When my girlfriend said that she was “an animal person,” I don’t think I gave her enough credit.
I sincerely believed that she might want to have a cat someday, and that was about the extent of my concerns.
At no point did I consider that she wanted to be an animal rescue and fostering hub, taking in the unwanted pets of people from all over the county. But that’s what we’ve wound up with. The problem being – I have no issue with animals… but my immune system truly hates them. Whenever I am anywhere near a cat or dog, my nose and throat start going crazy. I can’t breathe, I sneeze constantly, my eyes are bright red, and my throat is scratchy as the day is long. To try to combat this problem, we have consulted professional HVAC repair shops and air quality control technicians left and right. We’ve made a lot of upgrades to the central HVAC system in the house, and it is expensive, as you can imagine, to keep investing in this air quality nightmare. There are hundreds of ways to improve your indoor air quality and filter out airborne contaminants but they all require money. We’re always buying HEPA air filters which supposedly airborne contaminants. Then we got a media air purifier installed, to sterilize and filter the air. And we have a routine HVAC service contract, to have the ductwork cleaned every month. The HVAC costs are astronomical, and so are the feeding expenses for all these beasts. And still, I spend most of my days gasping for air.