Depends on the cat(s) really.

My old kitty (RIP) was a third one in a house with two nominally feral adoptees and they did not welcome her.

When I moved and she was the sole cat she displayed stress and shredded two sofas and more.

Now we have two unrelated cats adopted together that don’t totally adore one another but are civil and they have NEVER scratched a single non-kitty item.

While they tend to keep to themselves I DO think they stimulate each other with occasional (thankfully gentle) paw bats and chases or just do solitary cat things. Like roommates.

So…depends - if you’re not home a lot kitty will need stimulation. Good luck!

Depends on the cat

My cats now would definitely get lonely without eachother

But I had an old cat who loved humans and absolutely despised other animals.

Cats are not pack animals like dogs, but they are very social animals. They don’t distinguish between species, so they can be social stimulated by another cat or a human or a dog. A lot of it also depends on what the cat is use to, if you leave a cat alone that is use to you being around all the time, it will get lonely. Cats feel loss if the cat / dog / human they live with dies, sometimes enough that they will stop eating and starve themself to death.

Cats aren’t pack animals, but they do socialise with humans, other cats, and other animals. They don’t all have the same personality and some will tend to be more social than others.

In general, I would say that if a cat normally has human company most of the day (e.g. a human who doesn’t work or works from home), human company can be enough (circumstances vary). But in general, if the human(s) are gone a lot of the time then it can be lonely for a single cat. In that case it’s worth getting them a four-footed companion.

We had a cat who preferred having us to herself rather than sharing us with another cat. But we could see that she got lonely when we had to leave her by herself, so it seemed better that she had a companion cat even if she didn’t want a friend.

At our current house, the yard is open and various neighbourhood cats will come into the space. Our boy accepts two of them. I don’t know if they are “friends”, but they come to visit and he’s chill with them. Any other cat coming into the yard, he tries to fight off. Some fascinating cat politics going on.

Most stray cats I see are alone. But they have the whole world to explore and need to hunt, so getting lonely might not be a problem for them.

I had a cat a while back, and when I travelled for a few weeks, my sister, who lives in the same building would make sure she’s fed and the litter cleaned etc and spend a bit of time with her. However, my sister told me that Pickett (cat) seemed depressed, and true enough when I got back she gave me attitude for a few weeks, and so I adopted Snowy for her. He basically taught her how to play again, since she’d been seemingly wanting to grow into old age and just sit on my lap and doze happily for hours.

But, I also had another cat in Dubai decades earlier, and she was quite happy being alone. In fact, she didn’t like anyone but me (she was a rescue).

My cat got got lonely without his humans. He’d yell when he thought we weren’t there. We got him because he terrorised the pets in his old home, so he obviously didn’t like other cats (or dogs).

I had a cat for 18 years and never got the impression that it would’ve been lonely in any sense. No doubt having a friend would probably be better but it’s not one of those animals you absolutely must have atleast two of.

Cats don’t live in packs like wolves/dogs do. They aren’t very social animals. What matters more is that you let it go outside every once in a while. Inside-cats will become depressed.