Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: attached vs detached

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

   Actually, In my experience it's the animals, the
pets of the cohousers that have the most trouble with
the attached housing.  We've all given up having
doormats, for instance, at Swan's Market Cohousing in
Oakland because of ongoing problems with cat's peeing
on them.  Basically we have too many cats trying to
claim the limited outside territory.  If all our cat's
were indoor only cat's and all dog's were always on
leashes outdoor's we might solve the doormat problem,
but I'm sure the community garden would just be
invaded by neighborhood cat's claiming the territory
if our cat's weren't allowed to patrol it.  And of
course all this causes interpersonal friction between
the cat and dog owner's and the non-pet owners.
   The people got to choose to live in an urban
community and work things out, but the pet's didn't
get a choice in the matter and some of them seem
stressed by the enforced togetherness.  
   Our community consists of 20 attached units plus
our Common House, also attached, 31 full time adults
plus intermittant foreign students, friends and family
member visitors, plus 4 children and 4 dogs and 12
cats currently (we just had 2 additional children and
2 cats move to Colorado).
                    Bonnie Fergusson
                    Swan's Market Cohousing
                    Oakland,CA



       
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