in

England

AITA?

This is a long one so bare with me!

Recently our 16 year old cat left one day and didn't come back. She had been suffering with seizures and we was told that it could have been either her kidneys or her brain and if it was her kidneys the symptoms from the medication would more than likely be worse than the actual seizures due to her age, and if it was her brain, that she would need an MRI which are upwards of £5000, which we couldn't afford. Left with not much choice we basically had to leave her as she was until she basically had 1 too many seizures.

She had started to change in her behaviour, mostly around the baby, which I can only assume was due to the seizures messing with her brain. Due to this, she started trying to swipe at the baby and bite at her, even if she was just crawling past her. For the babys safety we started separating them, so when the baby was downstairs in the living room, we would limit the cat to the kitchen (where all her food, water, litter tray etc was) with the back door open so she could roam around outside (it was summer so not cold), which at the start of August she did not come back and now obviously have assumed she went off somewhere and passed away.

After a couple of weeks we were told by my mother that her coworkers cat had had kittens and they needed a home, my husband jumped at the chance as he had always had cats growing up and felt that the house seemed strange without a cat.

We got the kitten the other night and I sent a picture to my friends, one answering with "you got a kitten!?" I said yes and her reply was "can't say I support the decision". I obviously asked why and she started listing about finances, time, effort, and our baby, stating that at the end of our previous cats life we stopped putting in effort and would "lock her in the kitchen because she became difficult". Kind of insinuating that we neglected her at the end of her life. I obviously defended myself and stating she wasnt neglected there was just nothing we could do and the conversation ended with my friend just putting "okay".

AITA?