Pet question

[mommyatty]

We have finally worn DH down and are looking to adopt a bonded pair of cats. A couple of questions for cat owners:

1) Where do you keep the litter box? We are thinking laundry room and having a cat door installed so we can close the door when the washer or dryer is going. Or would upstairs in the kids’ bathroom be better?

2) Do you have pet insurance? If so, have you found it’s worth it?

We are going to meet the cats on Saturday. We are all so excited!

[shakinros]

Very exciting! Hope they are a good fit for your family.

1. The rule of thumb is # of litter boxes = # of cats + 1. We have two cats and 3 litterboxes. They are upstairs in the laundry room, on the main floor in the breakfast nook (which we do not eat in), and in the unfinished basement under the stairs.

2. We don’t have pet insurance. People with dogs seem to love it but I’ve never heard of a cat owner who has it.

[waverly]

1. Ours is in the basement sort of near the laundry room (the basement is all open).
2. We do not have pet insurance. We have spent 2K on our prior cat because all of a sudden her platelets dropped and they thought she had cancer. So she had multiple treatments, but typically we haven't needed it.

[dglvrk2]

1. I had a cat for 18 years. I always kept her litter box in the laundry room/mud room of our home, except when we lived in an apartment without a washer/dryer. Then it was in the bathroom. I’d definitely vote for the laundry room. It’s easier to keep both the litter box area and bathroom clean this way...

2. No pet insurance here for either our dogs or cat. We did the math....even when my pet got older and/or veterinary expenses increased, it never appeared cost effective. In 20 years of owning a pet, I’ve never regretted not having pet insurance.

[sunbutter]

I have had cats since 1998. Most years, three.
Litter boxes can not only be stinky but litter tracks and can be dispersed in the area near the boxes.
In my first apartment, I had to keep the box in my kitchen. In one house, we had it in the basement laundry/bathroom. In last house, we had it in the basement and put a cat door on the basement door. Old cats had no problem with the cat door. New cats refused to use it so we had to keep the basement door open. In current house, we have two boxes in our laundry/mud room. It is far enough away from living space but not so hidden that we forget to clean it.
Unless your kid’s bathroom is huge, I wouldn’t put it in there.

As for insurance, we don’t have it. However, we have had significant costs along the way (3000 to remove all cat’s teeth, multiple surgeries to remove fibrosarcomas, most recently, a rhinoscopy!)
I’m not sure if everything would have been covered and in general we were ok taking risk to cover big costs when needed.

[mustardseed2007]

I've had a lot of cats and I second what sunbutter said.

As a matter of fact, we just got home from a 4 day trip to the beach and it looks like my sister either never scooped the litter box or didn't do it enough, so my cat peed on the mat (and who knows where else). Cat urine has a very very strong odor and ruins furniture.

Anyway litter boxes can smell and leave bits of gravel all around. You need to clean it every day and ideally vacuum or sweet around it every day. We have a plastic mat under our litter box to help make cleaning easier.

Currently we have a litter box for 1 indoor cat and 1 indoor/outdoor cat. We scoop it twice a day and it seems to work fine although I have heard of the recommendation of 1 box+ per cat and if you have the space that's a good idea. Most important is to keep on top of keeping it clean, full but not too full and the area swept.

I had pet insurance when I was in law school. I don't have it now and haven't had it for years. TBH, when I was a new pet owner and a student with no money, I was facing a big vet bill, the vet at a petsmart banfield told me to get it and then promptly applied it to the pending services. I'm not sure that should really have happened per the insurance, but it worked out for me in the moment.

[mommyatty]

Thanks, all. We put the box in the laundry room and it seems to be working well. We scoop it at least twice a day or whenever we know the cat went. I don’t love the litter we got. Omg. It tracks everywhere, even with a mat that’s supposed to help get it off his feet. But it’s amazing at killing cat pee smell.

I had cats all my life until moving in with DH. I’m so happy to have one again. He’s such a wonderful cat. I have never seen a cat this friendly before. He’s just a love bug. And DH, who was adamantly opposed you getting one, insisted I work in the house today while he took the kids to a play date so the cat wouldn’t be lonesome. He’s possibly the most in love with the cat. I just texted a pic of the cat curled up beside me so he knows the cat is okay.