Sometime in March, an orange tabby adopted our family. We are not cat lovers. In fact, both my wife and I are allergic to cats; my eyes swell shut with constant contact, and my wife wheezes and breaks out in hives. (Hmm, perhaps we see where our son Graeme gets his allergic tendencies?)
Plus, we just don’t care for cats. Not so for my 4-year-old daughter Elise, who upon seeing Noah (as the cat came to be known), fell deeply in love. She lavished attention on him, and he didn’t scratch her when she dragged him around in a choke hold. We decided to let him stay—as an outdoor cat.
Still, he wore out his welcome quickly. Though a scant 10 pounds, Noah ran the 80-pound Labrador retriever off the porch and ate her food. He made mad dashes into the house whenever the door was left slightly ajar, causing my wife and me to go into allergic fits.
There were fights and related wounds. An unfixed male cat can run up a lot of vet bills. And there was the time Noah spent an evening inside my Subaru wagon, marking his territory. But for my daughter’s love, the cat would have been gone that day (five months later, the smell still lingers!).
Then our son Graeme got tested for allergies. In addition to his food challenges, it turns out he inherited our cat-contact issues. In fact, his allergies are much worse. We quickly noticed that my daughter, after playing with Noah, could induce welts on Graeme’s skin just by touching him. His asthma acted up whenever one of us entered the room after Noah had brushed against our legs.
The allergist told us that Graeme’s two biggest allergens were peanuts and cats. Either could put him into shock. We made a decision on the spot: The cat had to go.
Our daughter was devastated. “Can’t we get rid of Graeme?” she asked. Between his special menu, his extra doctors visits, and his twice-daily aerosol treatments, Elise was already having issues with all the attention her brother was getting. Perhaps the request, if unrealistic, was not unreasonable.
Faced with the choice between my son’s health or my daughter’s happiness, I quickly compromised: “Honey, how would you like to get a puppy?”
Next week: Our search for a hypoallergenic cat replacement.
Recent posts by Sean Kelley:
Learn more about food allergies.
Comments (7)
We receintly discovered our son who has life threatening allergies to peanuts and eggs is also severely allergic to cats. After being in a house where a cat lives (not going anywhere near a cat), he swelled up, his eye swelled up and he got hives down his face. FUN!!!
I love your blog.
Jennifer
http://www.peanutfreegaller.blogspot.com
We ended up with an outdoor ditch cat that my son loves. i am allergic to most cats. it turns out this one is part himalayan – and I am not allergic to it.
I can understand finding a cat a new home if you are suffering such allergies, but why, why why didn’t you get him neutered???????? That generally helps or eliminates territorial (read: fighting and spraying) problems.
And you don’t say what happened to the cat…
KD: You’ll be happy to know the cat (now neutered) is living under a new name with a college student who apparently suffers none of the allergies that we do.
We fix all our pets (horses included). But he was a special case. We didn’t adopt the cat, he adopted us. He just kind of wandered up one day and kicked the dog off the porch. Fortunately — after spending hundreds of dollars on his indiscretions — we were able to find him new sponsors, who took care of his testosterone issues!
Thanks for the compliments Jennifer!
wow! sounds similar to our situation…only we moved into a house where the owner previously had a cat. our young son has many food allergies, and we found out very quickly, it included cats! HELP! we are having one heck of a time easing his symptoms…after steam cleaning, scrubbing, doing everything possible to remove these allergens….any suggestions? i’m afraid he’ll just get worse.
Kelly: Have you had the ductwork cleaned? The airvents in a house with cats are full of fur and dander.
Also, did you remove all the carpeting? Replace it with hard flooring like hardwood or tile and use area rugs that can be easily lifted and replaced if they get soiled or contaminated. Hard floors are better for property values and resale, too. I would replace the carpet anyway, regardless of allergies; I have pulled up carpeting that was only 10 years old and the amount of dirt that had settled through the carpet to lay on the subfloor was unbelievable. No amount of vacuuming or steam cleaning will get that up. After pulling up the carpet, I had to replace sections of the subfloor that had been saturated with cat urine over and over again to the point that the floorboards were warped.
Good Luck!
A friend of mine used to have horrible reactions to cats. She did an acupressure protocol and to her amazement, not to mention joy, her reactions are now history.
She has also gotten rid of her seasonal allergies.
You can find more info on the site http://www.catallergyfree.com
The woman who runs the site is very friendly and helpful.