Asking for honest opinions of cat owners here:
I'm gonna tell the whole story for those who are interested, TL;DR at the end.
My childhood cat, Yoki, passed away last December pretty terribly at only 12 years old. She had cancer that was asymptomatic until it was way too late and there was nothing vets could do anymore. Her health worsened rapidly in only a couple of days and I had to put her down a week after her diagnosis. I cried like a baby, and told myself I wouldn't ever get another pet because I clearly couldn't watch them close enough to notice illnesses like that. I still feel incredibly guilty. How couldn't I notice something was wrong? I get nightmares about her being sick almost bi-weekly still. This quick deterioration of my best friend screwed me up.
I'm a member of a cat shelter and I visit to help them out whenever I can, which was therapeutic when I first lost Yoki, I got to be around cats and got to at least kinda help them.
After grieving (which I'm still not fully done with) I really started missing having a purring roomie who'd cuddle up to me at night or help me clean by chasing the mop, or just attack me to start a play fight. Who'd ever so slightly bite my toes at 5 a.m. to get their breakfast, and then still beg at my table for the good stuff. Who’d provocatively place themselves in front of every screen I've ever looked at (I've only seen the top half of movies for 12 years), who insisted on licking ice cubes in hot summers, and pear yoghurt whenever I had some, and would always either lay on my most important mail or the nicest piece of clothing I got out of the closet. Who'd sometimes just follow me around the apartment, laying to chill close to me.
Sometime earlier this month, I started playing with the idea of adopting one of the cats from the shelter, but I'm incredibly hesitant and wanted to know your opinions as cat owners.
I'm a freelancer, I rarely work in the city I live in, sometimes I'm gone for 2 weeks on end, this summer it'll be 8 weeks that I'm not home, and while my parents and even my uncle - all huge cat lovers - would take the time to look after a new cat, I still don't know if that's right. I feel that I'm not in a position to unselfishly keep a pet and do it justice. It sucks that my job's like that. But I feel like I did Yoki a huge injustice already, and even though "it's a cat, they’ll be fine on their own", I feel that's not true. I’ve found cats that I really like at that shelter, but bringing them home doesn't sit well.
TL;DR: My job requires me to leave town for weeks on end. My family is ready to look after a hypothetical cat; I'd love to get one, but am questioning if I could really be a good owner with my chaotic schedule.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/fa34ss/getting_a_cat_with_my_job/
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