Would like to borrow a cat!

Foster a cat with one of the many animal rescue networks. You can keep a cat for as little as a week, and in the process help them save their always too scarce funds as they won't have to spend their money boarding the cat for the week. I got my cat through BAFN: http://www.brooklynanimalfosternetwork.org/ and here is a list of more: http://hellobrooklyn.com/Brooklyn_links/brooklyn_animal_rescue.html

City Critters is another one I've heard of on that list.

Once the cat is gone, the mice will likely be back, but fostering cats is a great thing to do.

Contact caseopele from this board. She can help you tremendously if you want to foster a cat. She has many that need to be fostered at this time and she is from the neighborhood. Good luck!

DO NOT DO THIS!! cats are very tricky. They will make you fall in love w them and you may end up adopting multiple cats. Very dangerous to let one in your house at all, they will start acting all sweet and rub against your leg and really turn on the charm..and Whammmo you will be hooked. Get glue traps, cats are like crack, once you try some you can get hooked easy. It's a dirty secret but these are very dangerous animals

Goats, please contact Caseopele, she's a wonderful woman that takes care of fosters and also knows many rescues that can connect you with the perfect pet (short term or long term.)

http://brooklynian.com/forum/profile/caseopele

I bet there is a feisty feline out there that would be happy to rid you of your mouse problem.

OpossumQueen said:

Whynot, the zombie mice are much worse than regular mice.

I will take your word.

How were you able to tell the zombies from the regular ones ?

Will I simply "know them, when I see them"?

Catwalker has good advice.

^^ Or they can not have a home whatsoever! I wish there were more people who were willing to foster. Unlike Human children, animals get sent to kill shelters or just suffer death on the streets. If you can take in a cat for a little while until it finds a safe forever home, then that is a honorable deed indeed.

Elgoats, have you seen the other thread about mice today?

I'm a fan of the mouse zappers. We lived in an apartment where it was pretty much impossible for us as renters to really seal all the holes (but a garbage bag full of steel wool was used to do what we could) so we needed some way to get rid of the ones that came in. The zapper was the best solution, imo, but you need to change the batteries every 3-4 mice even though the box says something crazy like every 50 mice. I caught two in 5 minutes with it one night. Before turning on the zapping, I left it out with bate for a few days to get them used to it, then turned it on and had a mouse zapping frenzy for a few days.

What is wrong with showing children that cats eat mice?

cornflakeart,

You're lucky you are able to overcome your lifelong allergies. I grew up with a cat and was fine with them. As soon as I left regular access I got allergic. I don't know that it's the norm to be able to overcome allergies as well as you have. For those that want a cat regardless of allergies, I've also heard that the shots can help a lot.

I'm not sure it's fair to say, though, that certain members of a family should just suffer until tolerance is built. It also might not be fair to the cat because sometimes with long exposure, allergies can get worse and then the cat would have to get another home.

In my experience, fostering rarely lasts one week. In a story for another time I actually fostered a cat that was then dumped on me for years, but this was a terribly run organization and they have since undergone new management. It is more likely that a foster cat would be with the family for at least a couple months until a "forever" home for it can be found. It could easily take kids that long to realize they are or are not up for scooping that much litter.

I grew up with pets and love them, but if it doesn't work for the whole family it's going to be a problem. If the question by the OP was "We want to get our kids a pet but wife is allergic" I would suggest guinea pigs. I hear they are wonderful with kids, and since they mostly stay in cages it is much easier to limit allergen exposure. They do not, however help with mice.

ewwww, fused feces.

My parents foolishly got a male and a female hamster when I was a child. I didn't learn that much about fused feces, but I did get a hefty lesson on procreation.

I was under the impression the guinea pigs tended to be more friendly and interactive for kids pets. For the most part rabbits are all anxious, and convinced everyone is going to eat them, so they bite. Hamsters tend to kill each other. Rats gross people out. Cats have litter boxes that can get pretty foul and dogs need walking. It's a miracle any kids ever get pets.

Goats, you might want to phrase it in a more $$ and business way.

"You can let me get a cat in order to rid YOU, the landlord, of a ongoing infestation OR I can demand that you spend hundreds of dollars bringing in a professional extermination company to deal with it and if you do not, I will report this to the Dept of Health and it will cost you $$ no matter what."

It's in his best interest to let you do it your way.

Goats, you might want to phrase it in a more $$ and business way.

"You can let me get a cat in order to rid YOU, the landlord, of a ongoing infestation OR I can demand that you spend hundreds of dollars bringing in a professional extermination company to deal with it and if you do not, I will report this to the Dept of Health and it will cost you $$ no matter what."

It's in his best interest to let you do it your way.

Thanks for the plug, ladies, but I don't do foster homes anymore. They end up being more trouble than they are worth. Last guy is coming back this week because the foster or her roommate is getting a dog, meanwhile he's great with dogs. So she's uprooting him from the home he's just started getting comfortable in because the novelty has worn off.

I agree with Alana and the Psycho-ologist. Cats aren't a thing to be borrowed, they are living creatures with feelings and aren't meant to be passed around. Also, zyrtec works wonders for allergies. My dog allergy isn't a problem at all anymore and it's only one pill a day.