The Home
I should really say house. No place like that could be called a home. It was so much worse than we were told, and I consider myself blessed that I did not have to be there.
It took them a long time just to shovel enough crap (I don't mean junk, I mean crap) out of the way of the door so they could enter. It turns out 65 cats, a few dogs, and several birds were only what was left after many animals and several pounds of feces had already been removed. The house was a one-bedroom. There was no place in the entire house in which the feces came below your knees. The cats were in horrible condition, several of them not able to make it through the night if they weren't removed immediately. One had to be put down.
According to the woman heading the operation, several of the cats had such severe disease or deformity that she could not even name some of the illnesses. She says these are things she has never seen before, outside of horror or science fiction films. She spent all day there.
The landlord apparently has no clue, and that's why the woman came to the rescue in the first place asking for the cats to be rehomed by Wednesday. There is no way for him not to know now. The place is probably going to have to be burned and rebuilt if you ask me.
The woman had no clue there was a problem. She asked the rescue head, "Is it really that bad?"
Hoarders have mental addictions to hoarding. It's a disorder. It's included in the DSM as symptoms of a variety of problems. She can't SEE that she doesn't love them, that if she did, she wouldn't treat them that way. She can't SEE that it isn't normal.
Having a lot of pets is one thing. If you had fifty pets and they all had fresh food, water, and habitat and all saw a vet when they needed, you'd still be fine in my book. But if you have so many pets that you have knee-high crap in your home? If 20-something of them have been fixed, but no one else has seen a vet even when it means death? If you can't live without 8 of your 65 remaining cats, and all it took to START this was 8 unfixed cats?
You have a problem.
So in any case, today an investigation starts. Rescue-lady has a collection of photos from yesterday and several of the cats into a vet (with before-documentation). She spends today and tomorrow building the case and intends to crack the whip all at once, in one fell swoop, right before the hoarder woman leaves the state. With luck and a bit of law, she won't be able to take the cats, dogs, birds, and others with her to TN. I'm sure that seems unfair, to take away all her pets, but with only one of the cats she's taking being fixed, we would not be doing them ANY favors by letting them leave with her. Normally I disagree with a lot of pet laws, and the humane society is NO friend of mine. But this time - for the cats, we need every ounce of help we can get to keep them alive and rehabilitate them.
Ghost Last Night
Ghost was...well...a ghost last night. No, she isn't dead. Watching her was spooky, though. She was so depressed she wouldn't move. Wouldn't twitch an ear when you snapped, wouldn't look when you spoke or walked in. I put water in front of her and tapped the surface to get her to see it was there and fresh - her glazed eyes floated slowly up and stared into mine, then drifted slowly off like she was in another world. I could make no connection with her - the only thing I could do was feel her mammaries for milk and dab a little water on her lips for her to lick off. She looked like she'd already died. It broke my heart.
At first I thought she was tense - waiting to strike out if bothered. She wasn't. She was in a literal state of catatonia, unable to respond to anything.
I left her alone, hoping she would start to come to terms with her new environment over the course of the night without unneeded prodding by me.
Ghost Now
I'm happy to say she is doing WAY better this morning. First, she now responds to things, even if not overwhelmingly so. I covered the side of her kennel that faces the door so she would feel like she had a little privacy, so when I enter the room I talk to her so she's not surprised. Ghost does not need anymore surprises. Now - she actually turns to face you when you come in or talk to her. When you offer a hand or food, she leans forward to sniff it. HUGE improvement! The food and water have been touched, even if not ingested, and the blankets are rearranged - nesting, perhaps?
And this is the BEST part - GHOST USED THE LITTERBOX!
This poor cat, out of a home where dirt was the litter and filth was piled knee-high, was a very good girl and used the box the first time she had to go. I could not be more proud of her. She is such a trooper. I hope her and her kittens get to live out a normal fostering here, and don't need to be yanked away for medical or legal reasons. She may need to be, depending on how the case goes, and I know they'll do the right thing - but right now I am so hopeful I could cry.
She and her room are under a strict quarantine right now. My own cat is in a different room, so there can be no under-the-door sniffing. Nothing goes in or out of the room except me, not even the trash (but there's a window...so if I need to throw out litter that's how it'll reach the dumpster). Anything that has to, like my hands for instance, faces either a bleach solution, betadine, or 91% alcohol and a wash with hot soapy water, depending on what it is.
One last thing - there MIGHT be a little bit of discharge on the blanket. Her face is totally clean - no facial discharge, sneezing, or other signs of URI or rhino or anything. Could babies be on the way? I'll have to watch her closely today. At least now I know that her mind is a little more present, and she may even be able to handle having them. And if not, I have a good shot at her getting close enough to me to be able to assist if she needs it.
Fingers crossed!!
-Miss Mouse
<:3 )~~
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