Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My roommate who has been living here for about 5 months got a boyfriend about 2 months ago. Since then she is rarely home to take care of her cat since she is always at the boyfriends house. The cat is obviously very lonely and bored; she cries constantly, especially in the morning and at night when I'm trying to sleep. I haven't even seen my roommate in like three weeks, but she says she comes home in the afternoons to feed her cat. I don't know if it's true because I never see her and the food bowl is always empty when I get home. I seem to be the only one feeding the cat and paying it any attention. I have even had to buy food for the cat because when she ran out, my roommate didn't buy more food for a few days.

The problem is, I don't want the responsibility of taking care of it. I'm busy with work and school and don't have time for a pet. I am worried about the well being of the cat, but the crying is also driving me crazy. Yesterday I told her my gripes about the situation (in an email since I never see her) but she hasn't responded. I don't know what to do if she doesn't change. I could call animal control but I doubt they would do anything since the cat looks healthy. I would consider asking my landlord to evict her if the problem continues but I'm not sure if my landlord would be willing to do that just because of the cat.

What would the ppk do?

Is she paying rent? To be honest, I'd put up with a cat if it meant I got the house to myself all the time.... I would wait for your roommate to respond. She hasn't abandoned the cat and I personally would think it would be opening a huge can of worms to get animal control involved (you'd basically be taking someone else's cat to a shelter). If your roommate is paying rent and you get her evicted, all that means is bad blood between the two of you and a pretty good chance she just leaves the cat with you (as she doesn't sound very attached to the cat) and you just have to get another roommate to cover her costs.

Poor cat :(

My solution for lonely cats btw is to get a catfriend. Maybe this is the universe telling you you need 2 cats?

I'm sure the cat would love a kitty friend, but I really don't want a pet. I like cats but I'm not in a place in my life where I want to take care of them. I guess I can just get ear plugs. But it's nicer when the roommate is here because then the house is quiet. Mostly I just feel bad for the cat but I also don't want to take care of it.
She is paying rent, but she is subleasing.

So her solution is to lock the cat in her room while she's gone. Doesn't seem very good for the cat to me but I guess there's not much I can do about it.

I'd just take the opportunity to let her know that she won't be able to stay there when her sublease ends if the situation with the cat continues because it's making you uncomfortable. I can overlook a lot in bad roommates but one who refuses to take care of their own pets is like a deal breaker.