At last we've persuaded dh that we can get a cat. We've not had a cat for nearly 10 years after our last cat died. Our youngest ds is now 9 and we're all so ready for this. (Apart from dh)
Anyway, I phoned our local cat rescue this morning expecting to be told that we have too many kids or there is a massive waiting list. Instead they said they have nearly 150 cats waiting for homes! We could pretty much go in this afternoon and take home a cat.
We're going in a couple of weeks, we've got 2 nights away next weekend so wanted to wait till after that.
I have so much to organise, I'm so excited.
I'm mainly worried about making sure we keep the cat in for long enough. We've constantly got doors and windows open. We'll need to be really tough on that one for the first while.
I'm thinking about making sure the cat has a safe and quiet space. I think the most likely place is ds1's bedroom. He's 15, he's sensible, he's also finding life pretty stressful and I'm hoping a cat to stroke will help him chill out a bit (with all the usual caveats about cats choosing who they love best and all), but would that mean we need a litter tray in the bedroom? Is that okay? It's a big bedroom. Our last cat was 12 when she died so we haven't had litter trays to deal with in 20 years. Any suggestions on how to deal with that gratefully received. We just had an open tray last time but I know you can get all sorts of contraptions with roofs and all nowadays.
My final worry is that we have a pet tortoise. Anyone got a cat and a tortoise? Will the cat try to eat it? It moves pretty slowly so the cat hopefully won't be interested in chasing it?
I'm so excited to be nearly a cat owner again!