fed up of people going on about my cat

[whimsicalquark]

I'm getting sick of people making comments about my pet cat. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and I'm fully aware that I need to be careful that the cat doesnt try to climb into the moses basket with the baby. I have bought cat nets for pram, moses basket and cat and the cat isnt allowed upstairs at night. When the baby arrives it isnt going to be left on its own so i fail to see what the danger is with my cat, from what ive seen of other peoples they dont take any interest in babies anyway. You would think I had a pet alligator on the loose the way everyone is going on, if one more person makes the comment ' cats are always smothering babies, its because they smell of milk ' then im going to scream, its hardly something that you read about in the papers every day.
I'm pretty sure im not the only person in this country with a pet cat and ( soon to arrive) baby in the house.

anyway rant over !!!!!!

I have 8 cats, and have a fruitlooop neighbour who even wanted to arrange for my cats to be PTS for me.

For those who can be arsed to read my previous thread... here

I have gone from being polite to people, to telling them bluntly to fuck off and mind their own business, because I am sick to death of people asking me when I am going to "get rid" of them.

"Fuck off" is a complete sentence, OP.

My cat sits there looking very resigned as DS (3.10) strokes him vigorously and DD(4.5mo) attempts to eat his tail.
Personally think DD is safer being left alone with the cat than with DS (who also likes to vigorously stroke/prod/grab his sister).
Generally, the cat likes to hide under the bedside cot where the DCs can't get at him...

Our two cats have roundly ignored DS ever since we brought him home from hospital. Though my mother had a right one on her about the baby inhaling a cat hair and choking to death. (No, me neither.)

All a grossly overperceived risk IMO. Cars much more dangerous!

I've had a lot of weird "OMG HOW ARE YOU GOING TO COPE WITH YOUR CAT AND A BABY" crap too. I'm mostly responding with heavy sarcasm.

Hi

Much the same here. We have two cats, MIL in a huge panic about them from the moment I announced I was pregnant. When we brought DS home the cats were scared of the noise & disruption and took off, only reappearing for food. They have gradually become braver over past two months but are v quick to disappear again if DS shows too much interest in them, he's now crawling.

I wouldn't bother with a cat net just be sensible with both DC & cats. Have found our new stair gate keeps the cats downstairs, maybe better to get one of those if you're concerned at least it will also be useful for when DC is mobile.

Rootle - how fat are your cats

Cheek! :)

Bars on stair gate are only about 5cm apart, but to be fair they are a bit squishy, guilt fed to make up for lack of attention since DS arrived!

Ugh, I know how you feel OP, I'm 7.5 months pregnant and have a very large dog. You would not believe the number of people who think I need advice on how not to let the dog eat my baby. Have even been asked if I'm keeping him.

Golly, people are eejets.

When my younger sister was a baby, our cat acted as a 'guard cat' more than anything else. She would either sit by my sister's cot or, if mum had sis in the pram in the garden, she's squeeze herself up to the end of the pram, as far away from my sister as she could, Then if my sister cried or became restless, the cat would go and meow at my mum until she'd come and sort out my sister. But then this cat was a very intelligent cat

Rootle - I've never seen a stair gate with bars so close together! Sounds great. Once DS is walking the cats will lose weight again

I had this too! Did my head in! DD is now 14 weeks and the cats (I have 2) have never ever attempted to jump on her. Btw are you aware that there has never ever been a proven case of a cat killing a baby? It is an urbanlegend - just think how many households have cats and babies in.

People are so stupid!

I'm also one that says LO will be in the wendy house in the back garden whilst me and my furbabies are snuggled up in bed.
Getting fed up with the whole issue.
No, I won't be treating my furbabies any differently. If anything I've vowed to spend specific time with them so they don't feel left out.
For any 1st time cat&baby owners then, well, cats can adapt their meows to be a similar frequency to baby's cries...so...well, if you start finding the cat's meows more attention grabbing/stressful, this is why.

Stair gates dont always work- my two are over them in 2 secs (which is actually great because it means I can barricade off their litter trays/food from DS but they can still get to them.

Basically, they work to keep DS away from the cats and their stuff, but not vice versa

With the stair gates - allegations of the cat being fat may be completely unfounded! The ones that cover wide gaps and are fixed to the wall (as opposed to the pressure-fit ones) have narrower bars - we've got a knackered one that's tied to a coffee table and cat tree to make a dog-proof enclosure for us to keep the cat's food in without constantly having to evict a greyhound's nose from it - cat can't fit through the bars of it... now go say sorry for calling the kitty fat!

I was going to take the line of asking them if they were going to get rid of their child number 1 when number 2 came along - and when they looked shocked, reply, "no well I won't get rid of family members either."

Sigh.

I have a previously very soft dog and a previously very mean cat. Since DS arrived 15 weeks ago, the cat has become super friendly, sniffs and licks DS's head/feet, has never set foot in his basket even without him in it, despite her general love of getting into any container and her particular passion for all things wicker. Dog has become protective and now barks when people come to the door. Neither have been anything but sweet and respectful of DS.

I love the idea of telling people that the baby will be sleeping in the shed! Eejits who make these daft statements about animals have clearly never been responsible for a pet.

Another thing that happened when DS was born was that my cats, who were previously a bit "meh" towards each other, decided to join forces in the face of the common enemy and are now nauseatingly affectionate to one another.

I got a cat net on Freecycle when I was pregnant that had not been used. I never used it. I passed it onto a friend who has never used it. I have come to the conclusion that the purpose of cat nets is to placate mothers and mothers in law.

I don't know, I'm starting to believe this "cats smothering babies" thing. We have 4, and about 2 weeks before I found out I was pregnant our eldest cat started sleeping on my stomach every night. Right in the position where the baby would be. I'm 27 weeks now, and she still perches right on top of baby every night. I think she's trying to smother in in-utero. She's always been a jealous little thing.

BTW: while I'm not lying about the cat having started sleeping on my stomach, I am being completely sarcastic about my believing that it's trying to smother the baby.

Quiet Tiger I remember your thread, so glad you told them all to fuck off in the end! I was so angry on your behalf!

Gypsycat - Try not to worry too much, it is the hormones that they can smell and the warmth. My cats did this too until they got bored.

I've got three girly cats and they are members of the family too so it makes me really angry when people pass comment on them. My reflex now is to tell them that 'scientific research has shown that this is very unlikely because as well as the sound of crying which hurts the cat's ears as their hearing is 16 times stronger than ours, cats are also repulsed by the smell of dirty nappies so it is very unlikely that the cats will go anywhere near baby. I've had a full and open dialogue with a cat specialist vet who has advised me that the safety risks are minimal but if you would like to speak with him too then I can happily give you his number.'
Tends to shut them up.

My cat also has a back leg missing so can't jump up into cots and moses baskets anyway on a smothering mission.... not that this is recommended as a course of cat-baby-management - I just happen to have a wonky-mob

mog* (and I don't have an iphone to use as an excuse for the typo)

I'm 26 weeks and am seriously considering getting a cat, just to wind people up
When DS was bon we had to stay with my parents for a few weeks till our house was fit to move in to, they had 2 cats at the time & we had quite a few comments along the same lines. One cat took one look at the baby and walked off in wht I can only describe as disgust and the other would sit on the arm of the sofa vulture - like staring at him in his moses basket for ages. She slept there and if he so much as twitched in his sleep she would go to the nearest person and make a pest of herself until thet took notice. This stopped the day he threw up on her after a feed!
The cat net went, unused, to my SIL who had 2 cats. It got passed on unused to her friend.

Our cat net bought by DH in a worried new Dad sort of way ended up being used in the garden to net some seedlings.

When DS (now 4) came home the cat stalked off and spent most of her days in the spare room in peace. Later, she'd come down at night when he'd gone to bed. We lost her last year and the 2 kittens we got last Autumn are just used to the children. DD is now 21 months and used to grab fistfuls of the younger ones fur if given the chance. He has never retaliated.

I didn't have too many rude/silly comments but enough to get bored of them. Our two cats are protective of DD and will lie next to her Moses basket and just out of her reach but no closer. The worst thing is they became super affectionate as soon as I got pregnant and now sleep on our bed by our feet (which they never did before) and if I bring DD in with us I get stiff trying to sleep in a position that won't disturb any of them. 5 in a bed is probably to many. I love it though.

Hehe my bump loves my boys purring when they sit on her. One even puts most of his weight on the dreangenii and wraps himself round bump just to (it seems) feel her hoof him. Bless.

I've now idea how I'm going to tell the diffrence between my biys going mental as I'm about to give birth, or just otherwise being MENTAL. They are often just being mental.