Fan Casting Crazy Cat Lady in Sort by Tropes

Animal hoarding is a real-life psychiatric problem. Although real life animal hoarders come in all ages, races, pet preferences, and sexes, animal hoarders in fiction are predominantly older white women with a fondness for cats. This person is invariably Better with Non-Human Company, except that instead of being an all-around Animal Lover, she usually only has an affinity with one specific type of animal, which will flock to her like moths to a flame. She lives alone—because she either lost her husband (note the association between the tropes Widow Witch and All Witches Have Cats), couldn't get married, or is a lesbian in a setting where open gay relationships aren't socially accepted—except for the large number of cats or whatever other animals living with her. She is often feared by the community and seen as an eccentric recluse. Sometimes she will turn out to be a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold, leading to An Aesop 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 too late. Men, apart from an occasional trend toward living on a rooftop surrounded by pigeons or showing a preference toward dogs, tend towards either more complete isolation or a 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 a nightmare: many of the animals die from malnourishment, and the owner themselves might die from related illnesses.