Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine lives - Midland Daily News 4/18/17, 2:21 AM

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php

Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine

lives
Matthew Woods mwoods@mdn.net Published 3:00 am, Saturday, November 29, 2014

Meridian High School sophomore Josh Bacon pets a cat at the Humane Society of Midland County during a tour on Tuesday.
Meridian students in Freddie Parker's Algebra II class visited the shelter after doing a project on how many offspring a cat
could produce over 18 months.

Ten students, along with their teacher and a couple of parent volunteers, recently descended on The
Humane Society of Midland to learn about the consequences of not neutering and spaying cats, and
to show the staff what they learned about the breeding potential of a female cat in a year and a half.

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php Page 1 of 5
Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine lives - Midland Daily News 4/18/17, 2:21 AM

And the numbers were staggering.

Recently, the students had an assignment where their goal was to determine if it was realistic for a
female cat to have 2,000 descendants in 18 months, said Freddie Parker, a student teacher at
Meridian Early High School. During this assignment, I contacted the Midland County Humane
Society to see if there would be a way for our results to be shared with them or for the Humane
Society to use our results for their spay/neuter program.

In the assignment, Parker gave students five assumptions they were to use in finding their solutions
to the exercise:

1. A female cat as young as four months old can become pregnant.

2. A cat pregnancy lasts about two months.

3. The average litter is four to six kittens.

4. Cats stop having kittens when they are around 10 years old.

5. Cats can have up to three litters per year on average.

The students were free to select their own variables, like what sexes the offspring would be, which
changed the outcome of many of the student project models.

Parker reached out to the Humane Society of Midland to ask if they would be interested in seeing
what the students discovered, along with giving them their professional insight on how cats and
their offspring can impact such an organization.

We wanted them to see that there is an exponential trend in this, Parker said, adding that seeing a
shelter might make the exercise more tangible outside the classroom.

Ten students were selected from the four classes taught this semester by Parker, who has been
working with Meridian teacher Toby McGillis. The students toured the facility, learning from staff

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php Page 2 of 5
Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine lives - Midland Daily News 4/18/17, 2:21 AM

about the shelters procedures, as well as spending plenty of time visiting the four legged wards who
were eager for attention.

At the end of the visit, students presented their findings to shelter staff.

The students results of possible offspring resulting from one healthy cat breeding, along with their
offspring breeding in an 18 month time frame, was sobering. The lowest projection was 376
offspring bred in 18 months, with higher projections with numbers closer to 2,000 kittens born in the
same time frame.

Can you see why it is so important that owners spay or neuter their cats? Eva Keller, animal care
technician and community outreach consultant for the Humane Society of Midland, asked the
students.

The visit to the shelter, along with seeing many animals waiting to find a good home, left an
impression on the students.

Ninth grader Cody Hollingshead said he had never been to the shelter before, and he enjoyed his
visit. He said he was surprised at the number of animals, both dogs and cats, that were in the
shelter.

I expected there to be more animals, he said. But there are still a lot here.

As to what he learned during his assignment, he said he was amazed at the potential for cats to
have so many kittens, and the resulting care that would be needed for the animals.

Sierra Sturgeon, a tenth grader, said what left an impression on her during her visit was the condition
of some of the recently arrived animals.

There were a lot of animals here that looked like they werent cared for, she said. It may be good
that they ended up here because most of them could probably end up in a bad situation.

The group of students as a whole agreed that the responsible thing cat owners can do is to spay or

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php Page 3 of 5
Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine lives - Midland Daily News 4/18/17, 2:21 AM

neuter their animals.

Yes, our job would be a lot easier if more people did that, Keller said.

Keller said she has seen one rare instance of a cat producing litters outside what is accepted as
normal breeding parameters.

I have only seen it once here, and we were all kind of flabbergasted by it, and it changed the way I
have personally thought about them (female cats), she said. We had a cat come in that was
nursing. She just had these kittens two or three weeks ago and she was already pregnant. It did not
take two months. She was pregnant when she came in here.

Beth Wellman, shelter director, said that most cat owners see the need to spay and neuter in a most
powerful way.

Fortunately for us, when most people get three or four litters of cats, they get mama spayed,
Wellman said, laughing. But it just shows how one person with one cat can make a huge difference
in the community.

The story, however, changes when a similar question was asked about the breeding potential of
dogs.

Their statistic average is incredibly lower than the cats average, Wellman said. Generally, dogs
are only twice a year in heat. She added that although most cat owners responsibly care for their
animals, leash laws often help to keep dogs from breeding unchecked, whereas cats dont fall under
such regulations. Also, dogs tend to stay on the radar more for most owners in terms of location and
activities.

People are generally more responsible with their dogs, Wellman said. They usually keep dogs in
the house or in a pen.

Parker said the assignment brought in several components that make up the New Tech model of
learning.

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php Page 4 of 5
Meridian students learn cats often generate more than nine lives - Midland Daily News 4/18/17, 2:21 AM

The students had to create models, and work in groups. The collaboration of working with partners
and sharing their results is something students will use throughout their time (at Meridian), she
said. And that is something they will continue to do once they move on to college.

For more information about the adoption, spay and neutering services, and volunteer opportunities
available at The Humane Society of Midland, look for them on Facebook.

2017 Hearst Communications, Inc.

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Meridian-students-learn-cats-often-generate-more-6932332.php Page 5 of 5