Saying hello ...

Greetings! What a wonderful forum / site! I'm surprised I've not come across it sooner as I've spent many hours searching to help my mom out with some of her own cat issues.

What brings me here today is a lovely year-old stray that we discovered in our building's garage about 10 days ago.  A very tiny "mew" drew our attention to a lovely orange tabby - incredibly sociable, friendly and hungry. We tried to find his owner - but it seems that no one is actually looking for him. So we took him to the vet to see if he was chipped; he wasn't. He had flea residue and had not been neutered ... so we spent my Christmas bonus on getting this kitty checked out, chipped, fixed and taken care of.

Both my husband and I are very allergic, and so we've been feeding him and cuddling a bit in the garage while trying to figure out how to give this guy a good home. We are so in love, we have been hoping to find a close friend or relative that would include visitation rights So far, no luck ...

Several of our neighbors have also fallen in love, but seems everyone we've talked to is allergic as well. We are so in love with this little guy (vet thinks he's about 1 year old) ... and are about to attempt to bring him upstairs and see if we 3 can live together without any of us suffering too terribly.

This is not my first cat (had to give up the others 20 years ago after an acute asthma attack ... so I am naturally apprehensive. I've known I was allergic my entire life, but here goes! I am sure I'll be reaching out for help in a few areas. Most of all ... how to make an indoor (up 3 floors in an elevator) cat out of a free-roaming outdoor kitty in 3 easy steps (ha!)

Fingers crossed, here goes nothing.

Oh and our kitty's name is, Tigger ... yea, not the most original name for an orange tabby, but we like it

Warmthly welcome!  I wrothe a lenghy response to your post in our Stray and Ferales forum.

Good luck!

Welcome to the site, and may you be blessed for caring for this sweet cat so much! I'll keep my fingers crossed that maybe you outgrew your allergy, some do.....Benadryl taken at night (makes you sleepy) also is a tremendous help for many, you might want to try it. Also, some cats can carry more allergens then others, my brother is really allergic to cats but Siamese don't bother him at all!  Good luck!

Thank you all so much! Last night I was so excited to prepare to bring Tigger inside; this morning I am in fear (and tears) worrying because 20 years ago I had cats, and cat-induced asthma allergy ... and had to give them up after 3 years (despite allergy shots and inhalers, I ended up with a lung infection -not sure whether that was because of the cats or just a legitimate illness). My husband has regular cat allergy (itchy eyes, sniffles) but he also had childhood asthma and occasionally reaches for his inhaler.

I've been fine hanging out with the cat outside, in the garage. We wash hands and change clothes as soon as we come back upstairs. But with carpet up here, it's a very different story. I am reading all of the asthma allergy posts here and now that we were all set to give this a go, I am not sure it's a wise move. I don't want to disappoint my husband, and my heart is breaking.

The vet said she has a "garage cat" at her apartment building - he's everyone's cat. But I am not comfortable with that at all, either. This is really heartbreaking and I don't know what to do.

Hi, welcome to The Cat Site.

He's a beautiful boy, I hope something works out for the 3 of you. How about having a cat room for him and seeing how your allergies are? It would be better than keeping him in the garage and if things don't work out it would be easier to introduce potential new owners to him if he is indoors, rather than out.

Thanks for trying to help him.

Thank you, Norachan!

This kitty is so beautiful and so sweet ... we are crazy in love with him. Several neighbors have said they are interested, but we don't really know them. We so wanted it to be someone we could visit regularly.
My husband has worked his butt off cleaning the place and thinks I am over-thinking, over-worrying....  and I know it would be better for him to be inside, for sure. The real problem is - we have a very open floor plan, so the only room that closes off is the bedroom. That means he'll have run of the rest of the house, and we keep our bedroom closed.

Right now I'm on the fence; I want it as much as he does - but am scared (he's not). We shall see!