HOW Many Kittens?

From Left: Monkie, Yuffie and Emmie

Out of all the silly, strange, or just misinformed things people believe about cats, this one even I thought was true until I started working at the shelter and reading behavior books. Here's the story:

A young couple comes in looking for a kitten. They want something calm but playful, snuggly and affectionate. Because doesn't everyone want a kitten like that? But they don't have a lot of time in the day- they both work full time and have busy lives, so they just want one kitten. After all, cats are independent, solitary creatures who are perfectly content by themselves.

Only they aren't.

Cats have earned themselves a reputation as being the "easier" pet because they don't require as much attention, care or time devoted to them. None of those things are true. Cats are highly social creatures that need companions and care just as much as any other pet to be well adjusted, healthy, and happy.

I inform this couple that if they don't have a lot of time to spend at home, they are better off with two kittens. Of course they look at me like I just spit flaming gas balls at them. Two kittens? We barely have time for one, they explain. So I go into my "Why two kittens are better than one" speech.

We'll still eat your shoelaces.

Kittens, like any other baby anything, are in full on learn mode. This means when they see something small on the floor, they eat it. When they see toilet paper, paper towels, or your homework, they assume it's a toy for them to shred and enjoy all over the floor. Clean laundry is their bed. Curtains are for climbing, legs are for climbing, and hands are for biting. How do they learn not to do all that? How do we?

From others. A kitten with a companion learns from the ear piercing squeal of its mate that he or she has had enough of that biting. They forgo the toilet paper and pounce on their friend. They decide running after a sibling is infinitely more fun than climbing your leg/curtains/couch. Does that mean they won't cause any trouble? Of course not. They're kittens.

It goes against our modern logic of "less is more". But a bored kitten is a destructive kitten, and two kittens together are %100 less likely to be bored while you are gone or busy.

The couple decides to get a single calico kitten. She's cute, friendly, and a total terror. She's a hand-biter and a wiggler. She'll shred your pants before you can get one foot inside. But she's cute, and she's friendly.

Two weeks later she's back. The return form states that she "kept them up all night yowling, was too active and wanted attention constantly." They didn't take another kitten, and as far as I know never came back for another cat. A day later she went to a home with her sister and joined an older brother and a doggie.

If you don't have time for two kittens you don't have time for one. That doesn't leave you cat-less though. There are hundreds of adult cats in our shelter alone that are still young and vital, but without those kitten destructive tendencies. So be sure to weigh all your options before adopting, and please, every now and then, listen to the professionals.

Or you might end up with this!