Can you beat the heat? Cat Estrus

I have been a cat momma for over 30 years, my longest living cat lived almost 22 years, a beautiful male tuxedo. Our very first female was a very silly little calico my husband rescued from his loading dock at work about 24 years ago. She joined our tuxedo and soon went into Estrus, howling away all over the house. She was so load and obnoxious, we took her immediately in to get fixed as soon as her heat was over. She lived another 17 years.
As the years went on, we became cat parents to several more kitties, all who we had fixed while still very young kittens. Every cat we have had has been a feral, which we tamed and brought into our home. We have our current fill of love and cats, our joy, our fur babies and thought not one more could be brought into our lives.
This past summer, a beautiful kitten approached my husband in the driveway, all skin and bones. She definitely approached the right person because he couldn’t walk away seeing her condition. My husband came inside and got canned food and fed this skinny little kitten who voraciously ate the entire can of food and drank from the water bowl he put out. He had no idea if he would see the kitten again because it was extremely scared and squiddish even though it had approached him. Next evening, this small, skinny, boney kitten was back begging again for food. He was hooked because he knew that this kitten needed food and water or it would certainly perish in our 110f degree summer heat. We also have a coyote that runs the neighborhood which was of concern! Would this precious kitty become a coyote snack?
My husband spent a good 2-2.5 months working with this kitten, taming her to trust him, sit on his lap, taking food from his hand and allowing him to pet her. She didn’t like me one bit! She would hiss, swat at me without her claws and run. She was going to be more of a challenge than past cats had been.
In the meantime, I checked out all the online posts, lost and founds, etc. to see if she was missing from anyone’s home. Nope, she never was claimed so after the two to three months we knew she was going to be ours. My husband got her into a carrier and in the house she came! This is Sweetie below. She was brought into our bedroom where our 13 year old female cat chooses to live.

I could tell someone had done something bad to her by her reactions. The swatting, the fear of a hand coming towards her head, not using the litter all the time.... all signs of a cat that was not treated right. About a month after she came inside, she started to act “strange”. She wasn’t yowling like our previous female in heat, she was just kind of making chirping sounds, laying low to the ground, putting her tail up and if you touched her back she would then make a louder sound. I thought she was still too young to be in heat.... hmmmmm. Was she sick? The next day, she was even worse, doing the same but now she kept “dancing” with her back feet, over and over and over again with her head and front legs down and tail up and to the side. Something is not right here. I went to trusty google and sure enough, our “kitten” was in heat! Oh joys. If you have yet to experience this lovely time with a cat, let me give you a nice overview. Our cat, her name is now Sweetie, seems to think that either I or our other female cat is going to mate with her. 🤭😳. The 13 year old cat gets utterly annoyed by this and will only put up with the antics for so long. She growls at Sweetie as a warning before eventually lashing out at her with a few good swats and moving away. One would think that would teach Sweetie to back off but it only seems to encourage her to follow our poor older cat to the next resting place. (The white cat is the 13 year old)

As for me, I will be awakened with a kitty butt in my face! A cute little chirping and a cat who doesn’t take no for an answer. She goes into Estrus (heat) EVERY 2 weeks like clockwork! Lasts from Fri till Mon or Tues. I believe we are now in the 3rd month of heat? I know, why??? My husband took a spill, busted his leg badly, spent a month in the hospital and a month in rehab and has only been back for 2 weeks. Add in Christmas and New Year week and now she’s in heat again. Hopefully, next week is the magic week and we go to surgery!
So, what can you do? Honestly, not much. I feel for my Sweetie cause I know how crampy and miserable I used to be with a human menstrual cycle. I guess I project my old feelings from that onto her and what I believe she must be feeling. Online, it says that Estrus can be painful. I like to let her lay on my chest or abdomen and wrap a blanket around her, talking gently to her and rubbing her head and or her back. The upper back, not near the tail as that seems to agitate her. The blanket and or the heat of the blanket calms her, she sometimes falls asleep, mostly when I just rub her head. If you just place your hand on their back over the blanket, you can feel the body convulsing, not sure if that is painful or not? I think our kitties need our love and compassion during this time until they are spayed. (Below, photo of female cat anatomy with clear fluid on vagina.)

Sweetie has a clear, odorless fluid which comes out of her vulva during her Estrus. It can get all over me or my blankets so I sometimes choose to dab her bottom with a napkin. She doesn’t mind in the least and sometimes seems to just walk away after this dabbing and stops all her shenanigans. A very light, dab, dab dab, nothing hard or long, just enough to dry off the wetness. This wetness is a normal part of cat Estrus and you may see your cat cleaning it off herself.
Why spay? Well, one so you don’t have to deal with this constantly! Every two weeks losing sleep is awful. Watching your cat and hearing your cat seemingly in pain is awful. So you don’t have unwanted kittens is the main reason but it also can be good for the health of your cat! Less chances of certain cancers. I believe it may also prolong the life of your kitty.
Oh, something I forgot to mention..... while hubby was away, Sweetie forgot about him and learned to absolutely love and adore me! She totally trusts me now. Now that he is home, she is now afraid of him. How roles reversed is funny, isn’t it? He saved her life yet now she is afraid of him. She’ll get used to him again with time. We don’t know her back story or what someone did to her but she definitely wasn’t a feral cat. She knew what a litter box was, a hand, food, water, etc. she knew “no” and she knew to swat when she was upset. I just wish she was never abused. Hopefully in time, all those memories will fade away because now she only has love surrounding her no matter what she does!
@barbara-orenya