My post was meant to illustrate how society regards one cat as an accident which could happen to anyone; two cats as an indication of intent; and three cats as already crazy.

Even collecting inanimate objects can get out of hand. Hoarding can be a serious mental problem, with people accumulating dangerous levels of clutter in their home. Animal hoarding has all the same problems, and more. Not only does it risk the health of the hoarder, it makes dozens of innocent animals live in miserable, filthy, crowded conditions. Having three cats doesn’t make you a crazy cat lady. What makes you a “crazy cat lady” is having more animals than you can possibly care for.

Catster.com – if you can deal with the Myspace-like pages and tradition of most owners speaking as their pet, it can be well worth joining.

I know sometimes people find out I have three cats, and they get puzzled-looking. Like they can’t figure out why anyone would want to.

And how about the latest “scientific study” about cats to hit the news? I really hated the spin on that one – I am talking about “how cats manipulate their owners with soliciting purrs.” I fail to see how a well-cared-for animal would need to manipulate their owner to get basics like daily feeding and a minimum level of affection, which is what the articles seemed to imply. You know, basic responsibilities that an owner should be doing anyway, hopefully because they love their pet? If you need to be manipulated in order to NOT neglect a pet there’s something wrong, and its not the fact that it’s a cat!

Its so depressing. I don’t have the social skills to fight it, so I just try not to bring up the subject of cats when there might be haters around.

I would applaud such wariness if it typically came as an expression of concern for the animals involved, but it’s not. It’s merely a condemnation of someone deemed “eccentric” because they have affection for an animal widely perceived as manipulative and coldhearted, to the extent that they acquire more than a couple of them. And make no mistake, you can get called a “cat lady” at one cat if you happen to meet the other criteria for cat-lady-dom, such as being old and living alone and being generally weird.

I have to admit that I am really uncomfortable with using the word “collect” in reference to the process of acquiring living animals and giving them good homes with good care, and I have to acknowledge that this isn’t like collecting stamps or coins in that there does come a point of diminishing returns for the animals themselves, when the owners have “collected” beyond their means. Cats are frequent victims of animal hoarding. I have had a run-in with one of these desperately ill individuals and it’s an ugly and miserably depressing thing. I don’t want to be confused with that kind of person. And frankly, I think “crazy cat lady” is a completely inadequate term to describe these people. I think it trivializes the suffering this illness causes, among both the humans and their helpless charges.

I have had many run-ins, too, with despicably irresponsible dog owners, and I wonder why there is not a pejorative term for the sort of disgusting oaf who leaves his dogs outside all day long to bark and bark and bark or to jump the fence and attack other animals (cats, usually) and strew garbage up and down the street. In addition to the misery they inflict on their neglected animals, these “dumb*** dog dudes” can drive their neighbors to literal madness with their inconsiderate boneheaded stupidity. I had five of these morons on the street I lived on until late last year, for a total of nine to twelve dogs, depending on whether the guy next door had his sister and her dogs staying with him that week. I moved to prevent myself from doing something unforgivable.

Six indoor cats will at least be quiet. Two or three ill-kept dogs are enough to make a whole street miserable.