This is poor little Jack just after his neuter operation. I can’t tell you how mean I felt when he left in the morning with Irish, his tail wagging happily at the prospect of a drive (Jack’s tail, not Irish’s).

Desexing needs to be done in a cat’s first five months, and a dog’s first six months. I’m sure nearly everyone knows a story of a kitten who got pregnant astonishingly young, so it’s important to get onto it. Five hundred cats and dogs a day are put down in Australia because there aren’t enough homes. It’s a shuddersome throught.

Nowadays, pets can be desexed even earlier, which can have benefits beyond preventing unwanted pregnancies and managing sex-driven behaviour. You can read a theory on the benefits of early desexing here.

Desexing isn’t cheap and I discovered, to my surprise, that the price varies widely if you ring around. We chose a local vet who charged us extra for intravenous pain killers etc because, you know, Jack’s our child substitute! But if you’re based in Australian, and you find yourself putting off neutering for financial reasons, now is the time to take action.

August is National Desexing Month and organisations such as the RSPCA in NSW are offering free desexing of female cats or dogs who have already had a litter.

In Sydney, the Animal Welfare League Western Suburbs is offering desexing in August to low income earners and pensioners, at a reduced rate of $50 for dogs and $30 for cats, saving up to $150 on the usual price.

Vets around the country are also offering discounted desexing during August. You can find one in your area here, or call the National Desexing Network on 1300 368 992.

Jack breezed through his operation and was partying again within an hour of arriving home. He’ll never know what he’s missing and happily, he still wags his tail when he’s faced with the prospect of a drive.

I like things that leave the scientific community baffled and “Oscar the Death Cat” has managed to do it paws down.

Two-year-old Oscar has lived at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island since he was a kitten. In that time, he’s come to be respected (by many) and feared (by some) for his uncanny ability to detect…The Stench of Death!

Da na na naaaaaaa!

As the grim reaper grinds his way towards the next nursing home victim, Oscar will unfailingly saunter round the corner, grey and white striped tail waving, and hop up onto the dying person’s bed, purr up a storm and snuggle down to wait for them to pass. He’s managed to do it unerringly at least 25 times!

Dr. Dosa who published an essay on Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine said, “This is a cat that knows death. His instincts that a patient is about to die are often more acute than the instincts of medical professionals.” Oscar apparently sulks outside the door when freaked out relatives don’t want him in the room.

It’s really rather odd. And I confess to feeling as baffled as the white-coated geeks.

So because everybody and their dogs are bouncing cat/death theories off the morgue walls, I thought I’d follow suit with a few of my own:

1. Maybe people on the edge of death feel like mohair, a hot water bottle or polar fleece beneath the paws
2. Oscar might be an enlightened Buddhic soul;
3. Or perhaps, and really now I think of it this is far more likely, Oscar is in fact a furry “Kitty Goth”. And, while I didn’t see any references to painted claws or dramatically applied eyeliner, one of the nurses did mention that he took “himself very seriously and wasn’t really what you would call “a friendly, people kind of cat.”

However, if Oscar is not in fact a cat of the gothic persuasion, he may well be the new pin up boy in revising the unjustified branding of cats as “callous”. Popular veterinary behaviourist Nicholas H Dodman thinks this could be so.

When questioned by bug-eyed journos whether cats in fact had a sixth sense, heightened smell or could pick up on death in the metabolism, Nicholas simply said “It may just come down to empathy.”

And while my Goth theory appeals to my head, Dodman’s theory appeals to my heart — an organ with a far more reputable character…

Don’t you just love a good puppy dog story? Rusty was stolen from outside a store in Woy Woy, and thanks to his microchip, was reunited with his owners after being picked up on the streets in Darwin — 3,700 kilometres away! The council and airlines were kind enough to work together to get him back to his grateful owners.

Sigh. Call me a sucker but I do love a happy ending. Now I’m not saying don’t live your life, be happy, tie your dog up outside the shops etc. But it’s a strong argument for microchipping, innit?

Benny looks like a shapely shag pile rug. And, in his Red, White and Blue Turtleneck Sweater, he looks like a “very smart” shag pile rug. People have commented on this!

Buying Benoit a jumper was one of the first items on my “to do” list when he arrived.

Dog dishes, extendable leads, flea treatments, shampoos were on there too of course, but kinda boring. So I fixed my shopping urge by looking forward to purchasing a groovy little coat to keep away the Melbourne chills.
After buying all the “necessities”, I sauntered down to the local “groovy” Pet Store with my fresh new pooch and popped him up on the counter for a fitting and a consult.

Purpose?
The most walking that Benny would do was down the street for a coffee and the paper. During his off lead-time in the park, I figured he wouldn’t need a coat while tearing it up with the boys on the turf. So something that was cosy, well fitting, and would work with his coat colouring would cut it for the moment. I also wanted something easy wash and relatively cheap, so I opted for the acrylic version as opposed to the Merino wool version that was also available but about five times the cost.

Size?
You measure a dog for a coat by the length between his neck and bum. Benny’s just a tad bigger than my primary school ruler at 32 cm long which makes him almost 12 inches long; a “Small” in most brands.

Style?
Benoit was recently described by a fellow dog walker as “sensitive yet a little manly”. I thought the turtleneck gave him the look of a rough-living poet, a la Dylan Thomas. Red, white and blue just happen to be my favourite colours.

Result?
Very dashing to look at, cheap and pretty comfy once I’d cut the two little elasticized straps that you could hook around his hind legs. The jumper still fits snugly to his body but leaves room for his privates.

If I do buy him another coat however, I’d like to get him one that was less “invasive” and clipped on as easily as his lead. Fitting a sweater on over his head and front paws is a bit of a drag and I don’t think he enjoys it all that much.

That said, he’s a relaxed little fella and “plays dead” while I dress him which is handy. If I had a dog that was more nippy and fussy I’m not sure how they’d handle the whole skivvy thing. As a child of the 70’s I empathise. I really do.

He does look natty though, don’t you think? And I don’t get the guilt’s while I’m sitting there sipping on a hot choccie on the café pavement while he’s waiting for me to take him somewhere where there’s more dog butts to sniff. Which is worth it for me.

RATING:
BUY IT: wagwear
COST: $15.95 Aus - $13.70 US

Thanks Franny-Froo for this week’s Tightarse Tuesday. “Got a dead scratching post? Pull off the old sisal rope, slip on some gardening gloves and get wrappy with a new roll o’ rope from your local hardware store.”

I’d imagine you can secure the ends with a row of nails (all the way around, I’m told, to really secure the rope) and rub catnip into the new rope to re-spark puss’s interest.