About her ear

**a post by the mom

As most of you know, Goldfish came here as a foster and failed to leave. In her case it was a behavioral thing as she was (and kind of still is) very skittish and it would have been a hard sell to find her a family when most people look for the super social cat to adopt.

She was spayed and ear tipped as a kitten as at that point we weren’t sure about her final destination. I hadn’t made the decision yet to keep her and if she needed to move to a barn she needed the ear tip.

Over the last year or so I have heard several people make negative comments about ear tipping, generally that is changes the way they appear. I try my best to explain why it is done. Many years ago it started as a universal signal that a feral or community cat has been spayed or neutered. The alternative before that was to take the cat back to vet, which would include transport, sedation and potential unnecessary surgery if a spay scar could not be found. With ear tipping, if you see a cat with it, all you have to do is open the trap and release them. It is easier on the cat and easier on the trapper.

One woman got a little snippy and I honestly told her that I view it as a badge of honor. The ear tipped cats living in homes or at our adoption center looking for homes survived the outdoors and proved to be friendly enough to be adoptable.

I also have Allie who is truly feral. I call her my garage panther. She is ear tipped and in fact has been caught and released at least twice since she was originally spayed.

I had one woman tell me that no cat should be tipped and be kept inside. I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking how big her house is if she plans to house all those feral cats.

I believe they deserve the best life they can have without the stress of fighting and breeding. Spay/neuter solves both of those problems.