Posted on 07/18/2005 8:07:42 AM PDT by DCPatriot
Like people all over the country, Gary Patronek, a veterinarian who teaches at Tufts University, heard the bizarre story of Ruth Knueven and her 488 cats -- 222 of them dead, and most of the others so wild and sick that they had to be euthanized.
Knueven, 82, charged with five misdemeanors, including animal cruelty, became a public curiosity last week after Fairfax County officials hauled the cats and carcasses out of her home in Mount Vernon and her daughter's townhouse in Burke. Both residences, filthy and damaged, were declared unfit for habitation until repairs are made.
In the Mount Vernon house, authorities said, they found cats squeezed into virtually every open space of the ground floor -- in the furniture, the walls, the masonry.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Can you imagine the odor upon walking into the home? Cat feces and urine everywhere. How can someone breathe in such an environment with that strong ammonia smell?
Wouldn't it be seeped into your clothing?
Yet they report the exterior of the property was meticulously groomed...must have had a gardner.
Yes, it IS out of the ordinary.
It appears they are giving this obsession a name. IMO, one more human weakness given a medical name so as to absolve personal responsibility.
Does that qualify as heavy petting?
I can only guess what their homes look like inside.
Speaking of which, I had the most bizarre and sickening dream just last night. I dreamed that I was making sandwiches out of garbage from a dumpster. I had all these rolls laid out on a picnic table and I was using a spade to get garbage out of the dumpster and I was lading the muck into the sandwich rolls. As I was doing this, people were walking up and grabbing the sandwiches as quickly as I made them.
It's a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Let's analyze this dream, shall we? How about.....you can't believe all the crap your feeding to people and they are gobbling it up???
Homer
I know that the English language has been thoroughly assasinated by PC, and clear, precise words redefined, but I refuse to accept this one!
I have yet to run across a single similar nut case in any neighborhood I have ever lived in, nor do I know anyone else who has.
If this form of insanity is "not out of the ordinary", it must be "ordinary". No?
I don't buy it for a second!
Every once in while cat ladies make the local news. My wife and daughters have accumulated four cats. Thats two cats over the local legal limit. My threats to have them removed fall on deaf ears because they know I am only a man. I would not want to face the consequences of offending these cat loving women in my life. So clean up duty, vet bills, and all the rest fall to me from time to time because euthanasia is only a flickering hope.
If we ever picnic together, how about going dutch?
:-)
Surely, you don't consider this sane behavior. ? .
Aren't "personal responsibility" and "insanity" mutually exclusive?
I have always been a cat person, but my limit instinctively has always been one (1).
"Gary Patronek, a veterinarian who teaches at Tufts University" -- Now, now - you can't really say that this is 'out of the ordinary'- you have to take in to account his cultural, ethical, moral and community frame-of-reference. This guy (and his fellow researchers)live and work in Massachusetts.
You have to remember the religious and cultural context of that state - (pederasty, homophilia, lesbianism, rape of minors is appropriate behavior for a Congressional representative, drowning a girlfriend is okay for a US Senator, abortion, homosexual and lesbian pimping is an appropriate side-line for a government official, the dominant marriage paradigm in Holy Scripture is polygamy according to a Catholic priest/professor at Boston U, the pastor at Our Lady Help of Christians in Boston pushes gay marriage and told his parishoners that Jesus, Mary and Joseph "were not meant to be an actual historical reproduction of the Holy Family", etc.) - all of these represent what is truly 'normal'.
Sheez! When you people learn and become more tolerant.
Did someone recently tell you how informed they were, because they watch CBS news every night, by chance?
What is the psychiatric diagnosis for people who do things such as this. It has to be a symptom of some mental illness.
OTOH, I lived near a pig farm for a year, I never got used to the smell.
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