Life with 18 cats...unedited!

My name is Kim and I have 18 cats. They are my whole world and I wanted to share our real life experiences with you. I am not a fan of the media showing only 2 extreme ends of owning cats. Either its an immaculate house that is mostly perfect for the purpose of a show or its an episode of animal hoarders where the disaster is apocalyptic and full of tragedy. While I agree that it is important to shed light on the latter and bring about change to ensure the safety of pets...those are not the only 2 view points. Somewhere in the middle of those is an every day reality that can be exhausting some days but fulfilling, rewarding and amazing every day. I am not here to tell anyone how to live their life or to claim that I know everything. I have learned a lot over 14 years and some things have been learned thru very hard and traumatic events. Unfortunately, like kids and life in general, pets don't come with an instruction manual for every possible scenario or problem. some things are just learned along the way. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. However, please don't be THAT person who feels they need to judge and criticize every thing that everyone does because that is not helpful or wanted. I am just trying to show the realistic side of having multiple cats in a household. I DO NOT condone animal hoarding (defined as having more animals than you can realistically care for financially, medically, emotionally, etc.), whether it's 2 animals or 100 animals. If you have the time and money to care for a pet or pets...by all means, do it. However, if you struggle to care for yourself, please do not think an animal will solve your problems. You will just be endangering them and not helping yourself. I did not acquire 18 cats overnight, I have taken them in over the last 14 years. I have had to say goodbye to some on this road and that, too, is a reality of having pets. My cats are all fixed, but NONE of them have had their toes partially amputated (aka, declawed). If you love pets and are thinking of getting them, please consider the humane society or any other animal shelter to adopt from. It would be a wonderful world if those places were no longer needed because there were no homeless animals. By the way, I did the math and estimated that if every American adopted 5 cats, there would no longer be any homeless cats. I'm doing the job of 3 and a half people and I love every minute of it.