How do I persuade my landlord to let me have a cat?

[AllPurposeNortherner]

Moved into a new house three weeks ago, as a single mum for the first time. I really want a cat to keep me company once the kids are in bed. I've had cats before, know what is involved, I work/study from home so it wouldn't be left alone and I have plenty of friends and family nearby that could catsit if I needed. I had been planning to get a cat with DH, it isn't totally out of the blue.

Today I rang the letting agent to ask, and later they texted back to say that the landlord says no pets at all in the property :-(

If I had my wits about me when I moved I could have specifically looked for a pet friendly house, but I didn't.

Is there any hope, do we think?

My backup plan is a couple of guinea pigs, but they are probably as unlikely :-(

awful lot of 'all landlords are crap so I'll do as I bloody please' here. (As is usual when landlords are mentioned.)

how about behaving like grownups rather than whining children? Which part of 'no pets' don't people understand?

We got a cat, wrongly presumed the owner would say it was ok... So everytime he or the letting agent came to the house we had to
hide her. She was a very timid cat anyway and loved to
hide under the bed which was handy!

It was comical, to clear away evidence of cat- the letting agent renowned for being harsh but never picked up on cat!

Go for it! If you're ever caught with the cag in the house, just say it wanders in and you're trying to
Find out who owns it!
Life's too short. Pets make humans happy :) clean the carpets when you leave.

have you not read the thread friendly face??

if you had you would realise that pets make SOME people happy, and when it is your house you decide, but it is NOT your house.

No you're right neverknowinglyunderstood, they do
Make some happy. If I were a landlord then I would expect tenants to abide by rules, but I was young... I wouldn't do it now! But I think asking as no allergies then a pet is good- so long as people clean up when they leave.

Aslong as no allergies (not 'asking'!)

I cannot believe someone would risk making themselves, and that pet they got without permission, homeless like this.

getting very annoyed reading some of these posts.... I'm amazed so many tenants think they can do what the hell they like as they begrudgingly pay ie £500 a month. Is lying and deceiving acceptable in other areas of life, or just when it comes to landlords?