I thought it was sad when I visited a quilt store whose whole theme was cats, but had to evict them in deference to customers. I understand, and they compensated with cat décor. I admired them for making the sacrifice.

on the other side of this 'coin' I was in a shop one time when a customer entered and before she got 5 feet inside the store the owner approached her and told her she could not come in because she wore too much perfume- *that one shocked me way more than finding a cat laying on a shelf!!!* this owner did not have the best reputation in the customer service- friendly area- but she sure carried some wonderful stuff.[/QUOTE]

I guess we all have our allergies or intolerances, I can't go into any store that carries the scented candles or scented anything, or perfumes, so I would have been a very good customer in the store where the owner asked a customer with too much perfume to leave. Cats & dogs in stores are a plus to me.

Having worked in retail and having taken my dog to numerous retail places (not food related!), please keep your grubby, crabby, loud, handsy, bratty 2-legged kids at home! Bring your dog if they're well behaved enough that you'd take them out without worry anyway. Odds are high your dog isn't going to destroy the store and make me spend an hour cleaning up after them plus your dog is attached to you via leash, kids are more often not!
I don't mind shop pets but I'm also not allergic. SO, on the other hand is highly allergic to shedding dogs. She just doesn't pet them or we go somewhere with cats instead! Just my $.02.

We have a store in a neighboring town and they have a big fluffy cat, and I have seen it quite a bit - particularly f it is a store expressing "homey and country atmosphere." And cats are in a lot of quilt pictures - it is just sort of thought of as a combination. Its a shame your hubby is allergic. What if you washed the material right away?

Marysewfun

My husband was looking for a lense (sorry not sure of spelling) for his motorcycle so we went into this bike shop not motorcycle shop to see if they might have what he was looking for which they did not. But they had cats in there and the smell was so bad I had to leave and will not return to that store ever...I don't mind cats but good grief do something about the smell. I had to keep my t-shirt over my nose to keep from gaging and so did another person that needed help!

Now that's just bad housekeeping. There's NO excuse for that!

Well here is a thought, maybe you could still go to the shop and get your fabric, but before they cut it, ask them if they could wipe off the cutting area, due to your husbands allergies. I know that would be alot of ask but maybe they do not realize how it is effecting their store. And is it the owners cat, or an employees cat? Honestly in this day and age, owners are looking to make money not scare patrons away.

The only other solution I could think of was taking the fabric directly to the laundry room and washing it. IF its that I have to have type fabric : ).

Hope things work out so you can still shop there, and keep hubby allegy free too.

I really would avoid any sort of shop that allowed a cat free range,I too am allergic to animal hair, if you love cats then fine-- but not everyone feels the same so keep them at home.

I do NOT care for cats and dogs in a quilt shop. Enough said ...

I would be worried about the cat on the cutting table just because if its tail got in the way!