Owning Cats

By Denise Rigler on 17/02/2025 13:00

As an owner of four beautiful house Panthers one has to sometimes stop and think why exactly? How did I get into this situation? I mean, most people opt for just one or two don’t they?

Well, personally if the decision were mine alone I’d have 10 of them running around but because I do have limits to my madness I thought I’d logically write down the pros and cons of owning a large number of cats.

Here are the pros:-

1. They are addictive, each one of my cats has their own unique personalities and it’s a pleasure to get to know them individually.

2. There’s never a dull moment, always something going on. Whether that be someone playing with a scrunched up piece of paper or yelling at me to be paid attention to. Having four cats usually means at least one is in the house.

3. If you’re cold, call a cat and you have an instant hot water bottle sat on your lap or feet.

4. They are an instant mood lifter.  If I’m having a particularly hard day with stress or anxiety they are fantastic at making you forget your troubles. I’m pretty confident that cats purr at a certain frequency that aids healing.

5. Coming home to my little clan you will always be greeted with a furry face at the door or waiting patiently on the kitchen counter for you to tell them all about your day, you are never alone that’s for sure.

6. You get to become a member of “That crazy cat lady at the end of the road” club and you gain a huge amount of knowledge and weird information about felines in which you can talk for days about them.

7. I never run out of opportunities to photograph a cat. Always someone willing to pose for a dreamie or two.

And the cons:-

1. Having so many cats is monstrously expensive, like embarrassingly so to the point that I won’t tell you how much I spend on them per month. It’s not just about buying food, it’s the hidden costs that mount up like vaccinations and emergency vet care bills.

2. The hair.   Oh my goodness the cat hair! Be prepared to hoover, and hoover and hoover. Everything gets covered in cat hair.  Cup of tea, you'll have complimentary cat hair in it…… going out with nice clothes, expect a light covering of hair especially if you've accidentally left your clothes out on a chair the night before.

You’ll have cat hair in places where you’d never imagine.  My advice would be to get a good hoover or a very good cleaner and bribe them with cake and apologies for being a crazy person with four cats.

3. Moving about the house tends to be slow and careful as there might be a cat sleeping on one of the stairs or if you’re in a hurry they all magically appear from no where to trip you up. I swear this is one of their world domination tactics to take over the world and eradicate humans from the planet.

4. Hairballs and sick. I won’t enlighten you on this one, I’m sure you know what I mean.

5. General destruction of wildlife. Now I’m fully aware that this is natural behaviour and should never be scolded but my goodness at times it’s hard to understand when you see a beautiful creature lying on the ground lifeless.   At least they don’t generally get wasted in this house as they eat what they catch but it doesn’t excuse the fact that cats are a massive problem for local small creature populations. It’s something each cat owner should fully understand and maybe take steps to minimise the damage. I personally keep mine in at night and wait till after that early morning period where birds are waking up and a bit dopey and easy to catch.

6. Household disputes. On the whole my lot get along ok but at times little disagreements and scuffles happen.  Be prepared for this and try not to humanise why they are scuffling.  You’ll need to be prepared to learn about cat behaviour to help you understand what’s going on and to try and avoid making mistakes that might add to resentment by intervening too much.  And yes, I’ve made mistakes….. but I learn fast by asking questions to someone more knowledgeable and qualified than me.   If you have no interest in learning basic cat behaviour don’t get a cat, let alone multiple cats.   Get a goldfish maybe?

7. They will think that every surface and shelf is fair game, and why not? Cats don't understand why us humans stay on one level when in the house there are so many perches and hidey holes up off of the floor. It's safe up high and we can't really punish them for jumping up. So expect to be cleaning all surfaces especially right before you cook dinner. It's annoying especially when you are in a rush, but hey, that's part of having cats.

So there you have it, only you will know how much crazy you want to add to your life.    

In my case, I’m crazy anyway so what’s four more crazies matter?

I wouldn’t have it any other way though.