The first words spoken to us as we crossed the threshold from our world into theirs were, "Please, don't judge us."
We walked into the house and our eyes began to tear from the ammonia. The stench was was overwhelming. We tried not to blink and did our very best to stave our gag responses. We quelled our instincts to cover our mouths.
Feces and urine were on or ground into everything. Boxes were piled everywhere containing fecal-smeared bags. The furniture and all surfaces, including floors were filthy. Due to the clutter, one could not even navigate the house. A Sunday Baptist preacher was on the radio at full volume.
We were here to help and we needed to act like it. That's our role, that's what we do. But I will never get used to this.
Follow us over the fold.
A Los Angeles rescuer sounded the alarm through a on-line rescue room Friday, February 13: A woman in Los Angeles was being foreclosed on and needed help for her 21 (actually 22) cats. She would be locked out on Monday. I wanted to get there on Saturday to take action, but had animal-related (non-Valentine's Day) plans which could not be changed.
Early Sunday morning, a friend and I made the hour-and-a-half-long trek to the home. My SUV was loaded with crates and the capability to take every cat at the home, photograph and catalog them, list/name/age/medical needs and health/behavior.
As always, easier said than done.
A Little History
Prior to our involvement, another group's volunteers went to this home en mass and removed 35 kittens some time back. Each kitten was spayed or neutered, tested for FeLV/FIV, vaccinated, treated for other ailments as needed and eventually placed in homes. They also took the adults for spay/neuter, testing and vaccinating. The cats were returned to the owner.
Sometimes, treating and returning is all you can do and the promise of return may be the only way to get the animals out to stop the breeding. Under CA law, animals are private property which is necessary to keep in mind. Each case is different.
Starting Out
Prior to our Sunday trip, I had spoken to the homeowner and had her blessing to come with help and remove her cats to include within our rescue. She made me promise I would not involve animal control. I promised.
I had asked her to make a list for me of all the cats, their likes and dislikes, what they eat, behaviors, ages, names of cats each does best with and and anything else she felt was important for me to know.
Before leaving, we received information scribbled on a pad for about a third of the cats, by name. Though, blind in one eye and with limited vision in the other, diabetic with arterial disease and recuperating from a heart attack and surgery last November, she did her best, though never finished the list. What she did pen was nonetheless quite helpful in understanding some of the cats and the situation. Here are some descriptions we received:
Cat (Name)
"Born 2002-2004. Semi Social. Quiet. Loves to have her head rubbed. Can eat no pork. Dose not like pork. Dose not like shrimp or oysters. Likes cheese, turkey, ham, chicken, carrots. Her sister likes bread products." [sic]
Cat (Name)
"Born 2000 outdoors. Became an indoor cat 2002. Had 4 litters. Spaded 2005. Quit cat gets along with others, likes to play mother to other kittens, eats almost anything, prefer softer foods, like fresh step litter, sharp cheese, eggs. I was feeding can tuna (in water) chef blend, dry freskie can. [sic]"
The first thing you notice in these notes is apparent love. She cared for these cats and penned details she felt were important. She took the time to describe what she felt was important to that cat. In another, she notes some behaviors:
Cat (Name)
"...[L]ikes to explore, doesnot know what the word no means, loves to walk on your back... likes to hind in clean close, under blankats, and in your underwear." [sic]
The second thing you notice is the emphasis on non-species specific foods which may explain a number of health conditions we are seeing in all these cats.
Cats were not made to eat human foods. They have dietary needs that surpass what we, as humans, judge as healthful for us and yummy besides.
What we found was that in lieu of feeding the cats cat food, the cats were fed a human diet as this is what they had to eat, and they shared. They fed a largely vegetarian diet, as it turns out: a lot of pasta with vegetables sometimes with canned tuna etc. I know, I cleaned up the throw up in the crates and saw dishes of it in the house and on the porch. I was also told this by someone involved with the previous intervention. They did feed cat food when they had it which, I later understood, was not often.
At one point, they displayed a four-pound bag of cheap grocery store cat food, still in the grocery "plastic". Not much for 22 cats.
On cat nutrition, I commend you here as it is important in this circumstance, but is a topic for another post.
One thing that does touch me deeply is that it is clear these cats were loved and treated kindly. I most certainly cannot say that in many of these circumstances, nor can I say it about all homes where only a single cat resides or where the owners have more money than God but no interest in or time for the cat. Neglect and/or abuse is not a class issue.
Why So Many?
This woman and her husband are termed "hoarders". Much writing has been dedicated to this problem, though it is not really well understood.
What we do understand so well, in rescue, is that these people don't necessarily ever stop hoarding (or collecting as it is often alternatively called). With some people, it happens again and again and unless they are judicially restrained from ever owning animals again (which rarely happens in these cases, but does sometimes happen in cruelty cases), it is likely to happen again.
Many truly care and are lifesavers to individual cats. Where things appear to go awry is in their inability to move the cats on to responsible rescues and/or their inability (again for whatever reason) to find homes or just plain stop. Their intentions are good. Generally, the results are not.
Conditions of the Rescue
Time constraints in this mass rescue were severe. By Sunday evening, we were only able to catch eight of what turned out to be 22 cats in the house given the conditions on the ground. We also learned they had a senior dog and were feeding two feral (wild) cats.
We continued home with the eight cats on Sunday, posting widely for more help. When we first got back in the car to depart and return home, my friend turned to me and asked, "Is it always like this?
I replied, "No. It is often much worse. We didn't find dead animals."
We set up the new cats in isolation and got to work again. Incredibly, in a phone call, at about 9:00pm that night, we were informed of an important detail we were lacking: They would not be foreclosed upon that night because it was a holiday.
Thank God.
We now had until midnight Monday, the 16th, about 26 more hours. We were exhausted, but there was no time for sleep.
Offers of concern and help began to come in through the evening as we updated the progress and posted photos of the cats. By 10:00pm, we decided to cancel the trip that night and begin early the next day. We believed our work that night getting help would be more productive.
Enter Miracles!
As well known and highly regarded individuals and groups learned of the situation and began to send out pleas in addition to ours, badly needed offers of monetary donations for veterinary care arrived. One group offered to take four of the cats that we returned with (which were driven to their vet the next day). People offered help in transporting the cats. People were cross-posting the information far and wide on the net. I could barely keep up with the e-mails seeking information and details and offers of help.
Then the kicker that changed the game: One woman contacted the family at our recommendation and arranged for the family to get the cats isolated before she arrived early the following morning. This is key in this situation as the house is so full of stuff that one cannot even FIND the cats let alone capture them.
She would get all of the remaining cats into crates and drive them to us while we worked furiously to find a veterinarian that would work with us, tried to round up additional funding, and looked for groups to take in the cats. We could not possibly take in all 22 cats and this was going to be expensive.
While my friend was working the phones at her house, I was working the internet at mine. We were messaging back and forth between calls and responding to e-mails.
The volunteer--actually a dog rescuer--arrived at the house the next morning unprepared for what she saw, but didn't let it phase her. In the process of helping to crate one of the cats, she was badly scratched. This seems, perhaps, a minor thing but it can be very serious especially in such filthy circumstances. Cat bites and scratches can be very, very serious which is why shoulder-length welder's gloves are part of a rescuer's tool box.)
The volunteer made a call and paid another experienced person to go to the site to finish what she had committed to.
True animal rescuers know that a commitment cannot be broken short of near death in circumstances like this.
As luck would have it, the new hired person had been involved in the previous intervention and knew the family.
By 6:00pm, seven more cats were out and safely in the care of our vet, and so was the dog, a senior pit bull who had never spent a day of his life inside their house.
That morning, the volunteer first drove a very sick asthmatic cat to a vet thanks to a rescuer willing to take on the responsibility for this one cat. Another rescuer took in a single cat. I replaced the four that left with three that came, making my bunch seven. It wasn't easy.
When the rescuer finally saw the asthma cat (which she was familiar with somehow through the last intervention), it wasn't the same cat! Uh oh! That means we may have two asthmatic cats!
At the vet, in crates, the ten cats were absolutely petrified, some were covered in kitty poo (giving real meaning to the term "scared shitless"), and none of them were in ANY mood to be handled. Every sense we were endowed with was assaulted.
Despite my experience, I wanted to just jump into a bottle of alcohol and sit there for an hour or two. My dear friend, who is new at this, took it like a real champ. She was fabulous and being great with people--and immediately likable--she was a miracle to have involved in this. I was not gifted this way. Being in rescue for so long I do what I have to, but am often not great with people.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line, now, was that there were only two cats left. We had six hours to find them in the house. The gentleman that did the heavy lifting there on Monday and got the cats to our vet took two [clean] crates back with him and planned to trap inside the house that night.
The cats did go into the traps, but for some reason the traps didn't spring.
As it turns out, the family was worried about the cats and were feeding them from their own plates, something that you don't do when trying to trap cats. Hunger is often a great motivator for cats to walk into conditions they instinctively perceive as scary or suspicious no matter how well we humans try to disguise it.
This morning, some folks came to attempt to assist the woman and her husband. I don't know all the details, but because she is legally disabled, she qualifies for Section 8 housing. These people left.
Later, the police arrived, but the homeowner would not come out. They did not force entry. The cat trapper is still trying to either find the two remaining cats and grab them or catch them in traps. They will be taken to my vet when caught.
If they lock up the house before we catch the cats, we then have to find the lien holder and get access. More problems and we really don't want to 'go there'.
When we think we have them all, we will spread flour on the floors and return to look for footprints. When we see no prints after several days, we will know we have succeeded.
The two outdoor feral cats must be trapped, and this is being handled by experienced trappers in the area. Its success is tempered by the fact that releasing them back into the area (trap, neuter, release or TNR) is complicated by neighbors that have killed several cats and another that has put out poison. But these are dedicated people, and they will use their considerable experience to do the right thing.
Outcome
The wonderful news is that most these cats are adoptable. It is a wonder to see these cats stretched out atop clean linen on a bed--some sleeping with cat toys and a best friend--enjoying clean air and sunshine.
* Our vet told me all seven of the cats currently there are completely adoptable once well. Likewise with the dog. There is no additional asthma cat at the vet, or here. [Update since that time: Silk, one of the cats, is severely ill requiring a transfusion and may not live. Five, including Silk and the dog, remain at the vet until five here can move to another rescue or foster or are adopted.]
* The seven here were fully vetted and are doing great. One is clearly semi-feral and not adoptable. The remainder are clearly adoptable.
* Of the four that went to another group, two--both blacks--were adopted within days. We believe the other pair might now be adopted, as well.
* The asthma kitty is on medication for infection and asthma. Her blood work returned normal, which is excellent. The air quality in the 22 cat home and the very cold temperature (they had no heat) wrecks havoc on animals with this medical condition. She is a very lucky girl.
* The singular kitty that went with the rescuer is coming back to us as she is semi-feral. The rescuer will take an adoptable kitty in her place.
* The two remaining cats at the home are still not trapped. The family, given their circumstances, remains but we are told that March 2 is their drop-dead date. The (indoor) trapper is returning determined to get them and take to my vet but the family is not being cooperative at all. We now understand that the woman of the family may need to be hospitalized. None of this is good.
* The two feral cats are still there. There is some confusion as to who is doing what or why. We are trying to get to the bottom of it.
* The senior dog is being treated for skin conditions and his blood work, amazingly, returned quite normal. He will be treated, neutered, vaccinated and we will go from there. [Update: The dog has a foster-to-adopt family waiting and will go there on Monday.]
* We are desperately seeking other rescues to help. We have put together a
slideshow of three of the cats which can now leave.
Final Thoughts on Animals and Foreclosure
Please, if you know anyone facing foreclosure, please ask and/or help them to deal with the animals EARLY on. We in rescue often don't have available resources or are otherwise committed to situations and don't have the people-power to intervene. Each situation is unique in its own way. This one, a foreclosure combined with a hoarder, is not all that unique, sadly.
I posted some thoughts on what to do if you have pets and are in foreclosure here at DKos in mid-December 2008. I hope you might find the information helpful.
Anything you can help someone with is good. It can take a very long time to find a rescue with available space at present. We are all jammed. Those needing assistance must start that process early and know what to do. You can help them.
Finally, if you have a foreclosure in your neighborhood, PLEASE do whatever it takes to get INTO the house and check for animals left behind. Check everywhere. Check many times. Use flour on linoleum floors where you place a bowl of food to look for cat prints (the food being gone is NOT an indication of domestic animal presence. Think rodents, thus the need for the flour). If you find them, or know they are still in the home and cannot personally help, continue to feed and water while you find help or call a shelter. In extreme hot/cold weather, call the shelter.
Clarification 1: Per the comments of one poster, wiseferret,I want to make it quite clear that this is not a typical foreclosure rescue, but one of a hoarder who is also a foreclosure victim. They are not generally related, but we ARE seeing more of this now. I have another similar situation involving 14 cats and 7 dogs on my radar hoping that this situation can be elsewise resolved prior to panic time both in terms of the hoarding AND the foreclosure.
Clarification 2: Stranded wind's comment made me realize I made a huge error in my post regarding cats/flour/rat foot prints. First, cats and dogs are NOT the only things abandoned and not the only things tha we come across. This was a tale of things that did only entail these. But foreclosures often include anything that breathes from cats and dogs to all sorts of other mammals (rats, mice, hampsters etc.) to things not mammal like reptiles of ALL sorts, amphibians, birds etc. PLEASE, do not assume from my post that if you see rat prints in the flour by a cat dish that they are old world rats or likewise mice. They COULD be rats/mice that were pets, set free. I feel particularly bad about this given I have transported everything from farm animals to all sorts of others, including rats for Rat Rescue. I in no way meant to slight these other species and please forgive me if I did so.