Topic : 03/07 When Too Much is ... Too Much

Cats and Mice and Heaven

One day a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven. There he meets the Lord Himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life and if there is any way I can make your stay in Heaven more comfortable, please let Me know."

The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more," and a wonderful fluffy pillow appears.

A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident and go to heaven. Again, there is the Lord there to great them with the same offer.

The mice answered, "All of our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs and even women with brooms. Running, running, running; we're tired of running. Do you think we could have roller skates so we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "Say no more," and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.

About a week later the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, "How are things since you got here?"

The cat stretches and yawns and replies, "It is wonderful here. Better than I could have ever expected. And those 'Meals On Wheels' you've been sending by are the best!"

One acre is about 75% as large as a football field.  Imagine 20 cats "roaming" an area 3/4ths the size of a football field.   Doesn't seem so spacious now, does it?

Thank you for showing there is some sanity out there!

I have 9 cats and I went to the CFA web site and followed the rules for building a cattery building for my private cats.  My husband spent $3000.00 to build the building for my cats.  The front room is a supply room.  The second room is an 8ft by 8ft play room with a solid wall and one long wall all wire to the outside.  The play room has 1 ft wide shelves at different levels.  The last room is a litter room with a fan that draws the air to the outside.  The cats love it!

I live with one.  My boyfriend's grandfather is a major, major hoarder.  I am constantly having to sneak bags of trash out of the house while he isn't looking.  He saves empty containers, empty plastic bags, empty 2 liter bottles, egg cartons, newspapers, juice cartons, jars, those plastic trays that tv dinners come on, etc.   If I throw these items in the trash and he sees them, he will pull them out of the trash can in order to save them!  We've started bagging up all kinds of junk while he's not home and hauling it to the dump ourselves.   Our garage (his "workshop") is completely full (to the ceiling!) with all kinds of garbage he saves "for his projects".  The trouble is, he can't start or finish any "projects" because the entire space is so full of junk you can't walk through it let alone get any "work" done!  Recently the clutter started to overflow into the two car carport that was built adjoining the garage (since noone can park in the garage, for obvious reasons).   He has a flea market shopping problem, where he'll bring home boxes and boxes full of odds and ends that noone else would buy (but he feels like he got a "deal" on it, if he gets a whole box of junk for a few dollars).  So these boxes end up collecting under our carport, and pile up to the point where the property owner's association where we live cited him for it.   There's so much clutter in those two areas that it makes it nearly impossible to keep the interior of the house clutter-free, because a lot of items that belong in the "workshop" are brought into the house because there is no room for them where they ought to be.  It's a constant battle living with someone who hoards junk, so I sympathize with the husband who threatened to divorce his hoarding wife!  I'm so tired of opening the kitchen cabinets and seeing trash in there!  I'm so tired of carrying baskets of laundry on my HEAD because there isn't a path wide enough through the garage to the washer and dryer!  Anyone have any advice on how to get a hoarder to realize they're a hoarder, and not just "thrifty"?

Lucky Cat

A famous art collector is walking through the city when he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he does a double take.

He knows that the saucer is extremely old and very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat for two dollars.

The store owner replies "I'm sorry, but the cat isn't for sale."

The collector says "Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I'll pay you twenty dollars for that cat."

And the owner says "Sold," and hands over the cat.

The collector continues, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat's used to it and it'll save me from having to get a dish."

And the owner says, "Sorry buddy, but that's my lucky saucer. So far this week I've sold sixty-eight cats."

I think, in a perfect world, there is no such thing as too many cats...or dogs...or other animals that are cute and fuzzy. I remember a time when I came home from college we had 4 cats, 6 dogs, a persian guinea pig, a welsh pony staked out in our front yard, two ducks, a number of acquarium tanks from school (my dad was the science teacher), a cormrant took up residence by the pool and a blue parakeet flew in from nowhere...and we lived about 200 yards from the town bowling alley. On the other hand, the pony found a home on a horse farm down the road, one of the ducks went to live at Homossassa Springs, the parakeet died, the cormrant decided it didn't like chlorinated water and cooked fish so it left, and the acquariums went back to school once the holidays were over.

 

I love animals with a passion and I understand that lady deeply. I have two cats at present, having just found homes for three strays this summer. I tend to take in every stray that shows up  and find a home for it. Mom used to say we ran a halfway house for strays. I understand the need to take care of them and the heart break at the very idea of letting them fend for themselves in cold or bad weather, go hungry or unloved and it breaks my heart to see this lady do this. While I do, as stated, understand how she feels, she needs to see that unless she can afford to hire people to help with feeding, watering, grooming, vaccinating, spaying, neutering, etc., she is doing these babies a grave injustice. Contrary to popular belief, cats are not as independent as you might think. They need love and attention and they need brushing on a regular basis, especially the long-haired ones, because of the fur balls.  She needs to either move the cats to another, legal area and hire people to properly take care of them, or find homes for most of them, though I wouldn't limit her to four if she can handle them decently.

 

On the other hand, if her neighbors are calling Animal Control behind her back or feeding them antifreeze to poison them, then her neighbors ought to be made to drink the stuff and see how it makes them feel. I may agree that she has too many cats and too little assistance to take care of them, but I do not hold with any kind of animal cruelty at all. You think it's okay to poison animals just because you don't like them? You drink the poison. Do you beat your pets? Let somebody beat you and see how you like it. See how you would like being tossed out a car window or left out in 30 degree weather in the rain.

 

So while I agree that the lady needs to get some help with her cats, I also strongly say that her neighbors better leave them alone and not hurt them. For one thing, this lady obviously feels that nobody can take better care of them than she can or love them more.  I understand that feeling because I feel the same way and lose sleep over any I see that I think need loving.;

Signs Your Cat has a Personality Disorder

1. Couldn't muster up sufficient disdain if all nine lives depended on it!
2. Teeth and claw marks all over your now-empty bottles of Prozac.
3. No longer licks paws clean, but washes them at the sink again and again and again...
4. Doesn't get Garfield, but laughs like hell at Marmaduke.
5. You realize one day that the urine stains on the carpet actually form the letters N-E-E-D T-H-E-R-A-P-Y
6. Has built a shrine to Andrew Lloyd Webber entirely out of empty "9 Lives" cans.
7. Spends all day in litter box separating the green chlorophyll granules from the plain white ones.
8. Your stereo is missing, and in the corner you find a pawn ticket and 2 kilos of catnip.

From someone who grew up on the neighbor side of someone with too many cats I have to say there is no way 200 cats do not cause a horrible odor.  Our neighbor started by feeding 6-8 stray cats but in a very short time it was 30-50 cats on the porch at feeding time.  I know the lady on the show  feels she has enough property but our neighbor's cats had the run of the town and managed to cause problems for blocks away from home.  The cats would use our front lawn and landscape as their restroom.  We couldn't even step out to get the mail without being overwhelmed by the odor.  On hot summer days we couldn't use the front door.  My parent's outdoor furniture (which was not cheap) was always torn up from the cats claws and often had cat urine and feces-I learned at a young age I could not go sit on the front porch furniture after dark  without turning on a light and doing a thorough furniture inspection.  The sad part is my Mom and Dad use to sit out front in the evening to drink coffee and relax until the smell got to the point it was no longer possible. They both worked long, hard days and due to the neighbors cats, their favorite relaxation area was taken away from them.  My last but actually most important point is the fact my sister had horrible allergies to cats, dogs, etc.  Due to the overrun of cats in our front yard, there were numerous times she would start to have breathing problem after being out for a short period of time.  This was not only unfair but a serious health risk.