Are cats high maintenance?
less high maintenance than a dog, more than a bird usually. Leaving a cat alone for 8 hours is generally ok once they are older. That goes for regular grown up cats. Keep in mind that a cat will limit where you can live since you may not stay where you are now and many renters cannot have cats. Cats can tear up things-especially sofas, etc., as well as make big messes. You would need to be staying in a place easily cleaned. You may have to pay a pet deposit and will have to pay for any damage. Most cats will cause some especially to furniture, curtains, blinds, carpets, etc. You can make this better by getting toys but cats are hard to train. If you can confine the cat to the kitchen and bathroom Both not either), this may work. Cats do need space to move around and climb. Climbing place in front of window and space for food and litterbox on a cleanable floor is good. Persians require more care than shorter haired cats. They must be brushed and they are somewhat less hardy. For any cat, consider also how you will handle summer and other breaks and travel. For your situation, a Persian might require more than you can handle. Check out your local shelter for an adult cat to adopt. They may have pretty cats with longish hair without the fragility of a Persian. Short hairs are easier and healthier, however. I am a big cat lover but don't have one now because it would not be fair to the cat. Cats really are pets but not totally domesticated! If you are living in a pace where a cat can go in or out and have high, nonclimbable walls, this would be good. Cats need some little freedom to roam. Even fixed males will spray sometimes. Probably a female is your best bet. of course, the cat must be spayed/neutered. Otherwise, you have a real problem with behavior and clean up. You might want to first volunteer at a cat shelter to work with cats. This may be enough cat contact and you would be doing good and learning about cat needs. You would also get first pick if your cat came in! Good deed, good trial! If you do not have time to volunteer a few hours (maybe weekends), then you probably don't have time to look after a cat!
Didn't pay pet fee-- do you think maintenance guy will care/know when he comes by tomorrow?
I live in a medium sized complex-- if I had to guess, I'd say there's maybe 65-100 units (it's all one building, but it's split into different sections with their own door/street number of six apartments each). There was a pet fee that I didn't pay (honestly, I'd like to, but I can't justify dropping $300 on pretty much nothing right now). The guy that showed me the apartment (he didn't work directly for the management company; it was a third party apartment finding service sort of deal) mentioned offhand that we could probably get away with not paying it. Our maintenance guy lives in the building, and we haven't had problems with him noticing the cat in the past because any time I knew he was coming, I'd just move the litter box and food to an area he wouldn't be going, and kitty just kept to himself napping in the closet. However, they're exterminating the whole building next week because one of the units has bedbugs (we don't have any signs of them as far as I can tell), which I'm glad they're being responsible about-- but we got a letter saying management (presumably the maintenance guy) would be coming over tomorrow to inspect and make sure we'd prepared properly. I don't really have anywhere to take the cat for tomorrow. Obviously I'll be removing him from the apartment next week when they actually exterminate, but I have no idea what time they're coming tomorrow and don't want to have to spend the whole day sitting in the car with the cat. I don't have anywhere else to take him. Do you think they'll realize we haven't paid the deposit? Does anyone have any anecdotes about similar situations (preferably that ended well)? Worst case, I'm just planning to feign ignorance about the fee and pay up if they call me out on this. On the other hand, we were told there were no dogs allowed, and our downstairs neighbor most definitely has a dog. I'm not sure if it was just grandfathered in or if she's just getting away with it because they don't care. I'd ask her, but I've only run into her/met her once in the several months I've lived here, so it'd be kind of awkward to go knocking on her door asking if she's allowed to have it.
Low-maintenance pet for college student?
Wait until you graduate. I've worked in animal shelters and I can tell you that there are always college kids surrendering pets at the end of every term. You don't know where your life will take you for the next few years. It's not responsible to get a pet right now. INSTEAD - GO TO MORE PARTIES! Find something else to do with your life rather than spend money and time on an animal.
Will I get caught with pets in my apartment?
The apartment I am looking into allows pets, but they charge outrageous deposits and extra rent per month. I have two cats. I am wondering if when I sign the lease I say I don't have pets to avoid paying the deposit and extra rent. It's an apartment complex run by a corporation so the only people coming into my apartment will be maintenance and how are they supposed to know I said I don't have pets on my lease? Will this work? Anyone get away with it before?
Which pets are the easiest to take care of?
Keeping a pet is a huge responsibility. Just loving your pet isn’t enough, you have to ensure that it is getting proper nutrition, exercise, regular medical checkups, etc. So, if there is a difficult situation in your family, then it s best not to keep a pet (it will break your heart ten times over if something happens to it on your watch-I have los a couple myself, so I know).What you can do, if you really love animals, is volunteer at an animal shelter near your home. There, you can take care of animals as much as you want, help them find a good home, and find out exactly what ‘maintaining’ a pet means. Then, if you feel you are up for it, by all means get your own!However, if you REALLY want your own pet in your house, I would say go with a simple goldfish bowl. Fish are low-maintenance, you need to change their water daily and feed them twice a day (the frequency of both can be changed depending on advice from your vet). That being said-beware, fish are very delicate. Make sure you don’t hurt them while changing the water in their bowl, overfeed or underfeed them. They should get some sunlight daily. Also, avoid crowding too many fish in a small bowl, they need as much oxygen as they can get! And keep a sharp lookout-if you see that your fish is sluggish, or is behaving unusually, a visit to the vet may be in order!!!
If I have depression, is getting a pet a terrible idea?
It really, really depends on what kind of depression you have, or your experiences in depression.From my experiences, I would say no.For several years, I had fish. I loved those fish. They had names, personalities, if I was sad I could just go look at the tank and care for them and everything would seem alright or at least give me purpose.Until one day, that “purpose” wasn’t enough to get me out of bed, and I had to recognize that I was no longer able to care for my fish in the way that I needed to be able to care for them. I did not foresee that bout of depression ending for a very long time (as it had already been a fair amount of time) so I took them to a local (non-chain) pet store where they could be taken care of and eventually adopted out.Another time, my family had a dog that would climb the fence so often the adoption shelter eventually wanted to charge to get her back. My parents wouldn’t pay the bill and I could have, but didn’t, because I did not have the resources need to give that dog her best possible life. I was still depressed and she needed patience and determination and lots and lots of training to be able to go on walks which she needed a load of because our yard was too small for her.Neither of those actions is an indicator that I did not care about the animals - quite the contrary, actually.When you get an animal, you need to be prepared to tend to its needs, no matter what that means for you, and you need to understand that even though pets can be beneficial to interact with for those with depression, they may also end up being nearly impossible to care for.In short, I would more recommend volunteering at a shelter, or just visiting a shelter and playing with the dogs/cats if they let you (a shelter I used to volunteer at actually wanted us to play with the cats because people mostly thought volunteering would be emptying litter but really, the cats just wanted interaction and there were too many for the full-time volunteers to give their attention to them all).It requires energy to get out of bed and go to a place like that… but so does owning a pet. And that’s any pet, let alone issues that are specific to rabbits.
How can I get a service dog as a low-income person?
I don't think you are applying with the right programs. Most reputable programs receive charitable funding and use volunteer trainers to offset the cost of producing service dogs. Let's take the Seeing Eye for example, which has not changed it's fee of $150 in 80 years. Reputable programs that charge more than, say $500 (which mostly covers the cost of team training) tend to help their clients do fund raising. People who sell service dogs for large fees are in it as a money making proposition. Beware. Here's an article that explains how to go about finding service dog training programs. It might help you to find a program better suited to your needs: http://servicedogcentral.org/content/nod... Be aware, however, that the initial cost of getting a service dog is not the only financial consideration. They are also expensive to maintain. In my experience, the average cost of maintenance is $80/month. Take time to budget your resources and make sure you can afford a service dog's upkeep. Start here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?... and then figure in a service dog needs more frequent veterinary care, gear, and some sort of recreational activity to unwind from all the work he does. They also take a lot of time. Here's a bulletin board discussing the "down side" of service dog ownership: http://servicedogcentral.org/forum/index... --- edited to add --- Service dogs do not go to the blind first. These dogs are trained entirely differently depending on the disability and specific needs of the person they will be partnered with. A guide dog for the blind need not be trained to open doors, and a wheel chair dog need not be trained to guide the owner around potholes. They are apples and oranges. Guide dogs go to the blind, hearing dogs go to the deaf, and service dogs go to people with various other disabilities.