How can you have kitties if you are allergic to them?

How can you have kitties if you are allergic? 

Steal the neighbor's kitties of course! 

Well, we didn't actually steal them. I made the mistake of giving them a little bowl of milk. The kitties were on our porch and they wouldn't quit meowing (at 11:00 at night) and I wasn't about to let them in our house.

So, I gave them milk. It worked, they stopped meowing! But now they expect a bowl of milk every time we come out our door. In fact, they think we are their family now. 

After their morning bowl of milk, they would lay on the welcome mat in front of our door. I felt sorry for them because the welcome mat didn't look very soft. So I found an old basket and put that on our front porch. Then I had to add a blanket so it's nice and soft......and before you know it, the kitties have moved in!

This is them waking up in the morning and yawning. It's been a lot of fun for our school aged daughter. Especially since we don't have pets thanks-to allergies and asthma.

The only problem is that Grey Tabby is a little friendly. He loves to jump up on my lap if I sit on the front porch (or pull weeds out of my flower bed, or try to eat dinner on my patio.)

Now what do I do? I love cats, but I'm allergic to them. If I can't resist those big green eyes and purring little body, I end up petting Grey Tabby. He also likes to be held like a baby-what a ham!
I can hold him for a few minutes, but then I have to go inside, change my clothes and take a shower. I tried just washing my hands and arms and then changing my clothes, but that didn't help. I would start sneezing from allergies, and then start coughing from an asthma attack.

 All three of my kids also have allergies and asthma. They take Zyrtec all year long because they are allergic to so many things. They also all have immunotherapy (allergy shots.) To learn more about allergy shots, click here.

I'll talk to Asthma Doc and see if he wants me to start taking Zyrtec. Hopefully that works, because I don't think our adopted kitties are going anywhere. And it's a lot of fun to see them running around the yard, playing with each other, trying to jump up in the air and catch the bees. Some nights it's more entertaining to sit outside and watch them than to watch TV!

Let me know if any of you have had any experiences being around animals you are allergic to, and what you have tried. As my daughter would say, "stupid allergies!"