Lora Lee 
School started a little over a month ago and it is always fun when my new students find out how many cats that I have. For those of you wondering, 18 cats and counting is the answer. Once my students hear that number, I am bombarded with questions. How did I get so many cats? Why do I have so many cats? How much money do I spend on cat food and litter? Does my house smell like cats? Do I want another cat? Am I single? It is always entertaining to hear their reactions to my answers, so I thought I would answer some of these questions here.
How?
I didn’t set out to acquire 18 cats. It truly just happened and happened really quickly. Seven years ago, I was in the single digits with my number of cats. We had four cats, Jinx, Sloopy, Franklin, and Bodie. A “normal” number of cats. Then, a little black cat wandered up to my house. Of course, I started feeding her, but that was really all I could do with her. She was semi-feral and very skittish. Eventually, I realized that she was pregnant. After she gave birth and weaned the four kittens, she disappeared. No clue what happened to her, but now I had four very feral black kittens coming around for food.
At this point, I had no idea what I was going to do. I knew that they needed to be fixed, but how was I going to get four feral kittens to the vet? Eventually, one of the males disappeared and unfortunately, the two females got pregnant and had kittens. By the time, the 2nd litter of three kittens were born, I had started taming the mommies. I was able catch the kittens and bring them in to find them homes. One moved to Ohio, and we kept the other two for Bodie to have younger cats to play with. Which brought our total to six inside cats and six outside cats.
Why?
It was also around this time that I learned about TNR and was able to get appointments with Feral Cat Assistance Program, a local low-cost TNR organization. I worked over the next few months to get six outside cats trapped and fixed. On the day that I was trying to trap the two mommies, who I knew were very pregnant, they both gave birth within an hour of each other. One had seven and the other had four. In less than an hour, I had eleven kittens. Eleven kittens!!! If you ever doubt the importance of TNR, this is proof of how needed low cost spay/neuter programs are.
Once I was able to catch the kittens, I brought them in so I could find homes for them. That was easier said than done. As many of you know, there is a stigma against black cats. It was so eye opening to witness this firsthand. I love all cats but have a definite weakness for black cats. It was so sad to see these sweet little babies being overlooked because of their fur color. In the end, two of the ten were adopted and I decided to keep the other nine. Why? Because shelters and rescues are always overrun with kittens and cats needing homes and I wasn’t going to add to that burden. These nine babies were my responsibility, and I was going to take care of them the best I could. So, then we had 21 cats.
The Other Questions
As for the other questions. I do spend some money on my cats each month. The majority of my cats are on a species appropriate raw food diet. The others get high quality wet food. All of them receive daily supplements to help keep them healthy. I do go through a lot of cat litter each month and spend a good portion of my day scooping litter boxes. As for whether or not my house smells like cats. Of course, there is going to be a “cat smell” in my house because there are cats living in my house. However, I work really hard to ensure that my house is clean, and the litter box areas are deep cleaned regularly.
As for the last two questions. Do I want another cat and am I single? I would love nothing more than to be able to provide a safe and loving home for any cat in need. However, there is no room at the inn right now. Although, I have learned never to say never. But I am not actively looking for another cat. Bringing in another cat might be the cause of changing the answer to am I single from no to yes, lol. To be honest, I don’t think my poor husband quite understood the depth of my cat obsession and my passion to help cats in need. He did completely understand and support my decision to keep the nine black kittens. Just another reason that I love him so.
Reason for everything
Looking back, I realize that everything that has happened over the past seven years needed to happen for me to be where I am today. I needed to have an insane number of feral kittens born in a very short period of time to be introduced to TNR and understand the importance of these programs. Since then, I have been a volunteer with my local organization and a huge advocate for TNR. Sharing my life with 18 cats has had many ups and downs. There is always something happening. That is what brought me to becoming The Dedicated Feline Enthusiast and creating this blog. I realized that with 18 cats and counting, I had a lot of stories, information, and advice to share with all of you.
“Your heart is likely to be very big if you have loved many cats.”~Susan Howatch
