Pet Allergies and family

[MayBride06]

Hello all!

I need some outside perspective on this.

My older bro and sister in law live 2 mins away from me and my DH. They have 2 wonderful Wheatens. They also both have severe cat allergies. They will get watery eyes and will get stuffy if they are around cats.

We want to get a dog and I have brought up wanting a cat on several occasions. We recently found out a friend took in an abandoned kitten and is desperate to find a home for it. I really think this is the perfect opportunity for us to get a cat.

The downside is that my brother and sister in law will probably not come visit our home if we have a cat. I dont mind going over there all the time but feel bad that I would not make them feel welcome in my home because of a pet.

Would confining a cat to one room of the house and vaccuming and running and air purifer when they would be over help them to be here without being too sympotmatic? That would be the win-win situation.

I feel torn about what to do!

Thanks!

[lovebugs2003]

If they have severe allergies, i would assume that vacuming wouldn't really help, sometimes the slightest smell of something can set someone off.

If I knew my family members were allergic to something, i probablly wouldn't have it in my house. Just me though, i have my family over a lot, so it would be a problem for me.

[Myra]

I have severe cat allergies and I don't go to homes where there are cats. Since they only live two minutes from you, it doesn't seem like a big deal that they couldn't come to your house. Also, I would not be insulted if a close family member got a cat--I don't expect other people (well, except my husband) to change their lives because of my limitations. It's very sweet of you to be so concerned for them.

[diam124]

I wouldn't be too concerned about hurting their feelings, but I also think you need to understand that they very well might never come to your house while you have cats. We have good friends nearby but the wife is allergic to cats so they never come to our house. They came once in the summer (since we just sat outside on the deck).

[AlisonCO]

I have pretty bad allergies to dogs and cats (worse with cats) and I can go to peoples homes with cats as long as I don't touch the cats, don't touch my face at all and wash my hands before I leave.

[TX Sweetheart]

I have pretty bad allergies to dogs and cats (worse with cats) and I can go to peoples homes with cats as long as I don't touch the cats, don't touch my face at all and wash my hands before I leave.

This is the way I am with dogs (other than my own, who we've had since he was a puppy so I'm totally used to him)... otherwise, we'd never be able to visit any of my or DH's family who all have at least one dog.

[tenofcups]

Whether or not they could visit really depends on how bad their allergies are and how much they might be willing to suffer to make it worthwhile. My ex-bil couldn't walk into my house for more than about 5 minutes before starting to get a reaction. If he came for that short period of time, he would start to get stuffy and red eyes. Any more time and his whole face would swell and get blotchy and he would start to have trouble swallowing. His allergies got worse as he got older. It didn't matter if he was anywhere near the actual cat or not, just in the house with her.

We lived about 2 hours away from each other and I would only invite them to my house in the summer when we could all mostly hang out outside. But since most of the time I traveled to them (which is also where my parents lived), it wasn't really an issue. Still, it was of some concern since I wanted to start hosting some holidays at my house and I realized that I'd never be able to have him at my house if I had a cat. My last cat died 2 years ago and I wanted another cat, but hesitated to get one since I was hoping to have the whole family for the holidays this fall. (In the meantime, he and my sister are now involved in a nasty divorce so I went out and got 2 kittens very shortly after she told me about it since his allergies were no longer an issue...)

[jesvet]

I think many people are fine in the situation you described, but some are not... it just really depends. If you are OK with them possibly not coming over- they may not even know how it will be for them.

Just make sure if you do decide to get the kitten you are prepared for that possibility and won't give her up if they don't come to visit!