London’s socialites, and I’m speaking of women in this instance, prefer to adopt and pamper toy dogs than to keep cats. This is because they can carry them around in their handbag or in their arms. In addition small dogs are usually far more able to cope with travelling in such a potentially stressful way. Although at one time Paris Hilton had a passion for dwarf cats. She was criticised for it. Today she prefers dogs such as the shih-tzu, chihuahua and labradoodle.
London’s letting agents are seeing far more tenants who wish to rent with their pampered pooch and it is pushing up the rental prices. There’s been a huge rise in lettings enquiries from the smart set of London’s wealthy pet owners. They like their dogs. One agent says that 10 years ago none of his London clients had dogs but today almost one in three look after a dog. It seems that if we are to analyse the typical profile of cat and dog owners we would have to cut out female socialites from the cat owning segment of modern society. The sort of people who in general prefer to adopt a cat are going to be elderly, intelligent and sensible women.
It is interesting to note that despite landlords’ distaste for letting their properties to tenants with pets, the experience of one high-profile, London letting agent, is that tenants who own a dog are reliable and responsible. They take good care of the property and keep their dogs pampered and well-trained. What the landlord does is to ask for a larger than usual deposit so if there is a pet related accident repairs can be paid for out of the deposit.
This must be the way forward for many landlords who refuse tenants with cats. Refusing to let to pet owners is not uncommon in many countries including America and it can create problems with respect cat ownership leading sometimes to cat abandonment. There is no need for landlords to restrict their tenancy agreements to non-pet owning people. Also there is no need for landlords to insist on declawed cats – an obnoxious concept.
Associated: Socialites are killing the Sumatran tiger.
