POPCORNBIRD
You mentioned that spaying/neutering sounded mean. It is actually quite the opposite. Especially in dogs and cats, it reduces the chance of breast, uterine, cervical, testicular cancers. Females having just one heat cycle greatly increases the chance of these cancers.
Here are some statistics, from Dog Fancy magazine, for dogs from 2000.
An unspayed female dog, her mate, and all her puppies, none are ever neutered or spayed add up to:
1 year- 16
2 years - 128
3 years - 512
4 years - 2,048
5 years - 12,288
6 years - 67,000


And cats and rabbits go into heat more often then dogs so I can only imagine that those numbers are more than dogs. So you see as responsible pet owners, spaying and neutering, unless you are a responsible breeder is a necesitty. Nearly half of those puppies will end up in the shelter or worse. More puppies are born than there are homes to accomodate them, Millions are abdoned and put to sleep in animal shelters.
This is just some FYI in case you ever get a dog/cat.
Once again Heather you have my sympathy with your loss.