Very sad story

I had to do a terrible job just the other day that just made me sick! I work for a public works, street dept and one of our jobs is to board up houses theat are condemed to be tore down in the future. I got the job to board up a house that the people in the neihborhood called the "cat ladies house". Now I know why. She had over 70 cats living in her house and garage while she lived in her car. The cats were well fed, but that was about it. There was feces spread up the windows and walls as far as the cats could reach and the smell was terrible. Before we could board the house up the animal control officer had to come remove the cats and that was when we found out the saddest part of this story, they were all infected with FIV(?). The officer said she had found 72 cats total, 33 were dead in the basement and all of them had to be "put down". Beleive this or not we had to have the fire department come air the house out because the methane gas level in the basement was high enough to cause a possible explosion. The lady who owned the house thinks we are in the wrong and wants to sue the city and sees nothing wrong with what she was doing. Her children have come from across the country to get her mental help and she refuses to get the help. This was definetly the worst job I have ever had to do. It's kind'a like a story you hear on the news, but can't really believe it happend.

This is indeed a terribly sad story and unfortunately all too common. It sounds like this woman was a "collector". This is now an official MHU diagnosis. I am sorry you had to see this and be a part of it. These children are now all at the Bridge and feeling fine and living in wonderful conditions. May God help this lady, who obviously suffers from several problems.

Keeping 33 dead cats in your house is never the right thing. It is a public health problem, and I never would have thought of methane build up. I'm sad about the infected kitties being put down, but even that's probably for the best. It is indeed tragic and heartbreaking, but you did the right thing.

This is kinda creepy, but I also have a friend named Al who works for the Portland Public Works Dept. here in Oregon. There was a woman about 3 years ago, who also "collected" cats and basically lived in an old yellow station wagon piled high with newspapers. Her house held over 50 cats, and was also piled floor to ceiling with unread newspapers.
When the city stepped in, they also found many dead cats, rat carcasses, no electricity or running water, and no cat food.
The living cats had to be put down, but I don't know why or how many.

I still see this woman in her car, still full of papers, driving around...I pray she hs no cats now.

There have been quite a bit of stories like this on the news in Arizona They've had to bring the Human Society in a lot, and the conditions they live in: feces, dead animals, sick animals, & more. It's amazing how any person could live in that, yet alone an animal.. And, the smell that the neighbors have to put up with ..... YUCK!

I also used to know a lady like this. She had many many cats, she lived in a very small house and the cats were everywhere. She didn't have a car so she stayed in the house with the cats, lets just say you could smell her a mile away. I used to work at a convience store when I was 15 and she would walk there every couple of days and buy tonnes of cat food and a can of something for herself. She spent way more money on the cats than she did on herself. Every once and a while the authorities would come and take away 20 or 30 cats, but she would always have more. It's really sad to think about because she probably really loved the cats but couldn't, or didn't know how to take care of them properly.

A little update, last week we had to go back to reboard up the back door because she was sneeking up there in the middle of the night and trying to clean the inside of the house by flashlight so it wouldn't get tore down. Tigger, It was the neighboors that finally did something about this deal. What got this whole ordeal going was when the neighboor that lived next to her had passed away and the new people who bought the house couldn't stand the smell and turned her into the human society. It is still hard to believe that these things go on un-noticed for so long. I'll be glad when this all ends. At first the thought of all those cats being put down really bothered me, but after the intial shock of the whole deal wore off it was the fact that this lady thought she was doing the right thing that bothered me the most. Good intentions, bad execution I guess.