Three cats = cat lady?

I know, I know, enough with the “Zsofia’s stray cat” threads! But I’d really like to see what people think (although of course it won’t affect the situation in any way.)

I have two cats. I have always said “no more than two.” In fact, until a couple years ago I said “no cats at all, I don’t like cats” but whatcha gonna do? So this week I went and rescued (expensively) the sweetest little not-very-feral cat. I’ve of course gotten all attached to him, but Himself doesn’t want three cats. (He essentially lives with me and he does get a say.) He says three is unhygenic, a pain in the ass, and just too many. He thinks three cats is weird and bordering on cat-lady-ish, and points out correctly that I used to say “no more than two” and now I’m all “no more than three” and that I have a well-documented soft heart and cannot be trusted with poor widdle sad animals who want me to take them home.

His points are, accurately, the house is a shithole now and cats don’t help. Three cats are more of a pain because, hell, two get in the way sometimes and are hard to herd around and knock crap off shelves and scratch you and stuff, and three is worse. More litterbox and food (well, it’s not like he has anything to do with that) so more poop smells in the dining room. And three paves the way for four. And don’t ask the damned SDMB because it’s full of crazy cat ladies. (See? Accurate.)

He doesn’t have anything against Stokie, he really likes Stokie as a cat but is adamant that he does not want to live with three cats. (Actually, we have two cats, a dog, and a bunch of fish, but the fish are tank animals and the dog is outside most of the day and isn’t allowed around Himself anyway.)

(My coworker points out, accurately, that if he’d just up and marry me there would be no further crazy cat lady danger.)

So I said, is two cats and a dog weird? He says, depends on the dog. How about two cats and an iguana? Weird if the iguana is free-roaming but you can have as many tank animals as you want without being weird (until you get to the point where that in itself is weird.) Two cats and a bird? Weird if it’s a parrot or something that needs constant work, otherwise tempting fate.

So, what do you guys think? Is three cats weird and bordering on cat lady? If not weird, is it at least significantly more cat-lady-ish than two? Significantly more work? What about other pet combinations? If you have, like, twenty animals total, but ten of them are fish and the other ten are spread out among the kingdoms and families, is that a lot worse than ten of similar things? Is ten mammals different from a mix of mammals and reptiles?

Does the number of people in the house make a difference? Is there an equation, like where n = number of residents and n+1 is the maximum number of non-tanked mammals?

Also, does anybody live peacefully with a person who wishes they had one less cat? :slight_smile:

Oh, sorry, forgot the cardinal rule. Stokie.

3 cats? Not weird at all. You really have to hit double-digits before you have to worry.

My sister and I have four cats. She used to foster and the most she had at a time, I think, was nine. As long as you keep the litter boxes clean and vacuum often it’s possible for people not to even know you have cats, until they see one of them. I think his problem is you don’t keep the house that clean. The number of pets isn’t the problem, it’s how much they take over your life.

Keep in mind that I’m a founding member of the SDMB Slob Reform Club, which is made up of people who are so unorganized we can’t even keep the Slob Reform Club going. Mostly because we are too embarassed to admit we haven’t done a thing and are instead busy knitting new cats from the hair in the carpet. So it’s kind of special circumstances.

When you’re single, two cats is the limit before you are seen as a crazy cat lady. When you are married or living with someone, the limit is more like four.

Well, I have three, plus a dog, and a bird. I don’t think I’m a crazy cat lady, but then, I’m one of those outdoor-cat people, so no litterbox problem. (Cat hair, on the other hand…)

Oh, and I’m married, and my Himself has no problem with three. At one point, we had four, when we knew Trouble wouldn’t be around much longer, and that was Himself’s idea.

Link to pet album.

Well, you did say that you’d try finding him a home. If you make a continuing effort to do that, would it be good enough? I don’t personally think that 3=cat lady, but only you and Himself can decide whether it’s too many for your own situation.

Pity the dog isn’t in the house more. My dog’s great at keeping the cats off of the counters. She wants to do more. She thinks she could be a great cat herder, but she’s been restrained. They’re only fair game if they get up where they’re not supposed to be or if I hiss at them. Then it’s dog nose approaching at the speed of sound.

For the pet hair, I like my roomba ™.

For the equation. . . I can’t decide if more people means there can be more pets, or if fewer people means there’s more room for more pets. I think it may be more of a space and money equation than a people equation. I know one pet owner who has a seperate bathroom that’s mostly for the cats. Although, um, she has two.

I tend to think along the lines of the n+1 rule, generally, unless you switch species.

If I went to a regular house where people had a lot of pets living inside, I’d think “not my thing, but okay”. If I went to an unkempt house where the people had lots of pets, I’d be wondering if there were some underlying issues going on.

I think 12 is the over/under for librarians.

I mean, I’ve been trying to figure out what combinations are “weird” - if I went to somebody’s house and the place was absolutely full of tanks with snakes in them… weird. One snake, not weird. Two snakes, fine. Three snakes? I think three is okay, too. I’m not sure where the “animals in tanks” line is. One giant snake? Fine, but what do you feed it? One giant snake with chicken coop in back yard of feeder chickens? Bordering on freaking me out.

Fish - I can’t really picture “too many fish” unless it’s entirely taken over the whole house and somebody’s life.

Birds - do they annoy me in the house? One parrot is fine. A cage or two of little birds is fine. Ten parrots, a macaw, and fifty lovebirds is not okay.

Horses, as long as there’s room, I’m not sure there’s really a practical limit. But they don’t tend to live in your house.

You have to understand that there are certain… professional hazards involved in being a librarian.

If you’re a slob, you’re a slob all the way.
From your first kitty cat to your last dying day!

(Sung to the tune of “When You’re a Jet”)

Really. If your house is messy, it’s messy. One more cat isn’t going to make it that much messier and one less cat isn’t going to magically make it Martha Stewart’s house. Keep the cat.

StG

I tend to go along those lines myself and I would never get three unless I had a much larger place, possibly not even then.

That said I don’t think three is cat lady territory. Generally I consider one is fine, two is optimal ( almost always better than one ), three is okay, more than that should usually be n+1 ( where n = both people and extra rooms ). Why I’ve known single folks with three that verged on the almost normal in virtually every other way :D. Only you know if you’re likely to be prone to a slippery slope towards utter squalor and 27 cats if you were to add a third.

Considering that you already seem to stress about mess though, maybe that should be your deciding factor. Three WILL smell more, cost more, vomit more, shed more and knock shit off shelves more than two. Not a LOT more, but more.

Since he is “essentially” living with you–does he do any housework? Even if you do all the cat feeding & catbox cleaning, you & your cats are not the only reason for the mess. If he has a problem with the state of the place–he can surely help you out!

I say that the cat-limit is higher than two. As long as they aren’t multiplying…

Well, since you asked for opinions, let me give you mine. My aunt was a “crazy cat lady.” At one point, she only had 3 cats, but she was still the crazy cat lady to the neighbors. Why? Because you knew she had cats without having to see them. Look, I am a slob, no, scratch that, I am not a slob, I just refuse to clean up after my husband who most definitely is a slob.* At any rate, the point is, her house reeked of cat. Cat piss is foul stuff and the scent carries for miles.

I have a good friend now who has 4 cats. Her house is immaculate, she is not a crazy cat lady, despite living alone with 4 cats. Crazy cat lady, IMO has more to do with cleanliness than numbers.
*The subtle difference here is that when he is gone for a few weeks (like at AT), the house is clean, the rest of the time, I am forced to either ignore his filthiness or spend every waking moment trying to pick up after him.

Personally, my rule is that the number of cats in the house should not exceed the number of people. One exception: if you live alone, it’s cool to have 2 cats, so they don’t get lonely. But that’s my own idiosyncrasy. Three cats would not push you into crazy cat lady territory. Four would be stretching it, five would push you over the edge.

We have an adult cat and, a few months ago, were in the market for a kitten. Mrs. Homie went to the Animal Protective League and found two that she fell in love with. She wanted to adopt them both, but talked herself out of it because… well, because she didn’t want to be the woman with three cats. She thought two was enough, so we just adopted one kitten.

Not at all. I don’t even think four borders on a cat lady.

Again no difference in my book

Nope

Again I have no issue with how many pets a person has to a certain degree as long as they have the time, space and the funds to care for them.

Of course I am a tad bit crazy.

9 cats, 3 dogs, 2 birds, 1 turtle and some fish and three people all under one roof :slight_smile:

Keep the cat and ditch the boyfriend. :wink:

Okay, joking aside, I don’t think three cats inherently causes you to be a crazy cat lady. I agree with other posters that cleanliness matters more than numbers of cats. I suspect it’s true with all species, they just don’t have a nicely alliterative moniker like cats do. “Dumbfounding dog dude”? It just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Though I kind of like “Batshit bird buddy”.

Because of the mess, I suspect you might already be at crazy cat lady, but adding another cat wouldn’t change that if you aren’t. I’m not sure how to help with the mess. In the slob reform club I posted about how I managed to undergo my own transformation from slob to “rather tidy person”, and that involved spending a lot of time with an extremely tidy person.

If your boyfriend is complaining about the mess and not helping to clean it up, even if you are the majority of the problem, then I don’t think he gets to veto the third cat. In the end, a third cat will add a bit more hair, a bit more poop and vomit, but will not be that much more than two, so it becomes how willing you are to clean or not clean. If he’s spending his life cleaning up after you and your two cats, well, maybe he’s got a point.

However, from the slob reform club and other posts you’ve made, it sounds like you’re the sole cleaner of this house (or close to it), and you are definitely the sole owner, so it sounds like you should keep Stokie and find your own way to truly deal with your mess. In the end, I again agree with other posters that say it doesn’t sound like he inherently objects to Stokie’s presence, but that the mess is already overwhelming.