It makes me wonder how did people come out with a theory that cats(fur) causes asthma? I've read blogs and comments that no matter how much they love cats, when baby comes, they would give away their cat(s). It's sad isn't it?
I learnt't the hard way. Pre-baby we had a Kasut, 8 years old female cat, who loves me so much that she'd sleep the same pillow as mine & waited for me to come home everytime! When Aresha arrived, she wants to sleep with her too! Back then I didn't think of asthma, it's just Kasut is an outdoor cat. Her fur were always dusty. Being a new mom, I became paranoid and chased her away. Cats have feelings, this is for real, she left an never came back, used to look for food from the back door but after a while we couldn't even catch a glimpse of her. I feel bad and couldn't forgive myself :(
So, when we move out, the first thing we did was adopt one from SPCA as Aresha's birthday present. She's always been surrounded by cats since she was born and she knew how to take care of 'em at the age of two! Naturally, Bambi( the new cat) slept with her and now goes to school & come home together!
Aresha & Bambi
Eventually from one we have four, even Zara had her own, Tiger, who died before New Year :(
Tiger is much more special, he slept with everyone including guests who stayed with us. Cousin Eyda who came for few hours even remembered how manja he was :) In a stint of 2hrs, Tiger slept with her on the sofabed! When we adopt him from Mak, 2 months after Zara was born, we quickly decided he's gonna be the baby's cat. Little did we know, Tiger loves Zara so much that he lets her do whatever she wants without clawing or scratching her once! Zara would roll over, poke his eyes, most of the time they'd lie down together like brother & sister ;)
Zara & Tiger
It is important to teach your kids how to handle pets. It really pisses me off when the neighbour's kids tried to scare our cats by making doggy sounds "Woof! Woof'. We even saw them trying to step on those felines. The parents would just stood there as if the cats deserved to be treated that way.
One time I heard the other neighbour told a boy she babysits not to touch Bambi, because it's dirty. Oh my! No wonder kids these days treated animals like shit, they were told not to get near let alone keep one!
Kids were born naturally curious & love animals. If you don't like to keep pets please at least educate your children to respect them.
Here's a nice write up on Cats & Kids
also, Ain tweeted about Cats & baby can coexist
To be honest, I think myth on cats causes asthma escalated by cat haters :P
