Oh, I so agree.  The stupid woman we used to rent from was one of those "crazy cat lady" types -- she must have had 20 of 'em, all some degree of relation to each other, because she never got her cats fixed.  When I found that out, I swear I wanted to slap her.  Unfortunately, as tempting as it sounds, you can't really slap sense into anybody. 

  All it took for us was our baby's first heat -- keeping her in the garage, listening to her miserable yowling -- I swear it sounds like "aowwwwwww" -- just as soon as she seemed to be calming down a little, we got her crated and took her to get fixed!  And her first shots and whatnot.  She's a very happy healthy housecat now, though we do let her outside when the weather is decent -- which it certainly hasn't been, all this week!  She is NOT pleased about that. 
 
Andria