What to do if your new BF or GF is allergic to your pet
You finally met someone who has a job, a car that runs, doesn’t live with his mother, and has all his own front teeth. Or maybe your standards are higher. She’s smart, funny, beautiful and laughs at your Simpsons impersonations. You get that feeling that you’re on the verge of giggling just holding hands while waiting in line for The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Castro.
Everything is fantastic; you finally have the trifecta of S.F. living. You work at Google where your boss gives you box seats to the Giants, you have an awesome SOMA apartment and now you’ve met an incredible BF or GF with whom you’ve talked for hours finishing each other’s sentences, getting each other’s pop culture references and you met Thursday night at SFMOMA so you don’t have to lie to your mom about how you met. This is it! This is “the one!” But then, you bring your new potential life partner home and sneezing, wheezing, red eye, asthma inhaler, it all comes out that s/he is allergic to your pet. Sad face.
First, finding out if your date is allergic to pets should be right up there with do you want kids, do you smoke, do you live with your mother, any restraining orders, and have you been to San Quentin? By adding the “are you allergic to pets?” question to the filtering process in the first place you won’t be faced with this problem.
However, I understand that you would never be in this position because, like me, you always make sure any potential love relationship is a pet lover. But you're reading this because you have a friend who is not as smart as you and they are asking for advice. Below are some suggestions.
1. Of course the new partner ought to go to an allergy specialist to find out what remedies will help.
2. If you don’t already have one get an excellent vacuum cleaner with a hepa filter or even better, provided you have the budget, get a house cleaner.
3. Prior to your date night change the linens, as if you weren’t doing that already, but if the relationship lasts beyond the three month probationary period continue to change your bed linens and keep your pets out of the bedroom prior to your date.
4. Wash your pets weekly. For cats this may be challenging but I had a Persian cat who I bathed a couple times a year and she actually learned to love it. See this blog post for more on that subject.
5. I wouldn’t do this but I heard about a homeopathic method where you comb your pet, put the fur from the comb into a pot of boiling water and then use an eye dropper to dispense the boiled fur liquid, once it’s cooled, into the allergic person’s eye. With further research I found resources indicating that homeopaths can make a concoction from your pets fur and the concoction can go under the tongue and voila one is cured of pet allergies. I’d love to know if you tried this.
6. Adopt a hypoallergenic pet such as a poodle, snake, or bearded dragon.
If none of the above remedies are successful look at your previous relationship experience (the ones who left) and evaluate who will love you unconditionally for years to come and seek a fellow pet lover who is not allergic to your pet. There’s more fish in the sea, not that I’m condoning adopting exotic fish – they belong in the sea, but your relationship with your pet is irreplaceable and they depend on us to love and to cherish for a lifetime and they will never leave you for a younger pup.
