to lock up or not

hello, here is the issue.
We have 2 cats, one mine, one hers, kind of like his and hers bath towels.
hehe

anyway, my wife is chinese, and when i lost my visa she moved here with her cat.
the wife has best friend that is scared to death of cats. I am talking scream, run out of the room( both are in the 30's, err, the people not the cats) .

When the best friend would come visit, the wife would lock her cat up in a outside cage how her friend was in the house. Now her best friend is coming to visit us here in the states. and she expects me to lock up my cat also,.

My point on this is her friend has no medical issues with cats(like my brother in law,who breaks out in hives and stuff) so i told both of them, i am not locking up my cat for 2 weeks.

my way of thinking it is Her friend can learn to deal with it, or go stay in a hotel. This the the pets home also.

and yes i do like her friend, so its not her coming to visit.

I'm not sure if you will get impartial advice here...LOL! I totally agree with you. This is a chance for the friend to overcome her fear of cats. It is not fair for a guest to totally disrupt the host's family, and cats are part of the family!

lol true, i may not.

i am being accused of not being a polite host.
but i told her i failed that class in school. so i dont know how to do it

You tell them this: if your kitty owned a wallet and a bank account she could find a hotel. But, she does not deal in currency$. Therefore, THEY can find a hotel!!

You tell them that if the cat knows she is being locked up or thrown out for 2 weeks, then she'll spread enough bad karma around to make their lives unbearable for 2 years..... Old Chinese saying.

It sounds like maybe what your wifes friend suffers from is a Phobia Ailurophobia - Fear of cats
An abnormal and persistent fear of cats. Sufferers from ailurophobia may fear not only the scratch or bite of a cat, but also the "evil mystique" of cats . This is a mental illness,so even if the friend stays at a hotel when she is visiting you at your house she will still have a problem if she sees the cats! Its a hard thing for you and her to deal with. Good Luck

If your wifes friend is that scared of cats, I can understand putting them in another room, but not the garage. The garage can get too hot for the animals. You could put them in a spare room.

Your wifes friend could have a HUGE phobia of cats. Just like people have phobia of spiders. Even though you think she needs to get over it, maybe she has tried, she still, as it sounds VERY scared of cats.

Just try to see where she is coming from. Think of something you are very very scared of and probably a phobia, and see if you would like to be pushed into something you aren't ready to over come.

I agree, our cats are like our children, I will certainly not lock away any of my children because someone else is scared or does not like them. She should stay in a hotel, she will obviously be a lot more comfortable there...

Originally Posted by theimp98

my way of thinking it is Her friend can learn to deal with it, or go stay in a hotel. This the the pets home also.

Click to expand...

Good for you!! The cats were there first so they can stay in a hotel.

Even if you do lock the cats up, if she is that scared i dont see how she will be able to cope in the house.

She should get a hotel room, for her own sanity.

Someone expecting that I should lock my girlies up just in order that they may grace my home with their presence would never make it through my front door.

I would be willing to put mine in my bedroom for a visitor, but not for two weeks, only during the day for a few hours. Putting them in a cage outside is cruel in this heat, if you're talking about the near future it's supposed to be in the 90s for a while around here. Maybe a little cooler if you're right on the lake.

The compromise when my dad comes to visit (he calls cats "glorified rats") is that they aren't allowed in the guest bedroom. Other than that, he can just deal with all three of them. I think he's actually scared too, even of my kitten.

Tell her you're trying to help, since the best way to get over a fear is to be exposed to it!

I'm thinking is there no way to compromise??? If you have a bi or split level house, could the kitty's stay upstairs? Or if you have a finished basement, could they stay there? All of their "comforts" could be moved to the new location so they are not too put out. Maybe you could invest in some type of babygate to keep them in a different section of the house. Then allow them out while they are gone for the day, and put them back to confinment when your company comes back. I really don't think it's fair of your wife to lock her indoor baby, outdoor in a cage. I'm sorry. What if something happened to the cat? It could get bit by a raccoon or a snake in the cage, and wouldn't be able to run away... or what if it just got scared? That seems really cruel to me. And it's not fair to ask you to do the same. I can see them asking you to make some arrangements, but subjecting an indoor cat to 2 weeks outside in a cage is wrong.

well after a lot of fighting over the last 2 weeks.
the wife and her friend are going to be staying at my sisters house(lol they just have 2 dogs and 2 rabbits & horse there)

The house we have here in the states is just to small, to try and keep the cats and the friend away from each other. There was just no way i was going to put my cat outside she is scared to death as it to go outside unless i go with her.

You won then!