@fifthsonata - the parental defender in me wants to explain that it wasn't always as bad as I make it sound, but yeah, in a lot of ways, it was. For what it's worth however, we have a very good relationship now and she has owned her failures as a parent and now carries a lot of guilt. Not that her guilt makes me feel any better about it but...
I actually became much more of a true cat lady in my 20's. I was up to 5 at one point. I was, and still am, a magnet for strays. It was getting out of hand though. I could barely afford the food and litter and just prayed that there wasn't a major medical issue. I managed to re-home a couple of them, one ran away and I had the other two until they died.
A therapist once brought up to me a challenge to the idea that I had a lot of pets to compensate for my loneliness, but instead that I used my pets and the responsibility as a buffer against having a social life. Hmmmmmm yeah, she may have been right. At the time, I had a cat, two house rabbits and a dog. A lot of associated chores and responsibility, so of course I never had time to go out and it was so hard to keep my place clean, that I never invited people over either.
And yes, I've lost a lot of time on Cuteoverload.com. My new fur-babies are sufficient cute overload for me now.
@rene1983
Thanks for your response and feedback. Yes, Bystander says it very well.