How could I prepare my house for a visit from a cat-allergy sufferer?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hello all,

As some of you will know - I have a cat. Go me.

As none of you will know, I am shortly to be moving from my apartment into a house which I will share with a friend. This is to make things cheaper for me as I plan to study this year and will not be able to work as much. Friend is fine with the cat. Likes her, even.

However, his father is allergic to cats. My cat is an always-indoors creature. Now, we don’t think he’ll be visiting all the time or even an amount that could be considered ‘a lot’, but there’s a good chance his parents will drop round from time to time, as mine do. I don’t want him to feel like he can’t invite his parents in because of my pet.

I don’t think my friend or his parents are actually expecting me to do anything about the cat+father=swollen face situation, - friend has instructed me to ‘not worry’ and that ‘we’ll pump him full of medication or something’ but I’d like to do something anyway. I don’t want him to be uncomfortable here.

Obviously I’m not going to cling-film the cat. Or the house. But I’m going to do something.

Question is - what? I don’t know any other allergy sufferers and know very little about possible allergy triggers.

Googling taught me that most cat allergy sufferers are allergic to something present in the cat’s fur and saliva. But most of the ‘tips’ I found for dealing with it were more for people who actually own the animals they are allergic to and have to live with them all the time.

Basically my plan at the moment is to confine the cat to an area/room the father won’t need to enter and to vacuum well before he arrives. I try to keep the loose fur to a minimum anyway - I frequently lay down dollar-store contact paper (the sticky stuff for covering schoolbooks with) on my dark-coloured rug (it’s a white cat), roll all over it and then rip it off. Cleans it pretty well, like a giant lint roller.

Allergy sufferers, what else would help? Airing the place out good and proper - all windows open and put some fans on? Would an air purifier do anything (I know next to nothing about them)? Should I dust really well in addition to vacuuming? Washing all the cushions, etc?

2

Vacuum and then dust. Vacuum the funiture and drapes. If he is severely allergic, it won’t help because the dander is in the air. Do try to keep kitty-boo (what? no pictures?) confined to areas your guest won’t be in as much as possible. Is there a way to block off the living room from kitty-boo? Or the den? Maybe the dining room? Keep him/her out of one room and plan on using that room to entertain allergic friends.

I have an excessive number of cats, so when we moved into our present home I enclosed the two car garage and transformed it into a cat suite, complete with an office for me. Now I can entertain my allergic friends and the non-allergic ones can come out here to visit the fuzzbutts. It is amazing how many “allergic” friends I have who have risked swelling and sneezing just to see the “amazing cat suite”.

If you visit or know a doctor, you might ask him/her for advice.

Good luck, and kudos to you for being considerate even when your roomie told you not to bother.

3

Given the lack of replies I’ll give my $0.02. As SnakesCatlady said vacuum and dust. Keep the kitty out of the rooms the guests will be in for several days if possible. Warn guests not to sit in the chair favored by the kitty. I was caught by this recently, although the house was v and d’d before I arrived it turns out kitty and I liked the same chair. My host and I didn’t figure it out until I was wheezing up a storm.

If your guests are staying in a room that has been kitty proofed make sure you keep the door shut. My host totally kitty proofed the room I was to stay in and kept the door closed. I got up in the middle of the night to use the facilities and left the door cracked open. Woke up in the AM on my way to the ER with a cat and dog sleeping in bed with me. Both snuck in during the 3 minutes I was out of the room and steathily waited till I was asleep to climb in bed with me :eek: .

I swear that animals are attracted to me for ogg knows what reason. I don’t pet them or interact with them at all but they all want to wrap themselves around me. Even skunks, who have walked in between my feet and rubbed against my legs while I sat outside camping. :dubious:

4

Oops. I thought pictures were only mandatory in new kitty threads. Oh well, it’s been a while since I uploaded a new picture to the web so here’s the same two pictures I always use.

Lamp.
Bed.

Thanks for the advice so far, I’m currently also researching air-purifier thingies to see if one would be worthwhile.

5

If he’s only going to be there for a few hours during a visit, then just confine the cat to your room, and do a thorough cleaning of the public areas. That’s why science created anti-histamines. If he’s moderately sensitive, that will be sufficent. If he’s very sensitive, nothing you do will be enough anyway. Just make an effort… it’s more than a lot of cat owners do.

6

It’s really sweet of you to be concerned about your guests with allergies. I have to agree with the above posts (vacuuming and dusting, trying to keep a cat free room if you can, ect). What kind of furniture do you have? If you have a leather chair for the allergic guest to sit on, giving it a once over with whatever you clean it with would be a big help. Alternately, putting a thick, clean sheet on the chair that your guest will sit on can be a big help.

I love your throwing the sticky paper on the floor and rolling around on it shtick. We may have to try that here with our Siberian husky. Personally, I find air filters to be helpful in kitty situations as do my other friends with cat allergy problems.

Good luck with coming up with a workable plan and good on you for being such a super host.

7

I had some allergic friends come over today and vacuumed, mopped, then opened all the windows to air the place out. I also vacuumed all the upholstery, wiped down the skirtings, and had hayfever medication on hand. The cat did his part and considerately stayed upstairs.

8

Man that is one gorgeous cat!

One thing you might try is giving the cat regular rubdowns to remove dander. They sell a variety of cat wipes - a largish, per-moistened wipe that you can rub on your cat. You don’t need water or rinsing, just wipe the cat down. The idea is that doing this helps control dander and loose hair.

I haven’t tried it so I don’t know how well it works. It sounds good in theory. I have used wipes on my little dog when he gets stinky and it does helps control the fug between baths. It can’t hurt. I mean, except for the part where your cat gets pissed off and scratches your eye out. That’ll sting for a bit.

Here’s some examples of what I’m talking about:

http://www.petstreetmall.com/Cat-Allergy-Relief-Wipes/2104/1353/details.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse/?node=12924791&lposid=u7-21215641-1,C,1689

9

Using an air filter with a hepa filter will help.
That is a really beautiful cat.

10

What kind of vacuum cleaner do you have? If it’s one of those cheap models, you may actually make the problem worse if you sweep before the guest comes because of the amount of dust it will throw up into the air.

There are anti-allergen sprays on the market (Febreeze makes one). I don’t know their efficacy, but it might be something worth researching. Clean well before the guest is scheduled to arrive and then spray down all fabrics with the allergen reducer.

Frequently clean your vents and ducts. I know in my three-dog household, hair builds up in the registers, and I’m sure that’d be an allergy nightmare.

11

I used to have a significant reaction to cats, but it’s much less now. If he’s like me, the father should be ok if he simply stays away from the cat and vice versa. As others have noted, the allergen is stuff mostly carried on the cat. When he’s visiting, you should wash any bare skin that’s been in contact with the cat - typically hands, but if you’ve been snuggling, don’t forget your face. To get rid of the dust in the air, use an ioniser.

12

Could you ask how severe his allergy is? I have a mild allergy to cats, and I’ve stayed over for days in a household with a cat. As long as I don’t pet the cat, or pet him only lighly and then imidiately wash my hands, I’m fine. (Obviously, my boyfriend can’t go directly from hugging the cat to hugging me.) It’s a real low-maintainance allergy. Obviously, I also keep som meds around. Not that I’ll die from touching a cat, but an untreated allergy-attack is really uncomfortable.

Don’t pet the cat right before shaking hands with the friends father, and maybe keep a folded blanket (or something) on the furniture that you can remove before a visit? If you want to go ovet the top, keep some OTC allergy-meds in the house, in case he forgets his (this could be usefull anyway - you never know when someone will react to something).

Praise to you for being considerate.