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To give you to background to my question, I live with my elderly parents (79 years old and 80 years old) and two cats (Trixie, 15+ female and Felix, 3 year old male). My parents are understandably very concerned about catching coronavirus due to their age. I have two older sisters (one of whom is undergoing caner treatment, so is very germ conscious right now, but doesn't live with us) who are concerned about them also. I am working from home.
The cats have their sleeping quarters in our garage. Trixie will get up to eat and drink and use the litterbox and goes outside very rarely. Felix likes to go in our backyard.during the day. He stays pretty close to home and has a good sense of boundaries, but he has been known to hop our fence at times.
I had my sister post me a copy of this article
Cats can infect each other with coronavirus, study finds
which I then shared with my parents I think my Mom is leaning towards keeping Felix in the garage for the duration (we are not allowing the cats inside to to my sister's allergies) while my Dad is afraid he will go stir crazy and doesn't think our backyard is that big of a risk..
I got me thinking about if keeping both cats in the garage would be a safer option (we can do that at least through May). Although Felix is a shy cat, I can't guarantee he won't go out of our yard and have contact with other people or cats, or that other cats (say by leaving their wastes) might not contaminate our yard. I also want to make sure that he doesn't intimidate Trixie and undo her recovery from a UTI in December. There are no perfect options either way, at least until I can get a place of my own.
Please note this isn't a should I give the cats up post. I plan to keep them, barring a clear hazard to my parents' health or to the cats' health. It is a what is the safest way to do that post. Thanks
The cats have their sleeping quarters in our garage. Trixie will get up to eat and drink and use the litterbox and goes outside very rarely. Felix likes to go in our backyard.during the day. He stays pretty close to home and has a good sense of boundaries, but he has been known to hop our fence at times.
I had my sister post me a copy of this article
Cats can infect each other with coronavirus, study finds
which I then shared with my parents I think my Mom is leaning towards keeping Felix in the garage for the duration (we are not allowing the cats inside to to my sister's allergies) while my Dad is afraid he will go stir crazy and doesn't think our backyard is that big of a risk..
I got me thinking about if keeping both cats in the garage would be a safer option (we can do that at least through May). Although Felix is a shy cat, I can't guarantee he won't go out of our yard and have contact with other people or cats, or that other cats (say by leaving their wastes) might not contaminate our yard. I also want to make sure that he doesn't intimidate Trixie and undo her recovery from a UTI in December. There are no perfect options either way, at least until I can get a place of my own.
Please note this isn't a should I give the cats up post. I plan to keep them, barring a clear hazard to my parents' health or to the cats' health. It is a what is the safest way to do that post. Thanks