Feline Coitus

For the past 4 days or so, morning, noon and night, there have been the most awful cat sex sounds coming from the side and back of our house. Have you seen or heard cats have sex before? My understanding is that cat penises are barbed in some way which makes copulation painful for the feline female, but, correspondingly, vaginal pain triggers ovulation or some such sexual process. Can anyone verify this?

When I lived in St. Petersburg, my friend Vasya - younger brother of Zhenya, for those of you who know him - told me a story about how when he was young in the USSR he awoke one night to a terrifying sound of a baby being murdered. His heroic instincts kicked in and he went and woke up his parents so that they could hopefully intervene. Vasya's dad, Dima, went outside and found two cats having sex which truly does sound like a baby being murdered.

Isn't January a little early for cats to be in heat? I guess it's a little exciting, viewed from a certain perspective.