If You Have Done Enough Of These 10 Things To Your Cats You Just Might Be A Crazy Cat Person

Listen, there's no shame in the cat-crazed game, but at least you should know how deep you're in.

Elana

• Published in Animals
• September 23, 2021

The "Cat Life" is more than obtaining and caring for a pet, in most cases. Living with, "owning," and caring for cats is quite frankly a whole lifestyle.

At least if it doesn't start out that way, it often evolves into something extraordinary. Cats just seem to have that effect on humans.

Still, there's definitely a line between "Cat Enthusiast" and "Crazy Cat Person," and it's reasonable to want to know which side of the line you sit on. We've assembled a list of ten possibilities, things that cat people do for, to, or with their cats that can be silly but acceptable in small doses or a banner that says "fully cat crazed" if you've done too many of them.

What's to say where the line is crossed from reasonable to "too many?" Let's say more than four of these and you're obsessed beyond reason or rational... but either way there's nothing wrong with you or your passion for kitties.

1. Celebrating Your Cat's Birthday

In all fairness, many pet parents from across the pet owning spectrum celebrate either their pet's birthday or "gotchya day." It's a great thing to celebrate your beloved pets, it's not inherently bad or weird to celebrate their birthdays!

At the same time, some people can take things to a little extreme with birthday celebrations. Honestly, that's also okay. You only live once and even if cats have nine lives, they deserve to know how special they are at least once a year (not that they don't know with their entire being they're the best thing gifted to the universe.)

We've even spent some time assembling a collection of cats celebrating their birthdays if you're unsure where on the weirdo spectrum this activity sits. It's really not that weird.

2. You Spend Money On Toys They'll Never Use

Most cats love to play as much as they love to sleep, although they play much less than they sleep! It's easy to go overboard on buying toys for our beloved feline friends, especially because they make some seriously cool toys for cats.

They make big toys, small toys, sparkly toys, self-propelling toys, and catnip holding toys. They make extravagant towers for cats to climb, hide, play, and sleep in. And yet... sometimes all your cat wants to play with is your laser light key-chain or a leaf.

Does that stop any of us from spoiling our cats rotten? Never, we even have tons of proof of that.

3. You Never Leave The House Without Kissing Your Cat Goodbye

Let's just get this out of the way quickly: if you don't properly say goodbye to your cat before you leave, what are you doing with your life? C'mon!

Our cats are family, after all, so it's certainly important to greet them as you come, and offer goodbyes as you go. So this better be a guaranteed point on your "Am I A Crazy Cat Person" checklist.

4. You Let Them Take Up The Bed, Even When You Need To Sleep

Sharing a bed with a cat is no small task. Cats know where they belong and it's not in that fancy cat bed you bought, it's on that memory foam mattress with you.

If they're not purring on your chest or smothering you in your sleep (intentionally, unintentionally, comme ci, comme ça,) they're taking up as much space as unbelievably possible. Seriously, how is it possible because we have no clue.

Either way, your level or degree of cat crazed may depend on how accommodating you are to your cat's need to take up space. Only time will tell as we work our way through the checklist.

5. Shower Them With Love, Even When They've Done Something Horrible

Alright, this is something cat people are particularly guilty of. We have dedicated an exorbitant amount of time to celebrating our cats behaving like jerks.

There's an entire subreddit called r/CatsAreAssholes and it's one of the greatest, most hysterical places on the Internet because if there's anything cat folks are consistent about it's loving the mischief and absurd behavior our cats dish out on a regular basis. Seriously, we've written countless articles about just how much of a jerk any particular cat can be and how much we love them despite it.

Chances are, you're just as guilty as the cat daddy before you and the cat lady after you so don't deny it. Embrace it.

6. Bought Them Designer Clothes Whether They Wear Them Or Not

There's no shortage of controversy in cat communities about putting cats in clothes but that has literally never, ever stopped a crazy cat person from buying clothes for their cats and it probably never will. Do cats belong in clothes? Who cares.

Okay, don't torture your cats if they hate clothes, but some cats LOVE clothes (especially naked cats like the Sphynx!) There are all kinds of fun and interesting ways to dress up cats (have you heard of such-a-punk pets) that might produce more enthusiasm from the cat themself, but we know deep down inside that if you're as cat crazed as you're worried you might be that you'll buy your cat clothes whether they'll wear them enthusiastically or not.

It can't be helped, you have high-high hopes for a fashionable catto, and it's not that weird! This 18-year old cat named Steve cries if he doesn't get to wear his sweaters.

7. You've Blown Off Plans To Hang With Your Cat

Who needs a social life? Not necessarily everyone with a cat, that's for sure.

Maybe you're an introvert, maybe you just generally detest people and prefer the company of cats, either way, it may be crossing a line to abandon plans for the sole purpose of hanging out with your kitties. Or so "they" want us to believe.

Who cares? Cats are the best kind of company.

8. You Have Full-Blown Conversations With Your Cat

When it comes to understanding animal intelligence, scientists have put in an awful lot of work to comprehending how intelligent (or not) domesticated animals like cats and dogs truly are. Cats are notoriously well known for being pretty smart, smart enough to understand much of what we say (but not often care.)

Interestingly, what we know is that cats can understand about 25 to 35 words but they can make about 100 different vocalizations. Cathy Rosenthall ponders: "Perhaps cats are desperately trying to make first contact with us, as they only make these sounds around their human friends, not around other cats."

All that said, it's perfectly acceptable to talk to your cat. Obviously, people want to talk to (and with) their cats, we've done a lot of weird things to try and make that more of a possibility over time.

In 2020, someone created an app to translate cat meows and this cat named Billi learned how to communicate using push buttons and even demonstrated she knew how to use them contextually. If it's weird to have conversations with our cats, then that's a weird many cat parents are more than happy to adorn.

9. Your Cat Has A Seat At The Dinner Table

Cast all the hysterical memes aside and your cat's intentions to do whatever the heck they want, it's not particularly typical for a cat to have their own seat at the dinner table (despite what they may yell at you.) So, if you're one of those families... you're a large step closer to being officially cat-crazed.

Some cats might have some specific behavioral ways of insisting on sitting at the table, but if you're the one inviting them and making a habit of including them, you're doing just fine... it's just not necessarily normal. To heck with normal, though, right?

10. You Have A Room Specifically For Your Cat

Does your cat have their own room? You're probably a crazy cat person.

It's not unheard of for people to treat their dogs like babies, but giving a cat their own special space is definitely a thing, too. However, it's not nearly as common and it's bordering on extraordinary.

Giving you cat their own room is most surely in crazy cat person territory.

How did you stack up? Are you officially a crazy cat person? You're not alone, don't worry. You're welcome and loved in the cat crazed community.

Elana