There was an interesting story in the paper today about a toxin humans may become infected with if they own cats: Cat owners: would you consider getting tested? I have allergies to cats so I don't have one, but to be honest.. I don't think this would stop me from owning a cat otherwise, because the symptoms seem quite mild.
I do not own a cat. But there is one neighbor's cat that always come to my house to poop. My husband is really angry with this cat because we don't own it and it kept coming here just to do its business. I think I shouldn't let this cat poop at my house any more after reading this news article. I don't have small children and I think my family and I have pretty good immune system so I hope we don't get infected by this germ that exists in cat's feces.
Yes, we have 6 cats and I have to say that I love them dearly! And they do make me crazy, and get on my nerves sometimes. But I do love them and I would not want it any other way.
Interesting thread. If it`s coming from a scientist, with proofs, let's say I believe him. But I love my cat to much to get scared by this article. I don`t stay close to my cat's feces to much (lol), so I am somehow protected. Other way, the balance between my cat's love and the damage he can produce to my brain through his feces, it makes me have another cat around me soon
I have a cat but actually he prefers to go outside to do his business except when it is really cold. Most of the time he goes to this little hidden corner of the backyard to take care of that. I wouldn't get tested for that gene though. Seems like it's a tactic to scare people into thinking cats are evil.
Because he is a scientist I want to believe him but based on my experience I can not. Since childhood we already have cats in our house. I don't know if how many cats that we owned since then because we really love cats. Now we have 5 cats in our house but we didn't noticed any problems yet. Maybe it is only in other countries or other cat breeds.
Toxoplasma gondii is transferred via kitty cat poo/urine. This is the same as many other viruses. Wash your hands after cleaning out a litter box, make sure your cat adaquately grooms himself and I don't believe there's anything to worry about. They recommend that pregnant women don't deal with the litter box, but I've never seen anything that said this condition was transmitted in any other way. There's a lot more dangerous diseases to worry about that are transmitted in human poo, so wash after doing your business too! Just be careful around the kitty poo and you'll do fine!
Interesting... I always thought it was the other way around: you are lonely and crazy so you get many cats to keep you company. But apparently the cats are the ones who drive you crazy. I have just one cat, but I barely notice her. She likes to sleep a lot and she is very lazy in general. I hope she won't be the cause of my going crazy.
