Hi everyone,
My father-in-law is coming from another country and will be staying at our house for 2 weeks. Usually we rent an apartment for him for his longer stays, but my husband wanted to spend more time with him this time, since he may not be coming back for a while, and that's the reason he's staying over.
The problem that I'm facing now is that he doesn't like cats, or any other animals for that matter, at all! This wasn't a problem when he stayed in his own place, as when he came over our cat, who's anxious around new people when they first come over, would just hide. Now that he's actually in our house things will be different. He has the habit that whenever a friendly pet comes close to him he extends his leg -without kicking- to shoo them away.
My cat is a rescue cat who's a bit needy and while she's very sweet and affectionate with me and my husband, as I mentioned she hides when new people come over. If they stay long enough and she feels that she can be safe around them, she comes out and sometimes rubs the new person's legs as a way to greet them. My father in law will most definitely shoo her away, and I guess she will understand that this person doesn't like her and she will stay away from him, but will she away all the time? Maybe not if he's the only person in the house! So, My biggest worry now is that if my husband and I both have to leave the house and she will have to stay there alone with him.. She will either be hiding all the time, which will be stressful to her, or she will attempt to be friendly with him and he will shoo her or worse: since we're not there I'm afraid he will actually kick her (he comes from a culture that doesn't respect animals much, and he doesn't believe people should have pets: he's only tolerating the idea so he doesn't upset us).
My other worry is that since he likes to spend time in our backyard, he be might in and out the house and not always be careful to close the door, allowing her to exit the house. We live in a big city overlooking a busy street, and our backyard is not protected, so my cat can get lost or be exposed to danger if she gets out unsupervised (she's an indoor cat and we let her our in a protected enclosure when the weather is nice).
I'm thinking about boarding her, but the problem is that the last -and only- time we boarded her at out vet's clinic, she got very stressed and refused to eat for 2 days, so we had to take her out earlier. Now we have a pet sitter that takes care of her when we go on vacation with no issues. I'm thinking of another boarding facility that only caters to cats and has bigger and more isolated spaces, some of which have windows. I'm still not sure if she will be okay there, and for 2 weeks! She's very afraid of other cats, so their smell might cause her distress even if she's in a more isolated space.
Basically my two options are to try and stay home if father-in-law will be there -I run my own event planning business so I can work from home during the day- or ask my husband to take him with him wherever he will be if I do have to leave, which means potentially disrupting our businesses, OR board Coco to keep her safe but potentially causing her a lot of stress.
My apologies for the long thread. I would welcome any suggestions or if you would like to share stories of when you had overnight guests who weren't particularly fond of cats, and what you did to minimize the stress on all the parties involved.
My father-in-law is coming from another country and will be staying at our house for 2 weeks. Usually we rent an apartment for him for his longer stays, but my husband wanted to spend more time with him this time, since he may not be coming back for a while, and that's the reason he's staying over.
The problem that I'm facing now is that he doesn't like cats, or any other animals for that matter, at all! This wasn't a problem when he stayed in his own place, as when he came over our cat, who's anxious around new people when they first come over, would just hide. Now that he's actually in our house things will be different. He has the habit that whenever a friendly pet comes close to him he extends his leg -without kicking- to shoo them away.
My cat is a rescue cat who's a bit needy and while she's very sweet and affectionate with me and my husband, as I mentioned she hides when new people come over. If they stay long enough and she feels that she can be safe around them, she comes out and sometimes rubs the new person's legs as a way to greet them. My father in law will most definitely shoo her away, and I guess she will understand that this person doesn't like her and she will stay away from him, but will she away all the time? Maybe not if he's the only person in the house! So, My biggest worry now is that if my husband and I both have to leave the house and she will have to stay there alone with him.. She will either be hiding all the time, which will be stressful to her, or she will attempt to be friendly with him and he will shoo her or worse: since we're not there I'm afraid he will actually kick her (he comes from a culture that doesn't respect animals much, and he doesn't believe people should have pets: he's only tolerating the idea so he doesn't upset us).
My other worry is that since he likes to spend time in our backyard, he be might in and out the house and not always be careful to close the door, allowing her to exit the house. We live in a big city overlooking a busy street, and our backyard is not protected, so my cat can get lost or be exposed to danger if she gets out unsupervised (she's an indoor cat and we let her our in a protected enclosure when the weather is nice).
I'm thinking about boarding her, but the problem is that the last -and only- time we boarded her at out vet's clinic, she got very stressed and refused to eat for 2 days, so we had to take her out earlier. Now we have a pet sitter that takes care of her when we go on vacation with no issues. I'm thinking of another boarding facility that only caters to cats and has bigger and more isolated spaces, some of which have windows. I'm still not sure if she will be okay there, and for 2 weeks! She's very afraid of other cats, so their smell might cause her distress even if she's in a more isolated space.
Basically my two options are to try and stay home if father-in-law will be there -I run my own event planning business so I can work from home during the day- or ask my husband to take him with him wherever he will be if I do have to leave, which means potentially disrupting our businesses, OR board Coco to keep her safe but potentially causing her a lot of stress.
My apologies for the long thread. I would welcome any suggestions or if you would like to share stories of when you had overnight guests who weren't particularly fond of cats, and what you did to minimize the stress on all the parties involved.