This is a long story so please be patient and read it all. I will try to be as brief as possible.
I got married about two years ago. I moved in with my new wife, where she had been living for about 6 months. Shortly after that, we got two cats that had been her parents, that they didn't want. Both cats were healthy and about 10 years old. A few months later, one of the cats started having asthma attacks. We took her to the vet, who diagnosed the asthma and started her on steroids. A few months later, the other cat also started having asthma problems, and also got started on steroids. Over the summer of 2011, I went to Washington for about 3 weeks to do some field work (I am a structural geology grad. student). When I got back, I was home for about a month before I had to leave for Minnesota to do some analyses on my rock samples. I remember while my wife was driving me to the airport I had a scratchy throat and felt like I was getting a cold. The cold got worse while in Minnesota, but was getting better by the time I came home, about a week later. Once I got home, the cough I had didn't go away. After about 2 weeks I went to the doctor, who said I had bronchitis and a mild case of pneumonia. I was given antibiotics and sent home. A week later, when the antibiotics ran out, I was still coughing. I went back to the doctor, was given more antibiotics, and sent home. After those antibiotics ran out, I was still coughing. A third trip to the doctor and I was given steroids as well as another round of antibiotics, blood work, and a chest x-ray. The x-ray and blood work came back normal, other than a very faint fog on the x-ray, which the doctor and the radiologist weren't worried about. This time, with the steroids, the coughing got a little better, but did not totally go away. At this point I had had this cough for about 6 or 7 weeks. After about a week, I was still coughing, though not as much, and decided to make an appointment with a pulmonologist.