Charley Waffle is 3 years old, and yes, I’ve not had her fixed. She is due to go in tomorrow but unfortunately she just went into heat. For her 6th time.

A sign she has gone into heat is her increase in urinating relentlessly while we are out walking, a swollen vulva which she will lick all the time, and a little bit of spots of blood here and there. 

She is an incredibly clean dog so I’ve not ran into many drops of blood around her bedding or in the house, so I’m lucky on that part. Some people have to put diapers on their dogs when they go into heat.

 But I will say that putting a doggy diaper on is a good idea, for a male dog can smell a female dog in heat up to 3 miles away. It’s recommended to mask their scent as well so other dogs in the neighborhood don’t go too crazy trying to meet their mate.

I got Charley during the pandemic when it was very difficult to get a pet anywhere because it seemed like a many of people wanted a companion at that time. I ended up getting her on Craigslist, believe it or not, for $500.00 at 6 weeks old. I was one lucky person.

However when I tried to get her fixed I was met with months wait time, and a really steep fee. It was going to cost $1,000 to get her fixed in a 9 month wait time. I tried calling everywhere and I either got that they were full and no appointments available, or wait for 9-10 months at that price. 

Within that time she had gotten her first heat and it’s not advisable to have your dog fixed when they go into heat due to the amount of blood flow and high risk of bleeding while in surgery. No thank you. 

I was going to go through my normal vet but they wanted a base price of $750.00. I ended up calling the humane society and was able to get an appointment with only a 2 1/2 month wait time at $170, or $300 with all shots included.

Whatever happened to the $45 fee to spay, $30 to neuter? Stella cost me $175, chip and shots included, which I think was a little steep being I remembered prices at $30.00 for a female, $15.00 for a male cat. 

I have waited 2 1/2 months for this appointment (yay!) only to have her go into heat again. 

I have to admit that part of me was thinking of letting Charley have one litter because she is so dang cute, but that isn’t really a good reason to let her sow her oats. But the importance of having your pet fixed outweighs all of that. It’s been known that female dogs have a higher risk of uterine cancer and other ailments from not being fixed. 

Cats are even more at risk for females go into heat every 30 days, then have a litter, then start all over again. The amount of kittens from one cat can equal about 30 in 6 months time. 

That’s a lot of kittens. Kittens who will go into heat at 7 months old and repeat the cycle over and over. It’s so important to neuter and spay your cat to help keep the numbers of unwanted cats down. Kittens are cute, but they grow into cats.

Plus I don’t really have the space to have a few of her running around. I would probably end up keeping one or all of them anyway.

She’d make such a good mom.

Anyway, enough of thinking about that. I guess tomorrow morning I will take her down and see if they can reschedule me at their earliest convenience once she is done with her thing that happens every 6 months. 

I had a feeling this was going to happen. Dang it. 

People can always call the Humane Society if they have problems affording getting their animal fixed. They offer a sliding scale, and are not at the steep price of $900 a fix. They are all for keeping the unwanted pet population down.