ladies with cats- r u keeping them?

[swanxxsong]

I know many people with babies and cats and they don't have issues. As others said, they supervise the cat/baby time and the cats are mostly pretty apathetic to the baby's presence. They do their thing, everyone else does their own, and they happily coexist. As long as you put thought into introducing baby and cats, you should be fine. We're without doubt keeping our dog, even though people think I'm "nuts" for having a 2 1/2 year old "pup" with my baby. Sorry, but don't expect me to up and dump my dog today because "she might hate the baby." lol. That's where supervision, boundaries and training come in handy.

Good luck! xo

 

[bluesky]

Never even entered my head to get rid of my cats or dog. Will keep nursery door shut and the baby will never be left alone with the animals.

 

[aliwnec10]

Why would you not keep your cats?

We have 2 cats and 1 dog. They're family members. You can't get rid of family members. My son doesn't have any allergies to them, so i see no need to get rid of them.

Kind of upsetting that people are talking about them as if they're disposable.

 

[toddlerandpip]

My cats were at my toddlers birth! One lept walking in and out of the room and another sat behind me when I was getting stitched up! They love the toddler! 1 followers her when we go for a walk. We keep her bedroom door closed at all times. Cat nets don't work. They just sit on them. Be sensible and don't leave them alone as all animals can be unpredictable.

 

[Ramen]

I know you said cats but everytime I hear someone say I should get rid of my ferrets I think of this.

After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and ...WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY!!!

We must get rid of our children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday we MUST place the children this weekend! They are described as:

One male - His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had Chicken Pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors
and with a little training he should be able to read soon.

One female - Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix),
strawberry blonde hair, green eyes quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots, tonsils out, and is very healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She
is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training - shouldn't take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed in rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our priority now has to be our new puppy.

source unknown email

As others have said so long as you excercise common sense there's no reason they can't get along. I wouldn't leave any type of animal alone with an infant cat, dog, ferret, or guinea pig.

 

[catcatcat]

My god - YES. Ive got 2 kids already and always got cats. Works very well. Biggest hurdle is when they start crawling etc to keep them out of cat litter. Dont leave sleeping baby alone with cats near incase they get in basket. Mine never did mind. My dds absolutly love our cats it teaches them to care and look after something. Its good to bring up children with animals. X

 

[lauren loo]

What are you supposed to do if your cat likes to cuddle? My cat obby likes to sleep in bed with me every night and i will be sharing my room with my baby. I think the nets look like the amazon. And i dont wanna buy one if i dont need it. Maybe i can try setting up the crib and putting a baby doll in it. See what he does. Then scold him for the remaining 4 months of pregnancy. Until he learns. Id lock him out of my room but he claws under the door to get in. And it works. Either that or he will meow for hours until i let him in...any suggestions?

 

[citymouse]

All of our friends with cats/babies have had zero problems. In fact, our friends who have a psycho cat (and therefore have been really careful) found that the cat is utterly calm and sweet around the baby.

I think animals know the difference between children and adults. When I was little we had two cats, one of whom was the most skittish, spooky cat ever--but I never knew it, because she would let me dress her up, put her to bed with a bonnet on, fold her up in my toy shopping cart, etc...

I wouldn't get rid of an animal in any case unless it were an absolute last (last last last) resort. When I was younger my parents had a "you can always find them a new home" attitude about animals that I now find completely repulsive and inhumane. Especially if it's done with the intention of getting a different, "better" pet. Our neighbors have had three dogs and put them all to sleep because they refused to invest any effort into training any of them.

 

[catcatcat]

P.s u always get the odd animal hater sugesting u get rid, usually someone who has never kept pets. A new baby coming along gives them the chance to have a go at animals

 

[citymouse]

What are you supposed to do if your cat likes to cuddle? My cat obby likes to sleep in bed with me every night and i will be sharing my room with my baby. I think the nets look like the amazon. And i dont wanna buy one if i dont need it. Maybe i can try setting up the crib and putting a baby doll in it. See what he does. Then scold him for the remaining 4 months of pregnancy. Until he learns. Id lock him out of my room but he claws under the door to get in. And it works. Either that or he will meow for hours until i let him in...any suggestions?

You could try keeping something the cat won't want to walk on, like sheets of aluminum foil, in the crib for now. And keep a water bottle nearby to squirt him if he climbs in.

A slightly more extreme measure is to get the (lightly) electrified mats they sell to teach animals to stay off furniture. It's just a mild shock but the animal dislikes it, for obvious reasons. They work so well you can even buy one real mat and then, once your animal knows what it is, you can get decoy mats.

Clearly all this would have to be done before the LO arrives, LOL.

 

[butterflie]

there are so many things that we are warned about whilst pregnant and with little ones, i think you would regret rehoming them. I would just put it into practice now that no cats are allowed in your bedroom and where the baby will sleep, so they are used to it by the time your lo arrives. If people keep winding you up then maybe gently say your more worried about high pressure caused by the stress of rehoming your beloved cats lol xxx

 

[catcatcat]

What are you supposed to do if your cat likes to cuddle? My cat obby likes to sleep in bed with me every night and i will be sharing my room with my baby. I think the nets look like the amazon. And i dont wanna buy one if i dont need it. Maybe i can try setting up the crib and putting a baby doll in it. See what he does. Then scold him for the remaining 4 months of pregnancy. Until he learns. Id lock him out of my room but he claws under the door to get in. And it works. Either that or he will meow for hours until i let him in...any suggestions?

Thats a good idea. I was lucky my cat was ok when we started to make her sleep downstairs we did it at around 6mths pg. Its a hard one if your cat scratches at door to get in. U need to wait and c and if worse comes to worse and cat wants to get in basket then u'll have to put up with scratching till she gets message. Chances are tho your cat wil sleep on your bed where she normally does. My cats avoided baby at night as if to say im not hanging around while all that fuss is going on waking up every 2 hrs etc

 

[Mrs_Grissom]

What a ridiculous thing for people to say to you :O my jaw actually dropped when I read that...who in their right mind would just get rid of their pets because they had a baby? That is so sad that people would think of that. My cats are my babies for the moment and when I have a real baby they will be my other babies As long as they are not left alone to sit on them while they sleep I don't see what the problem is. I feel quite horrified. I guess not everyone likes pets but I've had them in my life since I was tiny, as has OH and we'd never be without them (we've joked at times that if one of us became allergic that it'd be us that had to move out and not the cats!!) x

 

[Emmie M]

We had 3 cats when our first was born,they werent fussed at all and stayed well away for the most part,had a look and a sniff and went off!! We had to re-home them all in the end tho as we lived in a damp one bed flat and when our son came along we got a council flat that was a shared entrance and on the first floor,the cats were ok for a while but it soon became apparent that being made to be house cats was making them go a bit loopy and it wasnt fair on them having to stay in all the time,even tho it broke my heart then and still does now it was far kinder to find them new homes. We are still in a flat now but if we ever manage to move to a house I wouldnt hesitate having cats again,we have always had cats in our family. Just be wary if the cat gets a bit too friendly with baby,some like to sleep with the baby,its a mother thing I guess. But as long as you watch the cats and keep a door shut when baby is alone/asleep,then they will be fine

 

[charleosgirl]

My cats are part of my family. I can't even believe someone would think to get rid of them because a baby is on the way.

When LO gets here we'll keep the cats out of the room simple as that.

Our pets should not be disposable

 

[BeachComber]

me and oh have 2 cats and we have had loads of people saying you cant have cants in the house with a newborn baby!

we have had soo much grief over it that i am really nervous over it

so are you keeping your cat ?

if yes what precautions are you doing? are you gonna buy the cot nets and stuff ?

Of course we are keeping our cats! We have always had cats around when all of my children were babies and they have never been a problem!
We always have the babies sleeping in the same room as us and just shut the bedroom door though so the kitties don't come running in and out at all hours of the night.

 

[xxsteffyxx]

we had two cats... Roxy and Smudge. They moulted a lot and as much as we loved them dearly we thought it would be better to pass them to a new home who would fuss over them more then we could when Harvey arrived.

They were adopted little over a month ago and I miss them dearly, but the lady who adopted them gives me updates daily on how they are doing and such.

So no regrets

 

[willowtree]

I have 4 cats and im not getting rid of them no chance!! my friend had 3 but she got rid of one and shes on about getting rid of her dog,because shes pregnant, i would never dream of getting rid of any of mine unless i really really had too! pets have feelings too,i agree with someone else who said the amount of animals you see in animal sancturys is awful just because the owners is pregnant they get rid ....i think its out of order!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I grew up with cats in the house as did all my cousins. I'm 100% not worried about it. Heck, when I was a baby my mom's cat would nap in the crib with me. She never once tried to lay on me. So, obviously, we won't be getting rid of our kitty. We also have two dogs and the most I'm worried about is my "baby" being jealous of the new baby. But the way she shows her jealousy is to day on my lap with who or whatever is already there, lol.

 

[disney doll]

Thats absolute nonsense that you can't keep cats. We have 2 cats and have had them for 11 years and would not dream of ever getting rid of them.The cats will be fine with the baby they will just need time to adjust.There is some interesting stuff on the internet about how to introduce your baby to the cat etc and do think about a cat net.The novelty of the baby will soon wear off for the cat! Hope that helps you.