Do I want a cat?

[allhailtheaubergine]

We are dog people. Sadly a dog is not possible at this time.

We have had a succession of small furry critters but they will keep on dying much to the fascination and distress of my children.

I am wondering about getting a cat after the summer holiday.

I am open to all sensible advice and suggestions.

What do I need to think about? How do I decide if a cat would be right for our family?

Where we live (outside UK) there are kittens and cats of all ages in need of a good home.

I do miss having a pet in the family, and I firmly believe that is is good and healthy for children to be brought up with animals in the family, but I am just not sure I am a cat person.

We live outside the UK and there are lots of cats in need of a good home here too. We adopted a 6 week old kitten in December. He bites and scratches everyone (despite being neutered last month), has ruined our sofa and will cost a fortune in cat sitting when we go back to the UK for a month this summer. However, he is a beautiful cat (ginger stripes with yellow eyes), has some quieter moments when he will sit and purr on your lap and is super clean (pees and poops in the basement toilet - we trained him using a litter kwitter - see ebay). I lived with a litter tray for a month and it was gross - I can do nappies but not dried cat poo.

Our kids love him despite him being slightly wild and I think that he will settle as he gets older.

If you live overseas and a country move in the next 20 years is likely, you will need to consider pet moving charges (about GBP 3k to get from Asia to the UK as far as I know).

We are more a dog family but have had cats and dogs - a dog isn't right for us for the next few years and I think a cat is an easier introduction to pets than a dog - for small children at least.

Hmm. I think you have just put me off .

The Litter Kwitter is a great idea and solves my abhorrence of a litter tray.

But I don't fancy having a destructive force ruining my house. We had some utterly adored but very destructive house rabbits once and I don't miss the scratched walls and chewed magazines.