Pet adoption

When Eric and I were engaged, we were out shopping one day when we saw a local pet adoption agency selling cats. I'm not a cat person (or an animal person) but I was so deliriously in love that I thought I could handle a cat because Eric wanted one. They had a cat that looked just like Robert, his cat from childhood. He really wanted this cat, so we filled out the paperwork and thought we were going to take home a little, grey kitty. The paperwork was about 10 pages of crazy questions that I am positive they don't even ask if you're adopting a child. The woman working there took her time looking over our application while we went around the store gathering a litter box, collar and goofy toys. When we went back to the counter to get the kitty the woman told us that she needed to think about it some more and could we come back in two hours. We thought she was weird, but left and came back two hours later. Then she told us that she wanted to come to our house and check out the living environment. What on Earth? Eric and I weren't living together (not married yet) but we still agreed she could come check out Eric's townhouse. She called us back the next day to tell us that we had been denied. Denied a cat!
Eric and I just sat there in shock. Of course we were laughing our heads off, but how could we have kids if we were unfit to have a cat!? Hind sight is 20/20 and I know that lady saved my life by not giving us that cat, but I would like to have the option available to me. My brother in-law started calling me the Catless Witch. He was sure I was the reason we were denied, because Eric had already owned a cat.
You can imagine how nervous I was when we went to buy the hamster. I was scared to tell my kids that we were actually getting one until we got to the car. Even then, I was half expecting the sales clerk to chase us saying there had been a terrible mistake and we'd been red-flagged by all the PetSmarts as unfit pet owners.
Maybe the crazy cat lady was right, I really don't like animals. My hands are cracked and knuckles bleeding from washing my hands so much in the last few days. I'm positive that Lola has cooties. I'm not sure how long the hamster thing is going to last. Luckily for me, my kids seem to be taking care of the problem themselves. All the shaking and squeezing can't be good.