Well, I am. Heh. There’s nothing wrong with that.
More then you can afford to feed and clean up after is too much. If you don’t get them fixed and they breed like rabbits your really nuts or ignorant.
If they find cat corpses around the house and there is two inches of cat hair on everything and cat crap lying around you need to be locked up.
I just gotta share this story.
Last fall, on a trip, we were watching one of the big three (ABC?NBC?CBS?) morning news/talk shows. At one point, they were giving a heads up on what was going to be on their nightly “news” shows (like 20/20 or something).
They said the first topic was going to be about middle aged women having eggs harvested and stored “just in case” so they could have children later if they ever found a man. As soon as they said that I told the SO “bahhh, just get a bunch of cats, it would be so much easier”. Their very next sentence was something along the lines “And after that, we will look into the lives of Crazy Cat Ladies”.
I about died laughing. Surely this had to be a joke right? Nope, it wasnt. That very night their program was exactly that, desperate middle aged women followed by crazy cat ladies!
I think number of cats is rather irrelevant. It depends on how invested you are in the cats; that’s what makes it crazy.
I live in a two-person household with one cat. I love my cat. He’s soft and very cuddly, I like to pet him, and I occasionally feel guilt over not spending enough time with him. I have strong feelings of affection for him and get sad when I realize he will eventually die. I miss him when I’m away from home. That said, he doesn’t rule the house, I don’t drop everything just because he wants attention, and I don’t delude myself into thinking he operates on much more than instinct.
I have known people who, even with guests in their home, will interrupt conversations with other adults to talk to their cats. They act like their cat is the most fascinating thing in the world and will drop everything to meet its whims. Cat ownership isn’t a characteristic about them, it’s the whole of their identity. Their attachment seems a little over the top to me, and that’s the sort of person I’d label a ‘‘crazy cat person.’’
There are ‘‘crazy dog people’’ too. My Aunt is one of them. She only has one dog, but it is the center of her universe, and I think it’s weird.
Employees.
I didn’t click on the poll because the rule is: People in the household + 1. So if you have four people in a house, it’s OK to have 5 cats, but not 6. If you are a single person, two cats is all right but not three.
My bolding. The cats need to be cared for & fixed!
Anyone that lets animals roam freely in the house is crazy.
We have two. Here’s the timeline:
–We moved to Minnesota. My friend in Madison, who was becoming more and more allergic to her cat, asked if we’d take the cat in because she wanted her to go to a good home. We agreed. Cat #1 (2001).
–In August of 2009, I heard a teeny “mew” from underneath a pallet in our driveway. Investigation revealed much cuteness. Cat #2.
–Later that year, Cat #1’s health declined, and kept declining. We put her to sleep in October. No more Cat #1.
–Because Cat #2 was used to having another cat around, and because I’ve always heard that cats do better in pairs. So we adopted another kitten, Cat #2b, to keep her company. They’re great pals.
SpouseO and I had discussed not having any more pets for awhile after Cat #1. Then Brix showed up and shot that theory all to hell. We were amused to find ourselves with two new ones pretty quickly.
Single male with three cats, which the consensus here seems to qualify me as a crazy cat person. But I plead extenuating circumstances: I only had one cat until two years ago, when a friend found two kittens under her trailer. When she brought them in out of the rain they wouldn’t eat, and they were so tiny she was sure they still needed to be bottle-fed so she called me and asked if I could take care of them. Well, of course I ended up keeping them.
I once briefly owned approximately twenty cats. Long story short, I had a cat that got lost. I was given three cats to replace the lost one, by three different people. Strays adopted our house. Lost cat came home! Cats knocked each other up. It was awful, because I had no money to fix or care for all these animals. I say I owned them briefly because they died from illnesses, dogs, cars, etc. I was soon down to four cats.
These days I have two, and some days that seems like one too many.
It’s not the amount of cats, it’s the amount of crazy.
Why is Crazycatlady absent from this thread? lol
It’s not the number of cats that makes a crazy cat person. To expand on what olives was saying above, there are 2 factors in my mind that define it:
-
How much of their identity is tied up in cat ownership.
-
How much the cats interfere with having a “normal” life.
Here are some examples of what it means to be a crazy cat person in terms of the second factor.*
Financial–A normal person will have a number of cats that they can afford. A CCP will have so many cats that they don’t have enough money for other things–especially things like health care, retirement savings, etc.
Time-wise–A normal person will have a number of cats that they can afford the time for and that they can afford to pay to have pet-sat or boarded if they need to go away. A CCP will have so many cats that it doesn’t leave time for other things or affordable options for care so that she can go away. And a CCP will probably overestimate her cat’s time and affection needs, meaning that she might give up opportunities for other activities because she doesn’t want to admit that Snookums will be okay if she goes out for a day.
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 let’s face it, would you want to pursue a friendship with a CCP?
Social–A normal person might occasionally mention their cats, tell a funny anecdote about them, or whatever. A CCP seems to only talk about her cats.
Decorative–Cats are decorative in and of themselves. Normal people rarely have a lot of cat-themed stuff around other than the cats themselves. (Exception–coffee mugs.) They may have a few cat photos displayed with family photos or stuck to the fridge. They may have a calendar with cat pictures. A CCP will likely have large amounts of cat-themed decorations, clothing, and jewelry.
So it’s more about the role of the cats in the person’s life than the actual number of cats.
For the poll, I chose 4 for female living alone. But that’s not definitive. I wouldn’t assume somebody was a CCP just because they had 4 cats, and I’d have no trouble accepting someone with only one cat as a CCP. I just figured 4 was kind of an average threshhold.
- please note that this doesn’t apply to situations of temporary feline overload due to extenuating circumstances as described by many people above. It’s about everyday decisions.
Vindication!
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.
Hubby and I have 1 cat and 1 dog. He would like to get another kitty, but we’re going to wait until kitty number 1 goes to the great litter pan in the sky. He’s 22 - we’re assuming it will be any day now.
Why are there no bars in the vote thingy?
Hmm?
And as for having 5+ cats, well, if there are 4 people, and everyone is taking care of their own cats, then I don’t see a problem.
Of course, I have two people in my house and zero cats, so I guess someone else can have the three we are allotted. I’ll stick with my gecko. Whosacutewiddlegecko??
very tempting to think that # of cats just over one’s own amount = teh crayzee >^.^< ~
me? female, partnered, three cats in our house, no overload of cat tchotchkes
the third was rescued from appalling circumstances when I was CERTAIN that two kitties were just right for the house… the boys seem to enjoy her, so I might have been wrong.
Nevertheless, I still think I am overpopulated by one kitty and will not take any more until I am back down to one cat… which may take some time: they are nearly 12, just over 2, and 9 months respectively.
You can be a crazy cat lady if you live alone, are over 75, have only 2 cats but plan upon their death to take them to a taxidermist and have them stuffed, so that they can be propped up on an end table and never leave you . . . seriously . . . that’s crazy.