Are women who have more than two cats mentally ill?

In My Humble Opinion
21

my boyfriend has been trying to convince his mother to fix her cats for a while now.

she started with one gray cat… female of course. this was about two years ago. she now has about 23, including 15 kittens and one pregnant one. all gray too.

funny thing is the original momma cat ran off after having her second litter. and many of the kittens from other litters have been given away.

is she mentally ill? well, she’s not exactly mentally stable. and she still hasn’t spayed any of them. she’s spending about as much on cat food a week as it would cost to fix them.

22

I object to the premise involved in the question, namely that the ones who don’t have cats aren’t mentally ill. I love women, don’t hate them, but based on field research over the past 30 years I’d say this premise is far from safe.

23

I think we have established that while having a great amny cats doesn’t mean you’re insane, it does seem that in SOME cases, having a large number of cats could be a symptom of psychological disorders.

Of course, that’s true of almost any unusual behaviour. A woman is not necessarily crazy if she has 500 pairs of shoes. But if she has 500 pairs of shoes and she wears them on her ears and talks to them like they’re her relatives, she’s crazy.

24

Lets not limit it to women though…I know a guy who has over 400 cats living in his house. The place is clean…but he is awake from 8 am to 5 am cleaning and changing litterboxes. He has no life at all, and when he does get out of the house, he doesn’t have the energy to do anything.

25

Lawrence Block addressed this at some length in one of his “The Burglar Who…” Bernie Rhodenbarr books. I forget which one.

One of Bernie’s friends tries to get him to adopt a cat, saying it just recently showed up. Bernie eventually discovers that she had had the cat for a while before giving it to him. When he asks why, she says it was the dreaded “third cat.” And she explains how one or 2 cats may be normal, but once you get a 3d cat, you are on a slippery slope to becoming one of “those women.”

26

My own personal rule of thumb has always been that owning up to 3 pets (cats or dogs) is in the normal range. Anything more than 3 and I start to wonder about the owner. Obviously, it’s not a 100% correlation between 4-10 pets and Cat Lady Psychosis, but it is a warning sign.

BTW, I love animals and own one cat. There is a place for human-animal interactions, but I’d like to think that human-human interactions are almost always preferable and better for one’s mental health. No offense.

27

My mom had 4 cats while I was growing up. All were happy, well adjusted, etc. The place was always extremely clean and sanitary.

She had schizophrenia and severe depression. I’m willing to attribute it to coincidence though. =)

28

Well, I’m obsessive compulsive, and we have five cats. However, I still live at home (because I can’t afford to move out, d’uh), and the decision to get these animals was entirely up to my mom.

If you’re thinking hoarding animals, yeah, that’s a sign-Anna Anderson, the woman who believed she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, had about 30 cats and dogs at various times in her life-they said her house always stank. She was also crazier than a shithouse rat.

My family, however, just likes animals. It’s fun to have more than one cat, and having five, well, they’re entertainment. Plus they’re nice and cuddly and soft.

But if I lived on my own, by myself, I think two or MAYBE three would be my utmost limit. Probably just two. If I had a family, maybe more.

See, there are four of us, and this way, we each have a cat:
(We had a dog, but she died back in February)

Noel is my mom’s cat
Misty is my dad’s cat (she adopted him)
Gypsy and Buffy are my cats (they’re sisters-my mom thought it would be fun to get two from the same litter, after our old cat, my cat, Fluffy died)
Piper Grace is my sister’s cat.

Originally, Tess was my sister’s cat. After we got Gypsy and Buffy, we took some our neighbor’s abandoned cats to the cat rescue where we got our’s, the Tiger Ranch. Lynn, the woman who owns the place, showed us this kitten who had a crippled leg. We fell in love with her, and adopted her. So we figured Tess could be my sister’s cat. But Tess was born with peritonitis, and had to be put to sleep.

So, a year or so later, we got Piper Grace.

Oh, and Lynn has seventy some cats-but she raises horses, and lives on a farm. So she has this HUGE area for her cats, and she takes in strays, abandoned animals and kittens and finds homes for them. So not all of them are HER’S, per se, a lot of them are adoptable. She’s a really cool person, and she judges cat shows and stuff. And the place doesn’t smell. It’s a bit messy, but she has a big enclosure for the cats to go, and lots of space, so it’s not a pig stye. She’s not hoarding them, and they’re all fixed, have all their shots, etc.

29

My neighbor’s dog assures me there’s nothing at all crazy about owning more than two cats. He keeps referring to himself as “the Dark Prince,” however, so I think he might be going around the bend.

We’ve only got two cats (and two dogs), but when I get older I fully intend to have 5-10 cats and go around talking to myself in public (as opposed to just in private and at work, like I do now). There’s something about being the crazy old lady with all the cats that seems to simplify dealing with one’s neighbors. They either think you’re scary, and are thus loathe to cross you, or they think you’re senile and always give you the benefit of the doubt. (And they always keep their kids out of your yard.)

Seriously, though, I think the premise of this thread is rather flawed. Plenty of people who have no pets or who have one or two pets are crazy as hell, and plenty of people with multiple cats are perfectly sane. Often eccentric, but sane. It’s kind of like saying that because you know a couple of racists who drive pick-ups, that people who drive pick-ups are probably racist.

30

Well I have 4 cats, a dog and a husband. And right now, we’re also caring for a friend’s 3 cats and 2 dogs (long story, but at least they stay at her house.)

Our house doesn’t smell bad unless we’re slow changing the litter (which we seldom are.)

Her house smells. It’s just bad! I guess it’s how you deal with it.

And I’m a little cranky and overmedicated, not crazy.

31

I don’t know, but that is one of the best thread titles ever.

32

I see no one has freaked out and taken offense at this. I’m proud of us. :smiley:

I have many pets. Not all of them are mammals. Not all of them are vertebrates. I’m pretty sure I’m sane. Eccentric, okay, and although I have often spoken to inanimate objects, none of them have ever answered back.

The cat thing, now…well, yeah. There do seem to be an awful lot of crazy women with a large number of cats. It’s tempting to infer causality here. Every residential neighborhood must by law have one Crazy Old Cat Lady. If one cannot be procured, then her opposite number in the form of a very old man who drives farm equipment down public roadways and chases kids off the property with a shotgun loaded with rock salt must be present. I swear there’s a secret society somewhere that trains these people up and sends them out to amuse and terrify suburban residents the world over.

I for one am looking forward to the day when small children cower at my approach as I shamble aimlessly down sidewalks mumbling to myself. It’s the modern version of the village witch. These days they unleash the county health department instead of the Inquisition, but everyone views you with a peculiar mixture of awe, terror, and pity and gives you a correspondingly wide berth. And your legend will live forever. (Or until the guild sends a replacement.)

33

There may be a correlation between having a lot of pets and being crazy. My mom, as of now, has six cats, two dogs, and a miniature horse and is a little crazy.

But it’s in a good way…honest. :smiley:
`Brilharma

34

I think we can all agree that the more cats someone owns, the more likely they are to be crazy.

Haj

35

My mom has 3 cats, but she never struck me as being crazy(at least compared to me). She does seem to be stuck in a constant string of bad luck, but otherwise…(It may have something to do with the fact they are all black cats).

36

I have seven cats, a dog, and a wife. All are well looked after, and relatively happy. All have been spayed or neutered, except for my wife and I, who were found to be unable to have children. That’s right, both of us! We live in a rural area with very little traffic, so the cats are allowed outside time, but have a night curfew. Neither of us is overly eccentric, but that is my possibly biased opinion. All the cats were strays or abandoned pets, and we took them in without any voices telling us to do so. All the litterboxes get cleaned twice daily, all the animals go to the vet twice a year, and we buy the recommended cat and dog food for all of them. My wife is more active socially, I’ve always been somewhat of a recluse, aside from work where I play well with others(I’m a carpenter for our school board-44 schools). Some people might call us eccentric, but we just like animals. I actually swerve to avoid partridge or skunks on the road, and have been known to help porcupines and goose families cross busy roads. If that makes me eccentric, so be it. I can live with that. Gotta go now, Eileen(our three-legged cat) just told me there are bears out in the field again!

37

I have 3 cats, and while I keep it together most of the times, I do have my loony moments, like when the moon is full…:slight_smile:

38

My mom was once saddled with eight cats, all from a litter my sister rescued. Since we had three aready, she definitely would have qualified for crazy cat lady to an outsider. Those in the know would have realized Mom didn’t want eleven freakin’ cats and was as sane as anybody can be these days.

Okay, I’m worried because I may be breaking the three pets=crazy rule. I have two cats and two fish. I fully intend to get a canary when/if I can find a woodworker to build me a cage. What think you? Will the bird tip the sale to read Looney? Am I already there? If we go by weight, I can get a bunch more birds ‘n’ fish before they equal one cat.

39

I have two cats, two kids and a husband.
We did have three cats for a while, but one died of a stroke.

Our cats were all shelter rescues, and thought about getting another one after the one cat died, but we decided three had been a bit much, and that two cats was enough for us.

I do think two is better than one. They can keep each other company. And I do talk to my cats, too. Am I looney? :wink:

40

This is why I refuse to get a third cat. I guess I’ll have to watch my aquarium habit from here on out, as well. But fish are like, y’know, decor.

When I was in high school, we had up to 5 cats, but with 4 people living on 5 acres out in the country, this didn’t seem strange to me (we also had a dog, a horse, and 2 pygmy goats).