Would You Smuggle a Pet Into Your Flat?
July 30th 2008 21:00
Photo by Akaporn Bhothisuwan. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Another day. Another dollar. Another water cooler discussion. This day’s topic was whether or not it’s okay to have a pet against your landlord’s wishes.
This was my colleague’s solution to my landlord’s no-pets policy: “You could try smuggling a cat in,” he said. “You couldn’t do the same thing with a dog as it’s too noisy but who’s going to hear a cat miaowing?”
Now I’ve known people who have done this. My friend Brett, for instance. He’s the sort of laidback person who doesn’t worry about stuff such as being evicted so he went and got two cats without his landlord’s permission. One of my neighbours has a couple of cats in her flat. Again the landlord was not consulted. Unlike Brett, this neighbour worries constantly about him finding out. On the other hand, I’ve pointed out to her that several people in her building also have pets (with his permission) so he can’t stop her from having pets when other tenants are allowed to have them. This neighbour has trained her cats not to miaow and to hide in her closet whenever someone knocks at her door. Clever things. There’s enough room in her closet for several cats. Once they’re all inside, all she has to do is shut the closet door and hey, presto! A no-pet flat!
I personally wouldn’t be game enough to do what Brett and my neighbour have done. I love my current flat and don’t want to do anything to jeopardise my tenancy there. Plus with the current rental market in Sydney being so tight I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to flat hunting which, as anyone who’s done it knows, is far from an ideal way of spending one’s weekend. I am holding back from getting a pet for the same reason. Even if my landlord okays it, I can’t help wondering how much harder it would be if I needed to find another flat later on. That was why my neighbour decided not to tell her landlord she has cats – she was scared it would jeopardise her rental application. What a sorry state of affairs.
What about you? Do you think it’s fair to your pet to try and smuggle it in?
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