When Your Roommate Has Pets

You may be wondering, "what's wrong with living with animals? Those ones are sooooo cute!" And...

You'd be right. They are very cute...and also not mine. I've never had a pet of my own. My family traveled a lot when I was in school and we just didn't have time for a pet, as much as I wanted one. During university, I lived mostly on campus which didn't allow pets until this past year. In September, I moved in with two girls, one who I knew and one who I did not. Both were lovely people who had pets, two of which are pictured here. Now, over my four months there, I learned a lot of things about living with pets, and moreover, living with pets that are not yours. Now there are a lot of pros to having pets. Science has proven that animals help us calm down and reduce stress, however, these adorable hell-spawn tended to cause more stress than I cared to have.

When you're living with a pet that isn't yours, you need to come to the realization that the animal is not going to respect your space just because they don't belong to you. This I knew, but I didn't realize how effected I would be by it. I was essentially living in an unfinished bedroom which meant that the cats had free reign of my "room." This caused a lot of unwelcome destruction that I was not prepared to deal with (one of the cats broke an expensive bottle of sealing wax, and it is difficult to get glass out of a cement floor let me tell you.)

The dog also didn't get along very well with the cats, causing them to walk all over me and my possessions to get away from him (this resulted in the J key getting torn out of my key board. While I have since gotten the key fixed, it's not the same as it was.) Also one of the cats liked to escape whenever I was leaving, which made me feel responsible for going to get him back.

I think that while these are all things that come with being a pet owner, it's a much different situation when those pets don't actually belong to you. When you adopt or purchase a pet, you are willingly entering into the responsibility it will take to take care of them. You know your stuff might get broken or destroyed but you are willing to take that risk. When you are living with other people's pets, that responsibility gets put on you whether you want it or not.

There are many pros to living with pets that aren't yours, such as you don't have to clean litter boxes or pick up poop, or buy food. And you get to see the funny moments with those animals. Just make sure you're prepared to have your stuff broken or eaten or covered in fur. I think in the future, I'll stick to visiting friends with pets instead.

But seriously, how cute are they!