My daughter decided to ask for a kitten. We already have a dog, and we love our dog. However, the dog is expensive. Sure, we don't have to buy higher-end food (though we end up with soupie poopie), and we don't have to get $100 haircuts every six weeks. Toys, treats, and more all add up. I just got a notice for an upcoming vet appointment I don't think we really need. And there's meds. So there's a monetary cost, which kids never understand, but we also have had to ammend our travel activities because of the dog. I'm mostly OK with it, but we see a lot of parks and parking lots rather than museums and other indoor venues. But my daughter still wants a cat. 

I told her cats smell, litter boxes smell, they don't really like humans all that much, and they give us a virus that makes us more aggressive, and they smell. If they are furry, my eyes itch around them (not sure if it's quite an allergy). They also don't do very much. We already have a dog that lies around most of the day, but at least she goes completely bonkers with delight when we come home. 

Obviously, we're not getting a cat. However, I had an idea that might help hopeless cat owners as well as families with demanding children: the cat stable. A lot of cat owners have multiple cats, probably because they believe if they have enough of them, they might feel something like love coming from the felines. These people probably need to have more human interaction, and they could probably use a little side cash to help pay for the cats. Hopefully pay for getting the animals fixed. On the other side, there are lots of dads like me who don't want cats. Why not just do like the rich (but not THAT rich) folks do who don't want to deal with horses but still want their little princesses to have a horse to ride? Why not stable some cats? 

The people who want to unload their kitten on my daughter have half-a-dozen cats. My daughter can just say one is her favorite. I can drop her off to see the kitten, and she can watch the kitten become a cat. She can feed it some treats and then watch as it ignores her. I'll even splurge on a laser pointer. And I'll pay something. Not a lot, but it's also not worth very much. $20 a year, maybe? $50? I'd say $100 a year would be too high, but it probably depends on the pedigree of the cat and whatnot. Or the amount of interaction. Once a week for a few minutes ought to suffice. Or once a month for a half-hour. It's not like you're going to go for a walk or play fetch. 

I'll go ahead and propose cat stabling to my daughter, and I'm sure she will love the idea.