Hi all,
Recently my family decided we would like to get a kitten. I live in a 1 bed flat and plan to keep the kitten as a house cat (less risk of being ran over, getting fleas, being attacked by other animals and etc) and live on the top floor so wouldn’t be able to let her back in anyway. Pets are allowed where I live as my next door neighbour upstairs has a puppy.
I work from home so the pet won’t be left alone almost ever and will get plenty of attention. I’ve had cats before so I know about general care also.
My concern is: to get 1 year old to be gentle? Of course I don’t expect him to be and it isn’t his fault as he’s only little, but in my book, rather than keeping children away from something, you teach them how to handle it instead - in this case, instead of not getting a kitten, I’d like to teach my son how to treat animals and be kind (I’m a massive animal lover).
I have a 6 year old also and I remember when he was younger he wasn’t the kindest to kittens (he is well out of that phase now as he understands and is lovely to them).
Of course I’d never leave my 1 year old and the kitten together unattended for safety reasons for both parties.
Has anyone any advice on how to introduce my youngest son to the pet? I’d like for him to learn from an early age that animals are important and to be treated gently.
No silly comments please - I’ve had plenty of trolls on previous threads about other things with nasty comments and I will just report.
thanks