I think I’m going to get a cat, but I keep reading that you should always get two kittens instead of just one because they need to socialize with each other. So I might do that, but if it was fine for the cat, I think I’d rather get one so there’d be less mess and less expense. There’s almost always someone home here, so a kitten would get plenty of human attention but some people think that’s not enough. What do you guys think?
I could get an older cat instead of a kitten because apparently then’s it’s okay to just get one, but we know people with kittens we can have. Plus we just want kittens.
Two kittens (especially from the same litter) will certainly amuse each other and probably get along well. They are really fun to watch wrestle and play when they are young too.
But cats will get along just fine solo also… they don’t need a companion. Kind of like people I guess. They may enjoy the company of other cats, but won’t suffer terribly if they don’t get it.
If two cats grow up together, they are most likely to get along when adults. If they didn’t, they may not be friends ever. Either way, having a single cat is not torturing the pet.
I think it depends on how much you’re not home. We tend to go away for long weekends or even longer quite a bit, so we got two. They keep each other company while we’re away, and they’re both crazy affectionate love muffins with us when we’re home. Plus, they’re just so amusing to watch together. They play and wrestle and bathe each other and make us laugh like crazy. I’m so glad we got two, even though we went to the shelter with the intention of getting only one.
If you’re home a lot, I don’t think it’s quite so important.
Not if you mean that thread from the other day about getting cats, because that person wasn’t home much. We have totally different situations so I didn’t want to hijack that thread.
But on the other hand, even though someone’s usually home now, cats live a long time and that could change at some point. I don’t know what to do! I would love to get two but that’s twice as much poop, etc.
A single kitten is okay…if you’re home a lot. Great for a stay-at-home mom, or someone who’s retired, or works from home. As newlyweds parents got a second kitten within a month of getting their first because the lonely, bored kitten #1 who was home 50 hours a week found a lot of destructive ways to amuse himself. Once they got kitten #2, they stopped coming home to broken and damaged stuff. I think if you’re planning to continue to be home a lot for the next year, it won’t be so bad if that changes once only-kitten is grown because alone and misbehaving is much more a kitten thing than an older cat deal.
Twice as much poop doesn’t matter when you have to scoop every day anyway.
disclaimer I have 2 cats and 2 litterboxes, and I scoop twice a WEEK. Maybe once a week sometimes. Fill the bowl when it’s empty. Twice the lurvin! It’s a no brainer, IMO. Also, your ankles will thank you for providing an alternative claw catcher.
Four legs good, eight legs better (although no judgment if you save an amputee!)
You could do what I did: get one (she had a dog), and get another (two…) a year or so later if everything is okay. I don’t think she’s that screwed up, no more than most cats! Mander’s suggestion might not always be true, but in my case yeah I think she loves me the most. “My” other cat she gets along with, the other one we got at the same time as #2 is a relationship of mutual hatred, and she ignores #4. Mess shouldn’t be that much greater, it’s only with multiple that you get exponential crap.
The crap isn’t a minor issue. A normal amount of pee makes a good-size clump. Cats pee three or four times a day, that’s three or four good-size clumps. Think a grocery bag full of stink every couple of days.
So double the stink, double the vet bills, double the cost of kitty litter and food.
If your kitten won’t be alone all the time, he’ll be fine.
I got my first cat around 8 years ago, and she’s the lovey-ist cuddliest cat ever. She is fine being an only cat. But she does have a dog, so they keep each other company during the day. When she was a kitten she would do this adorable thing when I got home from walking the dog. As soon as I walked in the door she’d wrap her little legs around the dog’s neck and get hauled around the room while the dog went and got water, had a bite to eat and so on. It was so cute, like “my dog! my dog! where have you been”? She still comes to the door when we get back, and follows the dog around the room for a few turns giving her nuzzles. I miss the cute leg wrapping thing though!
We recently took in a litter of FOUR kittens. (We had been feeding the stray mama, but she got hit by a car before we got close enough to catch her. Didn’t discover the kittens for a few days. They were about 6 weeks, now about 3½ months.) We were originally going to keep two and rehome two, but nobody spoke up, and in the meantime we fell in love with them all and couldn’t imagine giving any up. We’ve never had indoor cats before, and we currently have two older dogs (11 and 13), who fortunately waver between indifferent to kittens and mildly interested. We have an enclosed porch that we have turned into a kitty haven until we can make the house kitty-safe or at least kitty-resistant.
I will now pause while you all tell us we’re crazy.
It is a lot of fun watching them wrestle and cuddle with each other, and it helps some knowing that they’ll all grow up together and always have buddies.
Remember that kittens have a sleep/zoom/sleep/zoom/sleep/zoom cycle 24 hours a day. Last time I brought a kitten home I didn’t get uninterrupted sleep for a year. I nearly got a second just so he wouldn’t want to play with me all the time. My last two each came home at about a year old and it was a relief to not have the tiny stupid and they bonded with me just fine. Solo cats just need a little company and active attention for a small part of every day.
Indoor cats should have lots of toys so they don’t steal all your stuff. If you ever defrost meat by leaving it out, place it in your microwave or oven and maybe don’t plan on an elaborate tree in December.
The author of Cat Sense, an anthrozoologist, who also wrote Dog Sense, states that even siblings from birth have only about an 80% chance of living happily together. We mustn’t think of them as little human beings or even dogs as they are completely different social animals.
Cats might reach some sort of detent and live together without fighting but it will likely be a stressful sort of existence for them. With some exceptions, they are happiest left alone,with a food source, a water source and a clean litter. They are strange little creatures and I absolutely love them.
Nothing wrong with single animals. It costs less and they can be perfectly happy.
I prefer to have multiples, for the fun of watching them mostly, but I would never get same-age pairs - I stagger them so I don’t have a houseful of senior/dying animals all at the same time… It both spreads out the financial burden, and is a bit less depressing for everyone, I feel.
I lost a cat in '10, put my 15-year-old pup to sleep last December, my remaining dog is 12-ish and getting very slow, and my cat is only 9 and hale. It’s working out well.
That’s a good point I didn’t think of. It would be a long time off, but it’s not like I’m going to be able to cope with it any better 15 years from now. I should probably just get one for now and then go from there.
But the thing is that I saw some animal shelters won’t even let you get a kitten unless you get two, and a lot of (Internet) people say it’s bad to get one. But no one here seems to think that, and as a kid when we’ve gotten kittens it’s been one at a time and they seemed happy. My cats weren’t normal cats though, they didn’t act like cats. We once fostered a mother cat and her kittens (great experience!) and my adult male cat was SO sweet with the kittens, snuggling them and bathing them. If I get a new cat I have to assume it might actually act like a cat.
