Cats are an EXTREME NO NO if you EVER want to become pregnant. It's not that cats are jerks, which they can be lol, its because their poopoo in a nasty litter box in your house could cause a severe bacterial infection called Toxoplasmosis, which can cause death to your fetus, and possibly you.
Please do get rid of the cat box to an outside place if you do ever decide on babies
Dogs, no problem for me, except a nice big scar on my eldests' lip from a very bad choice of pulling a tail. I have one too, though lol, its a risk we take. But for the most part, I've had a great big dog that is a great babydog, and chihuahuas that are not so much, but never bit any of the babies, actually seem to like them. Depends on the dog.
With respect, you can have cats while pregnant, you just can't change the litter. You can be around cats, they won't give you toxoplasmosis, you can only get it from close contact with their poop. And it takes at least a day to five days after they pass the poop for you to be able to contract anything from that poop anyway, so if the litter is cleaned every day there is virtually no risk.
And it's not just cats that have it, anyway. Other animals and some birds carry it too, and you can get it from undercooked meat.
So cats are fine as long as you aren't handling their litter. You don't need to get rid of your cat or cats if you plan to have a baby, you just need someone else to handle litter duty.
Plus, they only shed it for three weeks after they become infected, and they only get it by eating infected animals. So if you have indoor only cats there's pretty much zero chance they will have toxoplasmosis.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/gen_info/pregnant.html
Thank you for saying this as I was going to.
Our indoor cats have all been indoors for over a year and a half nearly two(Luna of course is the youngest) and they do not eat any mice they kill the odds of them even having toxoplasmosis is very low.
Plus DH2B would absolutely be the one cleaning the litter box then.
Plus they now have a test to find out if you've ever been exposed to it before and if you have I believe you can't get it again.
I've worked in an animal shelter with over 200 cats if I was going to be exposed I probably was.
We keep our litter boxes in a spare bedroom we call the cat room. We have two very large Maine coon kitties(the feral siblings) because of this normal sized litter boxes were not ideal even the XL ones they sell were too small, so we have two low storage totes like for under a bed. They work great and give the cats all the space they need. Each one is about 6" deep and 3' long by 2' wide give or take.
I will never get rid of my cats. I also think that people who get rid of their animals simply BC they're having a baby or any of a host of other excuses(including bc the animal is old and they've gotten a new one) have no business ever having animals. I'm also iffy on whether or not they should have kids too. To me that shows a huge amount of selfishness and they obviously will not raise the children with the respect and understanding of other animals.
For instance if I got pregnant and got rid of my cats right now 2-3 of them would probably never make it out of the shelter. But really the number is much higher than that.
Luna is young but she's not a kitten and she would act fearful in a shelter setting. She is a brown tabby with spots instead of stripes.
Pepper is turning 16 plus she's a little nuts from when my brother and his wife took her for a year. She's a beautiful cat but at her age and being a dark tortie it would be a death sentence.
Fluff and Cissie would probably have the best chance BC of they're beauty and sweet natures but they're not kittens anymore and shelters are over crowded with cats they're 5 I wanna say but I'd have to look the years go by so fast. Fluff is a medium/long haired orange tabby with white feet and white markings on his face chest and belly. Cissie is a brown tabby with lots of white markings including on her face. Her entire chest and belly are white.
Phantom is all black around 70%(I believe that's the number) of all black cats that go into shelters never come out just because of the stigma. By comparison overseas black cats are thought to bring good luck and I even have a friend in Haiti that has two black cats. When I told him how black cats are thought of in the US he was horrified and thought it was ridiculous. This from a man that lives in one of the poorest nations and that has one of the highest numbers of animals sacrifice and voodoo practicing anywhere.
Also with Phantom's scar tissue on his eye some people would be further turned away by it not knowing his story. Despite him being one of the sweetest cats I've ever known. Plus he is a year or two older than Fluff and Cissie. Cats are considered seniors at 6-7 now even though many live well past that with the appropriate care and love.
I'm sure many of you would agree that when you get an animal it's a commitment to the life of that animal. This is how I feel and this is my promise to each of our cats and dogs. They will be with us for the remainder of their lives.
Now onto lighter things before I read today's CL adds that have been posted.
We had a dog when I was growing up we didn't choose him he was abandoned on our little farm before I can remember. He was a purebred(quite nicely bred too) cocker spaniel and we was black as night except for his big chocolate brown eyes. My brothers named him Pretty even though my mother tried to explain that he was a boy. Lol Pretty was a wonderful dog! Gentle and patient with us children he wasn't perfect though. He was highly protective of us me especially and bit a couple of people because of it but he got better with age. He also had a bad habit of chasing cars and got hit three times when we were little despite our best efforts to stop him. Eventually he had to be tied. I should also mention the reason he was abandoned was BC he had seizures. We gave him the pills and he was fine. I know not every dog responds to meds but he did. My father hated animals in the house back then and Pretty wasn't allowed in the house unless he'd been hit by a car, then only for recovery. The cats were also not allowed in the house either unless they were injured.
My Mom was the opposite and I got my love of animals from her. She is also the one who taught me to care for them, including treating the ill and injured and raising the orphaned. My father was under the impression that any cat would destroy and pee all over the house BC Mom and Dad had had a tom cat that wasn't neutered that peed all over. Duh.
Anyway my Dad did eventually begin to soften to animals but never let them in the house. That's the way he was raised. Although he did build an amazing dog house for Pretty I'm sure Pretty just wanted to be with us.
It was nice to get a little break from some of the chores.
oh and Higgins was 14 when we put him down.
