Conference misery::feline

    Karen -
      We managed to rent when we had three cats.  The way I presented it
    was "I have three well-behaved cats.  The are spayed, indoor only
    and I trim their claws on a regular basis."
    
    I also always insisted that the permission for the cats be included
    in the lease.
    
    There was a note devoted to pet allowed apartments in the old FELINE
    sounds like we need one in this version.
      Nancy DC
    
    p.s. GOod luck.
    
    p.p.s.  Oh - even if the ad for the apt says NO PETS, that often 
    translates into NO DOGS.  So it pays to ask if they allow cats.
    If they say NO, don't even look at the place.
    

    
    	I just went through this and was AMAZED that almost every 	
    	apartment I considered took cats!! And when I told my current
    	landlord `I have cats.......(mumble, uh, mumblefourcats)', she
    	didn't even bat an eye. Wow, I hope you're as lucky...You could
    	offer some sort of reference that they didn't damage your previous
    	apartment, tell them you provide scratching posts which deter them
    	from scratching rugs, etc, and that you are willing to give an
    	extra deposit....(I didn't have to) I think cats owners are so 
    	common nowadays that landlords are used to renting to them and
    	some would rather get the place rented $$$ than worry about cats.
    
    	Sherry
    

    
    	Another tactic I used, keeping in mind that money is tight,
    	was to first make a good image of myself to the landlord `I
    	work at Digital, have a secure job, don't smoke, single, etc',
    	I even had two people offer to LOWER THE ASKING RENT for me.
    	Then you tell them you've got a couple of very well behaved
    	cats... :)
    	
    	Sherry
    

        I payed almost $100 more per month to find an apartment that allowed 
	cats.  We saw several apartments that allowed cats but were dumps
	(IMO) and a couple for the same rent that did not allow cats but
	were much nicer (we saw these by accident).  Finally, we found
	an apartment but it cost $100 more than we wanted to pay.

	Any I only have two!

	Karen

    Am I really in the minority here as a landlord?  We don't ask for a
    security deposit, or cleaning deposit, or pet deposit, or any other
    such nonsense.  Whether a tenant is respectful of the property or not
    has nothing to do with whether or not they own pets.  I've seen
    two-year old humans do more damage than pets, and we certainly can't
    ask for a larger deposit because of children!!!  In my experience,
    people who have pets have a darned hard time finding a place to rent to
    them with their furry kids, so they tend to be gentler on the place
    than non-pet owners.  You might try this approach when convincing
    someone to rent to you and your pets.
    Sarah

    Hi. All of this talk of looking for a place that allows cats & stuff reminded
me of an experience I had during my last apartment search. 

Each place I called, my first questions were:

What kind of area is it in? (I was CONSIDERING letting them outside.)

Would you allow me to have two TRAINED cats? (If the answer was no, goodbye.)

Does the house have an entry way, or does the door open to the outside? (since
they are indoor cats, I prefer to have an entryway for a safeguard against
escapes.)

We set out to look at a bunch of places I had called on the evening before, and
were particularly excited about this one place. The landlord had met all of my
requirements over the phone & had stressed for some reason that therre were
lots of "responsible cat owners" in the neighborhood, but not many dogs.

We arived a bit early, and I wandered out to the back of the house to check
out the back yard, and see how my girls would like it. There were 3 little
girls sitting on the stone wall talking. They said Hi to me & asked if I
was looking for someone. We started talking. I told them that I was interested
in the apartment on the 3rd floor. THey told me that it was the nicest place
in the bldg (3 or 4 family). They also told me to watch out for the lady
downstairs, as she was an abusive mother to her son, and her home was broken
into by the police a year ago because of the stench of her filthy house.

Well, that almost did it for me right there! I figured that maybe these little 
girls were exagerating, but was painfully aware that they were just being
innocently honest, not even aware of the fact that they were screwing their
landlord out of two decent tennants. I was bummed out, but tried to give this
the benefit of the doubt.

I told them I was checking out the back yard to see how my kitties would like
it there. They told me that the kitties would love it!! I said, "Really? Why?"
One of them said, "Well, there's TONS of kitties all around here for them to 
play with!!" I asked whose they were & she replied, "Well some belong to that 
lady over there...she had the mother to my two!" and one of the other girls
chimed in, "I have one of her kittens too!" The first girl continued, "And 
some belong to the lady in that house...her cat is the daddy. Now the mother
cat is pregnant again, and so is my cat! And some of the cats don't belong to 
anyone, but if you see a cat you like, you can keep it. Nobody will care."

These girls were excited about this & thought that lots of kitties were fun!

I asked her why nobody gets their cats fixed, and she shrugged. I asked what
they do w/ the kittens after they are born. She sed, "Let 'em out" and then
what I asked, "Feed 'em outdoors, but they can't come back in." I wanted to 
cry. I started to walk out onto the lawn, and one ot the girls yelled, "DON'T
STEP ON THE GRASS!! THERE'S BEES!" They explained that the whole lawn (if you
want to call it a lawn...I'd call it a bed of weeds & clover) is covered with
bees all summer, and you can't walk on it w/ a dress on, or they'll fly up it!
Shoes are also a must. 

FORGET IT! I left. I felt bad for all of those cats (still do actually) for
weeks. And the boy, and the lady downstairs, and those dirty little girls.
Can you imagine what my life would have been like if I chose to live there?
I can't!! I'd now have 30 cats & a son!! ;*)

During times like this, landlords are being a bit more lenient when it comes
to pets, cats particularly. I interviewed a bunch of (they don't intreview
me, I'm the one paying rent, remember?) landlords who said that they normally
don't allow pets, but they would for us. Yuh, for us, nothin! They just wanted
    to rent the place! Be careful of these types too. They may try to cause
    probs for you later on.
    
    I agree w/ .5, in that pet owners are probably more careful &
    respectful to the property because it's so hard to find a place that
    allows you to have pets!
    
    Bon 

    After reading this I really can appreciate my apartment manager.
    The owner of the apartments is a cat lover and my apartment 
    manager is a cat lover.  In fact, just yesterday she stopped me 
    on my way out of the complex and gave me four cat toys that her 
    sister had made, asked me how the cats were and offered to show 
    me how well her stray babies she took in were growing up.
    
    I'm not sure about letting my cats play with the toys although 
    she did say her sister checked with her vet and the toys are vet
    approved.  They're pom-poms of crocheted (how do you spell that)
    yarn with a thin ribbon tied on them and a jingle bell.  I'll
    probably trim the ribbon.  The bell is buried in the center of 
    the pom-pom so it may be okay, but, I might remove it too.  I'll
    let the kitties play with it on supervised occasions and see how
    they do with it.
    
    Jan

    Our landlady is NOT a "cat-person" (she prefers dogs) but we managed to
    fenagle our way to getting in with our cats (WITH her permission). 
    Part of our deal is that, since she lives in Maryland and we are
    located in New Hampshire, we do the basic maintenance around the house.
    
    Once, she complained about "the smell", but other than that, we have
    been here for 3 years... and she is well aware of our 2 furballs.
    
    K.C.

    I was the assistant manager of the apartment complex I live in for 2
    years.  Our policy was no dogs over 25lbs, cats ok (no limit on the
    number).  $100 refundable security deposit, and $10 extra per month
    "pet rent".  Now that I am only a tenant, I do not pay pet rent nor do
    I have a pet lease agreement and the rental office has no idea.  I
    found that to be true often on the complex, that people would have
    pets-often dogs of illegal size-and we were helpless to inforce the
    rules.  This was a large apartment complex-560 units in 41 buildings.
    
    shannon