My Mom managed an apartment complex, she had a tenant with two labrador retrievers that totally destroyed an apartment - the carpets were permeated with piss and shit, a number of walls had holes dug in them, all the blinds were destroyed…it cost thousands to repair.
I had cats for a few months when a ‘friend’ of my wife dumped them on her, I was so glad when we found them another home. Not all cats are good about using the litterbox, especially old and/or neurotic ones. They also damaged most of the blinds, and the house smelled of cat constantly.
All right, this has been mentioned a few times, but only in passing, and I think it may hold the key:
The science of allergyology has made great strides over the past few decades. A hundred years ago, if you felt sick all the time, you were thought of as “sickly.” Today, with sophisticated allergy testing, it can be conclusively proved that you feel rotten because you’ve been eating wheat, or not vacuuming the dusty curtains often enough, or you have a cat.
If I visit someone with a cat or dog, I have about an hour before my sinuses start to cloud over, my eyes to itch, and a migraine to billow up. My wife is so allergic, she has closer to fifteen minutes. Last night she had a ten-minute conversation with a woman in our building who has two cats…OUTSIDE HER DOORWAY IN THE HALL…and came back down all snuffly and achy.
I would say that landlords want to avoid the allergy problem. What if the cat-owner moves out and a new tenant is looking around? “Lovely! The place is so great I’ll pay you a hundred bucks a month OVER what you’re asking!..ACHOO! Hey, was there a fucking CAT in here?”
Oh, horsefeathers. We live in an 800 sq. ft. apartment with three cats. We keep two litterboxes; one is a LitterMaid self-cleaning, the other we empty daily. We have had guests over, including many Dopers at once, and noone has ever complained about cat smell. And Dopers who have been to my place, if you think it DID smell, please say so. I’d hate to think you were just being polite–if my apartment stinks, I want to know.
We bought the cats a large, carpeted, multiple-platform “gymansium” to run around on, and they do about 95 percent of their scratching there. The rest they do on the area rug which we bought to place over the living room carpet, for that very reason. Occasionally one of them will scratch the computer desk or the closet door (which is metal anyway).
Every once in a while, they’ll hock up a hairball or some other noxious item onto the carpet. We bought a handheld Bissell spot cleaner for around $39 that picks up those stains nearly instantly. At the very least, it takes two applications, all of fifteen minutes of my time.
If your house “smells like cat,” you’re a poor pet owner. If you know how to take care of your pets, they’re no more destructive than children can be.
Maybe this was said in jest, but I couldn’t let this pass without comment. Maybe a vet can chime in here with the difinitive answer, but is removing a cats claws that cruel and inhumane?
When they declaw cats, they take off the first joint of the toe as well.
Anyway: I live in a decent-sized apartment with two cats. It only smells funny if we forget to clean out the litter box. They confine all their scratching to our own (cheap) furniture, so it’s nothing to worry about. The lease technically bans pets but the landlord told me that cats would be no problem. (BTW, Renton_Ivr, all of the apartments I’ve had in Montreal have technically banned pets.) But it was always the same deal: if the pet doesn’t cause a hassle, we’re not going to bother about it. I kept Zazou for a month and a half in my 1 1/2 on the Plateau before I moved to my current place, and I never heard anything about it, even when the super took people on tours. (In fact, the super was a cat person himself and was always very careful not to let Zazou escape.)
So: if your pets don’t cause a disturbance, your landlord will probably not bother you; but pets are banned in order to let them deal with those yahoos who do let their pets cause a disturbance.
I’m with pldennison. I’ve been to houses where multiple cats live, and have never smelled a thing. I’ve also been to houses where only one cat lives, and it stinks to high heaven. It all depends on the owner. I have two cats, and my house does NOT smell of cat. Believe me, I have the most odor-conscious boyfriend in the world who used to hate cats (he’s mellowed), and he would be quick to tell me if my house stunk. This is the guy who told me I had mice 2 weeks before I ever saw one because he could smell them. He’s got a good nose.
About the worse thing the cats do is leave hair all over. We recently went on a ten day trip, and the house was definitely covered in hair when we came back. It’s no problem normally - a once a week vacuuming cleans it all up.
On a side note, I’ve talked to my real estate agent several times about renting apartments with animals (she’s also a property manager.) She’s agreed with me that if the people are clean, the animals are no problem. Interestingly enough, she’s told me if she could have her way, she’d allow pets, but positively ban kids. The worst damage she’s had to deal with is people with kids who don’t clean up after them and let them destroy the house.
Not anymore. They do it with lasers now, and only remove the claw, NOT the toe, not at all.
My cats were declawed and I went to see them at the vet’s the next day and they didn’t even have bandages on. They were both jumping around like nothing had happened.
The vet showed me how they do it…they anestisize (sp?) the cat, and then push on the pad to make the claw pop out, and then laser JUST the claw off.
I had two very aggressive clawers…I had bought every clawing thing made, but they ignored them in favor of antiques, I tried the squirt bottle and other methods, but they were just waiting till I was gone to claw stuff up.