Can I take my pets if I become a nun?

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Rosie11

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I’m thinking of becoming a nun well I’ve been thinking for over a year now since I was 18 if I do become a nun can I take my dogs and 1 cat? I did have 8 dogs but I’ve already rehomed 4 I could never get rid of the remaining 4 they mean everything to me and I love them endless they love people and are very good dogs and my cat doesn’t scratch or anything she just purrs all the time and loves to be cuddled could I take them?
 
I don’t see anything wrong with bringing pets to the convent, however, there may be sisters who are allergic, and the mother superior might not permit it.

On the other hand, I’ve seen convents which keep many pets 🙂
 
I have too while I was in Medjugorje they had dogs and cats the dogs where just roaming around I believe they where strays that they took in and began feeding
 
It’s an unusual request, but you might ask the mother superior if you could bring them and make them “community” cats, there for the companionship and enjoyment of all the sisters.
 
I wouldn’t mind sharing them they love everyone anyways and love attention and fuss
 
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I am so sorry that I neglected to mention the dogs. I had cat tunnel vision.

I am chef and restaurateur to a loose confederation of neighborhood cats who, it seems, belong to no one (or perhaps they do and just know where to come for a good meal 😸).
 
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Rosie, I thought I remember you saying before that in your culture it’s impossible to leave home or distance yourself from your family. You realize that if you become a nun you will presumably no longer live with your family, right? You might be asked to go somewhere far away for an extended period of time.
 
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What would you do with your pets when you are sent to another country to study or work? There are several countries that don’t accept animals without putting them in quarantine for three months before. Who is going to pay? As a sister you won’t have a salary that is only for you to spend on what you want but that salary would go to all sisters and if one sister needs new shoes then money is set aside to those shoes.

Most convents don’t have the money to spend on pets. It is another thing if the convent is having a farm and needs a cat for catching mice (it would be a working cat and not a “sit on the sofa cuddling cat”) or a sheep dog if they have sheep.
 
I can leave if I get married as I won’t be considered an adult until marriage or free to make my own choices until marriage but I can leave against my family’s wishes if I want to by law if your 18 or over you can do what you want so technically they can’t stop me
 
I don’t think money would be a problem for me tbh money has always been at my fingertips my father always bought me my hearts desires even my mother would get angry she was an old school catholic saying “you don’t need this you don’t need that” or “you don’t need worldly things” but my father would always try and make me happy if I needed money for my pets or anything my dad would give it to me I know he would I never ask for things I don’t need
 
Do you realize that the vow of poverty means that money is not yours–and certainly not yours for the asking, even if it comes from your family? If your happiness depends on material fulfillment, then I wonder if you are really called to the vowed life. The vow of poverty really is a vow of detachment, and it sounds like you have a real problem with that, at least when it comes to pets.
 
I would only ask for money to buy food for my pets and to pay for things like flea and worm treatment and vet bills I don’t care about material things and not all nuns take a vow of poverty
 
All sisters, and certainly all nuns, take a vow of poverty–or a vow that subsumes the vow of poverty within the vow of obedience. Your money is not your own when you are in religious life. I really do think you are misunderstanding what religious life is all about.
 
Rosie11 said:
I would only ask for money to buy food for my pets and to pay for things like flea and worm treatment and vet bills I don’t care about material things and not all nuns take a vow of poverty
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The way I see it - pets and their food and medication ARE material things. They are luxuries, not necessities. If you are that attached to them, then you ARE attached to material things.

And nuns ARE all required to be obedient to their superiors - which means if your superior told you to move to another country without your pets, or to give your pets up because a fellow nun is allergic, or stop spending money on their food and medication because there are better uses for the money, you would have to do it without fuss or complaint.

Imagine saying “I have a child/husband but still want to be a nun, why can’t my child/husband live in the convent with me?” The short answer is because a nun needs to have ONE focus - obedient service to Christ through her superiors. Nothing else - pets, children, husbands, is to be an attachment that could distract from that.

What you are demanding is to enter what is meant to be a life of unconditional self-sacrifice - but with conditions and things that you don’t want to sacrifice. Doesn’t compute.
 
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Some seminarians / priests have pets, sounds like religious life is different though. Still, I could see having a pet as a way to practice love to others rather than as a luxury
 
Flopfoot said:
Some seminarians / priests have pets, sounds like religious life is different though. Still, I could see having a pet as a way to practice love to others rather than as a luxury
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True. And being bound in obedience to their bishops, would have to be prepared to give them up if told to.
 
I visited a convent in Medjugorje and they had pets they had dogs and cats with little pet houses outside will little bowls of food and water I believe they took in some stray dogs
 
Money was never my own I’ve never earned a penny in my life I don’t see how pets are a luxury They are hard work is what they are they love me so much I’ve had these ones the longest they brought me back from darkness and brought happiness back into my life I could never give them up it would break my heart into pieces I’ll ask around to see if anywhere will let me take them also I know of a nun in Oxford sister Margaret she doesn’t live in a convent she lives in a house with 2 other nuns and they have a cat
 
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