[Grunthor]

How many children did these women have?

[JSteff]

That is not important, the cats are just like stuffed animals to them. There was (30years ago+), an old lady on my paper route who had a house full of them.. 50+! She had no air conditioning and in the summer the house smelled so bad I hate to even deliver the paper.. let alone collect the weekly amount!

Once a relative was there and when I asked said the cats were like her kids or stuffed animals. She would not let any of the family or friends move the cats out!

So I will go with the stuffed animals answer he gave me. I had the route for like 2 years and her house smelled worse the whole two years!

[LadyDoc]

the reason they have so many cats is that cats have...kittens.

Here in the Philippines, we finally got mama cat fixed after her 4th litter in four years...24 kittens we had to give away.

Hope it works: We paid to fix two female dogs, and they still have puppies every year...but puppies are easier to give away: our dogs are friendly but make good watch dogs for protection (no guns allowed in the Philippines).

[PROTESTBYPROXY]

I am a modified cat lady. I live in a small rural area. I adopted a family of seven cats. I had them all fixed.

The need for this is totally feminine. The need to mother.
I mother EVERYTHING. I would give everything I own to have the health to lavish this attention on children.

[Mr. Silverback]

My grandmother was a cat lady (not a crazy one, just a cat lady, about 30 cats on the property around her trailer) and she not only had a son and 3 grandchildren, she had a husband to boot and hadn’t ever owned more than one cat before she was in her late seventies, IIRC. Of course, she had a handle on it since most were outdoor cats.

But yeah, you ask a pertinent question. It not only goes (possibly) to the motivation for getting the first couple of cats, it also goes to why they accumulate so many without someone stepping in. No kids coming to visit, no one intervening when you acquire cat #82.