Worrying

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at Yan's mom's house on the Cape. They have a cat, Phoebe, and I'm allergic to cats so I spent most of the weekend either sneezing or bleary from Sudafed. I'm also allergic to dogs but with the advent of Flovent, I can live with them without asthma attacks. My only requirement is that they don't lick me because then I break out into hives, though Mandy and I have an agreement where she's allowed to lick my nose. Simon doesn't care about that agreement but being part dachshund he's too short to reach my face very often anyway.

I'm allergic to basically any mammal: Dogs, cats, horses, cows, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, etc. Though with the exception of cats, I have outgrown my allergy to most of them, if you count "outgrowing" as hives without full-blown asthma attacks. We've been thinking a lot about having a baby in the next year or two but yesterday it occurred to me: What if the baby is allergic to dogs? When I was a kid, we had two cats and a dog that we had to give away once I was diagnosed with asthma and allergies, and it nearly killed my mom. I honestly cannot comprehend losing Simon--or even Mandy, heathen that she is. I think we'd have to move to a city where we could afford a big house and keep the baby and the dogs in separate wings. Yan and I could alternate nights until the baby outgrew its allergies. That sounds plausible, right?