You are very right. Looking back my comment was a bit ignorant. I remember learning now it can take a few exposures before someone has an allergic reaction to something, whether it’s an antibiotic or a cat or a fruit etc. It would be horrible to become attached to a pet and then have to give them back or rehome them because of allergies.
Most people are allergic to cat saliva, not the hair (some are allergic to the hair too though). If the cat was maintaining herself well, she was likely licking herself a lot, which could have contributed to your allergic reaction. There are sprays/washes you can buy to reduce the affect, and I think maybe even a specialized food (probably very expensive). But, I mean, that’s a lot for effort. If you had the cat for a few weeks and it was unbearable, it’s not worth you suffering. Allergies can be hell, they make you miserable. But in the future if you feel the pull to adopt or get a cat, the stuff I mentioned might help. Or even fostering, you might come upon a cat you get along with well allergy wise and can adopt it once living with it for a while and find a match. But there are other pets which are equally nice, rabbits, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, chinchillas, dogs, ferrets. Or others alternatives like snakes iguanas tarantulas and so on.
It’s actually easy to tell whether you’ll have a reaction by going to the store or humane society and asking to hold them for 5 to 10 minutes.
I’m allergic to cats, but I developed an immunity to my own for the most part. When brush them I do it outside because that could trigger symptoms if it’s done indoors. but for the most part after I adopt a new cat it settles down after a while. It sucks though in the mean time, I don’t blame anyone for not being able to put up with the exposure period. Also some cats trigger worse symptoms and some don’t! I go to different friend’s homes and their cats don’t make me break out in hives but a a few other friend’s cats cause issues right always, I have to take an antihistamine when I go over.
Even if it does rust accidentally, can’t you just scrape or buff out the rust and then reseal/reseason it again and it’s fine?