We are. 
I happen to agree, adequate levels of cleaning and decent ventilation are the key. People with one cat and no sense of cleanliness can be an abomination.
I’ve 4 cats, as I said. The litter boxes ( we use two ) are about 15 feet from me. The boxes are kept neat and clean, my office and the house in general never is smelling foul. If need be ( no matter what the season ) I ventilate with a box fan.
:eek:
It’s quite impossible to tell how many animals a household can support unless you know the SIZE of the home. Three cats in a one bedroom apartment would be way too much, IMHO; in a three bedroom house with a basement, half the time you might not even notice they’re there.
Sounds like you have a big place, though, so it probably does smell ok.
I’m just saying that from my personal experience, walking into someone’s home with several cats is usually not a pleasant thing. I’ve visited more than one person who seemed oblivious to the smell in the home, and I personally can’t understand how they can live like that.
I’m sure there are people with 105 cats whose house is clean-as-a-whistle, but I think they are few and far between.
No one’s going to admit that their house reeks. I mean, come on.
I’ll just agree with you here, Brickbacon, because it seems that everyone else is going to maintain that having 25 cats is normal and healthy. I think it’s a symptom of a larger problem when you feel the need to have animals in every square inch of your home.
I’ve owned cats, and I’ve never been in a house with even a single cat where I can’t pick up on the smell walking in. Very often its subtle…a girlfriend with two cats and a large home its “oh, right, cats”. And, of course, if you are allergic at a fairly sensitive level, you’ll pick up on the cats regardless of how clean the house is.
I find pets to be more messy than toddlers…but I’ve had cats with litterbox avoidance. Nothing like coming home every day to cat poop behind the couch.
My personal level is three (one more than I’ve ever owned)…there is a difference between “collector” and “crazy” More than three puts you (in my mind) in collector category. Daniel seems to have the most objective read on this - 30 puts you in pressing charges territory. Someplace between three and thirty there is definately a “I really don’t want to spend time in this house” point for me, which would depend on how clean the house was, how big the house was, how much smell was around, and how visible the cats were…anytime I can see more than four or five cats in a house at a time, I start to get ooked out.
Brick, I’m not real sure you want to get in a sanity contest with the cat owners in this thread: I doubt it’ll turn out the way you think it’ll turn out.
As I said, someone with thirty cats is in my experience highly unlikely to be providing the proper care for them, but I’ve known people with slightly fewer than that who can provide proper care.
Are they crazy? Who cares? There’s plenty of people who think we’re all a bit nuts for spending out time chatting on Internet messageboards, and who cares about them?
Some people like animals better than they like people. More power to them. It’s absurd to get all judgmental and smug because you don’t.
Daniel
Just to recap on my earlier statment that more than 3 is pushing it.
If someone had more than 3 cats I would susspect them of being a little bit eccentric. Only if they had more than about a dozen and gave other signs of not being able to keep themselves and their cats in good condition would I susspect the person might actually be insane. I would also doubt that anyone without some special training/knowledge (a vetenarian, or farm owner, or animal shelter worker) could keep more than 20 cats in good condition for an extended period of time.
What does that mean? Besides, I don’t think having a dozen cats makes you insane. I think it means you probably have some issues. For some people it may be an inability to relate to actual human beings, for others it may be a fixation with cats. I don’t know what kind of problems these people have, but it’s (in the vast majority of cases) a problem.
So you’re judging me for judging cat collectors. I don’t think cat collectors are bad people. However, I will not pretend like having dozens of cats isn’t a clear sign of instability to most people.
Sometimes even one cat is too many. It all depends on the cat.
Quotes from brickbacon:
** Besides, I don’t think having a dozen cats makes you insane.**
Okeydoke. The magic number is, apparently, more than twelve, then. More than 12=crazy.
However, I will not pretend like having dozens of cats isn’t a clear sign of instability to most people.
Or not. Perhaps it’s “dozens.” Well, that is more than twelve, but it’s a LOT more…24 at least to qualify as “dozens.”
No, no, no, wait. It’s TEN! TEN CATS = crazy cat lady.
In the real world, having 10 cats is a clear sign to most people. You may not wish to see the world as it exists, but you will be judged by those who do.
Or, again, not!
**Most sane people seem to realize that having 4+ cats is a sign of some deeper issue. **
So it’s four, I guess. Four cats equals crazy person. Or person with unspecified problems. Or someone not living in reality. Hmmm.
Have you changed your opinion that much since you first decided that diplomacy wasn’t such an important social skill after all? Or have you consulted with the sane people of the world (most of them, anyway) and changed your opinions as a result?
I’m not seeing a lot of people saying “Having 25 cats is normal and healthy.” I’m seeing MOST people in the thread having a much smaller cutoff for themselves, and several people with a somewhat larger cutoff (has ANYone here said they have 25 cats? Maybe I missed it.), and a few people opining that it may indeed be possible to have a large number of cats and still maintain a house that isn’t a health hazard. (And truthfully, if you devoted yourself to rescuing cats or fostering them, you’d have pretty much a full day to spend cleaning litterboxes, etc, so why couldn’t you keep them healthy and the house decent?)
My house is far from spotless, and you would know I have cats if you visited (because you’d have to move them to sit down, probably). But I had a dear friend who had 7 or 8 cats who had an absolutely spotless home. Her cats looked like those on catfood commercials. Heck, my house wasn’t that clean when I didn’t have ANY cats.
Are you retarded or just disingenuous? You took what I said completely out of context. Let me say it once more so it’s clear. Having** 4+ cats ** usually means the person has some sort of issue. I’ve stated that twice. The “dozens” comes from my response to someone who stated that a person with 50 cats might not have deeper issues. I responded using “dozens” instead of 50 or any other number someone wants to testify to because any number much greater than 4 is suspect.
Once again, you cat people keep missing the point. Just because you treat your (insert number) cats well, and your home is spotless, doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem. I couldn’t care less how your home smells or how pretty your cats are. The point is that having a large number of animals (esp. cats) in your house is odd behavior. You can keep telling yourself that it’s normal, but it’s not.
Most “cat” people in this thread put the cutoff at (how ever many cats they have + 1). These people have deluded themsleves into thinking most people think that’s normal. They are wrong.
If you go back and read my first comment, I realized that there are exceptions (like people who run shelters). But, they are few and far between.
Actually, I’m neither retarded nor disingenuous. Thank you for your concern. My guess is, I’m at least as intelligent as you, with perhaps a bit more skill at stating my opinions diplomatically.
Seriously, can you look at your posts in this thread and say you haven’t been condescending and overbearing? Or is this your standard defensive posture when someone contradicts you?
Having reviewed quite a few of your contributions to other threads, I realize that attempting to have a civil disagreement, much less an adult conversation, with you is probably not in the cards. So I will refrain from feeding your ego by responding further to your name-calling and antagonism. Have a good night.
Best,
karol
You keep saying this, but on what evidence? Are there studies which show a correlation between people with four or more cats or other animals and some kind of personality disorder?
In what way do such people vary from “normal”. How do you define “normal”? Is normal for you simply people who have only one cat?
Maybe people with multiple cats believe they’re “normal” because, well, they are. And you’re deluding yourself into believing otherwise, not because you have any evidence to support your belief but because you have no desire to keep multiple cats.
There are many things I have no desire to do, but on the whole I don’t assume that the people who do them are insane.
But really, if you’re going to keep making this assertion, IMHO or no, you need to provide some evidence. And pointing out that there are such things as animal hoarders isn’t evidence that anybody who has several cats is abnormal, it’s simply evidence that some kinds of mental disorders manifest as keeping large numbers of animals inhumanely.
Just as you non-cat people seem to keep missing the point that it doesn’t mean you do have a problem either. Unless y’all just happen to be psychiatrists free-lancing on the web. See, mental problems are a lot more complex, you can’t just pigeon-hole people based on such specious arguments. I can say that as I’ve had a few such problems in the past, though please note cat-collecting was/is not among them. Nowhere have I said that mentally-ill, house-full-of-cats people don’t exist. I know they do. But it’s up to the professionals to decide who they are, not me, not you. If you think otherwise than perhaps you’re the deluded one. A human failing I supppose. The ER here gets in plenty of patients every day who decided to diagnose themselves rather than let a dr. do it. Results are often as ugly as this thread.
Now, I’ve really got to get back to work. Which does stink because I’m stuck doing urine specimens tonight.
And upon preview, I totally agree with bodypoet.
[Gives dwyr the top-secret super-complicated 8-step club-members-only Cat People Handshake]
You are accusing me of being overbearing a condescending? I believe it was you who took what I said out of context and tried to make me look like an ass.
Oh boy, another internet enemy. I am fully capable of having a civil disagreement. What bothers me is when people write stuff like the following:
I never claimed people who have a bunch of cats are “insane” or “crazy”. Yet people continually state that I did. At some point, it becomes annoying to the point where I really wonder if you guys actually read what you respond to. I shouldn’t have questioned whether somebody was retarded, but I feel like someone who is being obtuse and dishonest should be called on it. Sorry, if that bothers you.
You don’t need anyone’s help with that. Your statements, in whatever context, reveal you to be judgmental and ignorant about this issue. Just because you do not want to do something does not mean that those who do are insane, abnormal, or have issues.
Having an absurd number of animals in your house is often a sign of someone who has problems. Of course it’s not 100%, but it’s accurate enough that I would bet on it. I never claimed to be a doctor, but you don’t need to be a doctor to know that somebody who has dozens of cats isn’t normal. You may disagree, but you should realize that most people share my opinion, and they do share it for very good reasons.