# How many cats does it take to make someone a "crazy cat person"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179 "2010-05-20T20:48:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/61 "2010-05-21T21:30:19Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Co-owners? No. ---
**Author:** ![mikews99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@mikews99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikews99)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/62 "2010-05-22T01:20:51Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Emotional–Cats can assuage loneliness, provide affection, and contribute to a person’s emotional well-being. A normal person will enjoy these benefits and may even depend on them to a large extent, but will pursue and enjoy these sorts of satisfactions with human beings. A CCP will depend on her cats to an unhealthy degree, and may neglect or even eschew human relationships because of her emotional dependence on cats. And I think this is the crux of the matter. A person who replaces human emotional interaction with that of cats/dogs/birds/other animals, especially to the exclusion of human relationships, would be more likely labeled as a “crazy xxxx person” by others. People in general see the human norm as having dependent relationships with other people, not with animals. And human beings are pretty xenophobic, so it’s not unusual to consider those who are different as “crazy.” So the assumption is made that someone living alone has no human relationships, thus the greater tendency to label those people as “crazy” (as evidenced in the poll). I bet that if I added a selection that said, “Farmer, has 10 or more cats,” no one would consider that crazy, since the general perception is that those are working cats, even if the reality was that they were personal pets. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/63 "2010-05-22T02:09:35Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > I think 5+ cats in any household is kinda pushing the limits - that would require at least 6 litter boxes to be hygenic and that’s a whole lot of litter boxes. Eww. I think part of the definition of “crazy cat person” would be not having litter boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/64 "2010-05-22T07:13:43Z")
I voted 4, but honestly as long as they’re all properly cared for and there are no other social oddities, it’s not a crazy cat person. 4 just seems like a nice stereotypical number. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/65 "2010-05-22T07:33:22Z")
> [@Khaki\_Campbell](#): > > Well, _I_ am. Heh. There’s nothing wrong with that. Not by itself, no. That was the point of my example. What I’m saying is that all crazy cat ladies do that. Just because you do doesn’t make you a crazy cat lady. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/66 "2010-05-22T19:45:17Z")
> [@mikews99](#): > > If you think “X” or more, then all you need to do is check the one box for each type since that’s the threshold. Unfortunately, the poll format isn’t well adapted for multiple choice with two or more variables. If someone thinks the answer is “3 or more”, they should check off “3 or more”, “4 or more” AND “5 or more”. As it is, it appears that 33.9% think that a single male with 4 or more cats is crazy, but only 27.8% think he’s crazy if he gets one more cat. ---
**Author:** ![mikews99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@mikews99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikews99)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/67 "2010-05-22T19:52:09Z")
I think most people understand the purpose of this poll. There’s no need to check all the boxes above your threshold. I could have made it a single choice poll, but it would have been far less representative of the “cat craziness” threshold. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179/68 "2010-05-24T00:33:01Z")
I agree with as many as you can properly look after. I mean if you live in the South with a house and a huge yard, you could easily care for two inside cats and a bunch more outside only cats. Another point is are your cats a substitute for human contact. OK cats and dogs are nice, but they shouldn’t be your only comfort. Humans count too. Sometimes it’s not a choice, you want love but there doesn’t seem to be any for you. Pets can help in that context, but you shouldn’t be so satisified with them that you give up at least trying to find some human companionship. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make-someone-a-crazy-cat-person/540179.md?page=3)