Category: Animal House
I am blind and live by myself I except for my 7 year old son who is sighted and goes to school. I'm totally blind just have light perception anyway I don't know if I'd want a dog because a yard is lots more to clean up than a litter box. I have a house in a small yard with a big yard so big yu could probably play baseball in it. I think cats would or rather a cat would be easier to manage than a dog? are they expensive? cats? how much is litter? and food? do they make self cleaning litter boxes and if so how much are those? I also hear they are more independent and cleaner than dogs. do cats shed? and does it cost lots to geto to get the claws removed if you want? I decided after trying them guide dogs aren't for me but maybe a pet cat would be a nice animal companion. I only have about $150 left over after bills and stuff so can you own a cat for little expense on such a tight budget? are they hard to potty or litter-box train or can you get cats pretrained?
Animals require care. It doesn't matter what you have.
Depending on the animals health, and how you deal with it, can make them expensive or not.
If the animal remains healthy, both would cost a small amount to keep. Maybe 20 per month?
You must clean a litter box. You should pick up the dogs stuff, even if it is house trained and does its business in the yard, it should be picked up.
A litter box is easier to find then poop in the yard.
Poop in the yard is easier to pick up and dispose of, than cleaning a litter box.
Both require some effort
How expensive the day to day cost are, depends on how you shop, and what you decide to feed your pet.
how can you find it if you're totally blind though. I can understand if you're legally blind have a good amount of vision. But I'd imagine without constant sighted help your yard could become quite a mess and eventually a health hazzard.
Maybe get a pair of male society finches. Birds make great companions and finch species are a lot less needy than parrots. All the mess is in and around the cage, and depending on your seed guard setup, you only need sweep the floor around the cage daily, and clean the cage once a week.
Why do Americans always only consider cats and dogs when they think of pets? Blah.
You could arrange for one of those shit picker upper services to come by on a regular basis.
Depending on where you live and what kind of yard you have, cats or dogs may be better... there are many variables at play here.
Living in apartments, I only had cats; I didn't want a dog in an apartment, partly for the reasons you listed above and partly because I didn't want to have a turf war between my pet dog and any future guide dog (I know I would get a guide dog once I moved into a house).
In terms of pickup, I always hated cleaning out the litter boxes, but by all accounts the self-cleaning ones don't work that well. As for dogs, I always keep Jenny on a leash when she does her business; that way I can tell if she's doing #1 or #2, and can clean up accordingly. As for letting dogs out in the backyard if it's fenced, you can do that; a neighbor does that with his dog. Usually snow will bury any business they leave behind, and then he just goes in the spring to tidy up... but he's also sivghted and is less likely to step into a mess.
Kate
You are wanting a pet for your son. He can see, if I’m not mistaking.
He can pick it up.
Get a box of sandwich bags, the large ones, or a poop scoop.
If he has a pet, he should take some responsibility.
For you, block off a place in the yard the dog does it business. You use the same equipment, but need shoes you don’t mind getting dirty. Soft tennis shoes work.
You get on your hands and knees and find it, or walk until you step on it.
You’ll not get it all, but you’ll keep it decent.
The snow doesn’t work all that well. In the summer you’ll have lots of stuff laying on the ground, and if you get enough of it, you’ll get mice and such things. Plus it stinks.
Self-cleaning litter boxes are silly. Cat’s pee. Cat pee gets on stuff and smells bad. How can it clean that?
I’d clean my daily, most times just scooping out the poop, but every few days I’d fresh it completely. You don’t want cat scent in the house.
Or I didn’t when I had a cat. Some people don’t care.
I used to own a cat. It was very easy to take care of. She was clean and the only mess she made was in her litter box that I would clean about evry 3 or 4 days. I would take her every couple months to get her claws clipped. Most cats shed though the shorter the hair on the cat the better.
good topic and the comments that have been posted have been good, smiles.
I agree that the cost of an animal depends on there health, dietary needs and other stuff also that needs to be kept up like having their nails trimmed, make sure they're vaccinations are kept up to date and the worming is done and any other treatments it needs like for instance fleas.
Now cat litter boxes can be tricky to clean but yes they are not self-cleaned well not over here they are not and mine use to go in the back yard and what cats tend to do after they have done there business is to bury it, they do clean themselves and yes any animal that has fur will shed but to keep on top of that you can vacuum and wash things like your clothes but also you can have a brush that is designed for pets so you can groom them and that can help too.