Now, obviously, it is fantastic when an individual embraces a family pet from the shelter, however at the exact same time, a lot more aspects need to constantly be taken into consideration. For example, if you do not live alone in your house, then, for instance, among your roomies might dislike cats, or it will not be simple for 2 cats to get along together in a typical location.
Such a scenario occurred to the author of this story, which appeared a couple of days back in the AITA Reddit neighborhood. As these days, the initial post has 15.6K upvotes and almost 2K various remarks. Moreover, and not least, the author favorably accepted criticism from the commenters and attempted to smooth over the dispute, which emerged mainly due to her lack of experience as a family pet owner. Respect to the author and let’s resolve this tale together.
More information: Reddit
The author of the post and her sweetheart have actually been sharing a two-bedroom apartment or condo with their roomie for over 2 years
Image credits: Sam Lion (not the actual image)
So the author of the initial post, in addition to her sweetheart, are sharing a two-bedroom apartment or condo with their friend of about the exact same age. This friend has an elderly cat, which, according to the owner, is rather capricious and has a challenging character. For example, it typically hisses and escapes if you attempt to stroke it. Despite this, the 3 good friends and the cat have actually been residing in the apartment or condo for over 2 years now and hit it off.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
The roomie has an elderly cat which, as she cautioned them ahead of time, “doesn’t like other cats”
Before relocating together, the roomie asked the OP and her sweetheart in advance if they had cats, since her cat “doesn’t like other cats”. Neither of them had pet-owning experience, however they said that they would incline getting a cat in the future. In any case, the good friends concurred that they would go back to this point at some point later on.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
And now, this minute has actually come. Both the author and her sweetheart chose they wished to have a cat also. They went to the shelter and chose a wonderful kitten there, which they both loved literally at first sight. The women got in touch with the landlord, who replied that he did not mind another cat in the apartment. Then they went to the shelter again, filled out all the necessary papers and adopted that lovely kitten. The new pet was named Banana Pudding.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
After adopting a kitten from a shelter without telling the roommate, the partners faced the problem that the elder cat hissed at the new kitten
And that’s where the problems started… Firstly, the roommate was furious with her friends, claiming that they should have consulted with her first – after all, she warned them that her cat did not like other cats. To this, the OP countered that it was unfair – after all, why should they all tiptoe around the roommate’s cat, even though it showed up in their apartment first?
Image credits: Peter Alfred Hess (not the actual image)
After an argument, the author demanded the “aggressive” cat should live in its owner’s bedroom only
There was a real quarrel, but the owners of Banana Pudding defended his right to live in the apartment. But it turned out that the roommate was still right, and her cat clearly “did not get along” with the new neighbor. Even though the kitten was very playful and friendly, the old cat treated him badly, hissing and swatting at him.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
A new argument broke out and the OP demanded that the roommate’s cat should only live in her own bedroom, because she behaves aggressively. She, of course, refused and stopped talking to the partners. What’s more, some mutual friends of the neighbors also sided with the roommate. And still, the original poster thought that the “aggressive” cat’s owner, in this case, should move out of the apartment entirely and live alone. Her sweetheart, however, burst into tears and seriously thought about returning the kitten back to the shelter.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
People in the comments stated that the author has just no experience as a cat owner, and that her roommate is completely right in this particular case
However, most of the commenters to the post tried to convince the original poster that she was wrong in this particular case. Apparently, people in the comments claim, the OP is just inexperienced with cats and doesn’t understand their body language at all. According to some commenters, the author needs to apologize to her roommate and perhaps ask her for some advice on how the two cats can still coexist in the same apartment.
Image credits: Tranmautritam (not the actual image)
According to people in the comments, the older cat was there first, and her owner warned her roommates in advance about the specifics of her behavior. And instead of also discussing the possibility of adopting a kitten in advance, the OP and her girlfriend simply put their wishes before the fact. Moreover, commenters believe that if anyone should move out of the apartment in this situation, it is the OP, her girlfriend and their kitten.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
The author ended up agreeing with the criticism and made up with her roommate, promising to try to adapt both cats to coexisting
And yet, it seems that the situation has improved. The original poster later wrote that she fully realized she was wrong, apologized to her roommate, and asked for help with adapting Banana Pudding to an older cat. She turned out to be a terrific and kind person, the roommates made up – and what’s more, after the OP learned some of the nuances of cats’ body language, the old cat came to sit on her lap, and even purred a little! It remains to be hoped that the roommates, both people and cats, will do well.
We assume that you already have your own point of view on this instructive story, so please feel free to express it in the comments. And if there are experienced cat owners among you, then a few good tips, as we believe, will also be very useful for actually everybody.