It occurred to me to wonder what bitches are "spayed".
spay

PRONUNCIATION: sp
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: spayed, spay·ing, spays
To remove surgically the ovaries of (an animal).
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English spaien, from Anglo-Norman espeier, to cut with a sword, from espee, sword, from Latin spatha. See spathe.

I used to have a colleague named "Spadea" - something about
swords in his ancestry?

Notice also that modern "épée used to be "espee"