Cat question?????

[Griggsy]

Okay ladies we have all heard the myths about kittens and babies being in the same house. I was wondering if any of you can shed some light on it, and let me hear about your cat with a new born story.

DH loves cats, and me not so much. I can never train them right, and don't have the patience for the claws and litter box. DH swears up and down that in 4 weeks he can have the cat tiolet trained, and friendly enough not to scratch the **** out of me when I'm sitting minding my own business. If he can do that then the only thing I fear is the cat not getting along with the baby, or cuddling with the baby because she wants the babies milk.

They are old wives tales, but from my experience there is truth behind some of them. What are your opinions??????

[April162010]

Cats are cats and play with everything that moves! So are dogs and even KIDS!  so you need to be just careful when they are together. DO NOT LIVE alone your newborns with cats, dogs or kids at all...

I have  a  house with 8 cats and 3 dogs (all rescues) and they all play with each other, sometimes we are watching TV and they are playing and jump one side to another , so thats how it goes.


I just had my first baby he is almost 2 months, and i made the rule of no one goes to the baby room  until he is 2 y/o or so ( well sometimes they snick in one by one...lol) I have found some of them inside the crib sleeping...lol..lol...too funny! with their belly up...lol I say NO! and i take them out of the room.

so i introduce the cats and dogs one by one and then by couples the second time, now they are just free around the baby while we are in the living room, family or dining room,

at  first they want to go into the bassinet to see the baby and we keep saying NO! they got it now and they dont touch the bassinet...but we always keep the bassinet close to us , we know they are cats and are easy to jump at anytime.

One of my cats (10months old) likes to play with the baby foot  pulling the sock but i always keep their nails trimm so no harm there, of course i say NO!..but he still a kitten..and that is what they do!...lol

I love my cats!..i can not live without them, they are my happiness and my luck! did i forgot to tell you that they sleep with me in the couch the last 2 months of my pregnancy?..yes, they kept me company on those long 2 months of no sleep... they are best friends..my babies...cats rock!

[heatherlynn22]

my daughter (aka venus our almost 1 yr old cat) is bad. i mean down right vindictive towards the dh and i. however, she is GREAT w/ the twins. occasionally she'll bit a toe (a little love bite) and the boys will laugh and giggle. she is very tolerant of them. they're starting to throw their rattles around and occasionally a rattle makes contact with the cats head. she just bats the rattle and runs.  even though venus is a total menace to us....she does love those boys. and i would never dream of getting rid of her.

[JoyRenee]

This is also an excellent question to post in the cat forum:
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/show/3?camp=msc

We have yet to find out what life will be like with a cat and newborn. We found our cat at the backdoor months ago. He was a stray with fleas and a broken leg. He's now our crazy cat who tears through the house and acts like a child himself!

This cat seriously cracks me up. He likes to curl up in the doll stroller and push it around the house. He loves to carry my girls' toys around the house and he does scratch them.

I don't believe in declawing and most vets won't do them anymore as it is considered an amputation. However, if you can keep baby and cat separated when baby is not supervised (i.e. while they are sleeping) and your cat is laid-back enough--- then baby and cat might be best of friends and be lifelong companions.

Even though our cat scratches (only playfully every now and then or when they antagonize him) our kids LOVE him. When we're gone all day at the store, their first words when we pull in the driveway are, "HI BECKETT! We missed you Beckett!"

On another side of the coin- don't feel pressure from hubby to get a cat. Ask him to wait until baby is at least a year old or something (maybe get them a cat for their first birthday, toooooooo cute!). It is better to get a cat from a shelter that is at least 1 year old and is litter trained. You're saving a life from euthanasia and you'll be able to see their personality and demeanor!

[Michele, Katy, TX]

I know that MANY, MANY people have cats/kitten and newborns as the same time all the time and are successful at it.  But I don't recommend it based on my own personal experience.  

I tried getting a kitten when my 3rd child was about 8 months old or so.  My neighbor was giving them away, so we thought "Why not"?  Well, she (the kitten) did go for her (my daughter's) bottles and the nipples.  She would chew them right up.  I had just put her on a bottle from nursing, so I didn't have many nipples, so I was pretty upset to say the least.  Then one day I came home from work and my daughters legs were all scratched up.  Well, my babysitter, at the time, had walked away for a minute and the kitten was attacking my daughters legs while she was swinging.  Cats, by nature, like to play and attack moving objects.  Well, that's fine as long as it isn't my baby's legs!!!  I was so mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we tried to have another cat a couple of years ago.  This was the sweetest cat.  I mean this cat put up with a lot.  An although I tried to teach my youngest, at the time, to be nice and not to hurt the cat, my daughter was just too young to fully understand.  Well, one night, I guess my daughter pulled the cat's tail or something, and the cat bit her very hard on the cheek.  It got infected and was very sad to look at.  I was in my room and heard a blood curtling scream and ran out of my bedroom only to see my husband chunking the baby wipes across the room at the cat.  He told me what happened (he had dozed off on the couch) and we decided that it was just better for us to wait for our kids to be older before we tried the cat thing again.

While it's not the cat's/kitten's intention to get on your nerves or hurt your baby, for me, that is what happened and I just felt like it was more trouble than it was worth, so we got rid of the cat(s).