The worst thing about having a cat?

[thehillshaveyes]

I'm guessing the good outweighs the bad in most cases but just how bad can it be?

When they live to be 20, and because you love them just as much as ever, you seek ever more expensive vet treatment even though the insurance you paid into for the past 2 decades only covers each condition for a year and you're now in year 3 of the thyroid disease, kidney failure and arthritis that was diagnosed as fatal 3 years ago, and you know that it will all end in watching your dear friend being pts eventually. Meanwhile the kitchen floor is being wrecked and you're embarrassed to have people round because of the incontinence and smell, not to mention the other small fortune on puppy pads. And all this angst clouds the previous 17 years worth of love.

But the 17 years before that are utterly lovely, as long as you have nice neighbours who can feed them while you're away and you don't have to worry about putting them in catteries!

Scratching furniture
When they spend most of the day outside and then come in and poo in the cat litter.
Finding someone to look after them when you go on holiday.
Ruining your door with installing a cat flap.

The good definitely outweighs the bad though!

Fleas. And aiming for the litter tray and missing, meaning the house doesn't smell like a National Trust house, which I would love.

kittens9888888888888888888888888/walking over your keyboard while you're trying to type..

It's wonderful having them though.

I currently have one very old boy stretching luxuriously against me in the warmth. Delicious.

The pain of having to choose when to PTS your elderly cats that are able to be treated by the vet but you know in your heart they are not comfortable, healthy or happy.

The amnesia you get after 5 years without a cat that means you get 2 more whilst living abroad and then are looking at thousands to get them back to the UK Am trying to console myself with the thought that they are worth it if they live the 21 and 23 years that my previous 2 cats did!

Lordy. 23??

Birds flapping under the bed at 5am and dead mice in our shoes.

When they die.

I still miss my Simba

To everyone who has puking cats. I used to have a regular puker until I changed his feed to a very high meat content/no grain dried food. I don't think he's puked at all since - and it's been years.

I have to say my cats are generally really well-behaved and good. The worst things have been leaving them at the cattery when we go on holiday and (the absolute worst) losing my 14 year old beloved tabby cat a couple of years ago. I am tough as old boots but I cried myself to sleep for days and still get tearful when I think of her.

What brand do you use uptownflunk?

I am surprised at how many say that their cat has vomited or done their business outside the litter tray. I've never known it with relatives and friends cats unless they were ill.

It hasn't put me off though

only vom here has been because girlcat is VERY lactose intolerant and my DS left his bowl out, causes issues both ends. And hairballs.

only outside the tray accidents are simply because she didn't quite get her butt in the box and overhung the side, lol.

When your 4 year old little boy develops saddle thrombus and you eventually find him in the neighbors garden howling in agony and paralysed from the clot and knowing he's been cold, alone and in pain literally next door for over 10 hours then have no choice but to put him down. Then realising that he was completely covered in dirt was becuase he had been dragging himself whilst he still had the use of his front legs (can anyone tell I'm still traumatised?!)

Power

Standing on mouse bits in your bare feet first thing in the morning.
Hairball vom (only one of mine does this, but she goes through phases when its everyday)

I love them, but all 3 of mine can be PITA. This morning one is wailing loudly about something, but I can't work out what it is.

I love our cat to bits, the worst thing I have with her is worrying about her.
Worried myself silly when she first started going outside - I'd kept her in for over a year on the vets advice. I would try and call her back in after about 20 minutes
She got attacked by another cat about 6 months ago and had a big open wound on her back, had to rush her into the vets for that. And then last weekend, she started vomiting quite a lot so had her in the vets again (stuck hairball!) right in time for us moving house
She is only two but has already cost us a few hundred quid in vets bills.

That said, I love her and wouldn't be without her - when I got her I knew they cost money. I don't think some people think it all through when they get pets - they just see a cute kitten and think 'oh well cat food's not that expensive'. Flea treatment, worming, neutering, vaccinations, food, litter, vets bills - it adds up.
I know a few people who have bought kitties and re-homed them a year later cos they're 'too expensive'. It makes me

I've just stepped out of the back door and found a dead mouse missing a head. I don't even have a cat yet!

I can tell you the best thing....they shit in everyone else's garden except their own!

Really crispy? That sounds good to me

That's no help if your neighbours all have cats though, crispy. (All my recent boys have used an inside tray, even if they were outside-going.)

The worst part is having to say goodbye to them after 14 years. Got her ashes back yesterday.

Cats are great

Poo, wee and sick in random places as a protest (from passive agressive cat 🐱)

Cat hair everywhere.

When they try and sleep right next to your face and it feels like your suffocating via cat.

They are lovely too!

When they howl at 3am and wake your toddler up.