AIBU to ask you not to even think about taking on a pet unless you know what the fuck you are getting into?

[MycatsaPirate]

Sorry, this may be a rant.

A friend of mine runs a wildlife rescue and both of us are active on a pets lost and found group on facebook too. Both of us have taken on cats in the last two months which were either unwanted, neglected or strays.

Mine is staying with us with our other cats. My friend however, runs a rescue and her house is filled with various wild animals that are not conducive to keeping a cat plus she has four dogs. So she found a couple who wanted a house cat.

They picked up the cat at 2pm today and have since rung her to say they don't want to keep her because a) she's growling and swiping at them and b) they can't pick her up and cuddle her. FFS! They've had her a few hours and it can take weeks to settle in a cat.

Luckily a mumsnetter had messaged me a few days ago about this cat and I am hopeful she will be able to offer her a permanent home providing she can give the cat the patience and time it needs to settle in.

But please, whatever animal you think you want, do some research. Ask questions, ask on forums specific to the animal, find out how long it will live, find out how much money it will cost to provide everything that animal needs from food and vets bills to specialist equipment. Most importantly of all, please understand that it's an animal and it's not an 'instant pet'.

Quite happy to answer questions on cats and if anyone can off advice on other animals, please do make yourselves known.

Please don't get a pet and then lose interest in it a few months later :(

I think rats make the best pet for children. They are intelligent and sociable.

Would love a pair of rats, but currently have a cat so that's out of the question.

I do think that even with the best intentions, things don't always work out- we got two kittens from the same litter from a rescue and the male became more and more aggressive and unhappy. It simply wanted a quiet home with no other animals or kids. I was heartbroken, but we took him back and he was happily rehomed to a more suitable owner straight away.

Only pet I've ever given up and I had a feral cat at a point as well which I managed to turn around.

You do have to be pragmatic, at this point in time I wouldn't get a

Posted too soon.

I wouldn't get a high maintenance pet because I have neither the time, nor the energy to take care of one.

Is there a low maintenance pet? I honestly can't think of one.

People think cats are low maintenance but they aren't. They need to be fed, litter changed, flee treatment and worming, health checks, fuss, attention, playtime etc. I spend a few hours a day caring for our cats. More at the moment as Pixie was in to be spayed last week and she just wants cuddles all the time. It's a great excuse not to do much housework though.

Even fish are a lot of work. Our tank has to have partial water changes, they need three different types of food in there (pellets for the bottom feeders, bloodworm for the frogs, flake for the fish) and at the moment we have babies in there so baby fish food too.

The pond filter needs to be cleaned regularly, we have to monitor the level of that bloody green weed stuff that grows and pull it out or the fish get caught in it. They also get two types of food.

I'm guessing horses and dogs are the biggest work load but all animals need care and interaction. Our tank fish know when it's feeding time and so do the frogs, my DD2 can feed them by hand!

My friends cat is low maintenance. It buggers off for a few days fairly often to other houses to get fed and fussed over.

Nope, definitely not low maintenance!

My last cat was from a rescue and I never saw her for the first two weeks unless by accident. She would only eat or use her tray when no-one was in the kitchen. She turned into a beautiful, friendly girl, but sadly on new years eve she disappeared and was found dead the next day.

I'm so sorry user

I was terrified when I got my first cat! Never had them before and grew up with dogs. It took my friend saying "look, you've had horses since you were a kid, if you can keep a horse alive, you can manage a cat just fine"
I would never have a dog as I'm not home enough

Absolutely agree. We rescued a dog (a Staffie cross) 4 years ago and (rightly or wrongly) the SSPCA didn't tell us he was highly aggressive to other dogs. We found this out the hard way while on his first walk with us. We could have handed him straight back but in our opinion, we adopted him and he was now our responsibility. We got in a dog behavourist who taught us the basics then we muzzled him for the first 9 months of his life with us. Much longer than he probably had to be. It was bloody hard work and at times I cried with frustration because he's a stubborn little shit. He needed time, resources and patience but he's got there and now has many doggy friends at the local park, muzzle free!

It's hard, it's tiresome, but so worth it if you put in the effort.

Oh yes and a year ago, we discovered he has elbow displasia and probably has to be on glucosamine tablets for the rest of his life. He's insured up to the hilt though and so so worth it.

My cat is not the cuddling kind. We have had him for 7 years. He moved in one day, his chipped was unregistered and none one in the area knew who he belonged to. He occasionally come for a head rub, mostly in the middle of the night. He can be high maintenance for a cat. At one point only eating out of our hand.

I would love a dog but the above mentioned cat would hate it and I don’t have the life style to give a dog what they need.

Cats are fairly low maintenance for me- litter tray, food and water take 5-10 minutes/ day.

She mostly plays with the toddler and I just referee and provide cuddles. As a side note, they started copying behaviours off each other- she hides under the couch throws- DS follows suite. He messes about with the Christmas tree, she joins him straight away!

Yanbu. My mum is currently fostering a dog that was wandering around her village. Someone bought her and then didn't socialise her with other dogs or teach her not to bite as she has a tendency to mouth you. Her former owners got fed up with the poor thing and she was beaten and abandoned. .

She's getting better now, as my parents have two older dogs who foster dog has bonded with and she looks a lot healthier but she still has psychological problems.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed pets imho.

YANBU. We've had our rescue JRT 8bmonths,we are his third owners and we know why- he's a needy highly strung aggressive dog with bad memories triggering bad behaviour and a very real and obvious fear 5hat we might send him away too. He needs a lot of calm kind firm loving care and attention,takes up a lot of our time every day. We got him from Battersea who told usall about his behaviour before letting useven meet him. He is actually worse than described. But he is also funny playful loyal loving and improving your health no end because we gave to get out and walk him every single day twice a day, long strenuous walks. We love him and will bear with him throughout everything. He is ours and we are his. Our patience and care are bearing fruit as trust and understanding grow between us. The process is beautiful. That's what rescue means- the long haul on both sides. This is him.

We adopted a cat from Cats Protection League.
She spent an entire day hiding behind our sofa, before coming upstairs in the evening and coughing up a massive hairball in the middle of the night on our bedroom carpet!
She wasn't a lap cat and you couldn't pick her up, but after a few days getting used to her new house, she would come running up to us and would dramatically throw herself on the floor for a belly rub.
After a few months she'd jump up and sit next to me on the sofa, sometimes with her front paws on my lap and she would let me scratch her ears.
Then, several years later, she became a lap cat. She's such an affectionate lump of black fuzz, it breaks my heart to know that the first two years of her life were full of abuse. The fosterer didn't tell us much, but we got the gist.
She'll even tolerate being picked up if you do it right, but I don't think she'll ever like it so it's not something we do unless absolutely necessary.
She's probably about 14 now. She spends most of her life asleep on a chair, or sitting on my lap and flexing her front claws! Now my children are old enough to be able to open packets of cat treats, she sucks up to them too!
Yanbu at all op. As much as this thread started off on a sad note, the stories of people's perseverance with their rescue animals are really heart warming!

Rabbits are clever little buggers.

Ours have a huge hutch/run (that I could lay in if needed) and they are let into the garden all day (rabbit proofed). My husband built the run- it is massive, but they still prefer the freedom of the whole garden.

They wait at the door, ready to run out. When it is bed time, they play games and try to outrun me by dodging around things and doubling back. They chase the cat and eat my veggies but they are far from dim. Very entertaining to watch. Even the cat is in awe.

YANBU, this makes me mad. My DS would love a pet but I just don't want the extra work to be honest. My parents have a dog but I've never had a pet of my own.

YANBU... or is anyone else about other animals which are not cared for.

I am animal mad. Don't get me started on turtles/terrapins and those stupid plastic tanks that are sold for them (and should be banned). My two turtles having grown to a huge size are now in an outside pond and in hibernation. People definitely don't think long term when they get these creatures and all the specialised equipment needed to keep them.

Tortoises are another animal which there is huge misinformation about, a local reptile shop blithely selling baby Salcuta tortoises of about 3 inches in length at £150 a time while neglecting to mention that within 10 years they will be giant sized.

Our rescue was a spitting biting scratching ball or horror for three weeks now she is the sweetest funniest character. I still have the scars but I wouldn't swap her

Yanbu. You see it all of the time with small furries, and even the ones who are loved rarely have adequate housing and food. It pisses me off.

I'll hold my hand up to this OP.

Before I start, I am a responsible pet owner. We have three much loved cats that we shipped (at great expense) from UK to Scandinavia. There was no question these family members would not be on the same flights as us.

During the summer my ten year old twins had been pestering for rabbits. I didn't think rabbits were suitable but saw two Guinea Pigs advertised on a local Face book page. They were 8 months and almost forgotten in teenagers dark (painted black bedroom). The woman said they were easy and cheap to care for. Seeds from supermarket, bit of lettuce and cheap hay. Sounded ideal.

Turns out, they should not eat seeds, they thrive on specailist long grain pellets and good quality orchard hay. Iceberg lettuce is bad for them and there is a whole host of vegetables and foods they cannot eat.

The cage they came in was too small. I had to purchase another one and get separate houses because that need some chill out alone space. The cage is best suited to a space where the piggies have human interaction, so they are in the luvubf room. When the kids are at school they are moved to an upturned bookcase in the office, so the more space to run and more boxes to plag with. This is referred to as 'piggy day care'. In the summer we have built them and a run and they live to eat grass. But is has to be checked for stinging nettles.

About a month in we discovers they had running lice, so specialist shampoo had to be shipped from Gorgeous Guineas from the UK. Queue baths and steam cleaning cages, runs etc.

Good quality pellets, orchard hay and fesh vegetables in rural Sweden does not cone cheap. They have proved more expensive and more work but OMG they are wonderful little boys. We would not paet with them. The children love them. They have constant cuddles and are tame now. Its all worked out and we are in it for the long haul. We adore these boysand their quirky little personalities but like I said hands up, swayed by the cute photos and didn't research before hand.

Opps apologies for not checking before posting the above

Our next door neighbors have just bought another rabbit for their kids to neglect.

Wouldn't mind but they keep putting the run in sight of my dog's - one of whom has a high prey drive for rabbits - rather than behind the solid half of the fence where he can't see them and it winds him up no end. He would stand there for hours watching them.

They also refuse to rabbit-proof the garden and a few times it's managed to get through to ours (the dog is too well trained - not to mention too big - to go though to theirs). Thankfully it managed to get in to hide in the old coal bunker.
However the coal bunker has recently been demolished so god knows what will happen next time it goes through.

Winds me up big style.

Loving all the stories of perseverance with animals that need that bit of extra care and love to get them through a tough time.

All six of ours are rescues. Three from rescue centres, one from someone who had a baby and the cat was then an issue and the other two were strays - one living up the road but thrown out because it kept shitting everywhere (I suspect it was throwing up rather than shitting - he has a tendency to eat too quickly) and the other was a tiny little girl living under a shed in someone's garden.

There are still issues with all the cats and they squabble on occasion. Two have skin conditions which require steroid injections, one is terrified of it's own shadow and comes belting in if a plane goes overhead but is very affectionate indoors, one bolts his food and throws up and has to be fed smaller meals instead of two big meals a day. One is currently weeing in random places because she is wearing a surgical onesie and is protesting the only way she knows how! (one more day pixie and then you can get to your fur again).

I would never give up a pet unless it was a danger to someone. And as mine are cats and not dogs then that's incredibly unlikely to be an issue. And not until I'd exhausted every avenue possible.