Posted on 06/22/2006 6:02:49 PM PDT by Huntress
The fridge magnet on a cabinet in the house said, "Cats are like potato chips -- it's hard to have just one."
The man who lived there obviously agreed. He had at least 62 cats in the house in the 5400 block of Georgetown Drive in Matteson,
The South Suburban Humane Society donned protective chemical suits and spent Tuesday and most of Wednesday pulling cats -- alive, dead and nearly dead -- from every feces-covered corner of the home.
Authorities said the 57-year-old owner had been hoarding cats for at least 20 years.
Home might have to be torn down
Cat food, litter and waste covered every square inch of the home, and the animals had burrowed into the walls and ceiling. A boneyard of decayed cats covered the lawn behind the property.
The homeowner was arrested Tuesday evening after going to the Matteson Police Department to demand his cats back. He remained in custody Wednesday evening but had not been charged.
His home was boarded up and declared unfit for habitation by the village. It will probably have to be razed, authorities said. Humane Society inspector Phyllis Piunti said conditions inside the home were as bad as she had seen in 26 years.
"This man says he loves these animals, but if he loves them, he should look after them," she said.
Piunti and two colleagues took 47 living cats from the home over two days. An unidentified number of strays, said to have been adopted by the homeowner, are still loose in surrounding streets.
Carla Reed, whose home backs up the house, said, "I have a pool but we only used it once last year because of the smell."
"There were mangy cats limping out of there all the time, and my children wanted to play with them -- God knows where they'd been," she said.
Neighbor Denise Quinn said village officials had tried to deal with the problem several times over the last two decades, but each time the homeowner had won in court or been allowed to return after promising to clean up.
Cook County Circuit Court records show only one case against the homeowner, for a building code violation. It was dropped in 1991.
A village ordinance limits residents to three pet cats per household.
Ping!
If they are not too far gone down the feral path, these types of cats crave attention and become wonderful pets.
I got the females fixed, and today, I have 3 left. The oldest, "Sheba", is 16.
I'm begining to believe hording cats is some sort of mental illness, similar to believing wild anti-GOP conspiracy theories. They may look normal but, inside, there are some screws loose.
And it's not about loving animals, either. No one who loves their pets would want them to live like that.
Interesting, I was talking to a law enforcement official today about some of the more interesting things he has seen in his career. He talked about herding about 60 hoarded cats. Said it was amazing the places they could find to hide.
I would hate to smell his house. I bet the carpet is bad.
I've heard of "bag ladies", well, here are some "bag cats"
I can't believe the city didn't do anything about it for so long. That's totally irresponsible. I don't believe there is any way to get that kind of smell out. The wood has to be saturated with cat pee and spray.
My daughter has one cat, but that one often smells like a "multi-cat household." I can't imagine 62. It would seem the ammonia alone would have killed them all, including the owner. Ugh.
I also have two cats in an apartment. After getting 2 covered litter boxes with doors from PetSmart and hanging a Glade Plug-In nearby, it's easy to keep the odor down to nil with just a couple minutes of 'sifting' attention per day. (Just thought I'd pass on what's worked for me.)
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