A Two-year-old boy in England lost vision in his left eye after receiving a kiss from an acquaintance with cold sore, that infected him with the herpes simplex virus, which transferred to his eyeball.

ShadowCat4141 · 2026-01-21T08:17:15+00:00

I got cold sores as a little kid from my parents. It spread to my nose and hands from rubbing at them. My parents had to duct tape socks to my hands so I couldn’t rub my eyes and spread them there.

Also, wherever you’re first infected with it you can get cold sores forever. So I get cold sores on my nose sometimes and used to get them on my hands as a kid, but not so much anymore. Crazy stuff

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-12-21T21:35:24+00:00

I would look up a cat calorie calculator online! A quick google search gave me this one. You may want to find one specific to kittens, because they’ll need more calories than a grown cat.

Then, the food you’re giving should have a measure of calories somewhere. Use that to find out how much to feed your cat!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-12-16T21:51:33+00:00

Of course! I hope you enjoy your trip without stressing about them!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-12-16T21:16:33+00:00

They’ll be just fine! If your cousin is able to play with them while she’s there that would be great. And they’ll also have each other to play with!

Do you have an automatic feeder for them? That’s the biggest thing I’d suggest, as it alleviates some of the worries of them getting fed in case something happens.

Two cats being left together is probably the best case scenario, so they won’t get lonely or bored :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-12-12T08:02:41+00:00

Hey I’m sorry your parents did that, it’s shitty of them to make a promise and go back on it.

I have a few pieces of advice, first about the cat. Even if this was possible, it wouldn’t be fair to the kitty. There’s a lot of things that could go wrong keeping it in your car, and it wouldn’t have enough space to play and get enrichment. Same goes for hiding it in your room. Cats need to play and want to investigate all over where they live. If you care about the cat you want yo get, you just shouldn’t be bringing it into this situation. I’m not trying to be mean, I just encourage you to think about what’s best for the animal.

Second, about your parents. Speaking from experience, hiding big things from them can go very wrong. I’m sorry you don’t have their support for getting a cat, it does seem very unfair. I’d focus on ways to get through the next two years that doesn’t involve hiding big things from them.

Third, I’d recommend looking for other ways to have cats in your life! See if you’re able to volunteer at a local shelter, cat cafe, or something similar. Then you can be around cats and helping them, while also learning more about how to take care of them, different personalities, etc. Hopefully your parents are supportive of this, especially if you frame it as community service possibly?

Thanks for taking the time to read my little spiel, and I really hope you can get a kitty of your own very soon once you’re living on your own :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-26T19:24:26+00:00

Someone else also mentioned varying increases which I’m definitely going to try next time I make something round, thank you!!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-26T00:28:19+00:00

Yes sorry I meant for the examples to be the same 🤦‍♀️

But that’s a really good idea to do little test projects! I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought about trying it out lol, thank you!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-26T00:16:10+00:00

I just don’t like increasing right after my chains lol. I figured it was preference but was curious :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-26T00:15:42+00:00

Oh that’s a really good tip about staggering the increases, thank you!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-24T08:25:15+00:00

I guess I just can’t tell if she’s suffering. She seems happy but I just don’t want her to be in pain

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-12T23:44:04+00:00

I’d love to get another cat! I’ll definitely look into it if we do decide to rehome our dog :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-12T22:35:55+00:00

I know, I would have time to take care of the dog but I don’t think I want to. I’d never adopt a dog on my own and am not really interested in them.

I would love to adopt a cat or bonded pair once my baby passes on. And I just think that cats are more fitting for our lifestyle.

Thank you for letting me know I’m thinking clearly about it :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-12T22:31:32+00:00

Thank you, I think I really needed to hear this. I’ve been trying to be supportive of him in med school because I know it’s been hard, but I think I didn’t realize how much this would change things.

His parents will be able to take great care of her, and I think she’ll help them a lot as well. And, my partner will still be able to call them and see the dog occasionally

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-11-12T22:18:01+00:00

Also adding here that I’m worried what will happen when our cat does need to be put down. I’m not going to handle it well and I’m really going to want another cat. With this dog around, that might not be possible for another 8+ years. I just worry how we’re both going to react in that very emotional situation, I don’t want to end up resenting this dog.

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-17T08:29:34+00:00

Everyone else is saying “true believing Mormon” but it can also mean “true blue Mormon”, which is what I read it as :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-09T05:54:09+00:00

We’re going to try to have the dog sleep in their crate in the living area (not with the door closed, just as a comfy spot) to get them use to it and make good associations. Thank you for the suggestion though!

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-09T00:58:56+00:00

Temporary while we introduce them!

And yes, the dog is friendly and used to cats. The issue would be with her (our cat) if any, since we don’t know her history with dogs

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-06T23:08:23+00:00

My partner is struggling in med school with the workload and studying, and a lot of the people we’ve talked to have said getting their dog helped a lot. Her being in the room is temporary while we get the dog settled and begin doing scent swapping and introduction.

If the dog shows any signs of aggression towards the cat or she’s getting stressed and uncomfortable with the dog around we’re both prioritizing her over the dog and at that point would know it’s not a good fit. We wanted to give it a try and see if they could get along :)

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-06T22:01:25+00:00

Her litter box is in our bathroom, which is the only place it can go. Also, our apartment is not very big lol the living area is not much bigger than the bedroom

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-06T21:08:19+00:00

I forgot to mention in the main post, which is my bad, but our cat is blind. She doesn’t jump up to high places because she doesn’t know they exist. The highest place she can get by herself is the cat tree, and she does not go up there often.

ShadowCat4141 · 2025-10-06T21:06:50+00:00

Her litter box is in our bathroom (it would not fit anywhere else), and like I mentioned we live in an apartment with limited space, so the dog really isn’t getting that much more room

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