The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his story "The Little Prince" once wrote "You become responsible forever for what you've tamed," and this is absolutely correct. Despite the fact that the iconic masterpiece of French literature was devoted to completely different things, we often think of this quote when it comes to responsible pet ownership.
Now, of course, it is wonderful when a person adopts a pet from the shelter, but at the same time, many more factors must always be taken into account. For example, if you do not live alone in your house, then, for example, one of your roommates may be allergic to cats, or it will not be easy for two cats to get along together in a common area.
Such a situation happened to the author of this story, which appeared a few days ago in the AITA Reddit community. As of today, the original post has 15.6K upvotes and almost 2K different comments. Moreover, and not least, the author positively accepted criticism from the commenters and tried to smooth over the conflict, which arose largely due to her inexperience as a pet owner. Respect to the author and let's work through this tale together.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post and her girlfriend have been sharing a two-bedroom apartment with their roommate for over two years
Image credits: Sam Lion (not the actual image)
So the author of the original post, along with her girlfriend, are sharing a two-bedroom apartment with their friend of about the same age. This friend has an elderly cat, which, according to the owner, is quite capricious and has a difficult character. For example, it often hisses and runs away if you try to stroke it. Despite this, the three friends and the cat have been living in the apartment for over two years now and get along well.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
The roommate has an elderly cat which, as she warned them in advance, "doesn't like other cats"
Before moving in together, the roommate asked the OP and her girlfriend beforehand if they had cats, because her cat "doesn't like other cats". Neither of them had pet-owning experience, but they said that they would not mind getting a cat in the future. In any case, the friends agreed that they would return to this point sometime later.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
And now, this moment has come. Both the author and her girlfriend decided they wanted to have a cat as well. They went to the shelter and chose a wonderful kitten there, which they both loved literally at first sight. The women got in touch with the landlord, who replied that he did not mind another cat in the apartment. Then they went to the shelter again, filled out all the necessary papers and adopted that lovely kitten. The new pet was named Banana Pudding.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
After adopting a kitten from a shelter without telling the roommate, the partners faced the problem that the elder cat hissed at the new kitten
And that's where the problems started... Firstly, the roommate was furious with her friends, claiming that they should have consulted with her first - after all, she warned them that her cat did not like other cats. To this, the OP countered that it was unfair - after all, why should they all tiptoe around the roommate's cat, even though it showed up in their apartment first?
Image credits: Peter Alfred Hess (not the actual image)
After an argument, the author demanded the "aggressive" cat should live in its owner's bedroom only
There was a real quarrel, but the owners of Banana Pudding defended his right to live in the apartment. But it turned out that the roommate was still right, and her cat clearly "did not get along" with the new neighbor. Even though the kitten was very playful and friendly, the old cat treated him badly, hissing and swatting at him.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
A new argument broke out and the OP demanded that the roommate's cat should only live in her own bedroom, because she behaves aggressively. She, of course, refused and stopped talking to the partners. What's more, some mutual friends of the neighbors also sided with the roommate. And still, the original poster thought that the "aggressive" cat's owner, in this case, should move out of the apartment entirely and live alone. Her girlfriend, however, burst into tears and seriously thought about returning the kitten back to the shelter.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
People in the comments stated that the author has just no experience as a cat owner, and that her roommate is completely right in this particular case
However, most of the commenters to the post tried to convince the original poster that she was wrong in this particular case. Apparently, people in the comments claim, the OP is just inexperienced with cats and doesn't understand their body language at all. According to some commenters, the author needs to apologize to her roommate and perhaps ask her for some advice on how the two cats can still coexist in the same apartment.
Image credits: Tranmautritam (not the actual image)
According to people in the comments, the older cat was there first, and her owner warned her roommates in advance about the specifics of her behavior. And instead of also discussing the possibility of adopting a kitten in advance, the OP and her girlfriend simply put their wishes before the fact. Moreover, commenters believe that if anyone should move out of the apartment in this situation, it is the OP, her girlfriend and their kitten.
Image credits: u/bananapudingkit
The author ended up agreeing with the criticism and made up with her roommate, promising to try to adapt both cats to coexisting
And yet, it seems that the situation has improved. The original poster later wrote that she fully realized she was wrong, apologized to her roommate, and asked for help with adapting Banana Pudding to an older cat. She turned out to be a wonderful and kind person, the roommates made up - and what's more, after the OP learned some of the nuances of cats' body language, the old cat came to sit on her lap, and even purred a little! It remains to be hoped that the roommates, both people and cats, will do well.
We assume that you already have your own point of view on this instructive story, so please feel free to express it in the comments. And if there are experienced cat owners among you, then a few good tips, as we believe, will also be very useful for literally everyone.