Post by Heather on Nov 20, 2010 1:16:30 GMT -5
Yesterday was one of the most fulfilling days of my life. I drove out to South Ryegate (about an hour from where I live) to help round up cats in an owner abandonment/hoarding case. From what I know, the woman was a traveling nurse and moved to Wyoming with 9 cats, 2 Rotties, 2 horses and a corn snake. She left "about a dozen" cats behind in the house.
When I got there, we were all waiting on the vet, so that she and the sheriff could go in and look around and take pictures. There were 5 dead kittens in the dumpster. About 20-30 minutes after the vet got there, the volunteers were allowed inside to catch the cats. We had already gotten one that was outside--a nice ginger tom, he let one woman walk over to him and pick him up.
I won't go into a lot of detail on the inside of the house--it's pretty much a sh!tfest horror show. Just suffice to say that I don't know how anything could have lived there, at all. There were 4 cats in traps that had been set earlier when we went in, so we put them in crates and moved them outside. The sheriff was absolutely convinced that there were no more cats, but he was willing to let us do a walk through to make sure.
Most of us started downstairs, some went upstairs, and some went to the basement. It seems like the cats were literally crawling out of the woodwork as we searched. They would hide under, behind, and inside anything. Some were smart and would just lie still (and we wouldn't see them until later), others panicked as soon as we walked by and streaked through the rooms. We tried to keep the rooms closed so that we would know which ones were done.
I helped catch 4 or 5 downstairs, and we thought that upstairs was clear. Then I heard someone yell from upstairs, so I went up to help. When I got up there, there were 6-7 cats literally bouncing off the walls of one of the bedrooms. At one point, they all ran down the stairs at the side of the room (closed door at the bottom), and huddled on the bottom step. We didn't want to go down after them because the steps were covered in feces, and we didn't want to risk slipping. A couple of us waited at the top while someone went back downstairs to open the door and scare them back up. I think it took about 30-45 minutes, but we did eventually clear that room.
We were just about to leave from upstairs, had checked the last room, and were going downstairs, when two cats bolted out from under a blanket (didn't even think to check there!) and down the stairs. We caught one, but we have no idea where the other went. Let me tell you, when cats don't want to be caught, they can really MOVE, and do some insane acrobatics.
All in all, we removed 19 live cats from the property. Considering the conditions, they do not seem to be in too bad of shape. They were well fed, and the worst medical condition we found on brief exams was a couple of URI's. I don't want to be the one giving those cats Amox...
The vet on site seems to think that they are not actually feral, as often happens in this indoor colonies, just scared out of their minds. They were not aggressive towards us, not attacking us, just defending themselves. Some of them were truly beautiful, and if they can calm down and get used to humans, they should have no problem finding good homes. I know there were two long haired flame points, a long haired calico, a calico colorpoint, a lynx point, a tri-mese, and of course lots of gingers, brown tabbies, and a couple gray tabbies.
While I was in there, I didn't really feel much--you can't afford to, to get a job like that done. After I came home, I stripped, dumped my clothes in the wash, took a shower, and cuddled my cats. I teared up this morning telling Gryphon he would never be in a situation like that. I know I have been angry in the past about hoarders and animal collectors, but now I'm just sad. They have mental diseases, just like a schizophrenic or bipolar, and they need help, which they rarely get. Their friends and family apparently don't think anything is wrong, or don't visit, and the laws in place do nothing.
I think right now in the US, the laws are basically that a hoarder can't have animals again for X years (not sure how many, think it's less than 10). I don't think they address the mental issues at all. And the really sad thing is, hoarders do love their animals on some level, they just don't realize when they get overwhelmed. The fact that the cats were all fed was pretty good evidence that she did love them somewhat. We also didn't notice fleas on them or us, and of course the states of their health were pretty good.
Yesterday I got peed on, bit, scratched, caught 6-7 cats myself, and helped to drastically, profoundly change the lives of 18 animals forever (the first one that we caught outside actually belonged to a neighbor). Today I got Rabies vaccines and immunoglobins, and now I am sore and feel like crap. It was all worth it, and if they email me tomorrow and tell me we're doing it again next week, I'll be there with my best cat wrangling gear.
When I got there, we were all waiting on the vet, so that she and the sheriff could go in and look around and take pictures. There were 5 dead kittens in the dumpster. About 20-30 minutes after the vet got there, the volunteers were allowed inside to catch the cats. We had already gotten one that was outside--a nice ginger tom, he let one woman walk over to him and pick him up.
I won't go into a lot of detail on the inside of the house--it's pretty much a sh!tfest horror show. Just suffice to say that I don't know how anything could have lived there, at all. There were 4 cats in traps that had been set earlier when we went in, so we put them in crates and moved them outside. The sheriff was absolutely convinced that there were no more cats, but he was willing to let us do a walk through to make sure.
Most of us started downstairs, some went upstairs, and some went to the basement. It seems like the cats were literally crawling out of the woodwork as we searched. They would hide under, behind, and inside anything. Some were smart and would just lie still (and we wouldn't see them until later), others panicked as soon as we walked by and streaked through the rooms. We tried to keep the rooms closed so that we would know which ones were done.
I helped catch 4 or 5 downstairs, and we thought that upstairs was clear. Then I heard someone yell from upstairs, so I went up to help. When I got up there, there were 6-7 cats literally bouncing off the walls of one of the bedrooms. At one point, they all ran down the stairs at the side of the room (closed door at the bottom), and huddled on the bottom step. We didn't want to go down after them because the steps were covered in feces, and we didn't want to risk slipping. A couple of us waited at the top while someone went back downstairs to open the door and scare them back up. I think it took about 30-45 minutes, but we did eventually clear that room.
We were just about to leave from upstairs, had checked the last room, and were going downstairs, when two cats bolted out from under a blanket (didn't even think to check there!) and down the stairs. We caught one, but we have no idea where the other went. Let me tell you, when cats don't want to be caught, they can really MOVE, and do some insane acrobatics.
All in all, we removed 19 live cats from the property. Considering the conditions, they do not seem to be in too bad of shape. They were well fed, and the worst medical condition we found on brief exams was a couple of URI's. I don't want to be the one giving those cats Amox...
The vet on site seems to think that they are not actually feral, as often happens in this indoor colonies, just scared out of their minds. They were not aggressive towards us, not attacking us, just defending themselves. Some of them were truly beautiful, and if they can calm down and get used to humans, they should have no problem finding good homes. I know there were two long haired flame points, a long haired calico, a calico colorpoint, a lynx point, a tri-mese, and of course lots of gingers, brown tabbies, and a couple gray tabbies.
While I was in there, I didn't really feel much--you can't afford to, to get a job like that done. After I came home, I stripped, dumped my clothes in the wash, took a shower, and cuddled my cats. I teared up this morning telling Gryphon he would never be in a situation like that. I know I have been angry in the past about hoarders and animal collectors, but now I'm just sad. They have mental diseases, just like a schizophrenic or bipolar, and they need help, which they rarely get. Their friends and family apparently don't think anything is wrong, or don't visit, and the laws in place do nothing.
I think right now in the US, the laws are basically that a hoarder can't have animals again for X years (not sure how many, think it's less than 10). I don't think they address the mental issues at all. And the really sad thing is, hoarders do love their animals on some level, they just don't realize when they get overwhelmed. The fact that the cats were all fed was pretty good evidence that she did love them somewhat. We also didn't notice fleas on them or us, and of course the states of their health were pretty good.
Yesterday I got peed on, bit, scratched, caught 6-7 cats myself, and helped to drastically, profoundly change the lives of 18 animals forever (the first one that we caught outside actually belonged to a neighbor). Today I got Rabies vaccines and immunoglobins, and now I am sore and feel like crap. It was all worth it, and if they email me tomorrow and tell me we're doing it again next week, I'll be there with my best cat wrangling gear.