A Bit Different

Today we took a day trip to Tulsa to see Phil's folks. We went for two reasons: 1) grandchild time that didn't require me to clean my own house ;) and 2) to drop Petey off at Phil's aunt's house.

You see, Jillian's cough from over the summer? It comes and goes. Most of the time we figured it was allergies. Then we figured it was a cold. However, we were noticing that she was coughing all night about 20 days out of the month. This has caused lots of issues, and sleepiness for everyone in the family.

After doing some reading and research, I am doubtful that Jillian has asthma. This is mostly because she just coughs instead of wheezing. {I actually had a wheezing problem that I grew out of by the time I was 6. I do still have some issues when it's really cold and damp outside, but it really got bad during march band stuff. I haven't had any major issues since college.} Phil continues to suffer from seasonal allergy-induced asthma that requires an inhaler a few days out of the year. With these things in mind, I started to wonder.

We don't know for a fact that Jillian is allergic to cats, but everything I read made it sound like dust, and pet dander are really bad for children with breathing issues. We are going to discuss our concerns with Dr. V at Jillian's 2-1/2 year well check up. Until then, I'm going to take some measures to keep allergens at bay to see if it helps in the mean time. Unfortunately, this meant we had to find Petey a new home.

We are very blessed that Phil's aunt and uncle foster cats waiting for adoption. In fact, we met Petey at their house in December of 2006. It was a little hard to come to the decision, but we have to choose our child over our pet. We did tell them to let us know if there are issues with placing him in a home. However, being that he's such a sweet, fun-loving, and beautiful cat, we'll be surprised if he doesn't find a family quickly.

Not only have I had some type of pet since 1996, Phil and I have always owned a cat since we were married. We even had more cats than people at one point!

We will miss him, but we know that he'll get the love and attention we can't give him. Plus, we are very hopeful that Jillian will start having less overnight coughing fits.

It'll be different not having any pets for awhile. Plus, we'll most likely be getting a dog for our next pet. Trust me though, it's going to be a few years :)

{January 2007}

{January 2007} 

{January 2009} 

{March 2011}