[[quoteright:319:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crazy-cat-lady.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:319: Meet Eleanor Abernathy: once [[TheMedic M.D.]], once [[HelloAttorney A.A.L.]], now [[CrazyCatLady C.C.L]].]]

->''Old Ella Mason keeps cats, eleven at last count,''
->''In her ramshackle house off Somerset Terrace;''
->''People make queries''
->''On seeing our neighbor's cat-haunt,''
->''Saying: "Something's addled in a woman who accommodates''
->''That many cats."''
-->-- "Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats" by Sylvia Plath, 1956


[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_hoarding Animal hoarding]] is a real-life psychiatric problem. Although animal hoarders come in all ages, races, pet preferences, and in both sexes (at about a 50-50 ratio), animal hoarders in fiction are predominantly older white women with a fondness for cats.

This person is invariably NotGoodWithPeople, except that instead of being a FriendToAllLivingThings, she usually only has an affinity with one specific type of animal, which will flock to her like moths to a flame. She [[OldMaid lives alone]] (probably because she [[ChristmasCake couldn't get married]]) except for the large number of cats or whatever animals living with her. She is often feared by the community and seen as an eccentric recluse. Sometimes, she will turn to be a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold, leading to AnAesop about judging a book by its cover.

This trope definitely seems skewed towards female characters, and can be read as an extension of the traditional negative characterisation of spinsters, especially when it's implied that the cats are a stand-in for human children that she never had before it was [[MyBiologicalClockIsTicking too late]]. Men, apart from an occasional trend toward [[HomelessPigeonPerson living on a rooftop surrounded by pigeons]], tend towards either [[HermitGuru more complete isolation]] or a [[NatureHero more diversified set of friends]]. Male or female, however, animal hoarders tend to do a poor job of caring for their pets. Sanitation is often [[TrashOfTheTitans a nightmare]]: many of the animals die from malnourishment, and the owner themselves might die from related illnesses.

Three guesses who [[PetHeir inherits the house when they go]]. See KindheartedCatLover for examples when liking cats is not a symptom of being socially inept. See AllWitchesHaveCats, where the many cats are a sign of a magic caster.

Generally not related to CatGirl, outside of harem series.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* A "Got Milk?" ad featured an old lady with a house full of cats discovering she was out of milk. She mixed up a batch of non-dairy creamer. "Just like milk!" The cats hate it. The last thing we see is one of the cats closing the blinds...
* A Geico commercial had the Gecko and spokesperson visiting customers, in this case an older lady. The spokesman asks what she feeds her cats; cut to a shot of the Gecko surrounded by cats and looking very nervous as she says, "I usually like to feed them fresh food." The pair are then shown back at the office with the Gecko's arm in a little sling.
* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObFc64OnEk When you pay too much for cable]], you throw things. When you throw things, people think you have anger issues. When people think you have anger issues, your schedule clears up. When your schedule clears up, you grow a scraggly beard. When you grow a scraggly beard, *man picks up stray cat* [[InsaneTrollLogic you start taking in stray animals]]. And when you start taking in stray animals, you can't stop taking in stray animals. Stop taking in stray animals!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/BlackButler'''s Sebastian loves felines and is shown to secretly keep cats in his wardrobe.
** [[ShapedLikeItself Snake likes snakes.]]
* Then there's Soi Fon from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', but there is a good reason: [[spoiler:her former boss was Yoruichi, who just happened to transform into a cat.]] LesYay, anyone?
* A minor character in ''LivingGame'' keeps an apartment full of snakes (mostly behind glass), with predictable results on her love life.
* Orochimaru from ''{{Naruto}}'' is the definitive Crazy Snake Man.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Dr Akagi's liking for cats is a subtle use of this trope, hinting (along with her [[RoomFullOfCrazy post-it notes]]) that she's more MadScientist than HotScientist.
* ''PetShopOfHorrors'' featured a Crazy Reptile Man (an actor who bought a basilisk) as well as humorous Nutty Poodle Gangster.
** ''PetShopOfHorrors'' has a lot of these, actually, as many of D's clientele are people who for one reason or another cannot relate normally to others.
* Irma from ''QueensBlade'' is all over the "cat attraction," thing, though she is likely sane, just very bitter and aloof.
* Cathy, or "Cat-chan" from ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', although only in middle school, has a horde of cats and is definitely crazy, [[StalkerWithACrush mostly for Yuma]]. She also wears her hair up to look like cat ears and can communicate with her cats through hisses and purrs.
* Aramaki of ''Manga/SevenSeeds'' has a large number of dogs and is rather eccentric. Of course, the reason he's a little rusty on social interaction is that he was the [[TheAloner only person]] in Japan who wasn't in cryostasis for the fifteen years before the other four teams woke up, and the dogs are actually very useful (hunting for food, keeping watch, and so on). Still, this trope is basically how Arashi, Natsu, and Semimaru perceive him when they meet.
* The Cat Maniac in ''Anime/WataNoKuniHoshi'' is either this or a KindheartedCatLover; he's a cat-obsessed oddball who walks the streets with a net and carrier to catch cats, which he then takes back to his luxurious apartment to pamper and care for.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Card Games]]
* ''MagicTheGathering'' has ''three'' cards with Crazy Squirrel Men, [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=12458 Deranged Hermit]], [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=29987 Nut Collector]], and [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=24672 Squirrel Wrangler]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* A 1955 issue of ''Superman's Pal, JimmyOlsen'' features a wealthy Crazy Cat Lady who owns 49 felines and rewards Jimmy with a million dollars after he rescues one of them.
* DCComics series ''{{Armageddon 2001}}'' was a series of "what if" stories picturing the fates that were going to befall various DC superheroes as the world was turning into a dystopia. One of the stories shows super heroine Ice as a crazy cat lady.
* While not crazy (dressing as a giant animal and jumping across rooftops is considered sane in the DCUniverse), ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} officially has 17 cats.
* Felicia Hardy in ''ComicBook/SpiderManNoir'' is a reclusive nightclub owner who not only owns many cats, but takes them to work! Her club's called "The Black Cat" and the waitresses are dressed in CatGirl fetish gear, as well. After [[spoiler:being disfigured by the Crime Master]], she becomes a total shut-in who never leaves the house, never has any visitors besides her doorman Lippy, and does little but care for her cats.
* A ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' comic featured one of these. She summons the Cenobites and agrees to go with them willingly if they help her take revenge on the neighbor who had been capturing and torturing her cats to death.
* Every mention of Becca's great-aunt in ''ComicBook/AllGhoulsSchool'' portrays her as one of these.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* The lady in ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
* The bird lady from ''Film/MaryPoppins''.
* The Crazy Squirrel Lady from ''RatRace''. Though she seems to want to get rid of them. If you don't buy a squirrel, she gives you directions off a cliff.
* The comedy ''TheWrongBox'' has Dr. Pratt, a deranged-but-harmless, pathetic old soul with oodles of cats in his office/home. (PeterSellers' performance makes the character the OneSceneWonder of the film.)
* A character in ''MirrorMask'' is an old lady who lives alone with a lot of small cat-like sphinxes. (In a line cut from the final film, she explains that she's a widow; her husband just disappeared one day, and apparently the sphinxes were so upset they didn't touch their food for days...)
* ''[[Literature/RatmansNotebooks Willard]]'' and his rats.
* Madame from ''Disney/TheAristocats'' is a mild example, being an old lady who owns a family of cats and makes them the beneficiaries of her will. One could argue that she goes full-on Crazy Cat Lady at the end of the film, when she decides to adopt ''all'' the stray cats in Paris. [[FridgeHorror And this is supposed to be a happy ending.]]
* Although technically disqualified because he hoards so many ''different'' species, Raoul from ''Film/{{UHF}}'''s "Raoul's Wild Kingdom" segments deserves honorary CrazyCatLady status for having ''dozens'' of [[CoolPet exotic and wild animals]] living tucked into drawers, hidden in cupboards, and running/flying/crawling free in his apartment.
** He qualifies based on the number of poodles he sacrifices out the window in teaching them to fly. They make a pile about 8 feet high easily filling the trope, at least until they all die.
* Taken to a truly disturbing degree in ''GoodNeighbours'': [[spoiler:Louise]] loves all cats to an extreme degree and is rather socially awkward and distant... and is also [[spoiler:a sociopathic murderer.]]
* The fiendish Mrs. Deagle from ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' has no problem with cruelty to ''dogs'' (she threatens Billy's with a ride in her spin dryer at high heat for breaking a yard decoration), but when we see her home life it turns out her house is full of cats. And since she's a greedy old hag, she has [[ThemeNaming given them all names like "Kopec" and "Dollar Bill"]].
* Jenny, one of Will's childhood {{Love Interest}}s in ''Film/BigFish'' could be considered this as well as {{Kindhearted Cat Lover}}, since despite her seclusive lifestyle, legends of being a witch, and dilapidated household, she's very sympathetic and shy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The old lady that Alex kills in ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' lives in a home surrounded by fifty or more cats. (After he is imprisoned, the government sells all of his stuff. Why? To pay for the upkeep of the cats.)
* "Breaking out in chronic cats" is mentioned as a sign of senility in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', when Susan discovers [[TheGrimReaper Death]] has taken in a vast number of cats as pets. Doubles as KindheartedCatLover, as Death is both friendly but socially confused when dealing with humans.
** And Lady Sybil Vimes has her swamp dragons. Though this is mitigated by the fact that she a) is a swamp dragon breeder, b) has the money and space to adequately care for them, and c) is well-adjusted enough to eventually become happily married.
* One of the thirteen Black Ajah Aes Sedai the female protagonists are sent out to hunt early in the ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' series was a noted cat-lover; cats flock to Aes Sedai in general but this particular character seeks out strays and injured cats to Heal and feed up
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', one of the Dursley's neighbors (Arabella Figg) who they would sometimes leave him with was something of a crazy cat lady. Later, it's revealed she is a squib (a [[MuggleBornOfMages powerless wizard]]) and probably had a bit of ObfuscatingStupidity in her earlier behavior.
** WordOfGod has said that the reason she keeps so many cats is because she breeds them as familiars for wizards. She also has a few Kneazles (highly intelligent, cat-like magical creatures which can sense deception and breed with regular cats), and uses them as spies.
** Another example from ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Morfin Gaunt ([[spoiler:Voldemort's uncle]]) could count as a crazy snake man. He treats his pet snake with more affection than his sister (not that that's hard) and nails one of its dead skins to the door to scare people off.
*** As does Voldemort himself. He has only one live snake, but showers her with affection he wouldn't dream of showing to another human being, even going to far as to [[spoiler: put part of his soul in her]]. And that's not even going into the recurring snake motif associated with him...
** WordOfGod has also stated that there was originally going to be a Crazy Dog Woman living in Hogsmeade who took in several strays, including Sirius. JK Rowling soon decided that would make the meetings of Harry and Sirius difficult, and moved him into a cave.
* Accidentally occurs to an unemployed man in the first of "15 Portraits of Despair" in the last [[ComicBook/TheSandman Endless]] anthology. The "Despair" part happens when he's offered a job that requires him to go out of town, leaving his cats locked up in his trailer...
** Considering that all those cats were outdoor/strays to begin with, you have to wonder why the hell he didn't just put them outside when he left town.
* In ''HarrietTheSpy'', one of Harriet's spy targets is a very seclusive man with some twenty cats. He's constantly attempting to avoid Animal Control, who have him pegged as a hoarder although he clearly cares for the cats -- they eat better than he does. By the end of the book, they catch him and take the cats away. He's despondent... until the last time we see him, when [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming he's started over with one little kitten.]]
* StephenColbert's book ''I Am America! (And So Can You!)'' includes a short article written by a CrazyCatLady, in the book on tape she is played by [[StrangersWithCandy Amy Sedaris!]]
* Jonathan of ''JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'' encounters an extreme CrazyCatLady who provides him with the means to [[spoiler:bottle madness]]. She's forgotten how to speak all languages except for Cat, and eats the food they bring her. Eventually, she's granted a boon and [[spoiler: turned into a cat and allowed to live among her kind.]]
* Gösta in ''LetTheRightOneIn'', the book and the movie. In his case the cat hoarding most likely ended up [[spoiler: [[EvilDetectingDog saving his life.]] ]]
* Bagabond in the ''WildCards'' series has a telepathic link with all the animals in Manhattan but most especially cats.
* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy cat ladies]] appear now and then as tertiary characters, both in the ''LordPeterWimsey'' books and in Creator/AgathaChristie's writing.
* In ''The Bad Place'', by DeanKoontz, most of the main characters belong to the same DysfunctionalFamily: their grandparents are [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]], their parent is a hermaphrodite who managed to impregnate herself several times. Two sisters in the youngest generation are identical twins who share a telepathic link with each other, as well as with any animal of their choice. They surround themselves with a flock of cats that they are permanently linked to.
* In one of the ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' stories, it becomes necessary to make Sir Roderick Glossop believe that Bertie is insane. One of the methods by which this is accomplished is to make it look like he's some sort of Crazy Cat Gentleman.
** Note that this works especially well because Sir Roderick already knows that Bertie's Uncle Henry was a Crazy ''Rabbit'' Gentleman who kept eleven of them in his bedroom and spent his last days in an asylum, "happy to the last and completely surrounded by rabbits".
** Later, in "Without The Option", Bertie meets an actual Crazy Cat Lady, the Pringle's Aunt Jane. He's impersonating his friend Sippy at the time, and since Sippy shot arrows at one of Aunt Jane's cats when he was about six years old, Aunt Jane now is highly suspicious that Bertie wants to harm her cats. This causes problems, since Bertie really ''is'' something of a KindheartedCatLover and Aunt Jane's cats take to him instinctively.
* In the ''{{Tunnels}}'' series, Mrs. Tantrumi is an old woman living in Highfield who owns a lot of cats. [[spoiler:She is also one of LesCollaborateurs.]]
* This trope is consciously subverted in the novel ''The Shape of Snakes'' by Minette Walters. The novel features the death of a supposed mad black woman whose house is found to be full of ill-treated and mutilated cats. In actual fact [[spoiler: she is not mad but merely suffers from Tourette's and the cats are strays ill-treated by her next door neighbours which Annie tried to save from further cruelty]].
* In ''ThePaleKing'', Chris Fogle's mother ends up obsessing over birds as a way to cope with [[spoiler: the death of her ex-husband.]]
* ''[[Literature/{{Spellbent}} Shotgun Sorceress]]'' has Sara Bailey-Jones, who owns a large number of Devil Kittens and kills anyone who is mean to them.
* The young adult novel ''Jacob Have I Loved'' has a cat lady who's portrayed as mildly dotty. When she ends up in the hospital, the main characters must decide what to do with all of her cats. They consider drowning them, even going so far as to throw them all in sacks and take them out in a boat, but in the end can't go through with it. The solution they finally come up with is to drug the ([[CatsAreMean rather vicious]]) cats with opiates so they seem meek and compliant, and convince several of the local residents that adopting a cat is a good idea.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* There is a ''{{CSI}}'' episode ("Cat's in the Cradle") where a murdered crazy cat lady is partially eaten by her cats.
* There was an episode of ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' with a bird lady who believed that people are reincarnated as birds, and that one parakeet in particular was her late husband.
* In one episode of the ''Series/TheFlash'' live-action TV series, The Trickster, when given a chance to find out, goes on a rant about how he doesn't ''care'' who's behind the {{Flash}}'s mask, because he's just some guy, who will end up alone living alone with a lot of cats.
* An episode of ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' features Robert dating -- briefly -- "the frog lady of Massapequa".
* The first episode of ''ATouchOfFrost'' features a CrazyCatLady who [[spoiler:burns all her cats to death. On purpose.]]
* This appeared to be the future of Angela in the US version of ''TheOffice''. In the final season, she had the cats confiscated from her after [[spoiler:her divorce from the senator]]. On the finale she [[spoiler:marries Dwight, and the others buy back her cats as a wedding present. No doubt they would have a better life living on the spacious Schrute farm than on Angela's old appartment.]]
* There's a crazy cat lady in the neighbourhood in ''MyNameIsEarl'' Randy also dates a cat hobbyist, who realizes she's slipping into the mold, after Randy points out she treats him like a cat.
* ''TheDrewCareyShow'': When Nora is gushing about her many adorable kitties, another character asks her, "You know they're going to eat your eyes when you die alone?" After a pause, she says somberly, "I try not to think about that."
** The scene playing during the credits for that episode is filmed through the eyes of one of her cats, who jumps up on her bed as she's sleeping and paws at one of her eyes. She wakes up and says something like "I'm not dead yet, Mittens."
* Matthew of ''{{Newsradio}}'' owns many, many cats. One episode, Bill dismisses Matthew's friends as shut-ins.
-->'''Matthew:''' They're not shut-ins, okay Bill... they're just the kind of people that like to stay inside... all the time.
-->'''Bill:''' Well, it's hard to get out when you're taking care of 16 stray cats... each named after a child you never had...
* An episode of ''NewTricks'' focused on the re-opened case of the death of a woman whose body had been partially eaten by her cats. [[spoiler: It turned out she'd been accidentally killed. Her body had been locked in her house along with all of her cats with all of the doors and windows shut, no food, no water and well...nature took its course.]]
* On ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', there was a woman who has a ton of cats who seem to obey her commands. It's justified since, [[spoiler: It was Kit, the Charmed Ones' old familiar, given a human form and raising new familiars.]]
* Mrs. Bond from ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'' and her house full of cats. Her husband seems to deal with it by ignoring it all.
* In one episode of ''{{Castle}}'' the only witness to a crime has amnesia, in an attempt to discover who he is they put a photo of him on TV asking for anyone who knows him. A woman turns up claiming to be his wife but turns out to be a crazy lady who owns 8 cats.
** In another episode, a police SWAT team busts into a house, thinking it's the house of a terrorist. It turns out the name was misspelled -- Cut to a scene of Castle, Esposito and Ryan, drinking tea from fussy teacups whilst being climbed on by a horde of cats.
* An episode of ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' where Frank and Charlie start to realize Sweet Dee is turning into one.
** In Dee's defense she only gets one cat and it is Charlie who bring in several more to her apartment in a failed attempt to get the first one.
* There are several {{Hoarders}} who had hoards of animals in their houses. A few even had dead animals in the piles of trash.
** In fact, there is a new TV spin-off from ''Hoarders'' called ''AnimalHoarding'' which focuses on this type of behavior. Some episodes have had people with: 2000 rats, 80 dogs or 50 cats. In all of these cases, the animals aren't receiving good care simply because there are so many of them.
* In an episode of ''[[HannahMontana Hannah Montana Forever]]'', Miley was busy dealing with the fallout of revealing herself as the titular idol singer to the world. Not wanting to deal with anymore negativity, she contemplated staying in her house with nothing but cats. Her friend Lily [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] this and resorted to dragging her out.
* In ''Series/GrandmasHouse'', Simon ''tries'' to be this, but it doesn't work out for him too well:
-->"The cat didn't make me any less lonely. It just became a mascot for my loneliness."
* In ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' the cast once went to a bed and breakfast ran by a CrazyCatLady.
* In the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "The One Where Mr Heckles Dies", Chandler worries that he's going to end up alone and imagines his future self as a "Crazy Snake Man".
* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' episode "The Zazzy Substitution", Sheldon deals with a falling out with Amy by adopting lots and lots of cats.
--> '''Leonard:''' Okay, fine, live with cats! Be like my Aunt Nancy. She had dozens of 'em, and you know what happened after she died? They ATE her!
--> '''Sheldon:''' You don't have to sell me on cats, Leonard, I'm already a fan!
* In ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' spin off, ''TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'', their teacher Miss Tutweiller has her room full of cats. It is suggested that she gets a new one every time she gets dumped. After her sister has a more sucessful Valentines Day than her she announces that she's about one bad relationship away from being one of those women who has thirty cats and pathetically names them after ex-boyfriends.
* An early season 2 episode of ''{{ER}}'' had the paramedics debate whether they could take in a man who was sitting around naked in his apartment while white rabbits scurried around his place. He was morbidly obese and singing a show-tune, but when they took him to hospital he panicked about who was going to feed his bunnies while he was in hospital.
* Hannah from ''OneLifeToLive'' is a different variation of this. She's fairly young, and is effectively a {{Yandere}} who happens to have a bizarre obsession with cats.
* In ''TheCloser'', Brenda lives in fear of turning into one of these and, after her cat ([[YourTomcatIsPregnant who she thought was male]]) has kittens, she wonders how she became one of those single women with too many cats.
* One segment of ''OneThousandWaysToDie'' featured a CrazyCatLady who's husband divorced her due to her animal hoarding. Think that's bad enough? She is also [[CloudCuckoolander nuts]]. She milks all of her cats daily and ''[[{{Squick}} drinks the milk]]''. She dies because her cats had been feeding on a plant that is toxic to humans but not to cats, so it went through the cats' systems and into the milk.
* An episode of ''KingOfQueens'' involves Doug and Carrie discussing a cousin of Doug's and his wife, whom they hadn't seen since their wedding. Doug explains it's because they're both rather eccentric, and Carrie remembers that they own several cats, and the wife calls them their children. A later scene in the episode hints that the woman might on some level actually think they're her biological offspring.
* Sonia in ''Series/GoOn'' breeds cats. Lots and lots of cats. So many that she gives one or more to each and every member of the support group. And they all blame Ryan for it.
* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'': Such a lady is amongst the witnesses in "The Clock". Literature/HerculePoirot demonstrates lots of patience when interrogating her, since it is hard to broach any other subject than her cats with the {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
* The animal cruelty investigators from ''AnimalPrecinct'' and other shows along that line occasionally have to deal with animal hoarders. Not all cases involving hoarding involve cats, nor are all hoarders necessarily female.
* A male example: Will Graham in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' shares his house with six dogs but no humans, implicitly because he finds dogs much easier to get along with than people. They appear to be rescued strays, touching on PetTheDog - his gentle and patient compassion for them shows that his blunt and slightly neurotic persona among people isn't indicative of an unpleasant nature, just social ineptitude.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* How do you make a crazy cat lady even crazier? Simply see [[http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=37158 this installment of ''Bizarro'']]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' sourcebook Liber Servitorum includes an old woman who seems to be a crazy cat lady. She is, in fact, a servant of an angel who inhabits her cats.

* In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', one of the character templates for the Nosferatu (a {{splat}} of vampires horribly disfigured by the Embrace who live secluded lives or utilize illusion powers to maintain the {{Masquerade}}) is a crazy small animal person. The character's gender is up to you, as is the type of small animals he hoards. He seldom leaves his lair, preferring to use animal mind-control to have one of his pets act as a proxy when dealing with the coterie.
** There's a Creepy Cat Lady in the ''Horror Recognition Guide'' for ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil''. She's just that /little/ bit creepier than normal, thanks to what she can do with her cats...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Aaron Henne's play [[http://www.originalworksonline.com/kingcat.htm King Cat Calico Finally Flies Free!]] is a BlackComedy that uses crazy-cat-ladiness as a lens upon the modern world.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* You can get a Crazy Cat Lady action figure. [[http://www.mcphee.com/items/11377.html No, really]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series has Satori Komeiji, who lives alone in a [[FireAndBrimstoneHell huge underground palace]] with an army of crows and cats. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that her ability to read minds means that she tends to attract a lot of animals who can't otherwise communicate with her. She's actually rather friendly, but has a habit of [[PsychicPowers responding to what people are thinking rather than what they're saying]], which causes people to avoid her. Some of her fans [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Crazy_Cat_Satori.png have done]] up [[MemeticMutation gag-art poking fun at this fact]].
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' one room in the Altamira hotel is ''teeming'' with ginger cats; it also contains one eccentric elderly man who says odd things when you talk to him.
** The Crazy Cat Old Man is a recurring ContinuityCameo in the Tales series. He's in just about every game as a sort of an EasterEgg.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', there's an NPC named Donni Anthania in Elwynn Forest, with the subtext . As expected, her house and the surrounding area is crawling with cats. She also sells cat pets to players.
** She seems like a fairly normal, genericly attractive NPC... then you notice the bloody butcher knife in her hand.
** Also there's Auriaya, product of someone in the Blizzard quarters who said "Hey, what if we pick a crazy cat lady, and make her a raid boss?". She also happens to be a giant. And thousands of years old.
*** Also, her cats FUCKING HURT.
* In ''{{Harvester}}'', there's the Crazy '''Wasp''' Lady complete with long creepy rant about how the wasps' ability to sting again and again is reminiscent of multiple orgasm...
* [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress Dwarves]] have a tendency to become this if the cat population is left [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catsbeard_9105.jpg unchecked]], though [[TheHypnotoad the cats are the ones adopting the dwarves]]. Because all the cats will slow the game to a crawl, to counter it, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you can]] [[EatTheDog have the stray cats butchered for food, leather, and bones]].
* ''[[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic KOTOR 2]]'', in the restored content there is a deranged padawin living in the ruins of an old temple who raises and trains Laigrek (large cockroaches) to kill any trespassers or treasure-hunters on sight. Noble characters can dissuade her while Villains can kill or corrupt her.
* ''{{Farmville}}'' has a series of ribbons called ''Cat Lady'' which are awarded by brushing your cats enough times.
* Edna Strickland in Telltale Games' ''[[VideoGame/BackToTheFuture Back to the Future: The Game]]''. [[FromNobodyToNightmare She becomes worse.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'' presents a more sombre approach to the often eccentric but happy cat ladies present in the media. The game itself takes place after the suicide of the main character the cat lady, Susan Ashworth, a misanthropic and lonely woman. With many tragic events in her past driving her to clinical depression, worst of which [[spoiler: was the death of her baby girl due to her negligence and the suicide of her husband that followed]], she finally decided to end her suffering and drank all 32 of her sleeping pills. But, she was not meant to die.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''{{Drowtales}}'' has Mel'anarch, who is another example of a younger character fitting this trope, replacing cats with spiders, including a giant one named Zhor [[spoiler:that she had a child with, though that spider is in fact an elf himself who was altered into his current form]].
** Another example involving actual cats (here called ferals) is Ash'waren, the Sullisin'rune Ill'haress. After the timeskip she's shown to have several in her chambers, and her [[spoiler:justified]] paranoia and distrust of her servants along with the implications that she has not been leaving her rooms put her here.
* Natalie of ''FurWillFly'' has has cats, [[http://www.jadephoenix.org/fwf/comics/index.php?date=furwillfly67.jpg lots]] and [[http://www.jadephoenix.org/fwf/comics/index.php?date=furwillfly20030212.jpg lots]] of cats, despite being a cat herself. She's also quite energetic, so one could argue that she's a twofer of this trope.
* ''NobodyScores'' both subverts and plays this trope straight in a one-shot where Jane tries to become a literal Crazy Cat Lady.
* The entire point of ''[[http://catversushuman.blogspot.com/ Cat vs. Human]]''
* Dong-whi and Yun-lee are both absolutely cat-crazy in ''Webcomic/NineteenTwentyOne'' and spend a lot of the comic looking after cats. The cafe owner is also absolutely cat mad.
* ''{{Homestuck}}'' has Roxy Lalonde, who achieves the unique feat of being this trope while only 15 years old and a protagonist.
-->Why did you have to clone so many cats? Why did they all have to breed so much?\\
\\
''Why do they all have to be so friendly???''
** On the other hand, she's not your typical Cat Lady, as she doesn't begrudge the displaced Dersites their hunting of her cats.
** Also helps that she's one of the last two humans on Earth.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* In a recent episode of ''TheGuild'' its shown that Vork keeps dozens of birds in his home. He apparently uses them for food (since he is unemployed and only barely gets by on his dead grandfather's benefit checks).
* Katherine, of ''{{Manwhores}}'' is an unusual version of this trope in that she is in her 20's and doesn't actually own any cats (being allergic.) This doesn't stop her from filling her house with cat posters, cat models, and cat movies filling her house--in addition to demanding to play with a cat toy to, um, get frisky.
* {{Catface}} was once forcibly imprisoned in a disgusting and cramped household full of cats owned by a demented cat lady who lured him in by bribing a female cat to woo him. Even when he escapes, she continues to chase him relentlessly until he locks her into a parallel dimension inhabited by his [[UncannyValley unfathomably creepy]] double, Face-cat. Face-cat floats towards her ominously, followed by the screen turning black and the Crazy Cat Lady's screams.
* WendyVainity, known for her insane CGI animations, has an obsession with cats, regularly making videos about them and owning several items of furniture featuring cats, in addition to the actual cats that she owns. She also is unmarried and lives alone. Contrary to the stereotype, she appears to have a normal, friendly personality.
* ''Website/CollegeHumor'''s video "[[http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6854922/batman-vs-cat-lady Batman vs Cat Lady]]" parodies ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} with a character clone who is a classic CrazyCatLady.
* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s Photoplasty [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_581_17-famous-images-as-seen-from-different-angle_p2/?view=article Famous Images, As Seen From a Different Angle]] shows a dozen cats on the side of the room that we don't see in James McNeill Whistler's famous portrait of his mother.
* Jamie Halligan in ''Webcomic/LeftoverSoup'' made a tabletop game revolving around not only hoarding cats, but stealing them from one's opponent. It's called "Cat Burglar".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The herbalist healer in two episodes of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' lives alone on a mountain with her spoiled cat, Miyuki.
-->'''Aang''': You're insane, aren't you?\\
'''Herbalist''': Thaaat's right.
* Rhino's owner in ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' is a crazy hamster lady.
* There's Hatty [=MacDoogal=], a crazy cat lady on ''{{Futurama}}'' who tends to carry a cat around with her and calls anything she doesn't know the word for a "kajigger" or a "whatchacallit".
* ''KidsNextDoor'' has a CrazyCatLady as a recurring villain. She can even make her cats gather around her to cause MakeMyMonsterGrow on herself!
* ''LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' presents a more sympathetic example with Mrs. Hasigawa, who has collected a large number of alien experiments that, due to either poor eyesight or senility, she thinks are cats. Lilo and Stitch tried to remove them, but then decided against it when they realized Ms. Hasigawa really did care for them and was taking care of them as well as anyone else could.
* One ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' Sylvester and Tweety cartoon has Granny with what looks like hundreds of dogs in her yard, which makes it harder than usual for Sylvester to get at Tweety.
* The trope is discussed by Rarity's friends in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E14SuitedForSuccess Suited For Success]]" after she freaks out and refuses to leave her home due to a particularly ill-timed visit by a fashion critic.
-->'''Applejack''': Well, we can't just leave Rarity like this...\\
'''Pinkie Pie''': She'll become a crazy cat lady!\\
'''Twilight Sparkle''': She only has ''one'' cat.\\
'''Pinkie Pie''': Give her time...
* There's a recurring CrazyCatLady character in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', seen up above. If somebody approaches her house, she greets them with incomprehensible screams and thrown cats. Her real name is Eleanor Abernathy, and according to the episode "Springfield Up," she used to be a successful doctor and lawyer -- until she suffered mental burnout around age 32, turned to alcohol, and sought emotional solace in her pet cats.
** One episode revealed she has a SpearCounterpart in the form of a Crazy Dog Man.
** Another episode where Homer and Marge are house hunting come to a house that is filled with cats. They mention that it will be a nice house once the cats are out, and the real estate agent tells them that the former occupant's will specifically states that the house belongs to the cats, so they would technically be the landlords of the Simpson family.
* In the ''{{Fairly OddParents}}'' episode "Invasion of the Dads" Mrs. Turner becomes one of these, [[TooDumbToLive even though she's severely allergic to cats]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'': Flapjack accidentally lets all of the cats escape from the home of one in "Who Let the Cats Out of the Old Bag's House?".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision as anyone who's watched a lot of animal rescue shows like ''Series/AnimalPlanetHeroes'' can tell you. It's called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_hoarding Animal hoarding]] and many consider it a mental health issue. There's [[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin one theory]] regarding the parasite ''Toxoplasma gondii'' which reproduces only in cat intestines which may mean some people who are attracted to cats (specifically the smell of cat pee) have this parasite, making them more like to be eaten by cats if they die.
** You have to watch out for those Animal Planet reality shows, though -- some of the crew have revealed that much of what you see is staged. This is also true of the ''Hoarders'' program.
** Pets are #5 of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16220_6-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-get-addicted-to.html 6 Things You Didn't Know You Could Get Addicted To]], which mentions ''Toxo''.
* Karen Kuykendall, the artist behind the [[http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2916419&pagenumber=4#post347671346 The Tarot of the Cat People]] was (naturally) a Crazy Cat Lady, with the added horror bonus of dying of a heart attack and her body being partially devoured by her own pets.
* Read [[http://www.laweekly.com/2008-07-31/news/rathouse-of-the-palisades/ this story]] about the so-called "Palisades Rathouse". This also verges into horrifying territory.
* Very, very slightly averted by Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier-Beale of ''Film/GreyGardens''. They were very fond of cats, but they also liked their "housemate", a raccoon.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp0Q3UJHrkU&feature=related This woman]] in Russia has 130 cats that are all strays. She takes them in because she feels bad for all the cats. Sure some people say she's crazy, but others actually say she has a ''really'' big heart, given that she lives in Siberia and many house cats really wouldn't be able to survive most winters.
* A classic line for those (addressing people) with commitment issues is to point out this alternative to having a family. In Nippon this may overlap with ChristmasCake.
* Robert Brunette of Boulder Creek, California kept 38 malnourished dogs, crates full of feces and urine, and even decapitated dog heads and skulls. When he was arrested near a local high school and interviewed by police, he said that the skulls were of [[CloudCuckooLander dogs he wanted to remember]]. Unfortunately, [[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/BAQS122SE5.DTL&feed=rss.news I Am Not Making This Up]].
* Unlike most domesticated animals, cats are very self-sustaining, as they can hunt for their own food and don't really need much human attention save for the occasional neutering or trip to the vet. Since they pretty much care for themselves, they're relatively low-maintenance and thus a very popular choice for hoarders.
** While all cats will chase a moving, squeaking thing, only cats raised by a hunt-experienced mother will know how to hunt. Expecting the average tom or puss to feed itself from the surrounding wildlife is like expecting the average suburbanite to do the same... with the same equipment. This is why, as noted, hoarded animals (cats included) wind up with malnutrition. Never own more animals than you can feed and care for, folks.
* Animal hoarders can be shockingly unaware of the reality of their situation. They honestly don't see the problem that's obvious to everyone, and can even see those trying to help as enemies out to kill their friends. Sadly, because so many of the animals hoarded are in terrible shape, sometimes the majority of animals rescued do have to be put to sleep on humanitarian grounds. Less serious but still surprising is the attitude of the police, who were generally kind and understanding with male hoarders but absolutely blisteringly cruel to female ones, even though the damage to the animals was the same. One wonders how much of the trope derives from the RealLife DoubleStandard.
* The inspiration for ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', Alexander Selkirk, tamed the island's cats so that they would protect his grain from vermin. Supposedly, one of his biggest fears was dying on the island and having his corpse devoured by the cats.
* Another case of insane cat ladyness in the news, a cop apparently [[http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/06/24/20100624south-dakota-cats-seized-from-car.html#reply20456515 stopped a car with 15 cats running around inside it]]. As in, the cats were loose inside the car as it was being driven and it nearly crashed due to the driver not being able to see past the cats in the backseat.
** That's what killed David Crosby's fiancee Christine Hinton in September of '69. She had just moved to Los Angeles to marry him. She took her two cats to the vet in his van, asking a friend to hold the cats in his arms. She drove onto the highway and one of the cats got startled, broke loose and jumped on her. She lost control, hit a school bus and died. Always put your friends in carriers.
* 80's pop star Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons [[http://www.inquisitr.com/7185/dale-bozzio/ made headlines in 2008]] when dozens of cats, cat corpses, bones and feces were found in her Massachusetts home. She claims to have put the cats in the care of a friend, but her behavior and the conditions in which the animals were living points to classic hoarding.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Randall_Truman Harry R. Truman]] ([[NamesTheSame no relation to]] [[HarryTruman the president]]), the old man who refused to evacuate from Mount St. Helens and was killed along with his 16 cats by the 1980 eruption.
* The French [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu Cardinal Richelieu]] was fond of cats and possessed fourteen of them when he died.
* Mark Kozelek of Music/RedHousePainters is known for his collection of cats and often writes songs about them. They are some of the only happy songs you'll find in his [[StealthPun cat]]alog.
* Creator/ShirleyJackson, who wrote some of the best supernatural thrillers in the English language, had a lifelong interest in the occult and considered herself a witch. In her dryly humorous essays about her family (predating Erma Bombeck by a decade or so), she wrote fondly of her cats, most named for pagan deities or forces -- Shax, Ninki, Yain and so on. Her husband, critic Stanley E. Hyman, periodically threatened to evict them. Shirley always made sure all her cats were black, so that he could never tell exactly how many she had.
* Louis Wain, a painter who developed schizophrenia, reached a point in his life where he would only draw cats, and as his schizophrenia got worse, the cats went from realistic to [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs barely looking like cats at all]]. His paintings from later in his life are terrifying.
* {{Stanley Kubrick}} was a crazy cat gentleman. When not at home he would write ridicolously detailed instructions for how to care for them when he was gone filming and would bring them into the editing room to make up for lost time.
[[/folder]]

----