Pet Advice

[KPH2293]

My family is likely to move sometime in 2021 (hopefully Spring). I'll have my own space, like an in-law suite or tiny house.

Once that happens, my mom said she'd be open to the idea of getting a third cat to join my current two, Dougie and Darla (ages 3 and 1 respectively). While I am an animal lover and am delighted by the idea of having another, I'm torn for a few reasons.

* We have a good dynamic going with my current two, and I'm reluctant to risk disrupting that.

* Because we have a dog that barks at and chases them, the cats will be restricted to my in-law suite/tiny house. Would three cats and myself in that space be too much?

I'm curious as to what my friends here think, especially if any of you have experience with three (or more) cats. In my lifetime, my family has never had more than two at a time.

 

[Alex95]

When my family announced we were getting a third dog, I was very much against it. We have two little dogs, and this third dog is much bigger, so I knew it was going to cause problems. I also knew it would cause a lot of stress and cause plans to be difficult to work around. They didn't listen, and went through with the dog anyway, causing the exact problems I told them about, as well as being incredibly invasive and physically damaging. He's only a year old, so he has a lot to learn, but my parents and other members of my family don't have the proper time needed to care for him. I spent time caring for the dog despite him not actually being my dog, causing a lot of mental stress on myself, and any advice I tried to give was shut down. And I'm out on my own now, so I can't care for any of our dogs anymore, anyway. Despite this, he's a very lovable dog, simply because he is a dog.

I'm not sure how your family runs things, but I personally think three of anything is too many. Three dogs or three cats. And putting yourself in a small space with three cats? Unless you really love cats and have the time needed to care for them, I don't... see that going too well. Now, I've never actually owned cats myself, so I don't know the managing difference between them and dogs, but three cats sounds like too much for one person to manage.