I don't blame the cats, they can't help their instincts. I agree, it's werid how they'd been living together quite happily for a year. I going to try to talk my boyfriend out of getting any more, but at the very least we'll need a new cage and rules about rooms and the like. To be honest I'm not totally confortable with animals in cages, i feel a bit guilty (bit of a common theme). The gerbil was buried in the garden next to his brother tonight(who died of natural causes not long ago). Hoping for a better day tomorrow, thanks for the kind replies!

Oh no, how awful! But thanks for sharing your sad stories.
Got it a bit more in perspecitve now, my boyfriend didn't say the cats had to go back to the RSPCA so that's ok. I spent most of the day either in tears or close to tears - not very productive really!

yes you probably will need to acknowledge them, but probably only once. What does your main supervisor think? If you know you are going to keep them you could contact them and get them to work for it a bit. Get them to read your thesis and give you feeback or something.

sounds like you made the absolutely the right decision in deciding not to live with them! It could've been much worse if you were actually living with this person. Try to put it out of your mind and look forward to the new house and new housemates i presume?

I did yes, he was very upset, but quite understanding. I feel terribly guilty and the cats are in big trouble, although it's not really their fault. I guess these things happen, I'm hoping he won't want to get anymore, i get so upset when they die usually, but this time is much worse!

I guess the risk of upsetting them potentially is worse than living with them, so if it were me i'd just leave it as it is and not worry about it too much. If you are really not happy with it, then why not email them and as polietly and tactfully as possible say that you feel you have a lot of members on your committee etc?
Good luck

I also have 5, 2 of them are based at other unis. I have found it useful to have other input. 1 of my distance ones is fantastic and the other i have very little contact with. It might be worthwhile to keep him there and should the situation arise where he might be useful to you. I doesn't hurt to have extras there, unless you feel pulled in different direcitons. You could email him directly and tell him about your work so far and see if he seems keen to be involved or not?

As if Monday's aren't bad enough, I came downstairs to my housemate's favourite bowl in pieces all over the kitchen floor - fantastic - but it gets worse, i assumed this was one of the cats that had been a bit playful, i went into the living room to discover the cats had also broken in the the gerbil cage and killed my boyfriend's gerbil - fantastic! Needless to say he was distraught, i feel terribly terribly guilty (the cats are considered to be more my thing)and the cats, (we know which one it was just can't prove it) are in big trouble.

Not even for Christmas? That's crazy! I think it's important to take some holiday so you get the chance to re-charge and relax and are more productive when you get back!

I'm getting married too this summer! Taking some time off to go to Eygpt for honeymoon - can't wait!

Sounds great. How far into your PhD are you?

I have 2 cats and a gerbil. They are fantastic. I think life is much happier when you have crazy pets to laugh about and cuddle!

I know it feels horrible, but sometimes these things happen, i'm also 1.5 years into my PhD and had the very same thing happen to me. Don't panic, my work was with cells and after the intial tears and tantrums i took the "oh well if the cells don't do it they don't do it- i can't make them do it" attitude, and although my work questions some other people's i can't change the results. Be sure to repeat your experiment and then along with your supervisor have a re-think

I had a fear of our liquid nitrogen storage thing. I'm ok now with it, but we've just got a new expensive one that looks even more scary, so i think this one is going to be worse!

It makes lots of odd noises and pumps stuff everywhere - and it's very very cold!!! There's also the fear that i might drop my (pretty bad)or someone else's cells (much worse)into the tank of liquid nitrogen and lost forever!

sounds sensible to me!