Some people live such bizarre lives that if you tell others about it, it would sound totally made up simply because it’s just so out there. No lights and cat piss everywhere as shocking as it sounds doesn’t even surprise me.

I had an old colleague who worked as a house appraisal on a side. His family ran appraising company and he’d help out. He said that some houses looked like if you tell people, they’d never believe it. People wouldn’t even try to make changes before appraising their houses. Apparently pets peeing and pooping inside the house on a regular basis isn’t that uncommon. And not because people weren’t physically capable of taking dogs out or setting up car litters. I’d say there’s likely some severe mental illness at play because obviously it’s just not normal.

Not to defend her but having stepsibling wouldn’t make one not to be the only child. Stepsiblings are children of your stepparent. They aren’t related to you at all and technically aren’t your siblings. “The only child” just means your parents don’t have any other children. It doesn’t count children of your stepparent. Now of course you could have very close relationship with stepsiblings and could treat each other as siblings etc but many people don’t list them officially as siblings as they technically aren’t. It really depends on the situation and family dynamics.