s/o: impact of a cat on your life/lifestyle

[Anonymous]

What is the impact of a cat on your life/lifestyle, ad how much work are they they?

[Anonymous]

OP again. I know I can look this up and have, but I want to hear real stories.

A dog is NOT a possibility.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 older cats. They're fairly low maintenance pets now, but needed more stimulation and interaction when they were young. We have an automatic feeder and a pet water fountain which needs to be cleaned and refilled once/week. Litter box gets cleaned once per week, but gets sifted more often. Apart from that, they get cat hair all over the furniture, but my 15 year old cat is sweet and very snuggly. Also, it's much easier to go out of town for a weekend by just putting more food and water out. If I'm gone for longer I will have someone drop by every other day. You absolutely couldn't do that with a dog.

[Anonymous]

I have a cat and a dog and the cat is 10% of the work, dog 90%. It is no work at all. My kids clean the litter 2xs a day (takes a grand total of 6min) and feed the cat 2xs a day (40 seconds total) . We do play with her, she is a young cat, but that is not work. The laser pointer is our favorite. She will run up walls chasing it.

[Anonymous]

Cat fur everywhere, smell from litter box even if religiously cleaned. Scratching things.

Obviously do not have to walk and can leave cats on their own longer than dogs but I just cannot do cats.

[Anonymous]

First cat - a wonderful addition to the family. Very low maintenance, even went outside to poop and pee so we didn’t have litter to clean. Got old, sick, died. We were sad, which brings us to ...

Cats # 2 and 3 - negative impact on lifestyle. Scratch furniture, poop next to the litter box, break limbs, puke, keep us up at night.

So you never know what you’ll get. I recommend an orange tabby like cat # 1.

[Anonymous]

The effort level for cat care is quite low. The level of companionship varies dramatically between cats, though. Some are like roommates you never see even though you live in the same house and others you can’t walk without tripping over or sit without getting a cat on your lap. If you are looking for a certain type of kitty friend I would recommend going to a shelter where you can meet a bunch of cats and find one you click with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First cat - a wonderful addition to the family. Very low maintenance, even went outside to poop and pee so we didn’t have litter to clean. Got old, sick, died. We were sad, which brings us to ...

Cats # 2 and 3 - negative impact on lifestyle. Scratch furniture, poop next to the litter box, break limbs, puke, keep us up at night.

So you never know what you’ll get. I recommend an orange tabby like cat # 1.

You do realize the cat's color is not a guarantee it will have a certain personality or behave certain ways--right? Please don't advise OP based on a cat's color.

Orange tabby isn't a breed. Breed can have an effect on overall behavior characteristics but there are "orange" cats of many breeds.

If you still have cats 2 and 3: There are reasons why cats, which are fastidious animals, poop outside the box or puke. You can do minimal research and find explanations and advice on how to help your cats, who are exhibiting behaviors showing they are in some kind of distress which you're not recognizing. You seem to think these cats should be copies of cat number one, and are flawed and "negative" when actually they're possibly getting the wrong food for them, are ill, or distressed by something related to the box or the household. You can work with them to discourage scratching furniture and encourage scratching (which they NEED to do; it's natural) in other appropriate places.

But do make those things happen you would actually need to care that your cats are not getting what they need. You'd also have to acknowledge that you need to put effort into working with them, instead of resenting them for not being perfect like cat number one.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, male cats are more affectionate and lower maintenance than females. My last cat was a very aloof, neurotic female cat who I had for 18 years. Even though she was a pain, at times, she wasn't too much trouble.

[Anonymous]

One thing I have learned from many years of cat ownership is that every cat is SO different. Feeding and scoooping the box takes almost no time at all. The only consideration is getting a sitter for when you are on vacation. In general, cats are “easy.” However, like I said above: they are all so different in terms of behavior, neediness, “naughtiness,” and personality. My first cat was very dog-like and Velcro - loved to snuggle, loved everyone. My other two cats have been decidedly less affectionate and want much less of my attention.

[Anonymous]

Cat owner and lover here.

We have two cats and get bi-weekly cleaners, mainly to help with the fur!

I hate cleaning litter so we spent $500 on the litter robot - money well spent IMO.

Other than that, the food and litter doesn't really cost much, although if you go all grain/ high end food, it does add up.

Vet visits are few and far in between. But that's because we spend money on feeding them high-quality wet food twice/day.

They throw up once in a while because they like to eat bugs. Or they get hairballs.

When we travel, we pay $20/day for cat sitter to feed them once/day.

They are our family and live better than most humans and super playful and fun, even though they're adult cats now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cat owner and lover here.

We have two cats and get bi-weekly cleaners, mainly to help with the fur!

I hate cleaning litter so we spent $500 on the litter robot - money well spent IMO.

Other than that, the food and litter doesn't really cost much, although if you go all grain/ high end food, it does add up.

Vet visits are few and far in between. But that's because we spend money on feeding them high-quality wet food twice/day.

They throw up once in a while because they like to eat bugs. Or they get hairballs.

When we travel, we pay $20/day for cat sitter to feed them once/day.

They are our family and live better than most humans and super playful and fun, even though they're adult cats now.

I should mention, they do like to scratch some furniture/ one of our rugs - not all of it, just a few pieces. We try to counteract that by strategically placing a number of scratching posts all around, but at the end of the day, they're animals and will do what they want!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I have learned from many years of cat ownership is that every cat is SO different. Feeding and scoooping the box takes almost no time at all. The only consideration is getting a sitter for when you are on vacation. In general, cats are “easy.” However, like I said above: they are all so different in terms of behavior, neediness, “naughtiness,” and personality. My first cat was very dog-like and Velcro - loved to snuggle, loved everyone. My other two cats have been decidedly less affectionate and want much less of my attention.

Yes, this. I always recommend going through rescue orgs and paying attention to the descriptions of temperaments they provide. DH used to adopt any ole cat, which is sweet in theory, but we're all happier now that we've adopted cats described as playful snugglers etc.

Otherwise, they are minimal work. Daily litter scoop plus feeding, annual vet appointments once you're through the series of shots they need as babies. We keep cat fur cleaning tools near the spots they spend the most time (beds, couch) and try to keep everything as fur-free as possible. Each area cleanup takes 1-2 minutes.

If they eat dry food, can be left for a few days. Ours eat wet food, so we hire a neighborhood teen to come feed them twice a day and play with them when we're away.

[Anonymous]

We adopted a cat for the first time last year. Growing up, I had dogs but dogs are not an option for us right now. I was skeptical but honestly she's been a great addition to the house. Yes she scratches furniture and rugs and knocks over vases but she's never gone to the bathroom anywhere but the litter box and is a great companion. We adopted a year old cat, so young but not a kitten and she's short haired so we haven't had cat hair everywhere. She's not a ton of work, the biggest thing is to be consistent in regularly emptying/cleaning the litter box. Overall, I'm really surprised at how well she fits in and how much I enjoy her.

[Anonymous]

^^ and yes as PPs have said, the only really annoying thing is the furniture scratching. Luckily with several young kids I'd already pretty much given up on the furniture. I take them to get nails trimmed quarterly, which also helps. (you can do this yourself but I'm squeamish about it)