@davidrevoy @m_berberich David, you're doing the right and kind thing. M, the Warriors book series is fiction; cats do not consciously care about bloodline.

Even in this conservative study, fixed cats live about 2 years longer than intact cats - and that's for pets, not ferals (for ferals, the difference is even greater): https://peerj.com/articles/18869/

The other side of this moral question is what uncontrolled cat reproduction has on the environment: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364243694_The_effects_of_free-roaming_cats_on_native_wildlife_populations

Cats are a human-created species, and we are responsible for keeping them safe and healthy and as harmless to wildlife as is possible. Romanticizing their endless breeding is not a useful perspective.