. Just so PLEASED with herself.
The spotted belly of one Petey Pickle.
Sleeping with his eyes partly open, and his fangs peeking out.
A big ol’ mess of Weeds and Pickles.
They’re really taking over my desk these days.
Purslane is clearly inviting me to GO AWAY so she can snuggle with her beloved big kitties.
Petey was laying with his nose resting on his paw, but he heard me get out the camera, so he lifted his head. Hmph.
I love how she has her paws resting on top of Joe’s head.
Warning: Gorgeous Corbs ahead!
“Oh great, here she comes again with that camera.”
“I’ll just refuse to look her way.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: ::leap::
2010: There needs to be a feather boa involved.
2009: And how can you put down a sleeping kitten? (You can’t.)
2008: No entry.
2007: I don’t think it’s possible to take a bad picture of Elle.
2006: Warning: cat cannot hold her licker.
2005: “Who, me? No, I wasn’t going to climb into the fireplace. Nope, not me!”
Re: Demanning the mancat. All I know is I had a yellow tabby that we had neutered as a kitten, about 18 years ago, and he came home with nothing. Then we have our Siamese that we also had neutered as a kitten, about 12 years ago, same vet, and he came home looking exactly the same. I ASSUME the vet disconnected whatever inside and left him his useless balls so he’d have something to lick!!
A mancat’s gotta lick SOMETHING! 🙂
The first mancat I had had all his bits removed too, and this was about twenty-five years ago. I wonder if vets have changed their neutering ways since then? That cat (Taffy) looked almost feminine back there.
I had a friend who didn’t neuter her mancats until they were fully grown (I warned her about what unneutered males do, but did she listen? NOOOOOOO – not until the first time they sprayed, anyway XD) But one of them was so … um, well-endowed? that he was walking funny, and finally she relented and got them neutered. They still do look different – you can still tell where they were although they don’t walk funny anymore.
As a point of interest, I am now owned by two of their female littermates, and I can tell you that the boys and the girls share many similarities in personality and looks, but the, ahem, rear view is not one of them.
I think there must be multiple ways of neutering mancats. My first cat seemed to have nothing back there. It’s like they lopped it all off completely. Then, with a different vet, my second cat seemed like they took stuff out from the inside, but left his outer bits. At first he looked like he hadn’t been neutered, but after awhile they shrunk a bit. Now he has dainty little mancat ball tufts, but clearly nothing else.
MANCAT BALL TUFTS! Bwahahah!
(That would be an EXCELLENT band name. 🙂 )
Ball tufts…that is EXACTLY the term I was thinking of. My boy has little tufts in the rear view. Thanks Cat!
Y’know, this post should’ve come with a warning NOT to be drinking coffee whilst reading!! almost ROFL here…
One of my sons described neutering mancats and mandogs as , Slit,pop,snip!
I third/fourth/whateverth the “tufts” observation, and agree that different methods might be to blame.
One of my cats was neutered using a technique where all the testicle tissue was removed. Another was done using some sort of injection – I’m blasted if I can remember the details but the vet said they use a sclerosing agent (I think??) that basically shrinks everything up so it’s nonfunctional. My parents’ cat was neutered using a technique that sounded a lot like the equivalent of a human’s vasectomy; the connecting bits were snipped but everything else was left in place.
All three cats were neutered as kittens, and none of them have particularly noticeable tackle, but they all three have *different* looking tackle. The first cat has pretty much nothing visible at all – though it might be worth mentioning, he’s the one that was initially labeled as female because he appears to be a male calico. I don’t know enough about the genetics behind that to know if it might affect the size of his unit. The second cat has the little tufts. The third cat has some noticeable testicles, but not anywhere near as large as an unneutered cat’s.
talking kitty!!! my kitty Luna is such a talker I call her my howler monkey. Part siamese and a kind of rescue from my niece, she was the runt of too many kitties in one household(12 in one apt plus birds, ferrets, rats, reptiles…).
I got her last year and she was a teeny mini kitty named Little Miss, looking much like Tony R.H. Pickle- right down to the funny face and white strands interspersed in the black. Now she is large and in charge. She starts howling at 5 am for her breakfast while her much better behaved and quiet kitty roomie Sweetums just watches her from beside me on the bed. She also informs me when she is about to use the litter box and then when she is done. Then all is peaceful until Sweetums, much like a mommy would do, hides on her to get some space. the howling starts up again to let me know she wants her kitty mama and I should make Sweetums come out or else cater to her every whim.
Meg(an) is all domestic PIA; she is a tortie-brown tabby. Her sister Ruby is mostly black with some tortie markings. Ruby does not do much more than squeak out a soft meow or two, sometimes all she does is open her mouth and let a silent meow fly, but Meg(an) is so talkative, chatty, and conversational, in addition to complaining about everylittlething, woe, despair, life is so rough. (Her name is actually Meg, but I can’t say just Meg for some reason, so it’s Meg(an). Ruby is Rooobie. Why am I babbling so?? I sound just like Meg(an)!)
I am proud to say it’s been 6 days since I have betrayed a tiny trust…. and I’m hoping for another year or two before I have to do it again.
Serious question: I know we always ask how you get anything done because the kittens are so cute and why would you ever want to do anything else but snuggle them. But now that I’ve started fostering, I’ve learned that even if you want to leave the room they won’t let you! How do you get out of the room with five kittens attached to your pajama pants? Because you can only remove two at a time and while you are removing the next two the first two get back on, and if you should ever get free of all five their mama is waiting at the door to escape as soon as you open it. Toys and treats don’t work on the little ones. They only want to hang from my pants.
LOL. Poor you…that would certainly make me suffer….NOT! 😉
Honestly, it’s not a bad problem to have. But sometimes I’ve got to leave the room. After all, they don’t live in the bathroom anymore 😉
I know this sounds evil, but I keep a can of compressed air near the door, and shoot it at them so they’ll back off enough that I can get out the door. After a couple of days of that, you don’t even have to actually spray the air at them, just show them the can and they back off. Doesn’t that sound mean? But I’ve got stuff to dooooooooo!
I get it. It’s all the harder because until about a week ago they didn’t show even the slightest interest in me. It was all Mama all the time. But now, I’m an amusement park attraction… adorable, but I can’t spend my life on it.
YOu are just gonna feel soooo guilty and MEAN! hahahahaha
very clever Robyn.. I might just have to invest in that for the ones who want to leave the kitten room for Kitty Nirvana..
I told Kelly she should just remove the pants with the kittens on them. She mentioned she didn’t want to moon the neighbors (hey, if they are looking in her windows they deserve it!! :D) but she could always wear leggings under the PJs.
The Petey Pickle spotted belly pic made me sad. I think it is terrible of you to keep these little sweeties all jacked up on caffeine so that they can never take a nap and relax. You can see the stress running through that poor kitty’s body. Shame on you.
Love those babies……
Getting out of the room – distraction (usually food) 🙂
and I’ll take a pass on the snake pics (shiver)
Live… Kitten… Feed…
Life made
Work is so much more enjoyable today!
You would think, but mostly they just sleep (says the woman with a webcam)
Pete is just too cute for words, isn’t he?
And yeah for Wellington and Jessica! I know I always say this but I’m not sure who’s luckier. Still think that we need to plan a reunion tour for the Caspian-Wellington-Dingwall boy band.
I do believe Miss Purslane has a crush on Joey Pickle.
Large mancat parts-I had never noticed these parts and their sizes till I happened to catch the backside of a community tomcat that came to my porch to eat. Holy smokes! Once I noticed I wondered how the heck he walked normally!
Talking cats-I have onenow that is a big talker, mostly when he wants food. He will not shut up till he gets his food (never mind that there is food out for him constantly). I have to be up and about before he will eat said food and be quiet. He is actually quite a nice alarm clock. 😉
I had a female Siamese that would talk back to me. It was very sweet. I came in late one night and she let me have it. I swear she was channeling my Mother!
Have you ever seen a Sphynx mancat who still had his parts? It’s…disturbing.
Lord.
I wish you had not reminded me of that image – don’t know if you’ve seen it, but there was a picture making the rounds of a male, intact Sphynx who was sitting on top of a computer monitor, facing backwards. The… we can’t call them harbles because there’s no “har” on a Sphynx; the “nekbles” for nekkid maybe? Anyway, his tackle was hanging down over the edge of the monitor. That was a hideous photo.
Imma go look for it.
(Robyn, I leave it up to you whether to delete this line/link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65377646@N00/100963334/ )
OMG!!! Thanks for the link,Elayne. I needed a good belly laugh!
I love the last picture of Joe and Purslane’s sleeping faces! The tongues, the fangs, the CUTE.
Re: Neutered males – I have three adopted male rescue cats. The two who were neutered as kittens look, well, gender-neutral. The one who was neutered as an adult? Definitely still shows boy parts.
And a while back, I took Robyn’s advice and bought a can of compressed air for my foster room. Works like a charm. Although I DID have one stubborn little foster, just one, who would just stand there and take it, all, “Ahhhh! A refreshing breeze!”
The compressed air works well on the Great Pyrenees mix who simply MUST sit very close to us at every meal and longingly eye our plates. He’s gotten to where all I have to do is pick up the can, and he suddenly decides there’s somewhere else he needs to be.
Of course, having a short memory, he’s right back drooling at my feet a minute later…
We got our man-cat after neutering (he was probably a year to a year-and-a-half old when we adopted him), but I’ve always suspected that he got neutered a little late because he has what my husband and I call, ahem, “fuzzy nutters”. They’re kind of adorable. Is that creepy? (He’s a Joe Bob look-alike, by the way.)
I need to get myself a look at some fuzzy mancat parts just for curiosity’s sake. I have had mostly girl cats while growing up and little Oreo is also a girl. All this talk of snips and bits leaves me wondering.
My mom has a cat who is a talker. She is especially interested in talking on the phone. Every time Mom uses the phone the person on the other end receives an earful. It’s good for my mom though for when she is not talking to other PEOPLE on the phone, she can almost carry on a whole conversation with the cat. I’m sure “Dancing with the Stars” is a frequent topic.
Love love love every one of those kittens… And that gorgeous boy Corbie!
My cat Bill is very talkative. Amusingly, he mostly likes to talk to me as I’m stepping out of the shower. He seems very irate that I would deliberately put myself in contact with water. At night he curls up on the bed and stares at me until I look at him, then starts squawking at me in what sounds like a Donald Duck voice – you know how some people have that husky “just woke up/falling asleep” voice? Well, some cats do too. It’s gotten to where I don’t dare look at him if I’m anywhere close to sleepy, because when he starts quacking at me I start laughing, then I’m not sleepy anymore.
OMC! The mancat parts conversation is one of the funniest on this site in a while!
Just to add to, neither of my boys have noticable tufts…but both have black butts so its hard to see anything period!
30+ years ago while living in Germany, we had an orange striper named George. When we came back from an overnight camping trip, my mom noticed that the phone was off the hook. A few days later, a friend of my dad’s mentioned that he’d called that weekend – a couple of times – and on the last call, he heard the phone being picked and then “Meow. Meow. Meow?”
Either George was lonely for company or the ringing of the phone bothered him. After it happened a second time, Dad would just unplug the phone before we left.
(gee remember a time when your phone didn’t tell you that you missed a call?)