Sign up for email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters

A popular cat sterilization program that targets female cats and their juvenile kittens is returning to The PAWS Clinic of Taylor, thanks to a $13,000 grant.

With the “Family Affair” promotion, kittens between 8 and 24 weeks of age can be spayed or neutered and receive a rabies vaccine (kittens 12 weeks or older) and a distemper vaccine, for $5 per kitten.

The clinic’s veterinarians will determine if kittens meet the age requirements based on their weight and the development of their teeth.

To qualify, the owner must spay the mother cat at the same time the kittens are spayed/neutered and must pay the full price of $75 for the mother. A current rabies vaccine also is required for the mother cat, and will be administered at the time of surgery for an additional $20 if she is not already current.

This is the fourth time the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust, a KeyBank Trust, has funded the “Family Affair” program. To date, 168 mom cats and 536 kittens have been sterilized through the program.

“This renewed generous funding from the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust will allow us to sterilize and vaccinate at least 200 kittens and make sure that their moms are spayed as well,” said Terra Muscat, the clinic’s executive director. “The timing of the funding couldn’t be better, considering we are in the middle of kitten season, the time of year when cats reproduce at an overwhelming rate. Kitten season usually results in overrun animal shelters and rescue groups, as there are generally more kittens born than there are available homes for them.”

Kitten season typically begins in early spring and continues until the weather turns colder in the fall. According to Muscat, during this time, a female cat can produce as many as three or four litters of kittens in just one season.

Kittens can become sexually mature as young as 4 months old and can be safely spayed or neutered as young as 8 weeks, as long as they weigh 2 pounds.

“Many people think that their kittens won’t be able to reproduce until they’re at least a year old, or that siblings won’t mate with each other or with their parents,” said Taylor Fisher, a veterinarian at The PAWS Clinic. “Neither of these myths is true, and waiting too long to have kittens fixed can mean an unwelcome surprise in the form of an unexpected litter.”

The “Family Affair” promotion will run as long as funds are available. To schedule an appointment for your feline family, call The PAWS Clinic between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays at 313-451-8200 and leave a message.

Appointment requests are accepted only on Mondays during these hours.

Clinic staff will return calls as soon as possible to set up an appointment. This promotion cannot be combined with any other promotions offered by the clinic, and does not apply to “community” cats (feral or stray cats who live outside full time). The clinic has other funding available to subsidize the cost of community cats.

The PAWS Clinic, 21210 Goddard Road, Taylor, is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization whose mission is to decrease animal homelessness and needless euthanasia by making high quality, affordable spay/neuter services available to the community. Since the clinic opened in September 2011, over 74,000 dogs and cats have been spayed or neutered by The PAWS Clinic. For more information, visit thepawsclinic.com or find them on Facebook.

The Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust is a private foundation focused on preventing cruelty to animals and promoting the humane treatment of animals, particularly companion animals such as dogs and cats, and other species of animals commonly kept as household pets. The foundation also supports efforts to protect the well-being of urban-suburban wildlife, captive exotic wildlife, farmed animals, working animals and nonhuman animals generally. It extends in perpetuity the generosity toward animals in need shown by Kenneth Allen Scott during his lifetime, assisting those who care for them today.

Sign up for email newsletters

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.