Speak to me about the expense and hassle of having a cat

[Opinionvoice]

My eight year old is desperate for a pet. He goes through phases of asking for this and is currently starting up a new pet campaign. I am starting to feel sorry for him and that I should get him one.

Thing is, money is tight. What sort of cost is it to have a cat? How much hassle? Will it wake me up at night?. Both my kids were terrible sleepers and I do not want to return to being woken at night by something small.

I have colleague whose cat has had a litter, so may be able to get a kitten or two from him (he is not a breeder so presume they will be free kittens to a good home).

Will I regret getting him a cat?

I have tried to fob him of with a rat but he says it will die too soon.

I guess we have been lucky with cats. Mainly just feed and forget. Pet insurance is a few £ a month, plus annual vaccinations and boarding costs when on holiday. We aren't precious about carpets as there are a few scratched corners.

A devoted friend and companion to my son through difficult years: priceless.

Our current Cat hasn’t ever needed vet treatment for anything injury wise.
But even so, with decent food, annual vet vaccinations, flea treatment (I buy online) he averages around €50 a month.

Stuff to consider off the top of my head - do NOT skimp on insurance. Look for coverage of at least £5k annually if not more. One incident took us dangerously close to this.

Catteries or cat sitting costs especially at Xmas - plus lack of spontaneous nights/weekends away

Cats have differing personalities

Expected lifespan of the average cat

Shedding

Scratching of furniture even with scratching post

Regular meals need providing - so think about daily schedules

If your cat needs treatment vets bills can rack up fast.
I have insurance and a pet plan with the vet which covers vaccination and flea treatment, reduced price medication and fixed price dental work.
Prices go up as the cats get older too.
I'm paying around £20 for my older cat and about £17 each for my younger 2. Pet plan is about £16 per cat.
Food and litter is another regular expense -£30 a month on litter and I feed and look after another cat that lives outdoors. I get through a £5 box of food in about a day and a half, two days. Plus biscuits and treats.
You ideally need to have some savings too as insurance won't cover everything and there may be an excess.
On the plus side, they're great companions and mine definitely make me happy and improve my life but they aren't 'that' cheap.

My cat is 17 now and it's diabetic, has been for about 3 years, so I have to pay for loads of medication and inject him with insulin twice a day. Plus more whenever things go wrong. It was £2500 last year when he had a kidney infection. You need to think about this end of things not just the kitten stage. It's a long commitment.

I wonder if you can set up on a pet sitting service just for local cats? Extra cash and access to cats.

I think it's great to have a pet, and I was lucky neither of my cats had insurance and no bills until they were 18 years plus and their thyroid went dodgy.

But...I'm getting kittens now and it's nicer if you can pay for insurance so you don't face hard choices.

If you are going to get your son a pet, I do think a cat is a good shout. They're pretty low maintenance, literally 2 minutes/day to feed and clean litter tray, don't need exercised, happy to be left alone for hours. However you should firstly consider whether or not you would be letting it out or not. If inside all the time you could potentially reduce costs by not neutering or needing flea/worm treatment but they will likely wreck your house (speaking from experience of mischievous kitten which ruined brand new sofa in a matter of seconds) And you will have costs from daily litter tray changes. If you're going to let it outside they are initially quite expensive, vaccinations, microchip (which is now a legal requirement), neutering, regular flea and worm treatment. Also how will it get in/out, do you need to install a cat flap? But I do find if they can be outside they tend to be more chilled and happy just to curl up and sleep on your lap while they're inside and you don't need a smelly litter tray.
Personally though if money is that tight at the moment I probably wouldn't get a pet, what if it gets sick, needs unexpected vet visits etc? You either pay a monthly insurance or take the risk of having £££ vet bills

I know this is not really your question OP but I 100% think cats make much better pets for children than your stereotypical child's pet (rabbit, guinea pig, hamster etc)

My cat insurance is £30 a month (was much less when he was younger) and l do about £20 on food. Worst thing is gerting someone to feed him when we go away but he is very low maintenance and absolutely gorgeous - wouldn't be without him. I would prob only get 1 if money is an issue.

That, and also foster cats have to be kept inside, so your DS would need to remember to be careful with doors & windows.

I love cats but after we lost our old cat earlier this year I thought hard and decided against getting another one because I just didn't want to make the 20 year commitment. Our old boy was lovely and friendly and was cheap and easy when young but was pretty hard work and expensive for the last 5 years or so as he had a very dodgy digestion and thyroid trouble. We couldn't get a neighbour to look after him as the disgusting litter trays were just above and beyond neighbourly favour levels. Constant cleaning up after him as he was also regularly sick. The children were trained to check for cat sick when they came down first thing in the morning and to recognize his 'Im about to be sick ' miaow. Couldn't leave anything precious on the floor in case he was sick on it (had to throw away a jigsaw once...). He wrecked some upstairs carpet when younger. I loved him to bits and was a mess when he died but his elderly years were hard work. I agree with the others - don't get a pet for your child, only if you want one. Loads of kids grow up without pets and are completely fine. You could offer to help with friends/neighbours pets instead or at least to start with.

Oh and he got fussy when he was older so had to feed him expensive food...

I’ve been lucky with my cats over the years, never cost me too much on top of food and the odd flea treatment.

However, my most recent cats both decided they didn’t like pooping outside so had to spend £20 a month on litter, plus have the stink of cat wee and poo in the house. Obviously there’s the expense of food, but also probiotics and cystitis prevention meds as these two are apparently nervous and get constant stomach upsets and UTis without it.

Then it turned out one of the cats needed a tooth taken out. I don’t have insurance. But even if I had, apparently dental is not routinely covered. So £700 on having a single tooth removed.

The other cat it transpired, has diabetes. So not only £70 every 6 months for a consultation, but then a prescription fee (£35), plus the cost of medicine (£100) plus needles (£30).

On top of the expense is the inconvenience - either myself or my DD have to be at home at 9am and 9pm to administer the injections. If we’re both out I have to rely on my friend to come and do it as my other DCs are needle phobic. Plus be home at 3pm to give a snack half way between the two insulin injections. Every day.

This cat routinely throws up so our hall carpet is stained, quite often pees in places she shouldn’t. Both cats have pooped/weed in my handbag, thrown up in my shoes and have brought mice, birds and once a frog into the house, which they then let go and left me to deal with! One cat weed on my DD’s bed. I stripped it, flushed the mattress out, wet vac-ed, dragged it out into the garden to dry, put it back on the bed and she peed on it again. All beds now have water proof mattress covers on like we’re a bunch of toddlers.

Despite all that, we all love them very much and have got lots of joy from sharing our home with them, believe it or not!

To top it all off, one of them got a respiratory infection and slowly went downhill, costing £300 in consultations, antibiotics etc and then a final (insult to injury) £70 to have him put to sleep. Dealing with the heartbreak of losing a much loved pet while also mentally adding to how much that heartache has cost is the shittiest part of owning a cat. But inevitable.

I wouldn't advise fostering to be honest, I have fostered many cats. The animals are usually neglected or abused, they quite often need some form of extra care such as medication, bathing, training, they need vet visits, they might be pregnant which comes with a lot of things to watch out for and care for the cat. They can be untrained when it comes to toileting which is something you'll have to work on with the cat so they can be rehomed. The cats usually need a really quiet place to rest and hide in as they are usually very unsettled, even the ones without problems. Some cats may never be comfortable around young children. I quite often went without sleep due to one thing and another. Basically my point is, a foster cat isn't going to 'slot in' with your life, they come with challenges and it is work, as lovely as they are and as much as I would do it again when my kids are older, you need to really be committed to the care of animals to do this. If you feel you are not ready to have a pet cat, that is fine but honestly please don't see fostering as an ' easy way' out.

Your neighbours will start to dislike you as soon as the cat starts to shit in their garden.

Yeah, rabbits are hard work. They take a lot of care and cleaning, and you get naff-all back from them.

I know some people who foster for an animal charity and it works well for them. The animals they've had actually haven't had many health/behaviour issues as they are typically given up due to change of circumstances rather than strays or cruelty cases but that's something that will vary with the charity/type of animal/location. There was some extra hassle in terms of initial training (lots of online courses) and then vet check ups and neutering (have to use the specified vet which is not local so have to add travel time) but vet bills and expenses like mileage are covered. They have a child who is very good with the foster animals and loves being involved in helping but he is particularly good for his age at being calm and quiet around nervous animals and leaving them alone when needed. They also have plenty of.space so there is a room which can be shut off for the animals to have peace and quiet.

In additional factor in some replacement cable costs or learn how to rewire or repair items yourself.

My latest cat is an absolute sod for chewing cables.

Nothing stops him.

His favourite is my laptop, the hoover, phone & toothbrush chargers

It’s a good job he’s cute

I'm pretty horrified by some of the earlier answers on this thread suggesting that you just chuck the cat some food, get a cat flap and job done. That's not true and it is very misleading, especially to someone on a low income or who is not used to having animals.

All cats are different for a start. A cat can get sick, injured or run over. In fact they're far more likely to than dogs because they roam. Vet's fees are astronomical, even for routine stuff. You've also got to get them to the vet. If you want decent insurance it does not cost £12.50 a month!

Neighbours will not necessarily feed and look out for your cat, that's silly advice. You can't just pack your bags and swan off on holiday and you absolutely cannot just leave a living creature to the mercies of any old body.

Cats can, and often do, live until their late teens so it a long time commitment.

Given the OP's circumstances I think it is very ill advised for both her and the cat.

Mine has just caught his second pigeon of the week. Two pigeons of the three that would visit our garden year in year out (may not be the same ones, but I tell myself that they are). 🥺

The first thing I do as a cat owner every day is scoop poo and vacuum up the cat litter that has spread to every room.

Everything I own is either destroyed by cat claws or has cat hair permanently woven into the fibres.

We can’t have wallpaper.

If £25 a month is a stretch, you can't afford a cat.

If you are remotely struggling for money, why on earth would you suggest getting a pet. Thinking logically!

I wouldn't get a cat if you really can't afford one. Insurance doesn't always cover everything.

Plus the initial costs can be expensive like neutering, injections ect.

We have dog, 2 cats, gerbils and have previously had fish. I have to say the cats are the least hassle. We lock all animals downstairs of a night and do not get woke up. You will need to flea and worm which is about £8 a month, cat foods quite expensive now. I would also get insurance but we don't have it and obviously have to pay for treatment etc