[[Near where I live they've just found a house where a middle-aged woman
was hoarding cats.  They found 134 dead cats in the house; 25 live cats
are being cared for at the Cat Clinic, the vet facility where I adopted
my guys and take them for care.  There's a picture of a couple of the
cats rescued from the house  in the article below.  I've  learned to be
skeptical about what's reported in newspapers because they get things
wrong so often, but the article says there are reports that the woman
who had all the cats was a volunteer at a rescue organization.  I hope
that's not true.

Every time this happens, you wonder how no one notices until things
have been out of hand for a long time.  It's so sad.  I hope the cats
they rescued from the house recover and find homes, I know that they
couldn't be in better hands.

Here's a link to the article (requires registration, unfortunately)

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/northfulton/0205/09deadcats.html ]]

It breaks my heart to hear stories like this. I know that the people who
do this are suffering from a type of mental illness. And I really DO
believe that, however misguided their ACTIONS might be, their MOTIVATION
is that they love cats. It's just that what they try to do to help cats
takes them down a path where things just get way, way, WAY out of control.

I hope the woman can get the help that she needs, and that the cats can be
re-homed into loving families.

I can see why any person who's involved with animal rescue might start to
have temptation to fall into the "I'll give them a home if no one else
will" trap. I was at the shelter a few weeks ago to see cats. And even
while I was ecstatic to connect with Captain and Stanley, I couldn't stop
thinking about the other, equally-deserving-a-home cats I was leaving
behind. And I couldn't help but wish I could do something to help them
ALL.

Finally I had to reconcile myself to the fact that by adopting two cats, I
was directly helping those two and indirectly helping the rest, if only
because that's two more cats' worth of resources that the shelter now can
distribute to the cats that remained behind.

All I can do is spoil the two cats I've got, and say a prayer that other
people will arrive to adopt the rest of those kitties and spoil all of
THEM rotten, too.

Donna and the Kings of the House, Captain and Stanley