Okay, so…I had to take my kitty Ozzy in to have a small (completely benign, thank goodness) growth removed from his nose last week, and today I took him in to have the stitches out.
The vet’s office often has kittens for adoption–in fact, that’s how I got one of my kitties, three years ago. So I asked the innocent question: “Do you have any kittens today?”
They did. Three out front, and three more in the back. The ones in the front were three siblings: two tabbies (boy and girl) and a little fuzzy gray one. All energetic and cute as heck. I asked the second innocent question: “Can I hold them?”
“Sure!” they replied enthusiastically.
BIG mistake. I picked up the little boy tabby and he snuggled into my arms and stuck his tongue up my nose, purring his little head off. Every time I tried to give him back to the vet tech, he snuggled in harder and licked my face. The girl (who was actually even cuter) was squirrelly and sweet, but didn’t really connect with me. But this little guy…oh, man…
So, Dopers…do I need another kitten?
The facts:
We currently have five, ranging in age from 9 down to 3. Two boys, three girls. All of them are mellow, well adjusted, and friendly. There’s been some hissing when introducing the new ones to the older ones, but it didn’t last long.
We can definitely afford another cat. Money isn’t the issue.
Our house is about 1600 square feet, so there should be enough room for everybody.
All our cats are exclusively indoor cats.
So, what do you think? I’m trying to convince the spouse that we need another one. Am I right, or should I let it go? (He is wavering, and loves cats so it wouldn’t be hardship for him if we got another). Am I in danger of becoming a crazy cat lady?
Oh, boy, you should! The kitten looks so sad, like he knows you all may not take him home. Definitely take him if you can. You may be in danger of the Crazy Cat Lady Vida Loca, but I think that would be a great life!!
(I think if I didn’t live in an apartment I would totally be a Crazy Cat Lady. Right now I have one cat but I could so have lots more.)
My highly scientific rating system from a previous thread:
1 cat = aw, cute kitty.
2 cats = aw, cute kitties.
3 cats = wow, you really like cats…
4 cats = Really pushing it. People will describe you as “That person with all the cats.”
5+ cats = crazy cat lady.
Unless they and you are all extremely well-behaved and clean in other areas of life you will be in CCL land when the count hits four.
I feel obliged to amend this in that this scale should apply in a per-person capacity. Which means if it’s a 2-person household, 6 cats=“Wow, YRLC”. For the sake of balance, persons under 16 in the household count as 1/2-person.
So the OP clearly doesn’t live alone (no mention of kids), so the 6th is definitely borderline suspect, with everything beyond delving into eyebrow-raising territory.
Yeah, it’s me and the spouse, so the cat to human ratio would be 3:1.
We spend a lot of time with the cats–I telecommute 3 days a week so I’m home with them then, and neither of us go out a lot (we’re both WoW addicts so we stay home and play games a fair bit).
I think it sounds like you can easily provide a loving home for the lil guy, and I think you should do it.
Think of this: what will happen to him if you DON’T adopt him? Sure, he *might *be taken home by someone who loves him and will take great care of him…
My personal rule is that a household should have no more pets than hands*, so if you have a 2 person household you should have no more than 4 pets. You are already over that line so I say he should be left to find a home with available hands.
*If all of your kitties want pettings at the same time and there isn’t an available hand your house will devolve into mewing chaos. At least that is the reason behind my theory. It is just my theory though and not a law so if you do bring him home just make sure you have plenty of love to give and that should be fine.
Yeah, same here. Believe me, I’ve passed up a whole bunch of kittens in my day, and it’s never easy. I want to take them all home. I know they’re cute when they’re little and they grow up into cats all too soon. Usually I can resist. When I can’t, it’s usually a combination of personality and cuteness–and this guy’s got both.
I brought up the subject to the spouse last night, and just as I expected, he put up a token protest and then caved to “Well, we can go visit him tomorrow and see what we think.” What amused me is that he said, “What if I fall in love with the little girl?”
Yikes. We can’t have seven. Six is pushing it. Seven is too many even for me. Though our vet tech did tell us that she’s got five cats and three dogs, and I would imagine that dogs are a lot harder to deal with than cats.
That kitten is adorable, but I agree that six cats is definitely pushing it.
If you do get this little guy, I think it would be in everyone’s interest if you make a commitment to yourself to not get any more cats until one of the current ones dies. Don’t put yourself in tempting situations anymore after this. It is really in everyone’s best interest to make sure that the cats aren’t overcrowded.
I also like cats, and I have often seen many cats that I would like to adopt, but I had to draw the line at two because I didn’t want things to get out of control.
Oh, absolutely. If we end up adopting him I will simply avoid the temptation from now on. I know that six is pushing it and seven is out of the question. It’s pretty easy for me to avoid temptation, since the only places I usually see kittens are the rescue organizations at pet stores (which our trips for litter and cat food don’t usually coincide with) or the litters at the vet’s (this is the first one I’ve seen there in the three years since I got my last kitten from them, and I really don’t have a tough time passing up most kittens. I have a soft spot for tabbies, though, I admit.)
…sigh…we’ve already thought of a name for him. This isn’t looking good.
My husband and I only have two cats, and aren’t in a position to get more, but this is a rule I like and he kind of grudgingly accepts as a future possible limit.
There’s just one little loophole…
One of our current cats prefers to be petted by our feet than our hands. She won’t come to an outstretched hand, but if we hold up a foot (or stick it out if we are sitting down) and wiggle it, she’ll come running and let herself be rubbed all over… she’s very weird (she sleeps in the shoe rack and likes to drink beer*)
But, does that mean our cat limit would be 5? One per hand, plus the foot fetish kitty?
*the most we let her do is get a few licks at the mouth of an empty bottle, but still, she goes crazy trying to get us to give her more!
