How many is too many?!

[EmptyYoghurtPot]

We have 5 cats. All were rescues - 1 from a friend of a friend and 4 from Cats Protection. A very rude women I met recently was horrified- apparently you should only have two cats in one household as they are territorial and you can’t give attention to more than two. Has anyone else heard anything like this?
How many cats do you have?
(Pics for attention)?

Well I had 6 at one point.. 2 black. 2 stripey. 1 ginger and 1 tortie...
I mean why wouldn't you have 6?

When I rescued the third cat, one of the others voted with his feet and moved out.

So it depends on the cat.

I think that may cost me one husband.

I mean, it’s a tough call to be fair.

We currently have 6, one is a bengal , one a maine coon and we have a Persian and we have 3 moggys, also have dogs. All get on fine. Might get the odd hiss but not often. We have dry food down 24/7 and they get wet and meat also. They all go out but have a tray inside as 1 is getting older and doesn't always want to go out. I say no more but if a kitten/cat needed a home I wouldn't turn them away.

Before we had the kittens we had a cat literally dumped on us and he did not like being part of a multi cat household. We had him chipped and neutered but he didn’t settle. Eventually wandered off. Got him back (from two miles away!) via Facebook. Kept him in for a while but as soon as he was able he legged it back! The couple who he had ‘adopted’ were happy to keep him so we had him signed over to them. They send pictures from time to time and he’s very happy there.

Question is who makes you most happier? Most affectionate? Makes less mess? 😆

Do Maine Coons take a lot of looking after? My (adult) stepdaughter wants one but I’ve never had one so don’t know if they are easy to look after. All ours are moggies.

Just to add, family member is a vet so apart from jabs we have hardly any vet bills and if we do it's highly discounted

With that logic, both DH and DS are out and several more cats are in 😂

Yes I think it's very selfish unless they're indoor cats or have a catio. I live next door to someone who 'collects' cats and thinks she some kind of cats home. They're constantly shitting in my garden, digging up my vegetable patch and hunting the wild life. Nobody needs 5 cats.

Grooming takes forever but luckily ours will let us groom him, ideally I'd like him inside but that was never going to happen, we have a dog flap so he uses that. The Persian is the hardest as he follows the bengal and isn't as agile he also hates being groomed. All of them are very different personality. The main coon is needy and likes to be around someone or something, even if the dog or what ever doesn't want to share the bed the m c will find away to snuggle up with them

We tried a catio and it didn't work, I never see my cats in other people's gardens and they go over the back of ours, they do bring back the odd bird and plenty of rats, we also have hedgehogs visit and see foxes over the back, use to see a lot of rabbits but not so many now

@EmptyYoghurtPot and @Ohdearwhatnow4

I have plans to be a Cat Lady when I move in a year.

4/5/6 cats sounds bliss. However, I want to have rescues only, how do you ensure they all get on? Are there any tips? Or does it just work out with the odd one just tolerating the others?

Or do you only take in cats from multi house rescues? Many years ago I had two rescue cats that came from the same house, but they really didn’t get on.

Im envious of all your cats.

We have seven, all moggies and all are rescues. We have the time and space to keep them all comfortable.

There are 6 boys and one girl, all of them are neutered and spayed. The girl does not get on with two of the boys and tries to bully the others. She barely tolerates humans but can be very affectionate at three am. She came from a feral colony and we adopted her from a shelter. She has mellowed with age but will always want the world on her terms.

The boys are a mixed bunch, the oldest boy is my cat and I am his human. He is top mog in the household despite his old age and few teeth. The other range from 11 to 18 months and are a mix of boisterous lovely personable cats and one semi-feral who just wants a quiet place to sleep, decent food and a few toys.

We also foster kittens. We are like a kitten finishing school, they learn how to cat and interact with humans and we get to know their personalities and send them on fully socialised to their new families.

We have a cat flap, multiple litter trays and a safe garden. There are always people in the house but sometimes we look around and you wouldn't know we had seven cats.

TheCatNeuterer who is on here sometimes works with Celia Hammond and has a fine collection of cats who found it very hard to be re-homed. I think she has somewhere well into double figures most of the time!

My boy cats are so much more chilled than my girls, all are neutered and all have plenty of space to chill out if they prefer.

Not enough dcat tax on here.
Utter disgrace...

We are a combined household of 4 cats, would have been 5 but by the time we moved in together my girl got ill and had to be pts. Sad, but probably for the best, as she wasn't a cat-friendly sort of cat. She tolerated her own grown kitten most of the time but that was it. We carefully introduced all the cats to each other and 2 years later they get on fine. Most of them are indoors, most of the time. The only freely roaming cat is my grown kitten - we don't have a cat flap at the moment so someone is always and forever letting her in or out via windows or doors.

Four is quite enough though. Sadly, and by coincidence, they are all about the same age, so it's going to be a rough ride when they reach the end of their years. In about 10-15 years though hopefully!

Feeding with some foster kittens in the menagerie.

We have three (all neutered males) and a dog (also a neutered male).

I have regularly told DH that he's next

Dsd has 5 Ragdolls. They are quite big and house cats but as they have the run of the house they don’t get on top of each other. Very expensive to keep though. I only have 2. Dcat1 was inherited in very difficult circumstances and I wasn’t sure she would take to another cat but we got dkitten two weeks ago and it’s all going well so far. They are house cats and half our living room is taken up with trees, toys etc. We also have ddog.

We have. Considering extending the catio or moving. Dh wants another two kittens.
my knees cannot carry 7 cats. There are four of my tribe on my knee in the attached photo.

I have seven and I’m at home all the time. Given their natures of coming and going as they see fit, they all get attention throughout the day. Some sleep with me, some come for cuddles then bugger off. No one gets left out.

Cat tax:
My seven.

Honestly? Two in a household is my absolute maximum based on personal experience. We had two males and they basically had half the house each, including their own cat flaps. They tolerated each other. When the older one died the one left was much happier, even though he had to put up with two dogs.

Current number of cats is sadly zero. Lost our gorgeous last boy a year ago and I just cannot do it again. Too much heartbreak. Just one dog left now, and after him I won't do it again.