A Pet for the "Basement"?

      A couple of days ago, my roommate brought up the idea of having a pet for our place. I immediately, without processing anything, said; "Yes!" I never had pets growing up because of the sad fact that my mother was allergic to them. Yes, to both cats and dogs. Well, maybe the word "never" isn't the right one to use. The most affection I ever showed to animals were to the fish. But even then, something was lacking. Actually, haha, something definitely was lacking there. I had always thought about what life would be like if I had a dog to take care of. You know, life probably wouldn't be that different. I'd still go to the same college, still have the same friends, and have the same mannerisms. But, I think having that extra someone in the family gives you a lot of simple joys, which, by the way, I love.
      My roommate went on to tell me about his experience at the nearest animal shelter with his girlfriend. They just thought it would be fun to go in and check it out. He played with puppies and cats and he just couldn't have enough of them. After a while of thinking about it, my feelings of excitement slowly were trimmed away with an oncoming edge of reality. We can't afford a pet. We don't even know if the couple living upstairs will even allow it. Besides, we are broke. Oh wait, I mentioned that one already. Even if we somehow put up money for a cat, who's going to take care of it when we're not around? I can't take the cat home with me because of allergy issues and he's not up for it either. My mother is already on too many medications anyway to be on antihistamines as well.
      Why a cat instead of a dog? My roommate keeps telling me that a cat is very low maintenance. I don't know how true that is because whether it is a cat or a dog, they both need equal amounts of support and affection. But cats are cute. There's no reason to lie about that. After a night of deliberation, we decided to put the idea of getting a pet on an indefinite hold. I was sad to be the one to say that we couldn't have one but we really didn't have a way around it. Then yesterday night, the idea popped into my head again. I watched YouTube videos on how to take care of cats. I know. I know. I shouldn't be looking into such videos to learn these things but I just wanted to see how people interacted with these furry little purring big-eyed creatures. Ahh frick...I want a cat!