19 cats. Anyone else got this many?

[Justanamechange]

I'm just seeing if anyone else has a large number of pet cats? We have 19, plus 3 dogs, a bearded dragon, about 50 hens, a couple of peacocks and some ducks. I thought a tips and idea sharing for multi pet households thread might be nice!

My tips - all hardwood floors. Robot hoovers and mops on each floor of the house to keep the house clean easily.

Buy flushable cat litter, it's a godsend!

Beautiful cats! The most I've had is 6 at one time.

Wow 19 cats plus all your other animals! Sounds hectic but I imagine it's very rewarding. Do you live on a farm or similar in order to have space for so many?

@lljkk

I have lazy cats...4 cats bring in, at most, a couple of birds and a frog per annum.

And that's usually just from one of them. The other three bring in the occasional feather or piece of wood (though one did steal next door's dog's tennis ball in last week!)

DH would have 19 cats if I let him

re the litter - where we live it goes in the compost bin.

The council say all kinds of cat litter are compostable, and the waste too. Makes it very easy - just bag in a compostable bag and fling in the green bin.

We have six.

Started off with just Marshall and then adopted Silver from CPL.

We moved to this rented house two years ago and since then have taken on Coco (from a friend whose baby is allergic to pet hair), Bella (long term resident in a rescue), Felix (13 yr old from a few houses up whose owners threw him out) and Pixie (found living under a shed and was meant to be a temporary foster).

They all get on ok except Marshall and Felix who will hiss at each other but they have their own territory in the house and there have been no fisticuffs.

Because we rent and there is nowhere for a cat flap I am the door servant. I am home pretty much all the time anyway.

They have two big dry food dispensers which are always full and they can help themselves when they want. We have a water fountain in the house but they prefer drinking out of the ponds. They all get offered wet food twice a day and all have their own different space for eating in different rooms.

We have three cat trees, play tunnels, toys, beds, blankets and throws, they have access to the whole house and the garden.

It's hard work but I would never be without them. They are all so different in personality and it's lovely that since we got Pixie, Bella and Coco have started to really play with her and the three of them rampage round the house with each other.

We also have a fish tank with fish and frogs in the lounge and two ponds in the garden. The fish pond is netted and the wildlife pond is left to run wild because it's full of newts.

@thecatneuterer wow I didn't know you had so many cats! Love the photo of the staircase

MycatsaPirate that sounds really lovely. Every cat deserves a good home.

I don't understand the lack of dead mice/rats either. I can only assume there aren't many in my block of gardens (or else I have exceptionally lazy cats

I think if I were a mouse or rat I would probably not make "near thecatneuterer's house" my first choice of home, given a choice! Maybe that explains the lack of corpses.

Justanamechange I think your set up sounds lovely. I just have the one cat. I’d love to get another but I don’t think my boy would like it- he was once chased into the house and attacked by a local stray when he first started going into the garden and for ages used to hide under a bush, terrified, if any local cats appeared in the garden/ on the fence. He’s much more confident now now though and it seems all the pet cats in my area ( there are a few) have sorted out their own territory/ routines as they never appear in my garden anymore but can often be seen strolling about in the neighbourhood without ever crossing each other’s paths!

Brilliant thread! I've decided I want one of those 'crazy cat lady starter kits' as my retirement gift . Envious of people with lots of cats - I just have two - for now.

I'm in the ME and there's no animal charities here, all rescue and rehoming is done by small groups of volunteers (...Mad Cat Ladies...).
I currently have 3 indoor cats, one semi indoor cat, one street cat recovering from a broken leg, one garden cat recovering from bite wounds, and my normal 3-4 random street/garden cats who I feed outside when their wailing gets too much.
I am currently knackered and skint from vets bills!

Genuine question - how do you keep track of them all? Do you make sure they are all in at night? I have three cats, a puppy and a flock of chickens and right now I feel like I’m at capacity, going to bed takes ages getting the cats in and the dog settled etc.

Some of our cats are in all the time, the others come and go but have lots of houses in the garden. In the summer they much prefer being out all the time

When I was a teenager we had 7 of our own cats at one point, plus several cat pens in the garden as we looked after rescue cat for Cats Protection, until they were rehomed. We could have up to 20 cats in these pens if a we had a couple of nursing mums for example. I had to feed the cats in the garden before school! I say “had” to but I loved it - it was partly my idea, along with my mum. Our house wasn’t ideal for that many cats as it was really small. But the cats all got along and we loved them. Sadly I don’t have any pets due to DH/DS having allergies and asthma 😩 I would love to have a couple of cats.

Justanamechange I think your set up sounds lovely. I just have the one cat. I’d love to get another but I don’t think my boy would like it- he was once chased into the house and attacked by a local stray when he first started going into the garden and for ages used to hide under a bush, terrified, if any local cats appeared in the garden/ on the fence. He’s much more confident now now though and it seems all the pet cats in my area ( there are a few) have sorted out their own territory/ routines as they never appear in my garden anymore but can often be seen strolling about in the neighbourhood without ever crossing each other’s paths.

thereinmadnesslies We don't have a cat flap. At night we do a cat count before going to bed. Felix normally goes to bed with DD2 anyway so we just check he is wrapped around her head (she's 12, she won't suffocate). And then make sure the other 5 are in. It's not so bad in the winter but in the summer they want to stay out later and I have to 'herd' them which is quite interesting. Unfortunately at our back door, steps go down both sides so if you herd them up the steps, instead of coming in the house, they run straight past and down the other side!

Sometimes we have to rescue Coco. She manages to get into next doors garden and when we call her to come in she just sits on the other side of the fence crying because there's no gap. I send DP round in his dressing gown to walk her home :o

Mycatsapirate one of my neighbours cats does this, gets stuck in the next door garden. She keeps a step ladder by the fence & puts it over for him to climb, lifts him off the top of it, and brings the ladder back over

I don't have to do head counts. I'm not sure how it works but my brain sends up a red flag if I haven't seen someone when/where I would expect or if a wanderer stays away longer than they should. It's very accurate.

Big tip for multi pets owners - buy a bell. Like the town cryer has. Start giving it a tiny gentle ring and calling all the pets and throwing dreamies on the floor at random times. Build this up to a very loud ring, always with awesome treats. If I'm wondering where someone is, I can ring the fuck out of the bell and cats/dogs come screeching at me from all directions and if I'm ringing out of the door or with an open window even cats a long way away will make their way home rapidly. That's our first port of call if we think someone isn't around who should be.

I don't have to do head counts. I'm not sure how it works but my brain sends up a red flag if I haven't seen someone when/where I would expect or if a wanderer stays away longer than they should. It's very accurate.

That's EXACTLY how it works with me as well.

It's amazing to meet someone else who 'gets it'!

It’s so nice to hear your stories of life with many animals. I keep looking at Awkward Cat and threatening her with a kitten, but she seems happy as an only. But one day...

We always have to check Felix is in. He is in and out so often we should really fit a bloody revolving door. We end up forgetting if he's in or out. But we just check DD2's bed because that's where he is if he's in

It's mainly in the summer we have to do head counts as the back door is left open until it starts to get chilly/mosquitos start coming in. We have a living room which then goes through to the kitchen and then through to the conservatory so we have to check all their hiding/sleeping places just to make sure. I hate them being out overnight. DP is always up early and lets them out before he goes to work and then when I get up at 7 I let them back in for their breakfast.

We have 10 cats at present, most has been 11. 2 dogs, a fish tank, and sadly we lost our bearded dragon last year.

Not all the cats go out, but each has their own whistle sound to come in, and we do a head count every night.

We also have a large family of cats of similar number to yours, OP. There is a huge problem with feral cats here. At some point my DH and I decided we had to get involved to make life better for the local cats, making us accidental cat rescuers, I guess you could say.

We pay for everything out of pocket, vet visits, food, neutering, rehoming, etc. The local rescue groups give advice but they are generally overwhelmed. Fortunately, we have a wonderful vet who has helped in so many ways over the years.

Over the course of a decade a certain percentage of cats stuck around and became permanent residents. Some of the cats follow DH around like puppies. He is wonderful with them all, keeps their litter boxes changed twice daily, for example. We are just now transitioning from carpet to vinyl floors, a very happy moment in my life, as it is much easier to keep clean than carpet.

We can't take on more as we are getting older. The local community has started to take TNR efforts more seriously in recent years. It really does make a difference. The cats we have get along remarkably well because we keep stress to a minimum. They have lots of room, cat trees, toys, and constant attention from their human slaves. Somehow it works very well for all of us.

@downatfragglerock I wish our council thought the same - we have a limited amount of non-recycling bags that we get each year, and we can't buy any more. The council will only accept litter put in these bags, not in the recycling ones. It becomes a bit of an issue each year before 'new bag' time.

I've got 8 cats and all my friends and family think I'm nuts. They're all rescues, some from an official rescue, one who was living in a neighbour's chiminea with his mum (sadly she has now died), and one who was found by a neighbour's granddaughter on a dump at 3 days old. The GD and GF raised the cat till she was about 3 months but had to move flats and couldn't find anywhere to take them and the kitten. My neighbour suggested me, and once I saw her gorgeous little face I couldn't say no.

As an aside, when I'd had the rubbish dump cat (named Pigeon) for about 1 week, I came home from work to find her walking into walls, falling over when she tried to walk, basically like she was v drunk or had distemper. I totally freaked out, went to the neighbour and asked them to call her GD to get her to give me a lift to the vet. The GD's mum has had loads of rescues and she thought it might be FIP or something equally serious. The vet did various tests while we all panicked and thought poor Pigeon was going to die. Eventually we were told she had 'a very common problem' (that no one I know has ever heard of or had a cat who has been affected) called Ideopathic vestibular syndrome where the balance part of the brain goes a bit weird. It rights itself after a while but Pigeon has been left with a slightly wonky head, giving her a curious look all the time. It hasn't held her back though, she's not as good at jumping but still runs round like a lunatic with the other cats.