Weddingbee boards

Okay, so I wasn't going to write about this, but it's been bothering me a bit, so I thought I'd see what you bees might think.

Tuesday, while my husband was taking out the trash, down the drive from our back yard wandered about a 4 month old black and white kitten.  Big ears, green eyes.. so cute.  So not knowing whos it was, we didn't feed it the first day, thinking it would just go home.  Well it didn't.  It slept under our grill the whole night and was waiting at the door for us in the morning.  Very friendly, obviously not ferrel, and most likely dumped after someone didn't want it anymore.

So at first we thought our neighbors would take it.  Even though I wasn't totally comfortable with it, I was okay with it.  However the kitten and their new puppy did not mesh well, so he let it back out of the house instantly, and it came right back to our house.

Now my dad is divorced and lives alone, and we have been telling him forever that he needs to get a cat (he does love cats).  Well in passing he said, you could always bring it down here.  And I thought, awesome, an open door to give him a pet!  But it brings two issues to light, here 4 days later.

1.  I sort of think he thinks of himself as a last resort.  If no one else wants it,  he'll take it, so I almost feel like I'm forcing it on him.  Even though he says that this isn't the case.

2.  Although my husband is allergic to cats, and we really don't want a pet right now, we have fallen in love with this kitten.  Probably because it follows us everywhere, and it's so tiny and cute.

So this is our dilemma, we have until tomorrow to decide whether we want to keep it.  The only negatives in giving it to my dad are that we will miss him & that I sort of feel like I'm dumping it on him.  The negatives to keeping him are far more numerous (allergies, I dispise cat hair, litter boxes, a responsibility..)

My dad is going to come down and meet the kitten tomorrow morning, and if they mesh,  he will take him home.  And I don't know what to do.  My head says that it's important for my dad to have a companion, and it's the most logical thing to do, but my heart will hurt to give him away.  Even though I know in my head I will see the cat every other weekend, forever.  I know that this kitten could bring a positive thing to my dad's slightly depressed world, and could make him happy. 

I'm confused and could use some clairity.. anyone?

Send kitty off with Dad, you can always visit!

Thanks guys.  Logic tries to prevail, but tiny kittens tug at the heart strings.

My hope is that my dad will sit down on the deck and the kitten will curl up in his lap.  This will make me feel better about the whole situation.  I just want him to love my dad as much as he loves us.  Granted we are feeding him now.. which goes a long way toward love for cats :)

Did think it was cute that the cat decided to use a raised planter as a litter box outside.  Hopefully house training will go easily then!

I think I'm going to get my dad a littler box, litter, flea dip, bowls and a couple toys to ease the start up costs.  If he does take him, he will be sparing us a few expenses too.

UPDATE**

Kitty situation update.  Thanks for all your comments the other day.

Saturday my dad came over to mee the kitten, see how they would get along, and literally the kitten hid under the grill.  This is not behavior he had displayed when any other guest was around.  It was almost as though he knew he was being taken away again.  So it got very hard for me.

You could tell that the kitten was tired, but eventually he warmed up to my dad.  And I felt better, but putting him in the box and driving him to my dad's was literally tortourous.  I started saying things like, "he was already dumped and I don't want him to think we are dumping him again" which made my husband sad, and he wished I had said that before, so we would have just kept him.  Then the whole ride down he was sticking his paw and head out of the crate we were taking him in, just crying and needing attention.  It was torture, I cried the whole way there.

When we got there, before we could let him out of the crate, he squeezed his little body thru one of the handles & started his look around.  We stayed with him for a few hours and helped him explore, then I laid on the ground next to him as he napped.

I kept in close contact with my dad (read:  I called him like 3 times a day) and it seems that now they are good buddies.  He follows my dad around the house, sleeps under the bed while my dad is on it, hangs out with him upstairs when he is on the computer.  He seems happy.  I wanted to go down and visit him on Sunday, but my husband said we would just confuse him, so now I am waiting till Saturday to see him again.  I want him to remember us, and know that we did something good for him, not that we were just another family to dump him!

Anyways, it appears that there is a happy ending after all.  Kitten seems to love his new home.  Now it's just a matter of finding him a name :)

stephinPA, thanks.  I too had always heard that pets found you.. so I was worried that things wouldn't go well.  He is just the sweetest kitten, so I'm sure that he will  love being inside and being loved by my dad just as much as he would have by me.

Thanks again!