FlamingText

Well, thank goodness this is something us men never have to worry about.

One, two -- okay, still just two.

From the Slate Explainer What's the Deal with "Cat Ladies"? :

Animal hoarding has also been viewed as an addiction, like compulsive gambling or alcoholism, or as a form of dementia. ... No one knows why women are more susceptible than men. One member of the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium points out that women are also more likely to become veterinarians and less likely to perform acts of animal cruelty.

(... there's a "Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium"?)

HARC!

I always wonder if cat-hoarding (along with its corollary, stuffed or ceramic animal collecting) is some misdirected manifestation of the so-called "maternal instinct". The women in my family, particularly those past what used to be considered their "child-bearing years" seem particularly prone to this. My mother collected owls for years, now it's Teddy Bears. Her aunt does the same with dogs: stuffed, ceramic, painted, photographed, you name it , they fill entire rooms floor-to-ceiling.

Nothing is organized or catalogued or documented as you would expect from a more serious collector, just accumulated, as if the sheer volume spilling into the other living areas of the house like a plushy avalanche were somehow compensating for some vital absence in their lives.

The "maternal instinct" theory doesn't very well explain the 86 dead ones, however.

Unless it's the Rick Santorum definition of nurturing.

fourth strip down.