Cat Sex Therapy 101

With a cat overpopulation, one wouldn't imagine that they can often require assistance to reproduce. The help may be as simple as getting the chosen male and female to actually like each other or at best, tolerate one another enough to get the deed done. Othertimes, the problem may be that the female isn't cycling (read Cassie's story). My males don't like to breed unless the girl is in heat, knowing instinctively that the purpose is to get her pregnant and non-cycling females don't get pregnant. Then, there are the females who don't stay in the proper all fours-on-the-ground position and roll over on their sides prior to contact. Cats can only do it in one position so spooning won't cut it. Males can be too rough, too timid, not interested, or not fertile yet. All these issues can and do frequently arise when breeders try putting their perfect mating together.

Sassy with her first love, Chardonnay

 

As a self-proclaimed Cat Sex Therapist, I have experienced all of these issues with my cats. Some of them I was able to work the cats through successfully, and some not. One of my first roadblocks arose when my handsome stud male, Bugger, came of age. At 14 months, he'd earned the title of TICA Regional Winner and Supreme Grand Champion and was taking a couple of months off from showing before pursuing his Grand Champion title in CFA (TICA and CFA are the two primary cat associations in the US). Sassy, my first female and the founding queen of my cattery, was in heat. She was very hot and bothered and she wanted Bugger in the worst way. The problem was that Bugger remembered Sassy from when he was a kitten and came to live at my house. Sassy wasn't so hospitable to him then; she whacked him, chased him, and basically bullied the little guy, even after he outgrew her. Bugger, my big 17-pound, handsome, feral-looking boy was afraid of Miss Sassy.

 

Bugger

Sassy tried hard to convince him that she'd changed (anything, as long as he did his thing). She gave him kitty lap dances, twirling her eight pasties in front of his face (think about it). It was like Sharon Stone putting the moves on a 13-year-old boy. Bugger was freaked out. I really wanted these two to breed so I got an idea. I put Ginger, my other female who was just a couple months older than Bugger, in the room with her mother Sassy. Ginger and Bugger were good buddies. By being around another female in heat, Ginger followed suit and went into heat the next day.

Mother and Daughter

When I put Bugger in the room with Ginger, she started giving him a lap dance like her mother had, but this time he wasn't intimidated. A little light bulb went off in his little Bugger head, "Oh! So that's what I'm supposed to do! Thanks Mom!" Bugger and Ginger did their thing. Great, but what about the extremely frustrated Sassy who had to sit and watch all this? Well, with Bugger now officially a Man (do you hear James Brown's "I Feel Good" playing?) his confidence soared and he bred Sassy. Two months later, we had two litters with a total of eleven kittens, one of which was Sassy's first son, Dracoonfly Same Thing Murray. It's a bit kinky if you think about the familiar relationships in human terms; Sassy witnessed her daughter doing it with the guy she wanted for herself. Bugger got it on with both mother and daughter. Cat breeding can be a little weird that way.

Sassy and Ginger with their 11 kittens