Side of the Angels?

As a general rule, I don't want to talk about my job here. There are lots of reasons for my ambivalence, but I think that it might be good to talk about yesterday because it's weighing on my mind (I know, I know, ego blog) and because, frankly, just about everybody involved lost.

Long story short. Yesterday we were confronted with a truly tragic animal hoarding situation. Animal hoarding is the pathologic version of the crazy cat lady. Probably most crazy cat ladies would be diagnosed with whatever the correct psychological term is for this condition. Most of the time all of these pets (and there can be hundreds) are kept in a house/apartment/trailer. Sometimes the hoarder is able to lead an otherwise normal life, sometimes it's obvious that there's a problem. You've probably all seen these stories in the newspaper or on Animal Planet. The owner always has a sense of being the savior to these animals.

Right, so what was so bad about yesterday? Yesterday's hoarder was escaping from an abusive husband with her twenty-something cats in her car. She was also trying to get the cats vaccinated so that they could stay somewhere outside of her car while she was, presumably, getting her life together. Most of these cats and kittens were sick. Animal Control and the Humane Society were both looking for her and her carload of cats. In the end, she lost almost all of the cats (she was allowed to keep a few, healthy cats), a lot of hope and probably won't get the emotional and psychological help she needs. Did we do the right thing? Yes. Was she wrong to keep these cats with her in the car? Without a doubt. Will the cats be better off now? Those that survive (and I include the ones she was able to keep) yes. Will she make it to living a safe and healthy life? Possibly. I don't know the statistics, but I seem to recall that hoarders tend to hoard again even with treatment and I can't imagine she'll get any soon. Call me overly grim, but I worry that she might kill herself. She had herself, her car and these cats. Oh, and she was trying to do the right thing and lost out anyway.

Doing the right thing is incredibly bitter sometimes.