I was reading the poll about whether people sleep with the door open or closed and a lot of people blamed their door position on their cat(s). So now I’m wondering who among you has cats and how many of them you have.
I have no cats. Or dogs. Or any pets. I’m not allowed to have them where I live but, to be honest, I really just don’t like pets and wouldn’t keep them even if I could.
Sometimes I wonder if I only don’t like pets because literally every pet owner I know is completely shitty in some way and it’s turning me off to animals: my sister, who has both cats and dogs, doesn’t train her animals at all so they’re all ridiculous and obnoxious; my in-laws, who also have cats and dogs, don’t do anything at all to remedy pet hair (baths, brushing, whatever) and don’t vacuum near enough to make it a non-issue, and their house smells like a pet owner’s house; my parents have chihuahuas, which… actually, I think I just don’t like chihuahuas because my mom’s a pretty decent pet owner.
Anyway, I’m specifically asking about cats because they seem to be a thing around here.
My husband and I have four cats between us. One cat is definitely his cat, though she likes me too. One is definitely mine, though she likes him too. The other two love both of us more or less equally, though theoretically one is mine and one is his.
We brush the cats and vacuum and otherwise try to keep the cat hair from completely taking over. It’s a running battle. If you have cats, you’re going to have cat hair, though there are some steps you can take to minimize the amount that’s in the house at any time.
We have one cat; I think we’re pretty good pet owners. The house doesn’t stink like cats too much, we keep the hair under control (mostly by having no carpets), the cat isn’t allowed to affect the neighbours at all (she doesn’t yowl, she doesn’t get out of the cat-proofed yard). She isn’t allowed to bother visitors, either, but she doesn’t really do that - she mostly takes off when people come around.
That said, I don’t think we’ll get another pet when this one is finished with being alive; it makes travelling difficult, because we always need to get a housesitter, and as we learned with our last cat, old pets get VERY expensive.
I don’t have a cat at all. My mom sort of does, but she’s more of a tenant than a pet: She’s exclusively outdoors, and lives underneath the playhouse in the back yard.
Oh, I don’t want anybody to think I’m slamming pet owners at all.
Most of the hair at my in-laws is definitely dog hair. They have a German shepherd mix and a huge black… something? I don’t know. They both have thick, unkempt coats and the people who live there rely on a cleaning lady to vacuum. She only comes once a week though and that’s not often enough when you have so many furry pets.
The cat(s) (they have two left but I only ever see one; two others died within the last year or two from old age and a third disappeared), which I understand are largely self-cleaning/maintaining, also have greasy, matted fur. They’re fat, maybe that’s why? Can’t reach? Too old? I don’t know but I always figured cats mostly take care of themselves so should look better than their cats do.
Like I said, shitty owners. It’s possible I know good pet owners but don’t realize they actually keep pets because they’re that good. We kept pets when I was a kid (my favorite ever was the Dalmatian) and I don’t remember having clothes covered in animal hair just from brushing against an upholstered surface or the house reeking like litter box. I know it’s possible. I just don’t know of anybody who actually pulls it off.
Currently we have one indoor cat. At most we’d have two, to keep each other company.
There are 4 or 5 neighborhood cats, three that are regulars, that we feed and who have taken to hanging around and lounging on the jeep, porch, or deck. (One was hanging out on the roof for a while.)
My Mom has two cats, Brother’s wife has one, Middle Sister has one, Baby sister has several but they are outdoor barn cats.
One cat inside. There are untold numbers of cats living in our shed, under the deck, and in the burn pile. We didn’t put them there and don’t do anything to care for them.
Three. Bear and Niblet are thirteen (not litter mates. Bear is six weeks older than Niblet) Heidi is eleven.
A week or so ago I found at a thrift store a framed poster I have always loved. Three pictures of a very fat cat. In the first he is sitting back on his butt and washing himself. In the second he realizes he has overbalanced and is starting to fall backwards. His eyes are huge. He knows he is in trouble. In the third he has gone over the back of the couch and only his fast-disappearing feet are visible. The title is “Fat cat capsizing”
Has anyone seen this? I think it dates back to the mid-seventies.
Four here. Part of the hazards of being a vet tech. All are/were special needs of some kind, though one was a surgical issue that has been taken care of and is now the happy, healthy, youngster who stirs up the most trouble. Four is the magic number here, it’s the limit, and when one dies, the number quickly goes back to four with a replacement from the shelter where I work.
Nope, no fostering, no hospicing, no temporary bumps in the feline population for any reason. Four is the hard line and I won’t cross it. I have a hard enough time keeping “cat lady” out of people’s descriptors of me. I love dogs, I just don’t have the time or cash to take care of a doggie. Maybe if I ever decide to share my living space with another human, then a dog will become a possibility.
It used to be 1. Then a loveable stray came about, we started feeding him, he moved in. A couple of years later, another loveable stray came about, we started feeding her, she moved in… 3 is definitely our limit, though.
I wanted to address this. Bad pet owners are really turning me off pets, too. People let their cats wander, don’t pick up after their dog’s crap, etc. And they expect you to take in stray cats and basically say you are not a good person if you don’t love every cat or dog, ever (but forget about reptiles or birds or anything else!)
I don’t actually have a problem with pet hair, that’s going to happen, but I cannot stand owners who think it’s funny or cute that the dog jumps on you, or doesn’t heel, or isn’t trained, or yaps all day long.
Anyway. Kittens are cute and all but it doesn’t help that I am severely allergic to cat dander - even their scratches often swell up.
Three cats.
Only planned on two, but when TheKid went to pick up her kitten from a friend, they mentioned one weird kitten they didn’t think anyone would take. We call her Mayme, and she’s the poster child for difficult cat.
I try to keep the house as uncat scented as possible. Cat boxes are cleaned frequently, floors swept, rugs vaccuumed/washed. None of the cats like being brushed, so that’s a problem.
