'AITA for not rehoming my bottle baby kitten due to roommate's fake allergies?'

"AITA for not rehoming my bottle baby kitten due to roommate's fake allergies?"

For those who don't know, a "bottle baby" refers to a baby that needed to be bottle fed for various reasons. This can include an orphan, mom abandoning a runt or entire litter, etc. Few weeks ago, I (30f) picked up an orphaned kitten on the side of the road with no mom/siblings to be found. She was approximately one week old at the time.

Brought her home and started taking care of her as rescues and shelters are full with kittens (yay kitten season) right now. She's been growing like a weed and slowly hit her milestones, like figuring out the litter box. She stays in my room so I can supervise her make sure she doesn't get into things she's not supposed to.

The problem is my roommate (25f). She claims she's allergic to the kitten but has no symptoms. No itchy skin, no red/watery eyes, no hives/rashes, etc. She also claims she grew up with cats and she currently has two adult cats.

I'm not saying they're mutually exclusive, but I find it hard to believe that she claims to have non-symptomatic allergies. Plus she waited 5 full weeks to tell me? Yeah, no. I told her I'm not rehoming the kitten as she currently has cats herself and the allergies weren't a problem until now.

She's claiming her kitties are "ESAs," which may or may not be true as this is the first time she mentioned it, and still doesn't explain her not having reactions to them. She's threatening to report me to the landlord over the issue. I'm not giving up the kitten as she's quite attached to me at this point. Roommate is still throwing a fit over it.

AITA?

(I can pay cat tax, under my profile, if people ask.)

The internet had a lot to say in response.

KatieHedgehog wrote:

INFO: Do her cats currently live with her and is the landlord aware of them? If so, were the two cats written into the contract as the only pets allowed to live in the house?

OP responded:

Her cats currently live in the house and can roam around wherever they want. The lease doesn't specify how many or what types of pets we can have.

Pooties_Carrot wrote:

I think generally it's good form to discuss and agree adding pets to a home before the fact - I understand it was an unexpected addition (and an act of kindness) but I would still expect a conversation before deciding to keep it long term. That being said, your roommate seems to be being unreasonable. Certainly her reasoning doesn't make sense. Her cats being ESAs wouldn't stop her being allergic to them.

She's able to physically tolerate cats or she's not. I take allergies seriously and respect when people genuinely accommodations for their health and comfort. I also really dislike people claiming allergies when they simply dont like or dont want something. Your roommate doesn't come across as genuine and is expecting double standards / preferential treatment.

I presume your landlord allows pets given that 2 already live there, so reporting you is illogical, as well as petty. Either there's no issue, or she's effectively telling on herself. If it's an ESA only situation...you now have an ES kitten. Keep the cat and ditch the roommate. Life's too short. NTA

annekcaramin wrote:

ESH. She's going about it in a weird way but I would be quite pissed if a roommate just brought a new cat into the home without checking with me. Cats don't automatically get along, and the kitten can't stay in your room forever. There's a big chance her cats can already smell and hear the kitten and it's causing stress.

Not clear why she isn't communicating that instead of this allergy story, but allergies can be quite weird. I'm technically allergic to cats but accidentally had exposure therapy by growing up with cats, to the point where I work in vet med and rarely react.

It's obviously a pretty mild allergy though, which doesn't stop me from having a cat.

So YTA for just assuming she would be ok with a new cat and she's TA for being weird about it and not communicating clearly.

happybanana134 wrote:

ESH. She sucks for her allergy story which I agree sounds like nonsense. However you also suck for essentially getting a pet without discussing it with her first. This cat can't live in your room forever and it will have an impact on her cats; there is no guarantee that they will get along and it's likely that it will be stressful for all cats involved.

KaliTheBlaze wrote:

INFO: Are you planning to keep the kitten once it is old enough to not need to be bottle fed? Because generally speaking, adding pets to a household is an all yes/1 no situation. So forcing the kitten into the household long term is uncool. A cat can’t comfortably live in just a bedroom long term - they need more space and enrichment and variety than that.

However, as long as the baby needs to be bottle fed, it’s really hard to find someone else to foster them, since most fosterers have their hands full or overfull during kitten season, and small kittens can comfortably be kept in the bedroom through the end of their bottle feeding time.

(Good gods, writing about kittens seems to have brought the local very loud harlequin stray queen under my window. That cat can YELL. They’ve done TNR around us, and have managed to catch and bring in some of her kittens, but so far she’s too clever to trap.)

inertia-crepes wrote:

NTA. It's more than reasonable to expect that someone with two cats themselves is able to live in a house with an additional cat in the mix.

Glad that your baby is thriving. Cat tax, please!

ThisWillAgeWell wrote:

INFO: Something isn't adding up here.

You said "she currently has two adult cats".

You also said in a comment "The lease doesn't specify how many or what types of pets we can have."

But you also said in your post "She's threatening to report me to the landlord over the issue."

On what basis is she threatening to report you to the landlord?

"Dear landlord, my roommate is annoying me." Is that the best she's got?