First, some background.
My mom and my cousin Kate have always been very close, so she and her husband (Dan) and 1-yr-old daughter (Elise) visit us about every month. When Kate was in the hospital a year ago after just giving birth to Lis and Dan was keeping house, her 14 year old cat Lola "ran away." Dan haaaated Lola, for the record, and was concerned throughout the whole pregnancy that having the cat would eventually lead to Elise getting allergies, being attacked, etc etc.
Now, my aunt and uncle (Kate's parents), my mom, and I all believe Dan let the cat out while Kate was in the hospital because Lola would NEVER run away - she was a total homebody, not mention so skittish that she was afraid of doors opening and closing. My cousin was totally devastated, of course, because she adored her kitty.
Whenever they visit us, Dan always makes a stink about the cats being around Elise - he says, and this is a direct quote - "Cats mean hair and allergies." He won't let her touch them because they will "attack her", which is so not true. The only time Kate can ever have the baby touch the cats is when she sends him out to the car to get something. Elise loves cats, too, so it's sad to see her not be able to interact with them and learn how to properly pet them and whatnot.
Dan is always standing guard when she's crawling around, and if she gets within about 8 feet of a cat, he tells her, " 'Lis, don't go near the cat, it'll claw your eyes out," and other ridiculous things like that. It doesn't matter how often we tell him or show him how gentle the cats are, he won't listen.
Now, we have 5 cats, so if you were visiting our house you would presume we liked cats, right? And it would be polite to not constantly talk trash about our cats, right? It's so frustrating to me because I really want to tell him to shut his mouth or leave, but we agree its tough to do that because we love Kate and Elise and don't want to cause any more tension in the family than there already is (my uncle and Dan cannot STAND each other).
I am running out of ideas on how to handle him, because I have such a hard time biting my tongue when he's around!
My mom and my cousin Kate have always been very close, so she and her husband (Dan) and 1-yr-old daughter (Elise) visit us about every month. When Kate was in the hospital a year ago after just giving birth to Lis and Dan was keeping house, her 14 year old cat Lola "ran away." Dan haaaated Lola, for the record, and was concerned throughout the whole pregnancy that having the cat would eventually lead to Elise getting allergies, being attacked, etc etc.
Now, my aunt and uncle (Kate's parents), my mom, and I all believe Dan let the cat out while Kate was in the hospital because Lola would NEVER run away - she was a total homebody, not mention so skittish that she was afraid of doors opening and closing. My cousin was totally devastated, of course, because she adored her kitty.
Whenever they visit us, Dan always makes a stink about the cats being around Elise - he says, and this is a direct quote - "Cats mean hair and allergies." He won't let her touch them because they will "attack her", which is so not true. The only time Kate can ever have the baby touch the cats is when she sends him out to the car to get something. Elise loves cats, too, so it's sad to see her not be able to interact with them and learn how to properly pet them and whatnot.
Dan is always standing guard when she's crawling around, and if she gets within about 8 feet of a cat, he tells her, " 'Lis, don't go near the cat, it'll claw your eyes out," and other ridiculous things like that. It doesn't matter how often we tell him or show him how gentle the cats are, he won't listen.
Now, we have 5 cats, so if you were visiting our house you would presume we liked cats, right? And it would be polite to not constantly talk trash about our cats, right? It's so frustrating to me because I really want to tell him to shut his mouth or leave, but we agree its tough to do that because we love Kate and Elise and don't want to cause any more tension in the family than there already is (my uncle and Dan cannot STAND each other).
I am running out of ideas on how to handle him, because I have such a hard time biting my tongue when he's around!