Poor Una! Poor Una's parents with all that meowing.

All your kitties are gorgeous, but Hercules is especially so. It's his coloring and those green eyes. Wow.

Here is an interesting account of what went down in Sacramento, posted with the author's permission:

Hi all,

Here's the scoop: it was apparent that the Senate Local Government
committee was not favorable to this bill and would have voted it
down, so to save face Assemblyman Levine pulled it at the last minute
to reintroduce it, in amended form, in January of next year. So, for
the moment the bill is on hold, but I think we can count on it being
revived in some form at the beginning of next year. I really want to
thank everyone who wrote a letter, signed a petition, sent a
contribution, told friends, or in any way acted to help stop this
bill. In a way, I am grateful that this happened because it made me
aware of how active anti-animal groups are in trying to legislate
away our rights to own pets, and it made me aware of the health-risks
of spaying or neutering before puberty. I feel stupid that I didn't
logically deduce that there were likely to be health risks, but like
everyone else I had been so indoctrinated that it was the right thing
to do. To all of you that own a Chihuahua that was spayed or neutered
at less than 1 1/2 years of age, either by me or on my
recommendation, you have my heartfelt apologies and pray that they do
not suffer any of the health afflictions that early spay or neuter
can make a dog more prone to.

One comment that Mr. Levine made when he announced his intention to
pull the bill, and an opinion I heard voiced regularly by supporters
of the bill, is that the opposition to the bill (us) have no interest
in the problem or helping to find a solution. Which, as a person who
has worked on rehabillitating and placing homeless dogs, and who has
adopted pets from the shelter, and who does NOT let my dogs run loose
or breed indiscriminately or have puppies that I can't find GOOD
homes for, I thought was unbelievably insulting. I plan to keep
working on helping the shelters find a no-kill solution to the
homeless animal problem and at the same time work to promote more
lenient pet-ownership legislation so that more people can have pets.
It's crazy to make it against the law for people to keep the pets
they want to have and then complain that there are too many homeless
in the shelters. Or to make it illegal for responsible breeders to
produce healthy animals that are lovingly raised and carefully
placed, but to put no restrictions on pet stores importing animals
from Mexico and out of state puppy mills and placing them with
whoever walks in with the cash and with no instructions or help in
raising the animal.

I apologize for going off on a rant but this whole subject is just
making me so crazy. I intend to keep writing letters trying to
educate the legislators about what the problems are and about no-kill
solutions that have worked in other areas. If I haven't already
talked your ear off, I am attaching below a forwarded message from
Laura Finco of Concerned Dog Owners of California.

Thanks again everybody and I look forward to seeing you all at the
next play day - with my new puppies. :-) ________

*********

And if you wonder what the dangers of spaying or neutering an animal at just four months of age, read the link.

Cathryn

• Spay/Neuter laws proposed