spayed » spade
Spotted in the wild:
- My female spade cat has a problem peeing on my bath rugs. (link)
- There is an unspade male cat that: #1: has sprayed my house and my property #2: has killed animals that we feed like chipmunks and birds THE OWNER SHOULD PLEASE TAKE ACTION! (link)
- Gentle observation, beautifully drawn characters - I still cant quite beleive that a portrayal of a recently spade cat could be such great comedy material, (link)
- My Vera is spade. That’s right, spade. […] First off, I was completely unaware that once a female cat has been spade they still engage in lusty encounters with males. (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
Analyzed or reported by:
- Laurence Horn (on ADS-L)
Marked as “questionable” because the link between the procedure and the digging implement is rather unclear. Still, on the ADS-L mailing list, Johnathan Lighter [notes](listserv.linguistlist.org…):
> [W]hen I first heard the word “spayed” as a child, the only sense I could make out of it was that they used a tiny spade (a sharp instrument) to do it.
>
> Presumably, others have been similarly misled.
A minority among cat (and to a lesser degree dog) owners appear to have a verb _spade_ in their vocabulary, the past participle of which can also show up as _spaded_, and a noun _spade_ (and sometimes a nominalised form _spading_):
* Our other cat just got spaded yesterday and she was up on her hind legs yowling and weaving looking at the other side of the water heater. ([link](homesteadingtoday.com/vb/…))
* Do you have any idea how many poor kitties get gased? Spade and neutering works but these supposed cat lovers let them breed like rats ([link](www.atsnn.com/story/12500…))
* So,in my usual blunt manner I wrote her back to send money earmarked for cat neutering/ spading and we would do just that. ([link](www.geocities.com/hermit3…))
1
Commentary by Q. Pheevr , 2005/06/25 at 8:35 pm
Also attested as a deliberate pun, as in the following bumper sticker slogan:
2
Commentary by Chris Waigl , 2005/06/25 at 8:55 pm
In the ADS-L thread, several versions of the bumper sticker or poster were reported, among which:
> I ♥ my cat.
> I â™ my dog.
> I ♣ my wife.
and
> I ♣ seals
> I â™ cats
> I ♥ NY
3
Commentary by Owen , 2006/04/12 at 6:31 am
The local ads are filled with offers of spade or spaded animals. They bring to mind Dorothy Shay’s “Ive Been To Hollywood”: “our dog, too, can play like dead. we just beats him on the head”