Sis has always had cats but usually 6 or 8 at a time. When she moved out here in the country, 20 years ago, she started feeding the stray cats that hung around. Then she started bringing them inside during the winter months so they eventually became housecats. When I came here, back in August, she had 47 cats!! I couldn’t believe it!
As of 2 months ago, 5 of her females gave birth to a total of 15 kittens plus her boyfriend found 2 stray babies and brought them to her. So, now the total is 64 cats/kittens.
Amazingly, her house does not smell bad! She is very diligent about keeping it clean and cleans out the litter boxes several times a day. Many of the cats stay outside most of the time but they are all in at night. She has a 3 bedroom double-wide mobile home and there are litter boxes, cat beds, cat stands, cat toys everywhere! Several of them sleep with her at night. It’s insane!
Not Sis' house but it could be!!
Is she a hoarder? Yes, she is. She plans her day around the cats ‘schedule’. She must be home at certain times to feed all of them. In the evening, she feeds them all cat treats. They must have those, you know!
Three weeks ago, Sis lost her unemployment benefits. She’d been getting them for 2 years and reached her limit. She was told she could re-apply the first of August and see if she qualifies for it again then. Now, she is panicking! How will she feed her cats? She spends $150 a week on their food and litter!! Shocking! She will only buy the best-- no generic for her cats!
She has a vet bill of over $300 that she pays out as she can but as soon as she gets it paid down, another cat becomes ill so the bill is pretty much ongoing. They’ve known her for years and have gotten a lot of business from her over those years, so they are willing to work with her.
Brothers N and D are basically supporting her now plus she started receiving Food Stamps but she can’t buy cat food with those.
Brother D wanted to sit her down and have an intervention with her. All of us were willing to go along with it. Something needed to be done about this cat hoarding. Well, it did no good. She is adamant about having her cats. She did agree there were about 25 of them that she’d try to find homes for. We told her that wasn’t going to work. For every cat she found a home for, another would come along and she’d take it in. There are so many ads for free cats/kittens that she would get a small response. She put up ads online and in the paper 3 weeks ago and she has never gotten a single call about them.
D and I offered to put them in the car and take them out to neighboring farms, where they would be gladly accepted as mousers by the farmers, but she said she wouldn’t know what happened to them while they were out at the farms so she declined our offer. She will not take them to the local Humane Society as she knows they will be killed there. They are so full and have to euthanize up to 25 animals per day.
So, a week ago, she finally confessed that she is overwhelmed with all the cats and is so tired from taking care of all of them and trying to keep up with all these new kittens and really wants to find homes for them.
Again, we explained that was going to be very difficult since there are so many cats! She is unrelenting. The ONLY way she’ll get rid of them is to find good homes for them and be able to stay in contact with the new owners so she can know how the cats are doing! She refuses to consider any other way out. Since her financial situation is so dire, she needs a quick solution, not something that could take months and months.
I don’t know how to help with this dilemma. Every idea I come up with, she rejects it. Yesterday, she came over and complained again, “What am I going to do about all these cats?” I simply looked at her, said “I don’t know”, and went to my room. I was so frustrated with her! I’m not trying anymore. It is pointless.
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---What you have read is the God’s honest truth. Trust me, I couldn’t make this stuff up!---
Three weeks ago, Sis lost her unemployment benefits. She’d been getting them for 2 years and reached her limit. She was told she could re-apply the first of August and see if she qualifies for it again then. Now, she is panicking! How will she feed her cats? She spends $150 a week on their food and litter!! Shocking! She will only buy the best-- no generic for her cats!
She has a vet bill of over $300 that she pays out as she can but as soon as she gets it paid down, another cat becomes ill so the bill is pretty much ongoing. They’ve known her for years and have gotten a lot of business from her over those years, so they are willing to work with her.
Brothers N and D are basically supporting her now plus she started receiving Food Stamps but she can’t buy cat food with those.
Brother D wanted to sit her down and have an intervention with her. All of us were willing to go along with it. Something needed to be done about this cat hoarding. Well, it did no good. She is adamant about having her cats. She did agree there were about 25 of them that she’d try to find homes for. We told her that wasn’t going to work. For every cat she found a home for, another would come along and she’d take it in. There are so many ads for free cats/kittens that she would get a small response. She put up ads online and in the paper 3 weeks ago and she has never gotten a single call about them.
D and I offered to put them in the car and take them out to neighboring farms, where they would be gladly accepted as mousers by the farmers, but she said she wouldn’t know what happened to them while they were out at the farms so she declined our offer. She will not take them to the local Humane Society as she knows they will be killed there. They are so full and have to euthanize up to 25 animals per day.
So, a week ago, she finally confessed that she is overwhelmed with all the cats and is so tired from taking care of all of them and trying to keep up with all these new kittens and really wants to find homes for them.
Again, we explained that was going to be very difficult since there are so many cats! She is unrelenting. The ONLY way she’ll get rid of them is to find good homes for them and be able to stay in contact with the new owners so she can know how the cats are doing! She refuses to consider any other way out. Since her financial situation is so dire, she needs a quick solution, not something that could take months and months.
I don’t know how to help with this dilemma. Every idea I come up with, she rejects it. Yesterday, she came over and complained again, “What am I going to do about all these cats?” I simply looked at her, said “I don’t know”, and went to my room. I was so frustrated with her! I’m not trying anymore. It is pointless.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---What you have read is the God’s honest truth. Trust me, I couldn’t make this stuff up!---
8 comments:
This is truly insane, as you so well say. I can't imagine living like that, I think I'd go mad! I do pray she sees reason and accepts your offers of help. I think that idea of your brothers is great, makes sense. Good luck!
Thank you, Jonie! She won't accept any resolutions. She doesn't want to get rid of them bad enough yet.
Meow, that’s a lot of cats!
Hoarders or cat collectors don’t usually take proper care of the animals, but it sounds like your sister, feeds, cleans and medically does what’s needed. It sounds like she may have started out as a rational rescuer that has forgotten when to say enough. Your sister definitely needs help, but this is going to be a tough one to solve. Keep us posted and good luck.
Thanks Nancy. Yes, she needs help but won't accept any from anyone. We've all given up so it's up to her from here on out.
It sounds like she does care about them and want to take care of them, but eventually she will be unable to take care of them (as in $$ for food, litter, vet bills etc) as well as unable to let them go - at which point it does become harmful to the cats. So I think you have a valid reason to call the animal cruelty folks on her.
Thank you Anonymous. Unfortunately, she lives outside the city limits and they won't do anything to help her. So, that option is out. :(
awww what a hard situation to deal with. I love cats too and can see this is a difficult thing to figure out yourself. Maybe you could call her Vet and ask him for suggestions and what he recommends be done.
Well, now i see this is several mths later so probably something has been done by now?
Hi Lorraina! No, nothing has been done yet. The vet doesn't know anyone who can take that many cats or even enough people who could take one or two here and there.
J is still taking care of about 50 cats with the help, financially, of our 2 brothers.
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