We have four, and that’s pushing the envelope. I tried to weasel a fifth one into the mix, but my husband kept his wits and said no. He loves kitties too, but he said we cannot give the other kids the attention they deserve if we have too many. Plus, he believes if we get another one, something evil will befall one of our current kitties.
Oh. One of my cats weighs 25 lbs. Does that count as two?
There are 4 of us in the house. We have four cats. Seems to work. If we allow them to gain the upper hand, god only knows.
Then again, they’re cats.
They have the upper hand already. 
Cartooniverse
Thirty.
Yeah, I’m serious. I work for a humane society, and while I’ve not gone out in the field on animal hoarder cases, I’ve worked support for such cases.
And officers have come back from homes with between 25 and 30 animals, and yeah, the houses might smell strongly of cat, but all the cats were taken care of–spayed/neutered, had all their shots, well-fed, and so forth.
I’ve never heard of them coming back from a house with more than 30 animals without pressing charges.
That said, I’m interpreting “crazy cat collector” to mean “animal hoarder” in the clinical sense of the term. Were I single, I’d be very unlikely to date a woman with more than two cats, and I’d be skeeved about a male friend with more than three. No, I can’t explain it.
Daniel
We have nine cats, which is a lot of cats. All of ours were rescues. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is 7.
When we married, I had two cats (Irving and Ichabod) and my husband had two cats (CJ and Ugly). We’ve had as many as 11, which was past the tipping point for us. We’ve given away cats and fostered cats and other than a definite tendency towards chub, everyone’s doing great.
One is too many for me, because I’m very allergic.
I’ve found that people with three cats usually seem normal, while those with four or more just seem a little bit odd in other ways; it’s hard to describe.
A lot of zoning codes in the US restrict the number of pets in a residence to three - that’s excluding fish, reptiles and the like.
I believe one comedian said it best as a warning to single women:
"Be careful, there’s a fine line between being known as the ‘lady with cats’ and being known as ‘the cat lady’ "
We have four indoor-only cats, though they do get occasional supervised spring/summer outings in our fenced yard. Two of the cats ‘belonged’ to now-grown children. Nothing is more frustrating than to have your daughter call and tell you she just got a cat–“What about Ted?”, I cried, wondering why she didn’t come and get ‘her’ cat when she decided she wanted one. Of course, at this point mr.stretch won’t let Ted go–mr.stretch bottle-fed him from a wee baby so Ted’s his favorite. But still, we could have been down to three! Our cats range between 8 and 10 years old, so obviously we aren’t collecting.
We have a fairly good-sized house (almost 1800 sq feet). We think this is plenty of room for the two of us, our four cats, and our three indoor-mostly dogs (two Golden Retrievers and one medium-sized retriever mix). Our house is clean enough for us. We have a closet dedicated to the litterboxes, which are cleaned regularly; a good-sized room where the cats stay while we’re at work which helps keep the cat hair to a manageable level in the main living areas; the ability to run a vacuum, mop a floor, dust a shelf, wash our bedding. Of course, if you prefer not to be around my pets, I would never force you to come over. Everyone knows before they come over that we have lots of animals; still we are regularly asked how many cats we have since furniture isn’t trashed and our house doesn’t reek like everyone assumes it will.
The biggest mess in our house is not caused by the cats anyway–it’s the dog toys everywhere. And when the grandbaby gets bigger, it’ll probably be his crap everywhere. Houses are to live in.
If you want to talk about a house that smells funky, you should have come over when we were actively raising freshwater Angelfish, Golden Severums, mollies, and guppies. Seven aquariums, ranging in size from 10 to 80 gallons, all full of fish and needing to be cleaned quite frequently. It smelled like a swamp in our family room. Good times.
And on preview: elmwood, lots of people think I’m odd in some way–usually long before they discover that I have four cats.
I’ve always thought that any more than 4 is pushing it. Of course, that also lines up with my opinion on how many children is too many, so make of that what you will.
I think she’s getting defensive because there is a subtle pile on going on here. People are making comments about collectors being delusional and directing her to read articles about it. Intrepreting her comment about everyone having tiny amounts of urine and fecal matter on their beds whether or not they have cats to mean she has soggy sheets and steaming piles of cat shit on her bed, which is not what she was saying. She was saying that living creatures (human and otherwise) leave little bits of themselves everywhere they go.
She didn’t get defensive until there were rather obvious references to the person with 13 cats being a delusional cat hoarder.
That’s terrible, you could get awful chitin grazes. Plus you’d stink of fish. I think a conventional shower is much better.
Hm, I guess you don’t sleep in your bed? Hey - and don’t forget the vast quantities of dead skin and small crawling creatures that inhabit your pit. Of course, one of my cats coughed up a hairball on my pillow this morning, so I suppose I’ll need to wash my bedclothes this year sometime. Most inconvenient.
Too many cats? A subjective judgment. For me, more than 3 would be a little wobbly (I have 2, and a pair of rats). However that’s not to say that someone with more than 3 cats is a collector, which is an entirely different kettle of cat parts.
I’ve not read that article, but I’ve read the original research papers from Tufts University. And I’d be pretty annoyed at your attitude, too, if I were her. She’s defensive because you’re suggesting she’s crazy and an animal abuser, and she’d like to defend herself from that implication.
(And yes, you’re doing it subtly, but you’re still doing it).
Daniel
I’ve got seven indoor cats in a 1600+ square foot, four-level townhouse, with at least one litter box on each floor, seven in all. They all get regular vet care, they’re all altered, and they’re all in robust good health. (Well, the two youngest are a bit chubby because they get into the others’ food.) One of the eldest is on a special diet for urinary tract problems and thriving on it.
They’re all rescues, adopted in clumps: two sisters, three brothers, two brothers. I acquired the last two from my vets’ office, they urged me to adopt them knowing full well I then had seven cats, all under their care.
Nine was too many because two of them couldn’t stand the others. They were both rehomed as barn cats and are thriving in their new lives.
I don’t plan to adopt any more now. Seven is plenty, they all get along well, and adding more would upset the social order, leading to problems.
Yes, I’m sure seven would be way too many for a lot of people. It takes work to keep the place clean. They all require attention, but they all seem happy with the amount they get.
I think seven would be too many in a small place, in substandard care. If I had a place twice as large, I’d think about adopting a couple more. For me, the tipping point is ten – once you get into double digits you’re doomed.
We were freaked out by the double digits, too, though we got 8, 9, and 10 from our vet. 11 was temporary, but we had double digits for a couple of years. We’d prefer to still have 10 since that would mean our beloved Tuffy was still with us.
When you no longer know your cats individually by name you have too many.
Well, we have three and I will admit it is hellishly hard to keep our decent-sized (MA standards) home clean. There are two litterboxes, all covered, which must be scooped every single day or they throw tantrums. And by “tantrums” I mean taking dumps strategically to make sure we understand their displeasure. Only the finest Fresh Step with baking soda will do for their dainty paws.
The livingroom furniture, which is beautiful and was purchased only last year with the purchase of the new house is covered ENTIRELY in sheets. The new Bokkara wool rug is covered entirely in three or four sheets. My parents just had slipcovers made in India out of beautiful woven fabric and they put those on the furniture and they now put sheets on those. Our original only-cat managed to destroy all of our furniture in the new house and we are unwilling to declaw them. Even though their nails are clipped regularly they can still do tons of damage. Moving on, when people come over the sheets must be removed one-by-one and then the entire house must be vacuumed. Not just the floors mind you…but the furniture, ceilings and walls. The amount of fur they put out is staggering (and they have no medical problems seeing as they get the finest in cat-care).
In short, it is a tremendous coordination effort even with 3 and I think it only works b/c my dad stay at home for his job so he has no excuse not to scoop everyday. Next year I’m thinking of taking the girl cat off their hands-the major reason they have 3 right now is a little rascal turned up outside my door one day and he was so obviously abandoned after being adopted from the shelter (graduating students do it here all the time) that I didn’t have the heart to not come home with a cat under my arm.
I grew up in households with cats, dogs, hamsters, mice (in cages), goldfish and people, so I’m no stranger to cats, having had up to four at once. But as the latest batch inherited from ex-girlfriends gradually died off or mysteriously disappeared, I discovered the joys of not having to clean house as often and not wondering which corner that new smell was coming from, and why, and the frustration of a neutered male who would sometimes “forget” and coat some vertical surface with his special cocktail.
So I’d say more than zero is too many.
Man, I read that wrong at first.
At least I hope I did. :eek:
{With apologies to Trunk and his earlier post and cite}
Keep in mind that empty beer can, discarded pizza box and overflowing ashtray hoarding is being classifed as a disorder, one where people can be delusional about the filth and the stench around them. And, it’s more common in unmarried men.
Not saying anyone here is a hoarder, but keep an eye on it.
I hope so, too, or I’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do. The subject of the sentence was “batch”, not “ex-girlfriends.” 
It’s interesting how easily people will draw an imaginary line about something like this and pronounce “X” as THE number that means you are crazy or delusional or something is seriously wrong with you.
I’ve known people who had one cat and that was one too many. I’ve known people who had 10 or more, and didn’t appear to me to be wacky at all…their cats were happy, their houses were cleaner than mine, and they appeared to have normal, healthy interpersonal relationships.
If I had fewer kids and a bit more time, I’d like to foster cats or dogs in my house. I figure I could manage about 14 in that case. Maybe when I retire…