When my wife was toward the end of her pregnancy with our twin son and daughter, Henry and Louisa, certain family members asked us what we were going to do with our cat, Lucy. “Why would you ask such a silly question,” I thought.
To my relatives, this was a serious issue. After all, Lucy still has claws. What if she scratches one of the babies? One family member went so far as to suggest—only half in jest—Lucy might suck the breath out of one or both of the babies. Some even offered to adopt her they were so serious.
Of course, that was an option I’d never once considered. I grew up with pets—mainly dogs, but also fish, hamsters, the occasional lizard of one variety or another—and I wanted my children to have the same opportunity to experience the joy of loving (and being loved by) a pet. Plus, there is evidence that exposing children to animals at an early age may improve their immune system.
To be fair, cats do present certain risks to pregnant women, but we were sure to follow these ASPCA guidelines while my wife was pregnant.
But since the kids were born, it’s been mostly smooth sailing. There was a brief period when Henry and Louisa were learning to crawl when Lucy would bat at and sometimes lightly scratch them. Thinking she might be jealous of the kids, I made a special effort to spend five minutes of quality time with her a day and she stopped. Now, as you can see in the video below, it’s all about “lovies.”
