Toni, was that 7 a typo or are you talking about female cats who go to finishing school? The less civilized (i.e., more slutty) cats in my neighborhood start doing that at 4 months, so if I were to wait until a female was 7 months old before spaying her, she'd already be close to weaning her first litter.
It must be another case of climatic differences -- no dormancy period here.
I love the cartoon, Mike.