Moving With Your Pet

Greetings!

I've been absent for a few days because I was moving. What a chore! I swear I am never moving again, or if I have to, I am hiring professionals to do it for me.

Anyway, as the owner of two cats, and caretaker for a third, I know first-hand that renting with pets can be difficult. I've been lucky so far...both my old apartment and the new house I'm renting allow all three of my babies.

Other folks are not so lucky. In many areas of the country, renting with pets is extremely difficult, especially for owners with large dogs or owners of "restricted" breeds like Rottweilers or Pit bulls.

Sadly, "moving" is the number one excuse for people to abandon their pets. While it might be a little more work to find a pet-friendly apartment, that is your responsibility as a pet owner. When you got your pet, you assumed responsibility for its care for the rest of its life. That responsibility includes bringing the pet with you when you move. Your pet is part of your family...if you had children, you wouldn't rent an apartment that didn't allow children, would you?

Furthermore, landlords should consider the fact that a large majority of renters are pet-owners. Refusing to allow pets cuts your market share significantly. Landlords should also be willing to consider negotiating with a potential renter that wants to bring their pet to an otherwise "no pets" unit.

Here's some resources to make that search for an apartment or rental unit that allows pets just a little bit easier.

Peoplewithpets.com This site allows you to search by state and city for pet-friendly rental units. It also allows landlords to list their properties that are pet friendly.

Apartments.com, Springstreet.com, and Gracehill.com all allow you to search for apartments using "pets" as a search criteria.

Here is another list of search engines you can use to locate pet-friendly housing, including search engines by state, from Petfinder.com.

Here is another great article with tips on how to find pet-friendly housing, from Petfinder.com.

If you have other tips or suggestions for people looking for pet-friendly housing, please feel free to leave them in a comment!