I have been wanting to get a third cat for over a year now. We have two wonderful, sweet, adorable cats, but they were mine coming into our marriage. They’ve grown to love my husband dearly, and I know he adores them - they are our first children. I had two cats because I lived in a small NYC apartment with my roommate (who I’d originally gotten the cats with), and we only had the room for those two. Well, now that we’ve bought our fairly large house (large is relative, but for me, 1850 sq feet with a full unfinished basement compared to an 800 square foot apartment is pretty large), I’ve wanted to get one more cat. I grew up always having three cats, and for me, it’s normal. My husband always grew up with one cat, so for him, two is more than normal. But we also compare it to the fact that he was an only child and wasn’t close to his extended family whereas I had a brother, two older cousins who I consider sisters (since my parents helped raise them), our house was always full of cousins, aunts, uncles, friends - I’m used to a zoo. He’s growing more and more comfortable with my large, close family.
So we are discussing whether or not to get a third cat. He’s mostly against it, but he’s willing to discuss it and he does admit that I have some good reasons other than just wanting another cat (which is the main reason, I admit). So I told him I’d post about it on the Dope, and we’ll use the responses as one of our deciding factors 
. (Okay, so it won’t be the deciding factor, but it would be good to get some other opinions).
Anyway - here are both of our sides of the story. Any anecdotes about adding a third cat into the mix, opinions, or yes or no votes would be appreciates;).
My side: I’ve always had three cats. I don’t think three cats is any more difficult than two, and when I lived with my parents last year before we got married, my two shared the house with my three childhood cats (so yes, five cats in a house for a year). Emmy was her usual terrified self - she basically stayed upstairs in my room where I kept their food and litterbox (she had been in a one story apartment, the stairs terrified her for months). Eventually, she made her way downstairs. However, Oscar was all over the house - while he tried hard to intimidate Rugby and Hurricane (and pretty much succeeded, although Rugby fought back pretty well - Hurricane was brain-damaged, and surprisingly, Oscar didn’t try to beat him up), he was TERRIFIED of my Izzy - a twenty-two lb Alpha girl who basically had to give him ONE look, and Oscar was jelly. She was like his evil big sister. It was great.
Emmy is shy - she was abused as a kitten before I got her, and has never lost that skittish attitude, but she’s gotten MUCH better - she only runs half the time from noises, compared to 100% of the time. However, Oscar beats the crap out of her constantly. I know he’s just establishing dominance, but he’s downright mean to her, and there’s not a whole lot we can do to get him away from her. My opinion is that we find a kitten or younger cat with a somewhat stronger personality than Emmy - one that will fight back against Oscar and give him a playmate. He had a good time playing with Rugby when he felt like it. I know that Oscar will be jealous for awhile - he’s had issues with me kitten-sitting before, and he has refused to ‘talk’ to me for three days, so we thought we would get an older kitten or a younger cat to alleviate any of those issues - we wouldn’t mind an adult cat, either.
So that’s my side - basically, it boils down to the fact that I really just want another cat - period. I would have a houseful of cats and kids if I could, so I’m not thinking one more cat is much at all. To me, it’s like buying a three bedroom house instead of a two bedroom house - one more room isn’t that big of a deal.
Okay - his side: It’s pretty easy. He worries that another cat will be a lot more work. He worries that Oscar and Emmy will be insanely jealous. He’s always grown up with one cat, and says that two is plenty. He does agree with me that another cat might help even out the issues with Oscar and Emmy - give Oscar a playmate - but he also says that there’s no guarantee of that - which is very true. And if we get another cat, we will get one for life - so any issues will have to be worked out eventually. We are also working on having a human kid, so he thinks it might be too much (again, I don’t think so - my brother and SIL are expecting in October, and they have two giant dogs and two cats - animals are work, but they’re worth every second of it to me).
So, that’s the story. We have one very timid, sweet girl cat, and one very outgoing boy cat who thinks he’s a dog. Any opinions, stories about introducing a third cat into two cats who’ve been together since kittens, telling us we’re crazy, or telling us it’s no big deal would be appreciated. We won’t be doing this for another few weeks, not until we’d be home for at least two-three days without work to introduce the cats to one another, so there’s a little time.
E.