Cattery for 3-4 months?

[bettybat]

I think the answer is she'll be ok - but I stupidly over humanise and baby my little cat so I need perspective.

I'm six weeks pregnant. In a sudden bid to provide security for his family, my lovely DH has decided we should go for a shared ownership property. Never mind I've been begging him for years to go for it Anyway! Due to him being newly self-employed and not having the required three years of accounts, the mortgage will all be on my salary. Which is fine - for shared ownership, I earn more than enough.

But also stupidly - shared ownership deals got hit by the recession too and despite supposedly being a way for first time buyers with no deposit to get on the ladder, banks require a 5% deposit for a mortgage for a share of a property. The only way for us to do this, and quickly, before I am on maternity and therefore ineligible for a mortgage, is to crash at DH's parents for four months. We can save £1500 a month by doing this, and get the 5% together.

But they live in a building where the freeholder says no pets. Will my little pampered, babied, and very-only-child cat be OK in cat lodgings for that time? I keep thinking - people use to do this ALL the time when quarantine rules said six months. So she'd be ok, right? She won't forget us or feel abandoned or cry at night?

I believe it's against sex discrimination laws for mortgage companies to discriminate against a woman on mat leave.

As for the cat - won't a cattery cost you nearly as much as you can save? If you do go ahead with the plan I'm sure the cat will be fine.

Oh I though it was because technically I am unemployed, and not earning my full salary?

There's a local cattery that would £100 a month, so offset that against the £1300-1500 we could save by not having rent/utilities and it makes total sense.

Just take the cat to the other flat I doubt anyone would complain if your relatives are ok with it. Do it and apologise later if caught.

Have you visited the cattery and seen the space cats have. It's normally very small. I've left a cattery in tears before a holiday before.

Or would any friends like a cat for a few months? I would take a cat in rather than have it in a cattery but I've already got a kitten and a toddler...

I won't even put my cat in a cattery to go on holiday, not because I think they're intrinsically cruel or anything, but because my cat is very attached to me (i feel that being in her own house without me is less stressful than being in a cattery without me) and because of her personality... She's very much a wee homebody and gets miserable without company.

Is there no-one that could take her in for a while? Or failing that you get people who board pets in their home rather than in pens

Sooty - she's been there once a year when we go on holiday. It's on a farm with a woman obviously batty about cats. The kennels face an open courtyard/lawn, all the kennels have a run and two levels with one carpeted and a heated igloo. She's always come back completely fine, granted only two weeks stay though.

I thought it'd be OK but maybe not :( I keep thinking about animals in quarantine for months, and they're OK, and obviously it's not ideal but cats in shelters get by in a kennel indefinitely.

DH's dad would take us in a split second but his step mum is a bit grumpy and I really don't think she'd have us if the cat came along. We live in London - most of our friends live in rented accommodation so it's not realistic to ask. Doing this is the only way we can save the money - saving that much each month is not to be sniffed at and we'd be mad to sacrifice that for staying in rented places for the sake of my cat. All the while we rent, we're risking having to give her away anyway if our landlord decides on a whim to say no pets. It just seems like it's worth it for all of us to take the hit for a few months with the longer term gain of property security.

if the cattery is one where the residents get lots of human contact she will be fine, will you be allowed to visit her as this would keep you in her mind, i work at a rescue and fantastic as it is the cats that have been there longer than a couple of months do get instituionalised and they do get down , so though they look ok to other people we see the difference in them and after a couple of weeks they do start looking longingly at the outside of the pens a bit like us having a big operation and being told we cant go outside for 3 months, but it would be better than being in someones house who dosent want her there so would probably be a better solution than upsetting your stepmom

I used to be a vet in quarantine so saw many cats who were in for 6 months. To be honest with you the vast majority of cats do nothing different in the cattery to what they do at home, lie in the sun for a while, lie in the dark for a while, eat a bit, lie in the sun a bit more, lie in the dark a bit more and so on - you get the picture. Even when we had 90 cats in everyone working in the quarantine went in with every cat every day and gave it some attention. We did give them scratching tower and hid their food and toys to make they hunt and take activity.

My friend had two cats in quarantine for 3 months, she visited them once a week and they were perfectly happy. It was a lovely cattery, nice big kennels, outdoor run etc, and the people running it were very good.