I have a cat I inherited from a prior relationship. I now have two dogs as well from the current relationship. The cat is awesome, dogs are ok, but can become more of a pain in the ass if you have a busy schedule or a lot of stress going on. For me the dogs fall squarely in the pain in the ass category. I’ve already made it clear that when they die, no more dogs. The GF has also said she enjoys them less now that she’s busy because they always demand attention and would like a break from dog ownership. I think dogs are for people who either want to pretend to have kids or have little else going on.
Follows me from room to room and comes up to greet me in the morning, but also is comfortable being in the same room and just sitting nearby instead of crowding me out, while definitely being willing to be held etc. Each cat definitely has a different personality, some are more open to being held than others, but they also warm up to that more as they get older. Cat takes very little to care for it. I have a dry food dispenser and I’ve gone on week long vacations before and left him to the house and he definitely is needy when I come back, but everything is ok.
Has only pooped on the floor twice (both when I tried unsuccessfully training it to use a toilet) and very rarely vomits. You could never do that with a dog. Everytime you want to do a weekend away you have to line up a dogsitter, in some ways our dogs are worse than having kids. The dogs also need frequent trips to the vet, I think the cat has gone like twice in its life to the vet (it’s 6 now).
My cat is declawed up front, so no furniture damage.
It is pointless to name your cat, you will call it cat 90% of the time.
Odd fact, 100% of the strippers I’ve polled have cats.
itera, please post that cat gif from awhile back. The one with the guy danggling a string toy and the uninterested cat. That could be you and your cat.
I think you will do fine with a cat. If you provide it with scratching posts it will probably spare your furniture. If you do declaw I would just get the front two declawed and do it when the cat is young, it can be pretty traumatizing for cats.
cats are for lazy people pretty much that want some type of companion, they don’t really give a crap about you in general. Dogs are more social animals, one of the only non-primates that look at humans in the eyes. My dog is almost 8 now has never been sick but I also give it regular exercise and organic food so it’s very happy. Dogs are definitely more fun but I’ll say that they can get annoying sometimes when you are really busy.
We have two cats we got from the animal shelter. They pretty much do only three things all day long:
Eat
Sleep
Try to murder each other
If you’re interested in owning a cat, I’d encourage you to get two, so they can play with each other. A single cat can get into a lot more mischief than a pair.
Our cats are a hoot. They play fetch, usually with some plastic coil springs my wife got at the pet store.
At night, they sleep in a cage (called a “cat condo”). For us, that’s a necessity: with the high fire danger where we live, we need to know where all of the animals are so that we can evacuate quickly. If we have to chase down a cat to bug out, the cat will be left behind. (The dogs sleep in crates at night.)
Contradicting Greenman, I would never advocate declawing a cat. We have a spray bottle that we’ve had to use a few times, but they learn quite quickly what they may scratch and what they may not.
I always disliked cats, but since we got ours I cannot imagine not having cats around the house.
I don’t know about declawing. You’re basically mutilating the animal. It’s not like the cat is going to destroy your house. The key is to keep them entertained, which you should anyway.
I don’t think the cats will scratch a leather sofa. They like rough textured things. If you have a corduroy type sofa, that thing is toast though.
Some cats like or even need the company of other cats. It depends on the cat. My cats play with each other; it uses up their energy and keeps them from taking it out on other things. My cat that died was bff with the other cat. They would sleep together and lick each other.
I have no poo or pee problems yet. However, cats do vomit sometimes. Apparently, it is healthy in the wild, to get rid of bones or fur of small animals they eat.
