When it comes down to it, how much different is it to have 8 cats when you already have 7? I've found usually after the third or fourth they start to just be measured in 'lots of love,' 'lots of cats,' 'lots of food,' and 'lots of money.'
Yes and no. I started with one. I had three for almost three years. I now have five permanent ones. And I foster 3-4 more at a time. It becomes hoarding when you no longer have appropriate space/time/money to care for them. I have all of the above but nine in the house at one time was really pushing my limits. Even eight is a bit much, if a few of them weren’t so easy-going or fearful that they don’t require much from me besides regular food, water, and litter scooping. I think seven will be my hard limit once this batch of fosters clears out. It’s true though, at seven, one more barely makes a difference.
Hoarding usually involves cats that aren’t fixed, aren’t vetted, and are living in total squalor. Dead and sick cats, pregnant cats repeatedly giving birth, feces and urine all over the place. The rescue I volunteer with has been working for at least a year with a woman who had 31 cats. We took 29 of them into our program; we fixed and vetted two and returned them. Some of the 29 had kittens born in foster care. I think we ended up with a total of 35. We are finally about to get the last two adopted out. A lot of them have chronic upper respiratory infections and feline herpes virus from their original poor living situation.
It depends, honestly. One of my acquaintances has five cats and some fosters— but they also have a big house which they keep very clean. They take good care of their cats. Animal hoarding is generally classified by a lessened quality of life for the animals and the hoarder.
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u/demonmonkey89 Feb 21 '21
When it comes down to it, how much different is it to have 8 cats when you already have 7? I've found usually after the third or fourth they start to just be measured in 'lots of love,' 'lots of cats,' 'lots of food,' and 'lots of money.'