At first I thought this was a most peculiar question. What did they expect me to do with the cat? Why should I be doing anything with the cat? After all she was here first!
However upon thinking about it, would I be putting my new born baby at risk by having a cat in the house. Was there a chance she could hurt him?
Before I continue I feel like I should introduce you to our cat.
This is Minnie. Or Minerva Helen if you want to use her proper name. Gavin bought her as an early Christmas present in November 2012. So technically she's my cat but secretly I think Gavin is her favourite. She's always been in an indoor cat and we've had her since she was 8 weeks old. So you could say she is my original baby.
On a lot of forums I read of parents who had gotten rid of their pet because they were expecting a baby. People were apprehensive of their animals and what they could do to their children. Some talking about getting nets for their Moses baskets to stop cats jumping in and some going as far as to get rid of their pets. That wasn't really an option to be considered lightly so I knew I would at least see how Minnie reacted to our baby before taking such drastic actions.
In hindsight I don't know why I worried! I had been in the hospital for 6 days and Gavin had spent pretty much all day every day with me in the hospital so she had been pretty lonely, my mum had came in to feed her and spend some time with her after she had been up to visit us, but apart from spending her nights with Gavin she'd spent a lot of time alone so I worried that she might feel a bit neglected when we finally came home but she was fine. We sat Logan down in his car seat and let her have a sniff about. After sniffing around his chair for a moment she wandered away and hasn't ever really shown that much interest in him. She will go for a wee sniff if he's lying on the rug or on the bed and she's sat still enough a few times when he's went to clap her, and by clap I mean smack her on the side. He even once tried to pull her fur out, all she did was look a bit angry and strutted away in a huff.
Before considering getting rid of a pet to accommodate a baby its best to give them the opportunity to prove you wrong. There's no need to take drastic action when you don't know how your pet will react. I know you see horror stories in the news of dangerous dogs and such like but if you take the right precautions and don't leave a large, powerful animal alone in a room with a newborn baby there should be no need to worry.
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