Pet-Friendly Accommodations

Right now Nuala is napping in the living room. Cooper is in his favourite cat bed on the new (formerly non-cat) couch, and Shadow is in a cardboard box. Her cardboard box where she spends increasingly more amounts of time sleeping as she’s older and weaker.

These are the quiet moments I cherish!

But all this will change in a few weeks because we are going to need to do a rather complicated move. Yes – sell the house. Yes – move the cats. Yes – buy a new house. Yes – sell a ton of our stuff and do a long-distance move. But the order of things are jumbled and J and I will need to live apart for a little while as we try to work through the logistics of all this while he begins his new job.

The new job is not in our city. Not even a short drive from our city, but a plane-ride away. It means that we will need to live apart for as long as it takes to find a home in the new area and sell here. And this could be a challenge because we’ve never lived in a small town.

This small town has nearly no rental market, and what little there is is not pet-friendly. So we basically need to leap into the deep end and buy a house before knowing the area well. (We won’t talk about how catatonic that makes me sometimes! I’m a homebody and my home means everything to me… took us ages to find this ‘just right’ house)

So that means that eventually the kitties will need to go on a flight. And settle some place new. The only one who knows anything about moves is Shadow and she’s had 9 years of stability here.

I’ve been manically looking online… and found a great three bedroom town home that I thought would be a great option for us. Buy it and live there while looking for a forever-home. Updated, decent finishes and colours, 3 bedrooms, convenient location – you know. Great right? Wrong! There is a regulation of this development allowing only 2 cats max. And apparently many places have even tighter regulations.

I can see the intent of this type of rule, but is seems to me that most people’s kids and dogs do a ton more damage to a property or cause more disturbances than my 3 quiet little indoor cats. In my online wanderings, I’ve found a whole glut of people looking for some sort of rental accommodation in the area that doesn’t force them to get rid of their pets.

This just makes me sad! All those homeless pets in North America. All those lonely people who could give love to one or two animals. But due to living ‘regulations’ they can’t have them.

I have promised myself that if I ever become a landlord, I will always find a way to accommodate a reasonable number kitties. One kitty per bedroom in the home – to allow people to have their cherished pets. It’s not like I plan to become a landlord, but it’s something that is really needed!

For us, it just means that I won’t be able to buy short-term accommodation. With little forethought, knowledge of the area, and choice, I’ll need to buy a long-term place. Single detached and with no condo/strata nonsense (some single detached houses are still in an area where strata is in effect!) to tell me what to do in a home I spend frightening sums on.

And while it’s scary for me, I realize how lucky I am. I wish every cat owner had the freedom and resources to do the same.

Because in the end, they are our family. And you just never leave family behind.

Love to hear how you feel on this. And also how your area is with these rules.