When I’m dealing with health issues or disputes among my cats, I seek out medical and behavioral advice online and at my vet’s office, but I also want to read about real-life experiences. It seems harder and harder to find anything through search where people are talking about their own experiences in a multi-cat household. Sometimes I stumble across forums that are incredibly reassuring, and I am grateful for those moments, but I find I want something more.

When I mentioned telling the unvarnished stories of our multi-cat household, my husband cringed. I think people are afraid to talk about the challenges of living in a multi-cat household. We can revel in the wonderful moments such as a king-size bed loaded with six cats on a cold winter night, but why can’t we talk about a neutered male cat who suddenly started spraying because he saw stray cats in the yard through the windows? Why can’t we talk about the frustrations of treating three different cats for three different ailments?

I believe there is a certain amount of stigma around people who have many cats. The “crazy cat lady” is a joke online and in person, but what is wrong with caring for multiple cats? As I explain in my bio, I really never expected to have nine cats, but I’m glad I took them in when they were in need of a home. As long as the owner can afford their care and is dedicated to making them comfortable throughout their lives, then what does it matter if someone has one cat or twenty? The quality of care for the cats is what matters most.

Recently we joined a friend’s family for their post-Thanksgiving leftover dinner. As we laughed and talked as family members came and went, my husband and I were asked at least four times, “How many cats do you have?” We are friends with most of these people on Facebook so they’ve seen numerous cat photos, and they love seeing our photos. I’m sure they don’t keep a tally of how many cats we have, and we typically don’t announce the number. We repeatedly said, “Nine,” but on our way home that evening, we joked about throwing out random numbers as responses like “52 but one is stuffed” or “37, I think” or “I don’t know.”

Among my circle of friends, I have the most cats. People turn to me for advice on their own cats, but when it comes to the complexity of cat households in excess of six cats, I don’t have a lot of resources in my community. Though I don’t know everything about multiple-cat households, I hope that my experiences can help someone like me.

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