Got called out on a hoarding call last night and oh my heavens the house this man lived in was so bad. I could hardly breathe. It took us about 45 minutes to locate any cats and over 3 hours to catch only four of them!
There was cat poop caked everywhere- the air was rancid with urine, the house was trashed and there were little small paths through all the clutter. The man had passed away- he was in his 60’s and living near poverty. Eveyplace I stepped, I was covered with ants and bugs. It was sad, pathetic and really nasty.
I was told the man was getting evicted for not paying rent. Ironically, stacked in the middle of the kitchen were about 200 original boxes of classic cars that were bought in the 1930’s-1950’s! None removed from their boxes and all this man would have had to do was sell them to a collector and live in style.
There are four cats here now and they are about 8 months old and as unsocialized as they come. I have them upstairs now away from all the other cats. I think this is probably the first breath of clean air that they have taken since they were born. They are all long hair and I am just leaving them alone so they can decompress. They have enough food and water for a week- then I will start working with them slowly to start socializing them and hopefully find them good homes. But I still smell that man’s house. It was awful! No matter how many times I get involved in these calls, I can never understand how people can live like this and allow these animals to do the same.
Kittens in hiding-
Suddenly my dust bunnies and the carpet that needs vaccuming doesn’t look so bad. Wow.
Marian in Houston
Hoarding can get out of hand pretty easily. Things get a little worse each day, and you little by little, you just get used it. Especially if he didn’t feel very well, he just might not have had the strength to do anything about it.
Factor in a few unfixed kitties from the neighborhood, and it isn’t as hard to imagine as you might think.
We hope at least the kitties you saved will have a nice life now.
I’m with Marian in Houston on this. I noticed that I have a lot more dust-bunnies now that I live in a house with hardwood floors. I guess the cat-hair in my old apartment would get caught in the carpeting. Not a nice thought, considering all the cat-hair I pick up now.
But I hope I never let things get away from me. If I see one dust-bunny, I have to sweep it up. The poor man – and his poor cats.
Wow, thank you for helping. It’s easy to imagine that poor health, poverty and mental illness can combine to escalate poor housekeeping into a hoarding situation. Although, I have wondered, as the house slowly decays, why the animals don’t just leave thru cracks instead of staying the filth? I suppose it’s the same reason why cats are feeding out of dumpsters all over the America……. food. I’m glad you could rescue a few cats. Thank you