Questions! questions!

[Princess_Snow]

Hi everyone! I recently relocated from Santa Clara to Norwalk CA. I used to live in my parent's house so I have 4 cats at that time. As of the moment all 4 are back home. Since I would be getting my own house in a couple of months, I have the dilemma of how many cats to take with me. I am currently living in an apartment so I can't take any cats to live with me. However, I am taking care of 3 stray cats at my bf's work that I plan to neuter/spay (once I tame the other 2, since only 1 is really friendly). I was wondering how many cats you guys have in your house/apartment. I will be moving to a 2 bedroom townhouse with tiny patch of land for a yard so the cats would have to be indoors only. I would really want to take in all 3 strays and 1 from back home and still plan to adopt a kitty. Would 4? 5 ? be too much for such a tiny house? Also do you think these strays would want to be indoors only? I want to help them but I'm not sure that keeping them inside would be best. I believe their age is less than a year . They're not kittens anymore. Also it would be great f someone could help me on finding out the closest humane society in my area where I could get low cost spaying and neutering. Sorry for the long post. Everybody just seems to be helpful and friendly here, I thought I'd try. Thanks in advance!

[PayItForward]

Welcome to Pettalk .

We like to see photos on this site !!!

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As to your questions.....

Surely, it would be better if the four cats at your parents house stay together, as they would have bonded. Would your parents take care of these cats forever or do you have to rehome them.

If two of the strays are unfriendly, are you sure they aren't feral. If they are feral (alter them) but they'll want to stay outside. It would be best to have them altered asap, as you may never tame the unfriendly stray/feral cats.

Try shelters for cheap altering vets. Some shelters will pay for the vets, if you ask.

I leave the 'how many cats can fit into a house' question, to the inside cats only crew. Mine are inside/outside as I am in a quiet area of England.

[Uabassoon]

My roommate and I live in a 3 bedroom house and we have three cats, for us that is the limit in the house. I think we'd both go nuts if we had anymore. But I think the amount you can have is a personal thing. My cats are always all over the place, they are still pretty young and my roommates cat just kind of sits on the window sill and sleeps. So I think if my two cats acted like my roommates then getting another cat in the house would be fine. So I guess it's more of a personal sanity thing. Because I would go insane if I had another Corkscrew or Tibby in the house.

[K & L]

Welcome Aboard...for low cost spaying/neutering in your area call
1-800-248-7729- Spay USA!

http://www.spayusa.org/

[neko1]

I live in a small house and I have 4 cats. Cookie was a stray that we also had to tame. She was around 8 months old when we caught her. All of my cats in strictly indoors and they are completely and totally fine with that. Cookie's indoor life is soooo much better than her old outdoor life.

[Princess_Snow]

Thanks for the reply! My cats really get along very well. I guess that doesn't happen all the time. I hate for them to be separated specially since the one I'm taking (the only female) was the hardest to tame...took her a year to get used to me and even now, she gets scared easily. My parents would love to keep all of them, and they're already spoiled rotten. I guess I wanted to keep her for my sake. She's my little girl and since she's a one person cat, I figured she'd want to stay with me than with her brothers. I even tried asking her that when I went over for a visit, and of course she ignored me! My parents say she looked sad when I left but went back to her old self after a while. Now I'm torn If I should take her... would she be happier with me or with her home for 3 years and with her brothers?

As for the strays, I have to have them fixed first and I'll probably go from there.

[IttyBittyKitty]

My two furkids who I grew up with both live with my Mum. Both were very close to me, Whiskey in particular. When I moved interstate, she was quite sad, but I was moving to an apartment which did not allow pets, so she could not come. It was agreed that Mum would look after the cats.

When I moved into a place where I was allowed one cat, Mum hinted heavily at me taking Whiskey to Brisbane. I agreed, although I was a bit worried about moving her after she had had lots of unsettling moves already, and was just beginning to calm down. I was looking forward to seeing her, as she is a VERY cute little girl.

In the end, however, Mum backed out as she was too attached to Whiskey and I got my Pixie darlin'!

Whiskey is still my special girl and still remembers me, however, she is happier with Mum as she is settled and knows the place well. Perhaps it may be the same with your special girl, or maybe she will be better off with her special human. It is a decision you need to make, bearing in mind that your parents may also be too attached to let her go.

Personally, I'd leave her with your folks and rescue more kitties in need as the four with your parents are already in a great home!!!

[ramanth]

Welcome to Pet Talk. I live in a small one bedroom apartment with a dog and two cats.

[daisy]

I live in Lakewood and am therefore not very far from you. I know of two shelters that may assist you with low-cost neuter/spay:

Long Beach Animal Control
(also Pitchford Animal Center)
7700 E. Spring St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
(562) 570-7722
(This one is just off the 605 freeway, next to El Dorado Park)

Downey Animal Control
11258 S. Garfield Ave.
Downey, CA 90242
(562) 940-6898
(This one may be a little farther north of you, but it's a nice facility located inside an industrial park)

Disregard this message if you've already found out about these centers.

Good luck!

[moosmom]

Welcome to Pet Talk!!

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 7 of my own cats and a foster, which MAY or MAY NOT become my 8th cat.

[marysmerrycats]

I live in a small house with 5 cats. as far as the room goes, believe it or not, I could probably have 3 more cats. they don't bother me, I have 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, about 800- something sq.ft.

[K & L]

We live in a med. size house with 17 cats. They do have access to the outdoors to a cat run though.

[Princess_Snow]

Hey everyone! I didn't make a mistake in posting here. You guys helped me a lot. It is specially nice to get to chat with people that love cats the way I do!

Thank you daisy for the addy... I will be calling these shelters to inquire about their neuter fees.

Ittybitty... My thoughts exactly! I figured If I could leave my baby in my mom's house, I could have room for another furkid... ( I plan to take 4, then see If I could take some more ) I guess I have to go visit her again and talk to her about it. It really makes me feel better If I talk to my cat about things, and I have the feeling that she understands me more than I can imagine.

On a final note, I wanna say thank you to everyone here in pettalk. I learned a lot from you guys! I hope you'd never tire of posting here so us newbies could learn from catlovers everywhere.

[Cataholic]

IttyBittyKitty,
Your post made me smile! You sound like a purrfect cat person to me...he he..
Princess_Snow....
As to how many is too many...well, I live in a small house (less than 1000 sf), and have six kitties and one miniature horse (lol). While six seems like a good number, if I didn't have the Binx'ster, I mighta investigated more kitties. Each to their own. Do what you can, you can't do it all.

It is nice to know you are thinking of Whiskey, at the base level, and where she would be most happy.

Good luck! and welcome to PT.

[jenluckenbach]

Welcome to pet talk. I say 13 is just about the right number...

OK, so maybe not everyone thinks 13 is their perfect number, but it is the number I currently have. (Not including my foster mom cat and 4 babies). We live in a 5 BR, 3 story home.

BUT.....
When we lived in a 1 BR appartment, we did have 6 cats.

Now, as for the cats at your parents. If you can find it in your heart to let them stay there, a place they know and no doubt love, that would be my first choice. (especially if the female you wish to bring would have a tough time relating to new additions)

As for strays wanting to live totally indoors.
At least 2 of my cats came right off the streets and they would not even DREAM of going outside again. They are perfectly content. All if the cats are strictly indoors and I do not believe they are sad in the least.
I will mention one thing though. My foster Bonnie came from outside and her first hours in my house were frightening for her. But she calmed down and it only took her 2 weeks to become a very freindly, thankful to be inside, cat.


Can't wait to hear more about your decisions. Good luck.