Cat Hoarders

Back before my surgery in April we decided to grant my youngest son’s long time wish of having a cat.

I’d always for the most part been OK with the idea of getting a cat but my husband was dead set against it.  We’d had fur-babies before and they all lived their lives and died and I believe hubby enjoyed having some freedom of movement without having to worry about what to do with the animals.  Nevertheless, our son (Ben) would occasionally ask just to test the waters, pretty much knowing it was futile. One evening in early April he jokenly brought it up again and my husband agreed on the condition that he finally clean up his pigsty of a room and that being that Ben was now 18 he take responsibility for total daily care of the cat. Ben spent a week and cleaned his room from top to bottom.  The floor or the top of his dresser hadn’t been seen for years so it was quite a task.  In the end, I couldn’t have done a better job myself. 

We set out to make the rounds of the SPCA and pet stores.  Here in Halifax & Dartmouth our pet stores foster pets on behalf of the SPCA which is a no-kill shelter.  We went to many stores and the SPCA itself and while they had cats Ben didn’t see any that he wanted right off the bat.   

I suggested driving to a nearby suburb and taking a look there as there were two pet stores. 
At the second store, this is what we found:

I saw them first and I knew before Ben even saw them that they’d be coming home with us.  He’d mentioned once he’d love to have a siamese cat.  I’d told him not to get his hopes up on that because siamese cats weren’t typically found at the SPCA.  The catch here was that there was a sign on the cage that because these cats grew up together they were bonded to each other and had to stay together.  Apparently siamese cats bond for life.   I didn’t think my husband would go for it and gently tried to discourage my son from falling for these cats because there was no way that his dad would agree to two.   Hubby had been watching the cats from the other side of the cage and motioned us over and pointed to a little metal sign attached to the side:

Now with my being a Realtor and belonging to NSAR..having this sign on the cage of two siamese cats was like it was meant to be. Hubby shrugged and said that “they’d keep each other company” and off he went to fill in the adoption paperwork for them both while my son and I stayed at the cage wondering what the heck just happened.   My son was over the moon.  Taking pictures and texting everyone pictures of his new cats even before we left the store!  His brother, who was at university, was on the phone to him within seconds asking him how he got their father to agree to not just one cat, but two!

So, we rescued two cats from the SPCA.  We learned as we were adopting them that they were part of an animal abuse case that was in the news a couple of weeks earlier.  3 people that lived in the house they were from were arrested for animal abuse/cat hoarding.   In the tiny home they came from, the SPCA removed 127 cats.  This a video of the seizure.  If you look closely at 1:33-35 mark you can see both of our siamese cats on the bed.  

The conditions they came from break our hearts. When we got them home they were nearly wild.  They hid for days, ran whenever they saw or heard us.  We gave them the run of the house and eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn’t working.  So we rounded them up with blankets and confined them to one bedroom of the house, my son’s.  We put their beds, litter box and food in there along with some toys.  Several times a day each of us would take turns going in the room and just sitting there.  We’d blocked off all the places they could hide except for their beds.  So eventually they got used to us.  We still have a long ways to go, but this is their forever home.  The SPCA checks in with us from time to time to see how it’s going.  Apparently a few of the other cats that were adopted were returned because of their wildness.  People want cuddly cats but aren’t willing to take the time to show them that they are safe and loved.  Our cat now have the whole house to explore.  We can pet them and play with them now and they don’t run away from us.  I don’t know if they’ll ever be cuddly lap cats but they’ve come a very long ways and they’re learning.  And so are we.

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