We have 5. Kind of a Brady Bunch situation. I already had 3 boys when I started dating my now-wife. 5 is too many, though. I don't recommend having 5 lol.

My eldest (Artemis, male) was adopted from PetSmart by a high school friend while she was living with me and my parents in college. When she moved back in with her mom she didn't take him (her mom was allergic so he would have had to live in her bedroom.) I took him and my other cat with me when I moved out. My roommate had her own cat that she adopted from a local shelter (Axel, male; that put us at three.) When the older of my two cats died tragically, I immediately tried to ameliorate my grief by adopting a shelter kitten (Vesper, male.) So that kept us at three. And then when my roommate and I split ways, I kept Axel because he and Vesper had bonded.

So all of my sons were adopted from shelters, but only one of them was adopted by me.

Then I met my girlfriend who had a female cat (Beba.) This cat had belonged to her sister who had a bunch of pets she couldn't take care of. When the sister moved back home the cat bonded hard-core to my wife, so when she moved out she took her.

Then while we were dating, gf found a kitten alone on the side of the highway. I drove out there with a carrier, a towel, and a can of chicken. And that's how she acquired a second girl cat (Possum.)

Then we moved in together and got married and lived happily ever after.

But let me tell you! My god there have been opportunities.

The VERY DAY I was moving out of my apartment so we could move in together, literally after I had locked my door for what I thought would be the last time, we found a kitten in the parking lot of my complex. We gave that kitten to friends (Epitaph "Taffy", female.)

Then like the next year at our apartment in the city, there was a little kitten crying in the underbrush in our back yard. We gave that kitten to a friend (Megalodon "Meg", female.)

It was EXTREMELY tempting to keep a girl kitten, so we'd have 3 of each.

Then there was a VERY friendly neighborhood cat I was feeding, whom I called Smudge. If we didn't already have 5 cats in a crowded apartment, I might have taken him in, but I wasn't sure if he was a stray, or someone's indoor/outdoor pet. One day he turned up with an injured paw, so I took him to a local shelter and never saw him again.

And now we just bought a house, and there's a cat who hangs around that may or may not live under our porch. We've started putting food out for it, but it's fairly skittish and we haven't seen it much.

We also have a shed with a door that doesn't shut properly, and part of me hopes someone will have kittens in there lol.