Headline: “They do bad stuff, but we still keep them” – our 4-year-old
We got a pair of cats 18 months ago. Would I recommend getting cats to another household in a similar situation? Probably, but there are also some real downsides.
Upsides:
- The kids like them.
- They add interest and liveliness to the house. We already have quite a lively house; I think this would be a stronger benefit if the house were pretty quiet.
- Got rid of our mouse problems. This seems to be largely because of smell rather than hunting, because we also had no mice in the past when our housemates had incompetent cats.
- Nice snuggles; especially when winding down for bed it’s nice to have a purring cat who wants to next to you or on you.
- It’s fun to watch them play.
- They mostly like each other, and it’s nice to see them curl up together and enjoy each other.
Problems that haven’t come up:
- Since we’ve always fed them via an automatic dispenser, they don’t pester us for food.
- No medical troubles yet, but those will likely come with time. Lower chance of problems since these are indoor cats not exposed to predators / parasites / cars / other cats. I hear people talk about the vet bills when their dog ate a corn cob or something, and this makes me glad I don’t have a dog.
- Not especially loud.
- Cats can carry toxoplasmosis, but there’s not much of a relationship between cat ownership and toxoplasmosis (I imagine especially if your cats don’t have much access to rodents that carry the disease, nor to vegetable gardens where their poop can get on the vegetables.)
- For a while, the kids were very grossed out by the idea of cats having germs on their paws. I haven’t noticed any uptick in household sickness since getting the cats, and I can’t find evidence that sickness is more common in cat owners. Cat scratch disease is a possibility, but like most diseases this is less common in indoor cats.
Downsides:
- More logistical hassle at home:
- For a while, they tried to run out the apartment door, requiring shutting them in a hallway at night so our housemate wouldn’t be responsible for retrieving them when she came in. They no longer bolt immediately, but we still need to be more careful about leaving the apartment door open.
- We can’t have flowers in vases anymore; they would be knocked over and/or eaten. Potted plants are possible hanging from hooks, but the cats gnaw off any leaves they can reach.
- None of us want the cats in our bedrooms at night, because they climb on you and wake you up. This means bedroom doors are shut, so we can’t cool bedrooms like we used to by having windows open and a whole-house fan pulling air through.
- They interfere with activities like sewing because they want to lie on everything or chase it. The rest of the family is gracious about me learning the accordion, but one cat consistently bites my feet when I play.
- Specific to our cats, who are especially food-motivated:
- They knock over drinks either for fun or to get the contents. This means you can’t leave drinks unattended, and when we forget there’s periodically a mess to clean up.
- I thought we just wouldn’t let them on the counters / tables, but they’re more dedicated than any cats I’ve lived with. We had to start keeping bread in a box because they were ripping open the plastic bag and gouging out pieces of bread. They steal food off the kids’ plates while the kid is right there yelling at them. Now we usually shut them in a room while we eat, so they’re not trying to steal things during the meal.
- Stinky litter box. I scoop the litter about once a day; probably I should get a self-cleaning litter box.
- When we’re out of town, we need to arrange someone to scoop litter. Usually our housemate can do this, and in our city we’ve been able to get someone local to come for $35/visit. There’s the downside of giving a stranger access to your house.
- When they chase things across the floor or are feeling feisty, the kids are afraid of their feet getting scratched. I don’t think this actually happens often, but the kids especially want to avoid it, and are more bothered by scratches when they happen.
- Sometimes they vomit on the floor, which is especially gross if you step in it by mistake.
- Sometimes the bigger one beats up on the smaller one, and that’s sad to see.
- Some of our house guests are somewhat allergic to cats, and have a somewhat worse time.
Our 11-year-old was the biggest advocate for getting cats, and is still strongly positive on them.
The 9-year-old she says she’s mildly positive on them. She says snuggling the cats is her favorite part.
The 4-year-old is also mildly positive on them. When I told her we couldn’t leave balloons out because the cats could eat them and get very sick, she asked if they could die. “Yes, I said, “and we don’t want that.”
Her thoughtful comment on that was “Nix scratches me sometimes.”
For the older kids, the cats have kind of a mythological quality, like they love the concept as well as the actual beings. I had this relationship to my cat at the same age; he was part of my identity.
I didn’t ask our housemate or nanny but I expect the cats are net negative for them because of the logistical hassles.
When I compare these cats to the ones Jeff and I grew up with, I think, “Our mothers would have put these cats outside.” Both our mothers signed adoption papers saying they’d keep cats inside and then changed their mind when the cat was driving people crazy inside. I don’t expect to do that, partly because in our neighborhood the chance of them being hit by a car is pretty high, and I think the kids would be very sad about that.
Recommendations if you’re getting cats:
- Get an automatic feeder! One of the main complaints by cat owners is cats pestering people for breakfast early in the morning. Even if they get wet food at some point in the day, try to make the first feed of the day automated so they’re not waking you up. It’s also better for the cats to get several meals spaced throughout the day instead of one or two feedings, and they don’t have to wait if you’re late coming home. Wirecutter recommendations.
- Try to match the cats’ temperament with your household. When we were adopting, I told places that we have a busy household with young kids, and we want cats who won’t be too frightened of that. We adopted from someone who had been fostering them in her home, and she was correct that these cats were robust personalities. (Maybe too robust.)
- Give houseguests a heads up. We once hosted a guest who was very allergic and needed to leave in the middle of the night because of our housemates’ cats.
- Get a litter container that contains smell, like the Litter Genie. You can get off-brand bag refills. Even though you’ll still need to scoop litter often, it contains the smell so you don’t have to take out the trash as often. Or maybe get an automatic litter box; I haven’t tried these.
Related: Ethics of adopting a meat-eating pet