WELCOME TO THE SPAY AND NEUTER PAGE
Buster's Story
If you only read one page about why you should spay or neuter your pet PLEASE read this one!
I have to warn you that some of the photos on this site are graphically violent and may be difficult to look at.
Particularly the leg amputation photos so I had better give a warning here.
It has been said that ”ignorance is bliss”.
In some cases this may be true.
When it comes to spaying or neutering your pet I can assure it is not.
The intent of this page is to provide pet owners with honest and sincere information regarding the spaying and neutering of animals and to show what my own selfish love for an animal resulted in.
I also want to say right off the bat that it was my ignorance that was both directly and indirectly responsible for the pain and suffering that this poor animal endured.
I am not looking for sympathy for myself.
I take full responsibility for my stupidity and I hope that others can learn from the mistakes I made with this cats life and possibly prevent another animal from suffering the same fate .
That is the purpose of this website.
A BAD DECISION
You will meet several animals on this website but the main character is “Buster”
Buster also responds to the names “Toot” and “Sweet Boy” and “Tootie Fruity” but is most commonly referred to as “Toot” or “The Toot”
We moved to rural Montana a little over 5 years ago and at our first meeting with some of our new neighbors I found out they were giving away kittens.
I sent My wife down to meet the new neighbors not telling her about the kittens but knowing full well she would come back with one.
As expected she came came back with a small adorable little gray tom that we named Buster almost immediately.
He was a little ball of fire and the cutest little guy we had ever seen and showed unusual intelligence.
When he would get a little too rambunctious my wife would lay him on the bed and put a pillow under his head and put his little blanket over him and put him down for a nap.
He seemed to understand this and would immediately fall asleep.
He also became very fond of his “Banky” and would not sleep without that particular blanket much as some human children do.
We never consider our pets animals and think of them more as children and will not take on an animal unless we are prepared to take care of him for life.
We had no pets before because we were living in Colorado and moving around too much and didn’t think it would be fair to an animal particularly if we were caught in a situation were pets would not be allowed so we waited until we bought a small ranch to get any animals.
Buster grew into a beautiful ”teenager” and was still a ball of fire with an incredibly vibrant personality.
He was not roaming as Tomcats do yet and we discussed having him neutered.
Here is where we made the biggest mistake in Busters and almost our own lives.
We loved Busters cocky and happy go lucky attitude so much and his energetic personality that we decided to NOT have him neutered because we were afraid it would change his personality.
This was a huge mistake and we later learned as will be explained later in this story that neutering doesn’t change that personality but actually preserves that youthful exuberance.
The fact is his personality changed BECAUSE we did not have him neutered.
While still a sweet and loving cat at about 14-15 months old he began to roam.
Mother Nature had tapped him on the shoulder and he began acting as tomcats generally do.
Buster is such a beautiful little cat. It is horrifying to see what will become of this sweet little guy.
MY MISTAKE STARTS BECOMING EVIDENT
Buster began coming home with scratches and torn ears and scabs from fighting with other cats.
Mostly minor injuries at first but he was still a sweet loving cat when he came home however he was gone for longer and longer periods of time.
This is where I should have stepped in and said enough.
He should have been neutered and everything that happened after this point was my own stupidity and my own fault.
I still had this crazy idea that neutering him would change his personality and I liked his “attitude”.
He was sweet but also had an air of “ I am the toughest guy on the planet" about him and I liked him like that.
His injuries became more severe as time progressed and one day he came home with a perfectly round hole in his ear.
It was a very odd wound and it healed but deformed his ear and gave it a curved “horn” appearance like a cow horn.
I now believe this was a bullet hole.
Shortly after this he came home with a horribly large abscess on his back.
He had been gone for almost a week and I about fainted when I saw it.
It was huge.
We live in a very rural area and there are no emergency animal hospitals close to us so I had to make an appointment for three days from the day he came home with this.
On the Sunday before we were to take him in the abscess, which was as big as an egg, burst.
It was full of the most foul smelling nasty puss and green fluid you ever saw or smelled in your life.
The vet gave us an irrigation syringe and we irrigated it with saline and peroxide solution and he would go sit on a stump in our backyard with his head laying in an odd position and didn’t want to come in the house.
I have seen cats do this when they believe they are dying.
It seems to be a personal thing with cats and they seem to prefer to be left alone if they believe they are dying.
He slowly recovered.
BUSTERS INJURIES START BECOMING MORE SEVERE
You can see in the photo below that Busters ear is already deformed from the bullet wound.
His face is torn with deep gashes in his forehead.
Although difficult to see because of his fur and the position his head he has a massive abscess on his right jaw and numerous scalp and facial lacerations that are scabbed over.
